MedLife Moldova: June 2016

Hey readers,

After my last post, its time we go back to the past.

The last time I spoke about the past, I concluded it after telling how my Anatomy and Histology classes were, so I'm gonna pick it up from there.

Most of the students from the university, including all Indians, are situated in an area called Malina Mica, which is filled with hostels owned by the university.

For the first year, all subjects are taught in buildings that are located in Strada Stefan Cel Mare (Which means Stefan The Great) (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_III_of_Moldavia) , which is 15-30 minutes via microbus (a shorter bus which is sort of like a huge van). The microbus that takes us from Malina Mica to the university is nr.125, and the fare is 3 Moldovan Leu.

This is how the microbus looks like.

The only subject that's taught right here in Malina Mica is BioPhysics (1st Semester)/BioChemistry (2nd Semester).

This is the BioPhysics/BioChemistry department.

This is the front end of the Department.

This is the entrance to the building.

This is a sort of memorial of all the founders of this 75 year old university.

This is the entrance seen from the memorial.

So, about BioPhysics,

It was the shittiest subject ever. Seriously. I hated it absolutely to the core. I don't know what exactly I hate about this subject though. Maybe its my thought of this subject having no relevance to studying medicine, but though I sometimes think that, its not true, because ultimately it does actually have relevance to studying medicine, since it explains the principles behind the most commonly used medical equipment.

The lectures were the worst. When the lecture is on, you better not forget to charge your mobile phone before coming, better make sure you have good music or games, or better bring a movie that you really wanted to watch, because the lecture is seriously a big waste of time.

As long as you don't mess with the professor during the lecture, like talking loudly, playing games without muting, or irritating the professor ( I did that once with my own laser pointer, and he did NOT like it), you can do whatever you want and he won't bother.

I will talk about BioChemistry when I talk about my second semester.

So that's it for now readers, here ends my fourth post :)

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Hey readers,

Well, as the title suggests, life is going pretty hard and fast right now.

Till now I’ve been blogging about the past, so this time I’m going to talk about what’s going on presently.

The past 2 weeks were filled with deadlines, exams, recovering absences in class and a LOT of work.

The second semester exams for all subjects starts on June 9^th, but in order to be permitted to write the semester exams, one should get attested by the teacher by having a minimum of 50% of marks in all the tests and should recover all absences that you had in the subject.

There are 5 types of tests that are done here.

Computer test – Each computer tests consists of 20 Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs), in which some have one correct answer but others have multiple correct answers, all of which must be marked.

Written test – This is the regular old-fashioned test, with subjective questions and answers.

Oral test – After a series of questions and answers with the professor, your performance is graded.

MCQ test – This is a question paper in which all are MCQs, single and multiple answer types, which have to be marked with a separate OMR sheet.

Slide test - This test is exclusive to Histology, in which you will be identify the slide shown in the microscope by the professor and also answer questions about it which are asked by the professor.

All tests’ final grade is upon 10.

In the second semester, Anatomy and Histology remain as subjects, and the new subjects are Genetics (Replacing Molecular Biology) and Behavioural Science (Replacing Philosophy).

For each semester, excluding the final semester-exams,

Anatomy has 3 computer tests and 3 oral tests, of which the computer tests are hard and confusing in general.

Histology has 3 computer tests and 3 slide tests, of which computer tests rely a lot on your memory skills, but the slide tests depend ENTIRELY on the mood of the professor.

Genetics has 3 computer tests and 2 written tests, and a Presentation, in which you should pick a gene from a given list of genes, and do a presentation about it, which will also be graded upon 10. But marks are also taken from your attendance in Genetics lectures, which will be 10 if you have no absences, 9 if you have one absence, 8 if you have 2 absences, and so on.

Behavioural Science has just 3 oral tests, in which your performance is graded 10% on your knowledge of the topic, and 90% on how well you can confuse the teacher with your extreme lingual skills, body language and your philosophical epiphanies and arguments at that moment.

My batch and I had a hard time the past 2 weeks running here and there, sitting up late till 5, and so on. The real bummer is that unless you have a medical reason with proof for missing a class, you gotta pay 10 euros for recovering each absence.

My batch consists of us 8 Malayalees, 6 North Indians, and 1 other Malayalee from a different consultancy group.

Here’s a few pictures of my batch. BATCH M1558.