Hey Pops community!

It’s been quite a while since I’ve been here to update you on the life of a medical student, but I promise I had good reason (I’ll get to that soon enough). The last time I wrote to you was just at the start of the pandemic. We were still getting our bearings down and trying to adjust to this new version of “normal,” something I think we’re still in the midst of figuring out. My return back to school for M2 year was worlds apart from where I thought I’d be a year ago, but we all work with what we’ve got. While the back half of my first year of med school shifted completely to online learning, this time around UVM tried to establish a hybrid model for us and the first years. Their solution was to alternate days during which each year attended online classes and splitting each class up into small groups with assigned rooms. It wasn’t the most ideal solution, but at this point, I was just happy be around people again. UVM also implemented a weekly testing policy for all students in order to gain access to any school buildings. It’s crazy how ingrained this has become in my schedule, but at the same time I recognize how lucky I am to have access to free testing.

Unfortunately the hybrid model did not last for long, and the winter months brought with them higher infectivity rates and a switch back to 100% online learning. At this point in my education however, this actually became ideal, as I started to make my switch to studying for the USMLE Step 1 (US Medical Licensing Exam). For those unfamiliar with the test, it is taken at the end of pre-clinical years and plays a large role in the strength of my application to residency programs. Ever since starting medical school, this test has been looming in the distance, slowly getting closer and closer and scarier and scarier. I like to think of it as the big bad guy at the end of Level 1 of medical school; you know it’s there, and you know you have to beat it, but you just don’t know how until it’s staring you in the face.

Anyway, that’s where I disappeared to. In preparation for the test, most schools block a period of time between the end of curricular instruction and the start of clinicals for the sole purpose of studying for this test, or as we like to call it: “dedicated.” My “dedicated” period started after the new year, but I started studying for this test in the summer months. My roommates and I would ironically joke that quarantine and social isolation actually worked in our favor during this period. There was nothing to do, no one to see, nowhere to go, really nothing else to do but study without any distractions getting in the way. Never mind the fact that Vermont getting very cold and snowy in the winter made for rather ideal conditions to sit and study for ten hours at a time. I wouldn’t necessarily call it my favorite part of med school, but it definitely felt good to see how much I had learned over the past two years and to feel that sense of relief and accomplishment after finally taking the test.

I wish there was more I could say about my “dedicated” period, but honestly most of it was a blur, and a majority of the time I didn’t even know what day it was. But I can say that it’s over now, and I have my clinical rotations to look forward to. After I take a nice long vacation far away from any type of study materials. I’ll be starting my clinical years with a six week rotation in psychiatry, followed by OB/GYN, surgery, internal medicine, neurology, family medicine, and pediatrics. I think it’s safe to say that I’m equally as nervous as I am excited to embark on this next step in my education. The nerves mostly stemming from this being the first time my learning is experiential rather than instructional, and excitement mostly due to the fact that I get to leave my house and interact with other people again. But either way, I know it’s going to be a lot of hard work, hopefully balanced out with a sense of reward as well.

6/1/21

Tiffany Lao | Michigan Pops Orchestra Class of 2017 | University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine | Class of 2023 | tiffany.lao@med.uvm.edu