The First Exam

Well, it was quite an experience taking my first medical school exam, one I am not likely to forget soon.

It was supposed to be a 7 hr long exam (from 7:45 AM - 2:38 PM), but instead it lasted until 5 PM. We began the exam decently, but less than 30 minutes into it, the server got overloaded with all the students (second years at VCOM and everyone at VT) logging in, especially to Scholar - we were taking our test on Scholar which is similar to WebCT and Blackboard. Well, we were sorting through that okay and they were going to add a little bit of time to the exam so that we could finish despite the slow page changes after every question. However, 10 minutes later we lost internet. The entire class was kicked out of the exam/and could not get back online. After we sat there for 5 - 10 minutes with no resolution for any of us, the told us to leave and come back when it was time to begin the next portion. The hope was that everything would be fixed and we would continue to take the exam on the computer.

However, an hour later, when the next section was to begin, there was still no internet. So, they quickly made paper copies of the exam and we took the test on scantrons. In some ways, I felt this was better. I like being able to write on an exam, cross out the answers I know are wrong, make notes that will still be there later if I go back to look over a question, etc. On the other hand, bubbling in all the answers is much slower and made my hand tired. :)

Right before we began the last section of the day the presented us with a choice about how to handle the first section we did not orignially finish on the computer. Either we could take it again today (on paper) or take it tomorrow. Either way it would be the same exam that some people had already talked about and others had looked up answers to, etc. Even though I had done neither, I knew I wanted to take it today, as tired as I was. I did not want to spend this evening studying again. I needed a relaxing night.

Thankfully, the overwhelming majority of my classmates agreed and we finished the exam this afternoon. Unfortunately, it was the longest portion of the exam that we had to redo making the day last an extra two hours.

The day is over, the first test is done, and even though I am not confident in how well I may or may not have done, I am very glad it is over.