This semester (the second semester of year two) has been the hardest so far for both of us. This is mostly due to condensed course work, huge board tests, and preparing for rotations (years 3 and 4).
James has to take his first huge certification test by June. Think of it as the doctor equivalent of the lawyer's bar exam. In order to give students more time dedicated to studying for that, our school finishes most (but not all) classes in early April, so they have more free time the months before the test. Because of this condensed schedule of regular classes, he has more classes per day than usual to get through than before, so each day is already much more demanding for him. He has one more week of this schedule before he's done with the bulk of classes for the semester and will instead use all his time studying for boards.
On top of that, Jame is also studying for multiple hours each day for the big board test outside of normal studying. This studying includes old notes, old lectures, study aides, and a whole lot of practice questions from question banks. A LOT of that.
The board test this year is one of three big old expensive tests for DO students (called step 1, step 2, and step 3, conveniently). There is also an equivalent series of tests for MD students. They're both difficult groups of tests, but programs don't always accept them interchangeably. He must take the DO ones since that's what he'll be, but we decided that it would be best for us and our future if he did both. the DO and MD tests. In our case, the first of each series is scheduled for the very end of May. He spends an astonishing amount of time studying each day with this combined with normal studying. That's been very hard on him and in turn on the family to never see him.
Another difficulty of this semester has been more of an emotional one: preparing for rotations for the next two years. Some schools are big enough to have their own teaching hospital, but ours is not, so our students go to one of some twenty-odd rotation sites for the next two years to learn the on-the-job side of things. We ranked the sites in order of preference, but ultimately, it's a lottery system and you go where you're assigned. We ended up getting assigned to Harlan, KY, which is about one hour from our house. It was not something we were expecting; it was definitely not one of our top preferences. We were frustrated with this assignment at first, but have since made our peace with it. It does have some benefits: we'll stay in our house so we don't have to move, I can keep my job, it's a much lower cost of living than some of the sites (e.g. Tampa), and since it's more of a rural hospital there aren't as many students so James can do more hands-on stuff. We're actually content with it now, but for a little bit there it felt like some promised adventure was taken away from us, like we were being held back in some way by not getting to move on. We're still a little nervous because we will see less of James each day because of the commute, and I'd hoped to see more of him, but we like our area! We love our landlords. Our house is perfect for us. I like my job. It'll be okay.
But really - this semester has been overwhelmingly draining for both of us. My mantra since Christmas has been, "I can do anything for six months." Now we're down to, "I can do anything for two months!" It has been such a loooong four months, though. But imagine the relief when it's over! Our calendar has a series of exclamation points written on it for the entire week after the board tests are over. That is my goal. That week will be...well, honestly, it probably won't be worth it, but it will be sweet and wonderful. And over.
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