A typical week in med school

When I was applying to med schools, I was always curious about what a typical school day would be like. Now that I'm in my fourth week (time flies!), I thought it'd be fun to show what a week at USC is like.

Here is my schedule for last week:

Seems pretty confusing right? We don't even really have a "typical week." Almost every week is different (like this week we had a practice exam). I miss the days of having a predictable school schedule...sigh.

So everyday we have anywhere from 1 to 4 hours of classroom lecture (usually 4), and then a 2-4 hr session - either PPM, ICM, or Anatomy lab.

[acronym explanation time]
PPM = Professionalism and the Practice of Medicine
    - Ethics, humanities, touchy-feely stuff, ya know
ICM = Introduction to Clinical Medicine
    - Tuesday mornings are spent in the hospital (almost every week)
    - Thursday afternoons are "workshops" where we learn the skills we apply on Tuesdays (only some weeks)


Med schools love acronyms. I use the following letters several times a day:
MDL = Multi-Disciplinary Lab
    - Our classrooms of 24 students where we each have our own desks. Basically my home base.
    - Ex: "I'm going to stop by my MDL before class"
ICM = same as above, but used to describe our groups of 6 students rather than the session itself.
   - Ex: "My ICM is awesome because we love to eat Taco Bell."
MSP = ? i forgot. too many acronyms!
   - Review sessions led by upperclassmen
FMS = Foundations of Medical Sciences
   - The vague, nondescript name that describes our first semester of med school
 
Contrast this to the Berkeley way - which is to make everything an extension of the words "Cal" or "Bear" (e.g. Bear Market, BearWalk, BearFacts, Cal1Card, Cal Rec, the list goes on).

Ok so somehow my "typical week" post turned into a primer on Keck acronyms. I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later, as it's impossible to talk about school without using them. LOL. TTYL.

<3 Kathleen