Recently, things have taken a turn towards the positive side. In a previous post, I mentioned that I was frustrated with some of the grades and amount of assignments that I was receiving. Well, in the past two weeks, I have dramatically improved my grades. I got some of my tests back last week, and I was actually shocked at how awesome they were. I have been putting in probably over 4 hours a day after class studying. It has really been paying off.

Before this positive turn of events, I was putting in the time, but I was using study methods that were not working for some classes. Different classes require different methods for study. That is something that I have been learning over this semester. It is tough when you have multiple classes, but God has been giving me the strength to get through it.

I only have about 3 weeks left in the semester. I am going to be working with some surgeons at a local hospital this summer to get an idea. I will be updating on that soon!

Hope all is going well with everyone!

Hey everyone! Hope you are in preparation for Easter. Yes, today is “Good Friday”. Today (some years ago) was the day when Jesus took on the penalty of our sin. Instead of just taking this as another day, thank God for what He did many years ago. Without this day (and Easter…), we would still be praying and confessing our sins to a priest. Our sins would not have been paid for.

I’m reminded of a great verse that shows the freedom we have through Christ:

“Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split…”

-Matthew 27:51

Then…JESUS CONQUERED DEATH!

Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

-1 Corinthians 15:55-57

Because Jesus died on the cross and rose again to conquer death, we have freedom in Christ! Let’s praise and thank God this Easter for what He did many years ago…God didn’t have to save us, but He did because He loves us.

A song that recently came out called “The Victory” shows the freedom we have in Christ through His death and resurrection. The song and the lyrics are below. Just listen to the song and reflect on the lyrics!

On a hill Your blood was spilled
Your brow, Your hands, Your feet
With nails and thorns the veil was torn
To make a way for me, You made a way for me.

Jesus, Savior, my God, my King, my Lord
Jesus, Savior, the victory is Yours.

Wrapped and bound, they laid You down
A perfect sacrifice
But in three days, the stone was rolled away
Forever You’re alive
Forever You’re alive

Jesus, Savior, my God, my King, my Lord
Jesus, Savior, the victory is Yours
The victory is Yours

Death has been beaten
The grave has been conquered
Jesus is risen
Life ever after

- Albert Einstein

Recently, I have been having to memorize massive amounts of material to even barely pass an exam. It has been very frustrating. I spend an average of 2-3 hours each week just in lab plus about 6-7 hours a week trying to memorize the material. I feel like I spend pretty much every waking moment trying to shove information into my head.

This Friday marks spring break. Although I will get to relax a little bit, I still have to memorize a whole bunch of information like normal. It will be nice to be on break though!

The next quiz that I have to take in lab focuses on some Phylum and Classes of certain animal organisms. I have to memorize the terms, microscopic slides, diagrams, and then some. Doing this can guarantee a D- on the exam. Becoming an expert in the material can guarantee an A-. This is why I have been studying ridiculously! There is so much material to learn in less than one week for each exam.

My next exam focuses on the slides, diagrams, and question on the following Phylum and Classes (by typing these out, I am working on memorizing them):

Phylum Porifera- sponges

These are multicellular, aquatic organisms with bodies that are perforated by spores

• Body types

1. Asconoids (Leucosolenia): These appear as tube shaped colonies. (They have an osculu, epidermal pinacocyte, choanocyte, amoebocyte, spongocoel, ostium, etc)
2. Syconoids (Scypha): These appear as tubes, but they usually do not grow in colonies. (They have osculum, spongocoel, amoebocyte, ostia, incurrent canal, pinacocyte, choanocyte, radial canal, etc)
3. Leuconoids(Euspongia): These appear more spherical (They have an osculum, excurrent canals, ostia, incurrent canal, choanocytes, etc)

Phylum Cnidaria- jelly fish, sea anemones, coral

• Body Types

1. Polyp- This is tubular. It can grow single or as a colony. The oral end is upward, and the mouth is surrounded by tentacles.
2. Medusa- This is a free swimming or floating (like a common jellyfish). The oral end is downward with the mouth and tentacles.

• Class Hydrozoa (grow as polyps, medusa, or both…and they are single or colonial depending on the species)

This class  in the Cnidaria phylum contains the Hydra, Obelia, and Portugese man-of-war.

• Class Scyphozoa (polyp is reduced or absent; it has a large medusa)
• Class Anthozoa (polyps are single or colonial; there is no medusa; they can secrete calcium carbonate)

It is said that in 2015 (the year I have to take the test), there is going to be a new MCAT exam administered. Up until this point, the MCAT has consisted of Biology, Biochemistry, inorganic and organic chemistry, a writing section, verbal, and more. In 2015, the test is going to be free from writing, but it will still have all of the previous science topics. The exam is also going to have additional testing on psychology, humanities, data interpretation, and more. The new MCAT is assumed to lengthen to six-and-a-half hours for testing.

This is what was said about the new test:

“Being a good doctor is about more than scientific knowledge. It also requires an understanding of people.  By balancing the MCAT exam’s focus on the natural sciences with a new section on the psychological, social, and biological foundations of behavior, the new exam will better prepare students to build strong knowledge of the socio-cultural and behavioral determinants of health,” said Darrell G. Kirch, M.D., AAMC president and CEO. 

I personally think that this could be a turning point in medical education. It is not just enough to know math and science. It is necessary to have a strong foundation in everything-including people skills. I am personally excited about the new MCAT. I am nervous about it as well. I have taken many of these classes already, and I have done very well in them because of my interest in them.

The new MCAT is going to be interesting. I am personally wondering how the new scores will effect things. I would imagine that medical schools would have to use all of the new scores as a basis of comparison because the scores from the older test would be somewhat irrelevant to use as a standard. It will definitely be interesting to see what will happen with this new MCAT. I am personally excited about it.

I am still doing research on the new MCAT (as it was just recently announced). I have included some of the sources I have used as information below.

Sources:

https://www.aamc.org/newsroom/newsreleases/273712/120216.html

http://studentdoctor.net/2012/02/conquering-the-mcat-a-student-perspective/

http://studentdoctor.net/2012/03/mcat-2015-changes-to-the-exam/

For the past few days, we have been going over derivatives. They actually have many practical applications. You can track many things through a graph. In order to know what something is doing at any moment, you have to take a derivative of it. The other day, it became more realistic to me that so many applications in science involve calculus. For example, rates of change in data, velocity, etc. can be calculated through using calculus. In fact, with calculus, you can track and graph one’s heart beat with a sine graph!

The other day in class, we took a famous equation: S= .5gt^2+Vo(t)+So. This equation is a way to solve for velocity.

• S=height
• g=force of gravity
• Vo=initial velocity
• So=initial height

The force of gravity for here on earth is -32 ft/sec^2 or (-9.8 m/sec^2). Therefore, you have the force of gravity constant already figured out to use.

If you have information, you can plug it into this formula to figure out many things about the velocity of an object. Using the derivative is all a part of the process of finding the answers to this equation once you have the information.

It is interesting to finally see some light at the end of the tunnel while going through these classes. Although computer software can solve this kind of stuff, it is important to learn the theory behind it. Plus, I guess I will be ready if my computer suddenly decides not to work.

The more I go through more science and math classes, the more I realize that calculus plays a huge role in discovery. Just my epiphany of the day!

(Plasmodium under a microscope.)

The Plasmodium bacteria is a parasitic, unicellular organism that targets and infects the red blood cells on one’s body. From the picture above, the red blood cells that are purple have been infected by the Plasmodium bacteria. A similar bacteria to Plasmodium, which I was able to study, is a bacteria known as Trypanosoma. This harmful bacteria causes African sleeping sickness. There is something neat about studying bacterial slides and samples of parasites that are so deadly.

As I was studying these, I had to become familiar with the different types (domains) of bacteria.

Coccus:

This type of bacteria appears as dots under the microscope.

Diplococcus

Diplococcus bacteria appear to have two spheres joined together.

Streptococcus

Streptococcus is a domain of bacteria that appears as a long chain. This domain of bacteria is a form of pneumonia. One of the bacterium that causes pneumonia is Streptococcus pneumonea.

Staphylococcus

Staphylococcus is a domain of bacteria that appears as clumps. Staphylococcus is a domain of bacteria that is involved in the disease known as MRSA (Staphylococcus aureas). MRSA is known as a type of staph infection because it involves the bacteria Staphylococcus.

Bacillus

Bacillus is known as the “rod shaped” bacteria. A diplobacillus bacteria appears as two of these “rods” joined together.

Streptobacillus

Streptobacillus is a bacteria that appears as multiple “rod” assembled together.

Spirillum

This bacteria has an interesting “chromosomal” shape.

Spirochaete

The Spirochaete bacteria has a distinguishable shape. These are typically chemoheterotrophic (receive nourishment from inorganic compounds).

Vibrio

This is the shape of the bacteria domain Vibrio. It commonly infect the gastrointestinal tracts of humans.

Over the course of a few hours, I was able to gain a better understanding of these prokaryotic bacteria domains. The lab was interesting, and I learned much from it. There is so much information to know about the prokaryotic bacteria. It is truly remarkable how detailed and how well designed they are. Everyday, I learn that God is so much smarter than I already thought He was!

Filed under: Biological Concepts ]]> http://studenttosurgeon.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/prokaryotic-domains-for-bacteria/feed/ 0 bigb94 Plasmodium Coccus Diplococcus Streptococcus Staphylococcus Bacillus Streptobcillus Spirillum Spirochaete Vibrio http://studenttosurgeon.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/how-medicine-is-produced/ http://studenttosurgeon.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/how-medicine-is-produced/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:01:19 +0000 Brandon http://studenttosurgeon.wordpress.com/?p=86 ]]> Have you ever wondered what processes are involved in producing medicine? I have certainly wondered. As I was researching, I found this video that was brilliantly created to show how medicine is made from molecules. If you have studied the basic DNA processes, you will notice that as the production dives into the human body, it examines the cellular level of DNA. It produced the DNA sequences of adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine very accurately.

I personally thought that it was amazing that it takes over 14 years to produce a drug. Before watching the video, I really had no clue how long it actually takes scientists to develop a drug.

The video briefly mentioned that the scientists target proteins that cause the ailment. In a previous post, I talked about how understanding the folding of proteins can help cure diseases. Many diseases could be eliminated if the protein folding process could be fully comprehended. The reality is that this is process is extremely complicated.

This video production also depicted the structure of DNA very well. It went from a visual standpoint of DNA all the way down to the actual chemistry of DNA. This video definitely helps one understand the process of creating new medicine!

Filed under: Biological Concepts, Uncategorized ]]> http://studenttosurgeon.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/how-medicine-is-produced/feed/ 1 bigb94 http://studenttosurgeon.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/what-is-congestive-heart-failure/ http://studenttosurgeon.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/what-is-congestive-heart-failure/#comments Wed, 11 Jan 2012 10:00:09 +0000 Brandon http://studenttosurgeon.wordpress.com/?p=81 ]]>
Filed under: Biological Concepts, Uncategorized ]]> http://studenttosurgeon.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/what-is-congestive-heart-failure/feed/ 0 bigb94