Mouthpiece

Now, coming to me: I’ve never been too proud of my scholastic performance since as long as I remember, maybe last when I felt good was in class IX! PMTs were as bad as possible. They were some sort of once in a lifetime catastrophe.

Then first year in college was marginally better, and by that I mean securing 64 percent, never mind the rank in class. 2nd year is some kind of a comic story. Excluding pharmac result which is still undeclared, I’m getting 55% in the last semester exams, which is so bad and so below average that I cannot believe how I’ve come to such a pass. This result is unsettling. Finals are in January.

I have never made plans for future the way some of my classmates make. But it’s disturbing to see where I’m headed educationally. With this kind of preparation, I’m definitely not going anywhere. I think my energies are scattered into so many things that I’ve lost focus. I want to see myself studying for many hours a day because I really like books such as Guyton and Robbins. But, I’m passionate about dancing (have joined dance classes), movies, novels, hills, philosophy, photography and this leaves little time and concentration to be spared for rectifying a topsy-turvy academic situation.

After reading a post on someone’s blog, I realized that I have never really written about my academic life on this blog. I genuinely don’t intend to bore you with stories of when and how I scored how much.

My college is a classic case of how good and bad something can simultaneously be. I don’t know how – maybe our dean is too good – MGM Med College has managed to attract the best teachers in the region. The anatomy department in I MBBS is full of even-minded and disciplined professors. But the except for a couple of teachers in Physio department, rest all are either just too smart or just too dumb.

II Year turned out to be equally paradoxical. We have an energetic and disciplined Micro department. Although the lab functioning is a little unprofessional, teaching staff in Micro is fine, almost interesting even! The weekly oral tests were the best thing in the world to prepare for micro.

But patho people more than cover up for whatever good Micro does or is. Even they have two weekly tutorials. I clearly fail to understand how they distribute the topics. One day we have the whole of renal, and the next day whole of GIT/Liver. One is expected to speak word-to-word, line-to-line language of Harshmohan, otherwise it is declared wrong. I read a lot of Robbins in 4th sem, and the patho people make feel as if I have committed a crime. Yesterday a patho lecturer asked class about GFR rate and when someone replied 125ml/min, she deemed it wrong because it was 180L/day according to her and nothing else. Heights!!

The pharmac department is staying afloat thanks to its competent captains of ship. But sometimes they’re too lazy: they haven’t checked our 4th sem papers even after a month and half of exam.

The problem with the curriculum is that every bloody piece of knowledge is either a ‘Long Question’ or a ‘Short Note’. Hepatitis, MI, AIDS – they’re reduced to 4/8 marks answers and cease to be subjective topics which call for comprehensive and practical approach. I’m not saying that I’m perfect at ratta-fy these copy-book answers and so have got bored of them. My incapability of adapting to the system does not deny me the right to complain, certainly.