Now THAT is ridiculous.
I have been waiting for an opportunity to take my Dermatology exam. Yes, the very same Derm department that you've met in
this post. And yes, their teaching depatment is just as bad, or possibly worse. I mean, I've seen a grand total of five out-patient and zero in-patient people in my four weeks on the wards. Excellent use of resources, seriously. This behaviour also extends to testing, since they don't actually give us as many testing slots per year as there are students in each year. Around here, it's also quite usual for people to fail a test every now and then, and have to retake it, using those same testing slots. Needless to say, there's not enough room for all of us to take our Derm exam. And if you haven't passed Derm, you can't enter your final year. Fun!
But still, even these dreadfully disorganised people managed to get their October dates out to my med school on September 22nd. That probably means that the better-organised infectious disese or psychiatry people must have had their dates in by mid-September.
The dates were published TODAY. Two weeks after they were sent to my school by what was most likely the last department to do so.
Yes, they took two weeks to enter some dates into a computer programme that does the rest of the work.
This gets worse. Remember how there isn't enough room for all of us? Well, we have to apply for our exams at least a week in advance, so the first testing slot for any subject this month is now Monday 13th. Which means that HALF of all dates for this month were WASTED. Nobody got to take those tests in ANY subject. Which will probably lead some departments to believe that we don't need quite as many dates, so they might reduce them for next year.
So here's what half of my year did today. We sat at our computers between 7 am and 9.30, waiting for the dates. After that, we started moving towards our Ortho lecture hall, secure in our knowledge that we had our boyfriend/girlfriend/parent/sibling/grandparent/whoever can sit at the computer all day long, waiting for the dates with our passwords. Then, when the professor showed up to lecture, someone got a text message that subjects were being uploaded one by one. So half of the lecture hall picked up their phone and called their computer-watcher to tell them "NOW! NOW! They're COMING! Don't leave the computer!" While the guy was trying to lecture!
Ridiculous and over-reacting, right?
Wrong!
Here's what happened in my case. When I called my dad, I knew Derm wasn't uploaded yet, but might be at any second. I told him to not budge from the computer, refresh generously and sign me up for the latest possible date he could. (I hadn't studied for even a minute yet, because there was no way to know whether I'd be taking the test now or next July.)
He did just that. Then the dates appeared. Within seconds, he tried the latest one. FULL. The one before that. FULL. Then, he had the presence of mind to figure out that everyone was going for the latest possible date and he was obviously out of phase and just behind. So, he skipped one date, hoping to God that A) he would get the next one and B) that I would find it possible to squish A LOT of Derm into my head in the next two weeks, while going to school doing everything but Derm.
He managed. But all the dates apart from Oct 13th (which would be suicide to apply for) were full in a matter of a few minutes. So no, not over-reacting.
But how, you ask? How does idiotism like that take place in a seemingly intelligent place like a medical school. Here's how:
Administrative personel who think their job is to make my life as difficult as possible. When in fact, their job is to upload the freaking dates ON TIME, so we can take the tests whenever a professor decides they have time. I don't care if you're busy with enrollment, you are payed to upload dates NOW and enroll people during the SUMMER! Not screw with people who know you can enroll them but are too lazy to do so in the summer and get swamped now.
Ugh.
Oh, and here's a pearl by one of the dragonettes (it's how we like to call them friendly admins) to a friend of mine: "I know there're no dates. So what? You should have taken and passed that test by now."
Yeah, her and 170 other fourth years and at least 50 fifth years. Even though she only uploaded 85 slots since January 1st. Way to go, Einstein!
OK, rant over. Now excuse me while I go swallow my Derm book. D'you think I could squish some studying in while I'm retracting the liver?
I have been waiting for an opportunity to take my Dermatology exam. Yes, the very same Derm department that you've met in this post. And yes, their teaching depatment is just as bad, or possibly worse. I mean, I've seen a grand total of five out-patient and zero in-patient people in my four weeks on the wards. Excellent use of resources, seriously. This behaviour also extends to testing, since they don't actually give us as many testing slots per year as there are students in each year. Around here, it's also quite usual for people to fail a test every now and then, and have to retake it, using those same testing slots. Needless to say, there's not enough room for all of us to take our Derm exam. And if you haven't passed Derm, you can't enter your final year. Fun!
But still, even these dreadfully disorganised people managed to get their October dates out to my med school on September 22nd. That probably means that the better-organised infectious disese or psychiatry people must have had their dates in by mid-September.
The dates were published TODAY. Two weeks after they were sent to my school by what was most likely the last department to do so.
Yes, they took two weeks to enter some dates into a computer programme that does the rest of the work.
This gets worse. Remember how there isn't enough room for all of us? Well, we have to apply for our exams at least a week in advance, so the first testing slot for any subject this month is now Monday 13th. Which means that HALF of all dates for this month were WASTED. Nobody got to take those tests in ANY subject. Which will probably lead some departments to believe that we don't need quite as many dates, so they might reduce them for next year.
So here's what half of my year did today. We sat at our computers between 7 am and 9.30, waiting for the dates. After that, we started moving towards our Ortho lecture hall, secure in our knowledge that we had our boyfriend/girlfriend/parent/sibling/grandparent/whoever can sit at the computer all day long, waiting for the dates with our passwords. Then, when the professor showed up to lecture, someone got a text message that subjects were being uploaded one by one. So half of the lecture hall picked up their phone and called their computer-watcher to tell them "NOW! NOW! They're COMING! Don't leave the computer!" While the guy was trying to lecture!
Ridiculous and over-reacting, right?
Wrong!
Here's what happened in my case. When I called my dad, I knew Derm wasn't uploaded yet, but might be at any second. I told him to not budge from the computer, refresh generously and sign me up for the latest possible date he could. (I hadn't studied for even a minute yet, because there was no way to know whether I'd be taking the test now or next July.)
He did just that. Then the dates appeared. Within seconds, he tried the latest one. FULL. The one before that. FULL. Then, he had the presence of mind to figure out that everyone was going for the latest possible date and he was obviously out of phase and just behind. So, he skipped one date, hoping to God that A) he would get the next one and B) that I would find it possible to squish A LOT of Derm into my head in the next two weeks, while going to school doing everything but Derm.
He managed. But all the dates apart from Oct 13th (which would be suicide to apply for) were full in a matter of a few minutes. So no, not over-reacting.
But how, you ask? How does idiotism like that take place in a seemingly intelligent place like a medical school. Here's how:
Administrative personel who think their job is to make my life as difficult as possible. When in fact, their job is to upload the freaking dates ON TIME, so we can take the tests whenever a professor decides they have time. I don't care if you're busy with enrollment, you are payed to upload dates NOW and enroll people during the SUMMER! Not screw with people who know you can enroll them but are too lazy to do so in the summer and get swamped now.
Ugh.
Oh, and here's a pearl by one of the dragonettes (it's how we like to call them friendly admins) to a friend of mine: "I know there're no dates. So what? You should have taken and passed that test by now."
Yeah, her and 170 other fourth years and at least 50 fifth years. Even though she only uploaded 85 slots since January 1st. Way to go, Einstein!
OK, rant over. Now excuse me while I go swallow my Derm book. D'you think I could squish some studying in while I'm retracting the liver?