Midterm Blues (and snow!)

Once again midterm exams are upon the DPT class of 2007, and we are all a little stressed out. The round of exams has us suffering through 7 of them this week. I was hesitant on posting this week, but I decided to post so that everyone who is following my "adventure" will not be left without humor for the week.
The first exam was Physical Modalities last Friday morning. We all enjoy the professor and his teachings of the class, it's the fact that it is from 5-7PM on Monday night that is rough. The test was fair and as a class we did very well with a 92.2% average. After a weekend worth of studying and a little bike ride through Harlem to Central Park and back it was on to more tests.
Monday began with an 8:30 AM Cardiopulmonary Exam, which most of us feel was pretty hard, and had some questions that seemed to have more than one correct answer. It's ok, this happens with every test. I am confident we all did well.
In the afternoon we took turns with each other in pairs for our Therapeutic Exercise practical examination. This class is a great leaning experience. The lecture portion teaches us conceptual thinking related to treatments of orthopaedic conditions, while the lab portion allows us to learn hands-on skills and apply them with the knowledge from lecture on each other. The exam was fair, challenging and a little repetitive, but it was good all around and I am certain our class did well as a whole.
I am sure most of you who follow this site religiously (Dr. Evander!) remember that during the first semester final exams our class had a few "breakdowns" during study sessions and exams. Well, it seems as if the trend does not stop at the first semester. I have only seen two thus far, and know that those involved were not sacked and did just fine on their exams. I guess I did not realize just how much stress we are ALL going through during exams. Sometimes I get caught up in my own little ball of stress that I forget about the 32 others who are going through the same thing. I can tell all of you with confidence that while this DPT Program is challenging, we all will pass and will ALL become great clinicians by May of 2007. (I guarantee that!)

Here are a few pictures for your enjoyment. The first few are of my classmates, Candice and Sarah. they were studying auscultation (listening to breath sounds) yesterday in preparation for today's examination. While they were trying to be serious, Sarah decided to belch while Candice was listening. It was very funny to watch!

Serious DPT Students at work


Listening to bronchiovesicular lung sounds


So much for being serious....




Finally, the weather took a major turn South today dropping from 58 degrees at 7AM to a chilly 24 degrees currently. Needless to say, it's snowing again! :-( Well, I thought I would show all of you (especially those in NM) what is keeping me inside and hitting the books tonight.

Ice on my window...


Believe it or not, the George Washington Bridge is somewhere out there.


The street outside my building...


See you next post!