I survived GAMSAT 2011!

Yay! Although, I wasn't feeling so yay the night before and the day of. I tried going to bed early. I really did. But I just couldn't sleep. I think I must have gotten about 2 hours of sleep the whole damn night. The rest of it I spent tossing and turning and trying to stay calm and not panic. Did you know that panic and sleep don't go together very well? No? Well I didn't either until I tried to mix the two. I decided to give up my pathetic attempts at sleep at about 6am since I figured if I did actually manage to fall asleep somehow, I'd probably sleep past the start of the exam. I don't think I got more than two hours of interrupted broken sleep altogether but hey, nobody said trying to get into medicine was going to be easy right?

I arrived at the test centre at about 8:20 and there was a line of people out the door. Goody. I got in line and stood there for about 15 mins waiting to register, listening to other people in the line stressing and trying my damndest not to run the hell away from there. I didn't give in to that instinct though and eventually, I got in and settled down in my seat. When the exam started, I managed to put the nerves aside and concentrate on section 1.

Looking back, I think section 1 was the easiest part of the whole exam. I finished it with about 10 or 15 mins to spare. It was still pretty difficult though and I don't really know whether I understood everything as I was meant to or not. I guess I'll find out in May.

Section 2. Ummm... The less said about this one, the better. Let's just say I need to do a hell of a lot more work on my essay writing.

Section 3 was a bit better in that I didn't have to string words and sentences into something coherent. But it was a hell of a lot harder than any practice questions I did. I'm pretty sure I didn't do very well in this section at all. The science study that I did in preparation did help a bit when there were questions that were related to what I'd learned. Unfortunately, there weren't enough of those to make me think I could possibly pass this section. And the headache that made it's presence known about 10 mins into this section sure didn't help either. I can probably thank the sleepless night I had for that one.

So yeah. Be interesting to see the results but I'm pretty sure I'll be back for another round of GAMSAT goodness in 2012...

Worst. Night. Ever.

That is all.

Can't sleep, clown'll eat me :(

WHY MUST YOU CLOWNS TORMENT ME???? ARRRGGGHHH!!!

Dammit Google, stop being so smart!

I signed up for a gmail account and used an email address that I had previously created a google account with. Google has decided that since I now have a gmail account linked to this address, everything that I ever used this other Google account for will now be taken over by my gmail account! Arrgghh! That was particularly annoying when I logged into my Khan academy account and found I'd lost all my medals and points and progress. I managed to fix that one but now I've found my blog has been moved over to my gmail account too and I can't change that. Oh well, guess it's not the end of the world. Yet.

The reason I signed up to gmail was because I got a new Android phone and now I'm Googlising my life. Yes, Google is taking over the world. My world anyway. It's already my home page and the place I go whenever I want to find anything on the internet. I haven't willingly gone to another search engine for years (though I do sometimes install something that changes my home page to another search engine, which I promptly remove). I love you Google, why won't you love me back???

Anyway, my new phone is awesome. I got a HTC Desire HD. It's a big change from my old Nokia, which is about 3 years old now. It's so shiny and pretty and there are games! Games I can actually play and enjoy on the huge touch screen! Plus, there are so many features to explore and things to customise! Oh boy! I knew I should have waited until after the GAMSAT to buy this phone. I do have one deterrent that's keeping me from spending too much time on my new phone right now. I don't have a screen protector and cover for it yet. And in true Asian fashion, I'm scared of scratching or damaging it in any way and I want to keep it in pristine condition for as long as I can. Did I mention that I kept the little plastic screen sticker on my last phone until only about a month or so ago? The only reason I took it off was because one corner of it was starting to peel up and collect yucky stuff under it. Yes, I have issues... No, the sticker peeling off was not the catalyst to me getting this new phone. Not that I'm willing to admit anyway :)

Hello GAMSAT ticket

My GAMSAT ticket arrived in my inbox the other day. My stomach did the whole somersault/backflip/dropping out of my body thing that it does every time I think about the GAMSAT. Thanks, stomach, I really needed you to do that. Again.

I'm really looking forward to getting through it so that I can relax again...

At the risk of repeating myself...

Holy smokes, 30 minutes flies just flies when you're trying to squeeze a whole essay into (or out of) it. Why can't my work days pass like this?? Especially those long Friday afternoons where one minute can seem like an hour and the weekend is so tantalisingly close you can almost smell it.

I think it's the effect of adrenalin. I do have the occasional day at work where time does go by quickly, but they're mostly because I'm trying to meet some deadline that's looming in the next day or so. Or the next hour or so. Those are fun. I am an adrenalin junkie... Maybe that's the real reason I'm doing the GAMSAT even though I'm pretty certain my score will be embarrassingly crap. When you think of it this way, it's actually pretty cost effective. A ride at an amusement park or show will cost about $5-$15 dollars for a few minutes of stomach churning, dizzying, adrenalin inducing fun. For $374, I'll get 5.5. hours of gut twisting, panic inducing exam. And let's not forget the weeks of stress beforehand. Bargain! Dunno why I didn't do this before!

Oh well, 24 days and all this will be over for this year. I'll take a week or two off and let my brain melt a bit before going back to studying the sciences and reading the news and writing more so I can be better prepared for next year. I look forward to it actually. I'm enjoying learning something new every day. I don't think I could go back to the days when I just goofed off on facebook or whatever, playing games to kill time. It reminds me of how I felt back when I was studying for my first degree. I feel a lot more switched on and I think it shows through in my work and every day life too. I hope that I will get into med school one day but even if I don't, I know I've benefited from going on this journey anyway.

Pinch and a punch?

It's the 1st of March already! How did that happen?? Well, goodbye summer, we hardly saw any decent summer weather this year. Maybe you'll do better next year hey?

I tried writing an essay today. My first essay in about 8 years. I gave myself 30 mins to write it and damn did that time pass quick. Holy crap. And I'm not even going to say too much about what I actually managed to produce during this time. Let's just say I looked at the quotes, got the theme and then went off on a rambling, repetitive tangent that was only vaguely related to part of the theme. And I didn't get to a conclusion. 'Twas a bit hard to wrangle a conclusion out my rambling thoughts since I'd kinda lost the plot by the end of the 30 mins.

Oh well, I've got about 3 weeks to brush up my writing skills a bit. Maybe next time, I'll try and focus more on the task at hand and less on the new phone I want to buy. Damn you, distracting technology!!