1/3 of the way there

The exam marathon ended today, anticlimatically. After a weekend of studying, memeriziing, reviewing, memerizing the things I forgot from the day before (and repeating the cycle a few times over), I finally confronted the first BMB midterm.

To be frank, the written exam was challenging (mostly because the concepts in the neuroanatomy are no cake walk and require lots and lots of exposure) and the anatomy practical was difficult as expected, given how small the nerves are and how similar th brain structures look.

The marathon started at 8 AM and finished at 1:30 PM.

Taking the anatomy lab portion was odd; there were 35 tables lined in a circular formation with opened heads, faces peeled away, exposed facial muscles, scattered skulls and brains--all the pertinent structures we studied in neuroanatomy. What a site. And to realize how desensitized we are to the sites; we have come a long way.

I walked out of the anatomy lab thinking the following:
1. Neuroanatomy is complicated!
2. I will not have to return to anatomy lab until next year in life cycle (no more smelly blue scrub for the rest of the year)
3. Moving your head upside down when staring at cranial nerves will not enhance your view at all; you'll just feel nauseous
2. I felt numb. This numbness was not a result of a cranial nerve or spinal cord lesion, but mind numbness from sheer exhausation of thinking about how we think about things and how we move our bodies and how we respond to our environments.

The material is extremely fascinating; I will always be amazed by the mind. But the subject matter makes for a difficult exam with some particular intricacies that continue to transcend my understanding.

The end of Exam 1 marks the third mark (we are one third of the way through BMB).

There is no break; we just continue with 8 AM class tommorrow, which means reading tonight.

At least the exam is done...