Whew...things are falling a bit more into place now. I finally organized my study schedule by subject and date so that I have a more structured approach to tackling this behemoth of an exam. If you are interested in the torture that is required to eventually become a physician, you can take a look at my calendar (There is a link in the right sidebar). I put up a rough outline of the subjects and the days I will be studying them. I'm planning on about 5 hours of study each day, followed by around 2-3 hours of doing practice questions (which of course I have to purchase).

...and while I'm on that subject of studying, let me mention how incredibly expensive review materials are. If you thought textbooks were pricey, you "aint seen nothing yet." I bought three review books today, each of them about 100 pages thick. The final tally was almost 90 dollars. Lippincott and other publishers are making a killing off of poor saps like myself who need all the review materials we can get.

Add to all of this the tedious process that is filling out registration forms and federal student aid forms and you've got my spectacular day today. I guess I can't be exciting every day. Don't worry, if you hang in there I'll probably have some exciting stories from the hospital once I'm on rounds.

On a side note, you gotta love that my school has increased tuition AGAIN, even though they haven't added anything to the curriculum, buildings, or resources. I have a theory about this. The theory is that schools believe they somehow add prestige if they raise their tuitions. After all, if the school is reasonably priced how good can it be? These kids are going to be doctors right? They can afford it. Never mind that they will be over $100,000 in debt when they graduate.