Ramblings About My Life..

SSC - History Of Medicine Results!

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the grades for the SSC History of Medicine assignment us hapless Phase 1A-ians handed in before the Christmas holidays were finally released. When this was announced on Tuesday by Dr Burton, the initial reaction of the inmat - I mean, students in Medical Lecture Theatre 1 were loud (and interspersed, crude) vocalizations of dismay/excitement, tachycardia, palpitations and mild hyperventilation. When we were sufficiently calmer, Dr Burton proceeded to announce that the results would be released at the Reception of the Medical School in the afternoon. Since we had lectures until 1pm, most of us decided to collect the results immediately after our lectures were done. However, in a brilliant stroke of tactical foresight, some of us (Rex, Lisa and myself) decided to sneak there in the interludes between the mind-numbingly boring, neurone-killing sessions the Medical School calls lectures in order to avoid the inevitable horde at the Reception come 1pm.

It is said that battle plans never survive first contact, and sadly, it proved to be all too true in our case as well. Instead of finding a wonderfully-deserted Reception, we discovered that quite a fair number of like-thinking people were there as well. So much for our notions of a queueless collection of results. We duly joined the queue and waited for the results to be released. And waited. And waited some more. When someone finally had the sense to speak to the receptionist, we discovered that the results would be released at 1pm. Argh! We went back and endured another lecture - but at the end of our day's lectures, the time was only 12.30pm. Suresh, Lisa, Rex, Jessica and I decided to wait until 1pm in order to collect our results. In the meantime, we just stood near the vending machines outside the MLT01 and made lame jokes about lame jokes (sad, but true).

When 1pm finally came, we immediately dashed off to the Reception again, where it was surprisingly deserted. I had expected a throng of nervous Phase 1A-ians to be crowding around the receptionist's desk, but contrary to my expectations, no one was there! What had transpired there? Was everyone there suddenly ingested by a medical-student-eating creature? Thoughts of Dr Peters came to mind, but they were dismissed instantly. Hahaha... We then approached the receptionist's desk with great trepidation...only to be told that the results would be released at 3pm. What a great waste of time. If only Dr Burton had been specific earlier then we wouldn't have to go to all the trouble of tearing up and down the stairs in an anxiety-fuelled spate of hyperactivity. Haha! We then left the Medical School and went back to our respective Halls and spent the rest of the day gnawing at our fingernails in a state of near-nervous-breakdown.

The night would have been uneventful if Jessica didn’t send me a message after dinner announcing her results. Apparently, in a true display of Singaporean kiasu-ism (I bet Singaporeans are going to throttle me after reading this), she actually went back to the Medical School to collect her results! The thought crossed my mind as well, but the fact that I would have to throw on three layers of clothing, embark on a great journey fraught with perils such as freezing winds and the occasional pub and leave the comfortable warmth of my room put me off it. Jessica’s defense was that she couldn’t stand doing nothing knowing her results are out – I probably would have done the same thing a year or two ago…now, I’d probably say “What’s the rush? They aren’t going to go anywhere…”. I was rather relaxed about getting the results until she announced her “Good” to me over MSN – after that, they weighed much more heavily on my mind.

Our results are divided into 5 grades – Excellent, Good, Satisfactory, Borderline and Unsatisfactory. The three pass grades are Excellent, Good and Satisfactory. Getting a Borderline or Unsatisfactory for Overall Competence is a Phase 1A-ian’s free ticket to an appointment with Dr Burton. I was hoping to get either Good or Satisfactory – to get an Excellent would be overtly optimistic of me considering the amount of effort I put into my SSC. The next day, I collected my results from the Reception – the receptionist took so long in searching for my Assessment Proforma that I thought my SSC was actually sent to the shredder by the evaluator since it was too crap to be considered a History of Medicine SSC. When she finally produced it, I breathed a sigh of relief that my SSC wasn’t actually reduced to thin ribbons of paper and consigned to the trash bin. And my results were – “Good”. Hahaha! I’m perfectly satisfied with that. Not the best, but my efforts didn’t warrant me getting the best grades anyway!

Well, after so long of being uncertain about my SSC’s grades, it’s one helluva relief to finally get them! One down, two to go. Wish me luck!

posted by yong chen @ 4:20 PM