Crap. Crap, Crap, Crap.
There are now exactly 3 months left until the emergency medicine board exam. I sent in my registration and payment ($2300!!!) a few weeks ago.
And now I am panicking.
This is not an easy exam. Right now, I haven't actually been in the emerg since last fall. And I've only done 8 weeks of emerg in my PGY-3 year. I will have completed only another 8 weeks by the time the exam rolls around.
I've been actively studying since March. I didn't get nearly as much studying done as I'd hoped during mat leave (no big surprise), and it's been going VERY slowly since then. I have covered 1/6th of the material I need to. And there are things I'm definitely going to need to review more than once.
My life consists of this: I wake up. I go to work. I come home from work. I play with the kidlet for a couple of hours until his bedtime. I put kidlet to bed. I study until I go to bed. I sleep (getting up with Bean overnight) and repeat the whole thing the next day. There is literally NO time for anything else. I don't watch TV. I don't read. I can't even go for a run without thinking that I'm wasting valuable study time. I am wondering if this life is actually sustainable for the next 3 months.
Downside to not writing it this year? I'm not sure. I'd still be able to work without it. I'd have to check with the chief of staff here if they'd be willing to hire me without it, but I don't think it will be a problem. It would mean having it hang over my head another year. Mr. Couz thinks that it will be harder to write once I'm out of the study zone and in the real world, but I can't imagine it would be anything but easier once I've been out working for awhile on top of studying the theoretical side. I can't really think of any other drawbacks.
Downside to writing it this year? Having to push myself to the max to prepare for the next 3 months. Having to come up with the money to write it. The very real possibility of failing it on my first go-around, which will leave me in the same position as not writing it at all only $2300 poorer, and significantly humiliated.
Gah. I need to talk to my program director.
posted by Couz at 8:06 PM
8 Comments:
good luck, whatever you decide.
i love your blog, keep up the good work!
11:10 AM
I agree with your husband. You are already use to studying and managing everything on top of that. If you wait until next year you will be out of that routine and will most likely be int he same position. Procrastination and other family obligations tend to mess with studying = )
Deal with the next 3mths of hell just so it is done and off your plate. Then you can go back to enjoying life.
JMO
11:12 AM
Ludwig's Angina is:
a. Bilateral cellulits of the submandibular and sublingual spaces
b. Bilateral abscess of the peritonsillar spaces
c. A german with chest pain
d. something i'll never see or need to know about every again in my long long career
Good luck -- if Dan Cass is examining you i'll put in a good word. The blogs great and good luck.
8:57 PM
Is "Both A and D" an answer? :-D
9:49 PM
I saw a case of Ludwig's. Very difficult airway. Needed a trach. Supa scary!
Hope I won't ever see one again.
10:12 PM
Ack. Good luck with your decision!
Sooo glad I decided against the third year.
11:17 PM
Hi Seester Couz
Hubs and Spaghetti Bender are right. And really, you don't fail medical stuff. If it was linear algebra, i'd say get the f*ck out. But you always underestimate how frickin' brilliant you are, and what an academic champ you are. You've been doing the school thing for a long time. You know how to study efficiently, cram the stuff in, and then get it out.
Just push on through, and then you'll be glad you did. Afterwards, you can reward yourself with a trip to visit your lonely sister on the other side of the world.
And if you fail, I'll send you $50.
love you...
1:19 AM
Thanks a lot Drs. H and C. We had a case of Ludwig's angina in the ER tonight. So much for never seeing it!
11:51 PM
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