Exams

And so it begins. Exams tomorrow. Scared, but hopeful.

Today's discovery (apart from the primordial stew of knowledge swimming around my head) was this 1937 Cold poster. That's my kind of pathology (unfortunately not veterinary, so is of no use to me tomorrow!).

The revision continues. I'm finding it increasingly difficult to commit things to any sort of a long term memory. I'm reading about diseases and thinking, yes, that makes sense, but it's so difficult to squeeze hundreds of pathogeneses and clinical signs in one brain AND then link them up with the right disease.
Things which seem to permanently fox me include Salmonella and E.coli - not sure why, I think I just try to make them much more complicated than I need to.

Still, there's still plenty of days to go!

Pyjamas

And so the MCQ exams have finished (assuming this last one has been passed successfully)! We all rocked down in Pyjamas, looking like a uniformed bunch of upper-middle class students who'd recently been on a group trip to Jack Will's drapers and suitors (and been offered a very good deal on their latest line of baggy-slob fashion), except with more dressing gowns, and the occasional pair of slippers (though I'm sure Mr Will's do a fine line in those too). I remember seeing the 5th year one day last year, and being incredibly confused as to why they'd all, by some seemingly random coincidence (for I knew of no unifying reason why this should be so), decided that their pinkest clothes were due for an airing. It was of course their last MCQ exam, and so it is tradition that the final exam should be seen out in some sort of costume - and we chose pyjamas (by democratic vote).

Now, the examiners were entertained by this more lazy than usual attitude to morning attire that the students had taken, but the proctors were not. Apparently, we were very lucky to have been let in at all, particularly as we may have distracted the other students (who were also wearing pyjamas). Where has the fun gone in life? The turn a blind eye attitude that universities should take towards students engaging in non-violent, non-drunken daytime exam-related fun, does not seem to be forthcoming... though it would have been entertaining to see the entire year disqualified from the exam.

The exam was Clin Path (or Clinical Pathology for those less well versed in the unnecessary abbreviations of veterinary medicine) and was pretty tough, though rather invigoratingly so - it required some logic, rather than just blind regurgitation, which was nice. Helps differentiate us primates from cud-chewing ruminants don'cha'think. Hopefully it should be ok, and I can enjoy having a week where my next exam is not for 2 and a half months! Huzzah!

And so the lists continue

And so the lists continue... Monday is Cardiology, which is a course of 15 lectures, each one as listy as the one before. Just lists of diseases followed by lists of diseases. Incredibly dry, incredibly sapping. All the courses are like this. Jumping through hoops. Leaping, like a lion in the circus.

Exam done. It wasn't great, but it was alright - it seemed to concentrate a little too heavily on being able to identify inflammatory cells (which I'm crap at).

I have loads of mouth ulcers at the moment (~12), and having just done an alimentary exam, I'm convinced I've got ulcerative stomatitis, or possibly foot and mouth disease, or even malignant catarrhal fever. The problem with veterinary knowledge! You think you have the symptoms of diseases it's impossible for you to catch. The ultimate hyperchondria!

Bridles, Coffee, Blogs and Cyclists

Hurrah! So I'm all bridled and meetinged up now. I thought I could do bridles, but I'm resigned to the fact that their complicated leathery straps are just too much for my brain to handle. I managed it in the end (though needed some more pointers as the horse refused to take the bit) though. I've also had coffee (how I needed coffee) in the little cafe to prepare for the Alimentary exam, and edited my blog. How committed I am. Actually, I've reached the stage where last minute cramming will turn my liver into fois gras (fatty change in the liver resulting in vacuolated hepatocytes with eccentrically placed nuclei as a result of increased food intake in birds didn't you know) and my brain in to mingmush (not sure what the pathogenesis of this one is).

Ah, term is almost over - It's gone so damned quick!

News item of the day - I wonder how long it is until these damned cyclists in Cambridge are allowed the wrong way up one-way streets - it can only lead to deaths, though probably more economic use of police time.

The evening before the exam.

The evening before the exam. Alimentary is tomorrow morning. I'm not overly worried, but nowhere near as confident as I was before breeding (which I found out I passed today). It seems to have snuck up on me without me realising. I seem to have continually convinced myself that it is a few days away, and here I am with it being tomorrow morning. Still I've made notes, and been through everything at least once. There are alot of drugs with silly names that don't seem to be going in, but apart from that it's fine. The picture on the left is a photo of a skull with "lumpy jaw", caused by Actinobacillus lignersi which is essentially an osteomyelitis of the mandible. See if you can work out which species the skull is though... It's hidden in this post somewhere. WALLABY!

I've also got to go in early tomorrow to prove that I can put a bridle on a horse - I messed it up the other day (got the throatlash twisted through the top), and so have to go back to show that I do now how to do it. Should be fine, I've had a practice which was fine. Hopefully nerves won't get the better of me! I've also got to meet my supervisor tomorrow for my termly meeting, to discuss EMS gone and to come, and to check I'm still in one piece!

As you can see, I'm procrastinating quite heavily - I largely blame 'VPH' or Veterinary Public Health as it is more accurately known. It's interesting, let's not pretend otherwise, it's just a bit dry. Filled with welfare legislation, notifiable disease regulations, control methods, zoonoses, salmonella, PMs, abattoirs, salmonella and salmonella. I've got as far as HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) and just want to burn something! Apparently Cambridge was criticised a while back for not doing enough VPH, and now we seem to have bounced in the opposite direction... 39 lectures!!! It's as big as BIDDS was!

3 Exams this term, Alimentary (which is really good), Animal Breeding (also really interesting - the obs and gynae stuff is seemingly my thing, probably helped by doing developmental bio last year) and VPH.

I've just discovered that there are loads of vet student blogs out there - maybe when I've got some time I'll scout out the best of them.

Tom

Bidds, Anniversaries and Pub.

BIDDS is done. Phew! It wasn't the easiest of MCQs - 26 of the questions were reverse questions (which of the following is NOT correct), which is really annoying - it plays on all your doubts and insecurities. You may thing that one is wrong (and therefore right), but you could have just overlooked it when learning. Grr. Still, I could have done better, so it's a little borderline. We'll see...

In more exciting news, it is our anniversary today (3years of delight)!, and Alex and me are going out to Pizza Express to celebrate - yay. We enjoyed wandering around town free from BIDDS, and had irish coffees in Cafe Rouge. Nothing is too expensive on anniversary day!

We are then toddling to the Castle to congratulate two vets for their recent engagement (to each other). Also, Geoff is in Cambridge so may be going to see him tomorrow - I unfortunately missed Rahul weekend before last because I was lambing :(.

Finals Almost Over

It's Thursday, and I've been free for 50hours and 24 minutes. Alex is in her final exam (must think statistical thoughts!) and will be finished in an hour and a half, Ella will be finished in two hours, and then this evening we have formal. Tom finished on Tuesday afternoon and arrived home with tonnes of M&S biscuits (not just biscuits) and with the phrase "I love English". This is a good sign that a) he has made the right decision moving from Physics to English and b) that the exam went ok! My daughter Vicky has finished her exams and is currently languishing in the bosom of her family back home in Somerset, Louisa is nearly done (tomorrow) and her exam yesterday on the Kuran went ok - she had some funny anecdotes of exciting points she made. The Englings Vicky, Iona and Erika finished last week, as did Reece and Bethmo finishes tomorrow.

The summary can be generalised as "Cumulatively exams are almost at 100% completed". Hurrah!

So, what have I been doing for the last few days? Well, reading mostly! I've finished "The Dawkins Delusion", which was well worth reading, probably before you an embark on "The God Delusion". See my brief review below. I've also just bought "Can a Darwinist be a Christian: The Relationship between science and religion" by Michael Ruse. The journey to understanding begins!

So that's it then! After two months of preparation, they're done. Not really out in a blaze of glory, the essay I wrote on Mod4 was very poor, but hopefully my Mod3 essays will make up for it. It still hasn't really sunk in that I've finished. I finished my exam and was met by Rich and Dan outside (with a bottle of champagne), and then skipped back to Braeside with Alex via sainsburies. Then, much beer and hamburgers later I've tidied my room, done some washing and made a new monkey picture - such are the labours of my day. I'm slighly confused - surely there must be some work to do!?

All in all, the exams went ok. I wrote 12 essays, 62 pages of writing in 12 hours. My poor wrist is knackered after the exertion. Some essays were bad (generally the DevBio ones), others were pretty good (Hurrah for fetuses!). But, most importantly they're done! Results in about 2 weeks!

There are a couple of things for me to catch up blog-wise. There are photos of the rise of the sheep of furry-whiteness (which if you're really lucky, and I'm not too drunk might even be animated), and similar photos for the grow your own pet egg dinosaur thing. Explanation to come soon.

Anway, that's me free! I'm gonna look after Alex for two days, she finishes on Thursday, and then it's off to Formal on Thursday evening, and hopefully horribly downhill from there! Yay!

Yours Relievedly, Tom.

3 down, 1 to go. So close

Experimental Design

Experimental design questions. They've not mentioned them all term, but a few turned up on our sample exam paper (and a few is a significant amount when you have to write 3 essays out of only 6 titles - just read about what interests you indeed! Pfff!), and I haven't got a clue about how to answer them. I went along to Sidney today for a chat with some other people doing this module (which apparently is not being run next year - it seems we are the 1st, and last to do the making babies module), and we spoke about a few ideas for some practice questions. Unfortunately, they have all done experimental projects (in fact, I think only 2 out of the 11 people doing Mod4 did theory projects, me included), and so as a result they know loads about experimental procedures. Apparently grafting experiments cannot be done in Zebrafish as they're not robust enough - do it in chicks instead. These questions seem a little biased towards those who did experimental projects. Now I find out!

Anyway - that's what's bugging me at the moment, and is the reason I can't sleep... maybe writing it down will have helped. Goodnight!

currently listening, Elgar - The Dream of Gerontius. Ahhhh.. better.

Olfactory Ensheathing Cells.

Yesterday was spent mostly in the midst of an extensive amount of Neural Degeneration. Why won't CNS neurones regenerate when PNS ones will, and what can we do to stop this? And, I read about some very interesting cell types, the olfactory-ensheathing-cell. The injured CNS provides an inhibitory environment to axon regeneration, but the OECs may be able to ensheath the axons and provide a permissive environment for axon growth by integrating with astrocytes in the brain. It's all quite exciting. In mouse studies they've helped axons regenerate across a cut spinal cord and led to some functional improvement. Clinical trials have started so watch this space for developments.

Exams.

I haven't blogged for a while - my apologies! The work has got huge, and a massive apathy-fear-thing kinda took over. BUT, I've made a revision plan now and I have more of a concept of how long I've got before the exams. Hopefully I can follow it through and remember the stuff I did first in just under 2 weeks time (this time in 2 weeks I'll be in my 2nd exam). I've got diagrams of signalling in gastrulation on my wall, so, fingers crossed it'll stick.

In other news, it has pretty much rained solidly for about 3 weeks (look out for headines of "Wettest May Ever"), which I suppose is good for the sake of the reservoirs, though less so for us. Yesterday was sunny though, so the world has been re-happied.

Pff... here goes another day.

Dev Bio Saviour.

I'm posting this for anyone who may happen to study developmental biology at any point. It will seem daunting, it will seem nigh-on impossible, with genes rushing about all over the place. I hope this post will help you. I hope it'll end up on google, like most of my pages do and will direct you to this book in your time of need. PDN dev bio, Cambridge... here you go...

Instant Notes, Developmental Biology

you may think pfff instant notes, what an undetailed waste of time. Nope. This book will clarify everything - in fact, I'm regretting ever going to lectures. Instead I should have just read this book time and time again. It's really brilliant.

Knowedge (sic)

"Knowing that you know what you know is almost as important as knowing what you know." Me

Results yr 2

Wow! I got another high 2:1 :) Plus a first in Pharmacology - can't imagine how. AMAZING!

Overoverdoobiedoo

Exams are over! Wednesday afternoon was the pathology practical that was always going to be horrible, but luckily it was on the OK side of horrible rather than the "Oh my goodness what on earth is going on with this pink blob" side of horrible. Went to formal on Wednesday evening - it was very nice to enjoy a formal without the nagging feeling of work in the background. Then, thursday morning was the viva, during which I had to explain about cardiac auscultation and also about the ear. Went ok, was over in 7 minutes and then I was free! Yay. That afternoon I spent sat around playing my guitar, and generally enjoying freedom. Twas amazing! In the evening I went down to the mill pond to see the vets, and had Dojo's take out in the sun - amazing noodles! Later on Alex and me went to see X-men III at the cinema - was actually pretty good - some awful dialogue and flawed stories, but a good fun romp :)

So far we've only got one exemption result - VRB, which all the vets passed! YAY!

Sunny!

It'ssunnyandamazingbutIhavepathandit'sawfulandhistologicalandaaargh