Friday, May 28, 2010
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
The first goal accomplished(!!!)
In order to deliver the good news I have to begin by elucidate the past two weeks. After Sagi sadly left us to study on our own until the exam we really stepped it up. He left us with a big booklet of old entrance exams in all subjects. While looking through the booklet I found myself puzzled over how easy some of the exams were. The latest Charles University Exam, however, was not that easy. To be honest I found it very hard, not considering knowledge, but rather how the test was built. It was a lot of statistics, graphs and tables that had to be read and I found it very time consuming. Even the biology part seemed to be more mathematics than anything else. While we did it I got really mad and didn’t want to concentrate at solving the problems. Come to think of it I guess I just got scared.
The two weeks of complimentary lessons were just enough to fill our need of guidance. We studied real hard the first week and when we only had one weekend left until the exam we began to fill rather saturated. I packed my belongings and said farewell to the family I’ve been staying with to move to Jackie and Jeanine’s apartment in the city. It really saved me a lot of time and energy and I don’t miss going by bus for two hours every day.
To sum it up we read a lot, quizzed and went through the old exams over and over. “Questions tend to repeat themselves...” Moshe said twice before he left.
Anxiety and nervousness set a seed in us for the last days and I don’t think that I’ve ever felt so tranquil and stressed out at the same time for such a long time. I tried to calm my senses and get rid of the latent imploding feeling in my stomach that spread every time someone mentioned the exam or anything about it.
The last two days were the worst. All I could think of was to get the exam over with.
When the day finally arrived I felt completely the opposite – I started to doubt myself and wondered if I needed more time to prepare. I slept very well the night before felt thoroughly rested when I woke up. We had a kickass breakfast and went to school to fight the very final battle.
The dean from Charles arrived in a grey suit, smiling when he entered the classroom. We took our seats and got the exams. Two hours later we were all done and were told to wait for the personal interview with the dean. The limit of passing was 65% which, for the Charles Exam type, is a pretty difficult border. The exam is a multiple choice exam where more than one statement might be correct. The tricky part is that if you mark a statement that is incorrect it will erase respectively one point from a correct statement. The total score of one question can not drop below zero which made guessing possible but not recommended since you might lose the whole question. The test consisted of 45 questions with the total score of 320.
The break until the personal interviews was like waiting for your final judgement, as if your whole life was at stake. After two hellish hours we finally went back to the office where we were called in one at a time. I didn’t think that waiting could be so cruel. I got called in as person number three from the end. Moshe met me in the door and told me: “You passed the exam - this is not going to be an oral exam but rather an interview, congratulations...”
I entered the room and took a seat in front of the dean. After a short introduction he asked me about my interest in medicine, hobbies and work experience. It was a delightful conversation without any extravagances. The professor gave me the letter of admittance to the 1st Faculty of Medicine, Prague, and wished me good luck.
I'm going to Charles and I'm now officially a Med Student (!!!)
It took a while for it to really settle...
The two weeks of complimentary lessons were just enough to fill our need of guidance. We studied real hard the first week and when we only had one weekend left until the exam we began to fill rather saturated. I packed my belongings and said farewell to the family I’ve been staying with to move to Jackie and Jeanine’s apartment in the city. It really saved me a lot of time and energy and I don’t miss going by bus for two hours every day.
To sum it up we read a lot, quizzed and went through the old exams over and over. “Questions tend to repeat themselves...” Moshe said twice before he left.
Anxiety and nervousness set a seed in us for the last days and I don’t think that I’ve ever felt so tranquil and stressed out at the same time for such a long time. I tried to calm my senses and get rid of the latent imploding feeling in my stomach that spread every time someone mentioned the exam or anything about it.
The last two days were the worst. All I could think of was to get the exam over with.
When the day finally arrived I felt completely the opposite – I started to doubt myself and wondered if I needed more time to prepare. I slept very well the night before felt thoroughly rested when I woke up. We had a kickass breakfast and went to school to fight the very final battle.
The dean from Charles arrived in a grey suit, smiling when he entered the classroom. We took our seats and got the exams. Two hours later we were all done and were told to wait for the personal interview with the dean. The limit of passing was 65% which, for the Charles Exam type, is a pretty difficult border. The exam is a multiple choice exam where more than one statement might be correct. The tricky part is that if you mark a statement that is incorrect it will erase respectively one point from a correct statement. The total score of one question can not drop below zero which made guessing possible but not recommended since you might lose the whole question. The test consisted of 45 questions with the total score of 320.
The break until the personal interviews was like waiting for your final judgement, as if your whole life was at stake. After two hellish hours we finally went back to the office where we were called in one at a time. I didn’t think that waiting could be so cruel. I got called in as person number three from the end. Moshe met me in the door and told me: “You passed the exam - this is not going to be an oral exam but rather an interview, congratulations...”
I entered the room and took a seat in front of the dean. After a short introduction he asked me about my interest in medicine, hobbies and work experience. It was a delightful conversation without any extravagances. The professor gave me the letter of admittance to the 1st Faculty of Medicine, Prague, and wished me good luck.
I'm going to Charles and I'm now officially a Med Student (!!!)
It took a while for it to really settle...
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
The way of Physics
This week we got introduced to a new teacher.
His name is Segi and he is for sure the best teacher I've ever had, and most probably the best I'll ever have(!).
We're doing physics the whole week and one of the first things he taught us was his way of dealing with physics questions:
1) Cut the bullshit, keep it simple and stupid
2) Write the data
3) Convert the units
4) Feel artistic and D-R-A-W
5) Find the relevant equations
6) Play the equation-puzzle game
7) Do the math
Wow, I really admire him for making physics so much fun...
His name is Segi and he is for sure the best teacher I've ever had, and most probably the best I'll ever have(!).
We're doing physics the whole week and one of the first things he taught us was his way of dealing with physics questions:
1) Cut the bullshit, keep it simple and stupid
2) Write the data
3) Convert the units
4) Feel artistic and D-R-A-W
5) Find the relevant equations
6) Play the equation-puzzle game
7) Do the math
Wow, I really admire him for making physics so much fun...
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