Hey, thanks for wasting my time
Have you ever had those moments when you ask yourself, "Why did I just waste precious moments of my life doing that?" I ask myself this question repeatedly as I attend any Pathology lecture. "Important diseases? Some. Treatment protocol? Never. Hey, that's useful that I know what it is. What to do about it, you ask? Hell, I don't know." So, as I sit and stew over my recent round of existential questioning, I ponder a new question. It goes something like this, "How does someone so incompetent as yourself get to a position of power?" Did you have to fail the entrance exam for them to place you? I consider myself a smart person: quick witted with a sense of my own place in life. But, I ask you: How does shit seem to float to the top?
Here is some background to complement my ranting. So, in approximately 6 weeks I will take the first part of the licensing exam to become a physician in the United States. USMLE Step 1, or Boards, as it is more commonly called. An 8 hour nightmare marathon of an exam. Difficult? Eh... only in making you focus for that long. The questions vary in difficulty as any exam, but none are impossible. This test is 33% of what I'm told residencies look at for acceptance into their programs. Okay, just another hurdle. Not a huge deal. Seriously, I'm not trying to use a defense mechanism and play it off like I don't care. I'm working towards it. I am getting prepared. I don't have test anxiety... blah, blah, blah. Now, here comes the part that makes my blood boil.
The school that I attend has practice exams. These are 4 hour exams, which we take a couple times a year, to gauge our performance and help us focus our efforts on specific disciplines. I took the first one cold (ie. without studying specifically for it). Would have passed the national test easily. The second time I took the exam, I studied more for it. Did some Pharm, looked over some Phys, thought about Path (the three Ps to study). Now, when I got the exam I was listening to my iPod and cruising along. I got to about question 30 and realized that these questions looked really familiar. Like I had seen them before. This continued through the entire exam. Afterwards, I shot an email to the assistant director to inform him of my findings. I toned it down from my initial pissed-off-ness. He said, no it was supposed to be a different exam. The person who gave me the exam swore it was different, rudely swore. As if I was accusing her of something. All she had to do was pass the f-ing thing out to me. I found out today from the director that they had made a mistake and it was the same exam. "Hey buddy, thanks for wasting 4 hours of my life that I will never get back. Now, let me bash your head in with my pitching wedge." I took the test in my spare time, which mind you is limited, and on a morning when I could have been sleeping. Now, had I been really sure at the time it was the same test, I should have wiped my ass with the test and placed it neatly on his overly-cluttered desk, leaving it for him to find in a year or two. His retort to my concerns, after finding out he had egg on his face, "you can take it again if you like." Again: "Hey thanks buddy. I really appreciate that." Maybe my anger is misguided and misdirected, but I am confident that the monkeys the Russians sent in space could do a better job.
I feel like he's a challenged youth with developmental delays. All I can do is pat him on the shoulder and congratulate him for tying his shoes without screwing it up. Frustrated, sure. But what can I do other than piss and moan and occasionally send death threats? Not much, save eliminating the possibility that he reproduces and further pollutes the gene pool. Or dump a load of phenolphthalein in his coffee and laugh hysterically as he spends 8 hours on the toilet praying to die. Not that I've thought about that or anything...
So, in the interim I'll just piss and moan and continue to plot... Always waiting for my opportunity to strike.
Here is some background to complement my ranting. So, in approximately 6 weeks I will take the first part of the licensing exam to become a physician in the United States. USMLE Step 1, or Boards, as it is more commonly called. An 8 hour nightmare marathon of an exam. Difficult? Eh... only in making you focus for that long. The questions vary in difficulty as any exam, but none are impossible. This test is 33% of what I'm told residencies look at for acceptance into their programs. Okay, just another hurdle. Not a huge deal. Seriously, I'm not trying to use a defense mechanism and play it off like I don't care. I'm working towards it. I am getting prepared. I don't have test anxiety... blah, blah, blah. Now, here comes the part that makes my blood boil.
The school that I attend has practice exams. These are 4 hour exams, which we take a couple times a year, to gauge our performance and help us focus our efforts on specific disciplines. I took the first one cold (ie. without studying specifically for it). Would have passed the national test easily. The second time I took the exam, I studied more for it. Did some Pharm, looked over some Phys, thought about Path (the three Ps to study). Now, when I got the exam I was listening to my iPod and cruising along. I got to about question 30 and realized that these questions looked really familiar. Like I had seen them before. This continued through the entire exam. Afterwards, I shot an email to the assistant director to inform him of my findings. I toned it down from my initial pissed-off-ness. He said, no it was supposed to be a different exam. The person who gave me the exam swore it was different, rudely swore. As if I was accusing her of something. All she had to do was pass the f-ing thing out to me. I found out today from the director that they had made a mistake and it was the same exam. "Hey buddy, thanks for wasting 4 hours of my life that I will never get back. Now, let me bash your head in with my pitching wedge." I took the test in my spare time, which mind you is limited, and on a morning when I could have been sleeping. Now, had I been really sure at the time it was the same test, I should have wiped my ass with the test and placed it neatly on his overly-cluttered desk, leaving it for him to find in a year or two. His retort to my concerns, after finding out he had egg on his face, "you can take it again if you like." Again: "Hey thanks buddy. I really appreciate that." Maybe my anger is misguided and misdirected, but I am confident that the monkeys the Russians sent in space could do a better job.
I feel like he's a challenged youth with developmental delays. All I can do is pat him on the shoulder and congratulate him for tying his shoes without screwing it up. Frustrated, sure. But what can I do other than piss and moan and occasionally send death threats? Not much, save eliminating the possibility that he reproduces and further pollutes the gene pool. Or dump a load of phenolphthalein in his coffee and laugh hysterically as he spends 8 hours on the toilet praying to die. Not that I've thought about that or anything...
So, in the interim I'll just piss and moan and continue to plot... Always waiting for my opportunity to strike.
posted by runrMD08 at 11:00 AM
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