Scrivening Day 14

have sent paper draft to AVSH for big review. Why does everything take longer than expected. I have been working at it for 10 days now and its done.
Whew...

Surely, this is not in Noida!?

Check this link out and please tell me where in Noida I can be captivated by this scene.

Scrivening Day 13

I apologise to loyal followers of my monotonous life for a lack of recent updates. This is because I have not worked that much since my last post. Social mingling and last-time dinners have occupied my long weekend until today.
Today has been spent polishing my paper before dispatch to AVSH. I have just spent the last 7 continuous hours manipulating figures and pictures on Adobe photoshop. It has been without parallel the most uninteresting activity I have undertaken for some time.
Have added a couple more figures to my paper and need to spend a little bit of time writing that up tonight. Tomorrow necessitates a lab trip, half day doing my last ELISPOT and the other half searching for parasites in thousands of blood films.

Wednesday- mother arrives and I can look forward to a decent meal without having to venture out or making house-calls in Headington. My brain is too fried and dead to write anything more interesting and I am watching Anaconda(yes,the J Lo movie) like a true zombie.

Scrivening Day 9

Having received critical emails from SG like"Put page numbers" in a rather exasperated tone and an even scarier "I cant send you the corrections in an email. I need to talk to you about it", my mood has slowly been deflated through the day. However, I think I have possibly figured out my next paper and only need to find the data to fit the figures. I sort of know what I want to write but have to critically analyse the data to allow me to write the paper.

Hopefully, my written paper forms Ch.3 and 6 of thesis and this second paper should cover Ch.4,5,7 and half of 8. So, I reckon if I can get this done then my thesis is half way there. The main difficulty in any paper is to get the figures just right. Having spent so much time writing, I sometimes look at words and wonder how they came about.

For example, the word "also", almost looks like a random mix of four letters. Etymology: [Middle English, from Old English ealsw : eall, all; see al-³ in Indo-European roots + sw , so; see so¹.] I sometimes forget how to spell words when I am in a fugue like state and "also" is one of those words which I often stare at wondering...

Another good example is "figure". Break it up fig + ure doesn't really make sense. fi+gu+re doesn't make sense. I was incessantly writing the word today and suddenly it appeared rather odd. So, I tried to look for its roots. It turns out that it is not a very old word. It comes from the Latin meaning shape or form and its other meanings like figurehead come from sailing terminology for figure on the bow of a ship. Interestingly, its scientific use as I seem to be using it often, is a Latin translation of the Greek word "skhema".

My google home page has a word a day from Merriam Webster dictionary and Dictionary.com. Merriam Webster usually has interesting, less commonly used words and gives a etymological history of the word while Dictionary.com seems to be educating those among us who have not done Barron's GRE word list.I still have to check out Wiktionary and the Free Online Dictionary which seem much better sources to improve my vocabulary and satisfy my curiosity.

What I find most annoying in my quest for arcane and antiquated vocabulary is a good online thesaurus. If anyone finds one other than the difficult Roget's online Thesaurus,let me know.

Kumar Sangakkara sledging Shaun Pollock

I got this from traitorous Indians! Its really funny and nice sledging.

Mark Boucher Sledging Cricket

This is brilliant! I wish I could sledge like this!

Scrivening Day 9

Just finished draft of paper and have sent it to ARS,SG and AM for corrections. Hopefully, by next week to AVSH. Now, to get back to analysing data.

Day 8 was a six hour working day. Spent till 2pm working and then played a cricket match at the Magdalen ground. DT scored a lovely 120 with Aussie NL playing a solid supporting innings of 50 odd. Amazing partnership of 187 which is probably the highest for any wicket at Linacre but also for any wicket against Magdalen.

My meager contribution was a 10 run - 5 ball slog of the penultimate over. What frightened me was how unfit I was. After taking a brace of couples, I was gasping for breath and got out to a rank bad ball simply because I had no intention of running.
Must remind myself to write a post about English chat on a cricket field. The two best you tube videos on sledging are both from wicketkeepers. Shall post them soon.

Scrivening Day 8

Follow this link to learn the meaning of a scrivener. Day 7 was a washout because I went to the lab, met ARS and then came back home dog tired. So, have been bad boy and didn't do much work yesterday.
Shall update about today in another few hours.

Scrivening Day 6

Have finished my discussion and almost all the writing and referencing for my paper. Am off to the lab to attend LA's lab talk. Its probably the last time that I shall attend one of her lab talks...and I do feel terribly sad about that. I love her lab talks because usually its something reasonably technical and useful unlike most of mine which are hypothesis based and therefore of no practical use.

POA for today - 1. Dont follow RM's chocolate rewarding rules (Mother seems scared that I shall begin to resemble a Smarties). However, do follow the reward system..sounds like a good plan. It obviously worked for RM so should work for me.

2. Lab - immunise,run errands and then finish figures in the evening and send paper to SG,AVSH and ARS.

3. Night - ?visit the "little terror" in headington and then back to lab to try and sort out next paper.

I am finding it very hard to think of my next paper because it is not really very positive data. I dont really know what to do about that? The general maxim in science publishing is never publish a negative result unless it refutes someone else's positive result. In fact, that is why science funding is so poorly managed. Invariably, a group is replicating unpublished negative findings done over three or four years ago by someone across the world from them. Lack of information of negative results leads to duplicate funding for previously failed projects. Of course, it is quite possible that different groups interpret negative results in different ways and sometimes groups often find alternative and successful directions from the same negative results. In any case, you do lose time and money if you spend a year getting results that have already been arrived at elsewhere.

In my case, I am a bit stuck and need to think of a way out of the problem. I might have to chat with people to get a better idea about how to present the data - which is my other area of disgruntlement in science publishing. Perhaps another rant on another day.

Scrivening Day 5 - update

Have spent a continuous three hours in front of the computer and finished my introduction and M&M. So, now the only thing left to do is to reference my discussion, polish my figures and then go through the whole paper once before I give it to people to read tomorrow. Right now am off to get some excercise - cricket nets. Then head to the lab and work there till I finish all this work.
Must also plan my next paper and chapter 5 (heterologous prime boost immunisation). I really do want to write this chapter and paper up by the end of this week.
People say thats it really hard to write  a paper in a week, but I am going to have to prove them wrong. I reckon if I spend a day getting all my figures together,another day writing up the results, two days writing discussion and introduction, I should have it ready by the end of the week for a first review.

Right off to play now.

Watch Dada trying to speak Hindi!

This is the funniest thing I have ever heard. Reminds me so much of Bombaya hindi. Listen carefully and finally the Manjrekar's awful comment. BTW..also my first You Tube post.

Scrivening Day 4

Went to sleep early yesterday and woke up late again today. I seem to be getting tired quite easily recently. Perhaps its the fact that my laziness enforces a diet of fruit,tomatoes,toast and honey with copious amounts of caffeine.

Anyway, was not able to finish introduction yesterday, so will finish article today. I might have to go into the lab tomorrow to apply some finishing touches to the figures, but otherwise want it all done by tonight.

I did spend an inordinate amount of time blog surfing yesterday. Its quite revealing what the internet supports. Apart from the not so uncommon solicitous bloggers, what surprised me were the number of Asian and Spanish bloggers. This is one blog which I know some readers of my blog will find interesting.

Being a lab rat, I have always wondered how life would be to spend the whole day in front of a computer answering emails within seconds of receiving it,internet surfing and obsessively checking BBC news. I now know. My breaks from writing usually entail me doing one of these three activities and sometimes I find myself spending more time reading about why Paris Hilton should not be jailed or whether Supernaturals is going to be aired again rather than adenovirus immunology.

Its about 11am and I am ready to start my writing day.

Scrivening Day 3

My new Thesis writing log. Day 3 began by waking up later than planned. Trip to lab was cancelled and the computer started.
Caffeine infusion brewed and position at table was taken up. One and a half hours later, nothing much was written but emails were sent.

The plan for the day was to finish the paper I am working on. I had a little bit of the results and M&M section to complete. After which I was to do the Discussion.
So far, I have completed the results section and am halfway through the Discussion. Had to go out into the park with coffee and three papers to think about my discussion plan. I noticed that it really helps if you can think of a structure to write or find some place to copy it from. I find that good papers are those with very good structure. I am using my second author paper as structure, which surely can only be classified as flattery and not plagiarism.

Should have the discussion down in another two hours or so after which jog in park. Then introduction followed by the difficult bit. References I need and then modify my discussion and results. Hopefully, by the end of the day I should have first draft of the whole thing done.

Tomorrow will be figure perfecting day and then writing the same results up for thesis.

Someone is looking out for me!

Nutrition group sues Burger King over trans fats

Considering that I am moving to this country and my nutritional consumption and dining habits would lead me to fast food hell, I am glad that at least someone is looking out for my health.
"Trans fats" are also known as polyunsaturated fats(PUFA) and if you remember the Saffola ads, low PUFA is good for you.

procrastination

Having recovered from significant jetlag, imbibed many grams of caffeine, cleaned computer & room, sent several emails I am now wondering what to do. I know I have lots to write (read thesis) and tons to read but am struck with a curious and not so infrequent case of Procrastination.

By blogging, I am trying hard to self-induce action and panic. somehow I am not sure its working right now - all I can feel is a grumbling stomach (must go to sainsbury's).

Right off then to sainsbury's to get some dinner. When I get back, shall try to make detailed thesis plan.

Snooker final

Selby vs Higgins. Selby a qualifier,23 years old crucible final debut vs Higgins - world champ, finalist with all the experience. Thank God for BBC and their broadcasting of the final. I love watching snooker. The precision, spin, tactic, strategy, patience, suspense. So much better than Spiderman or an 8 hour cricket game.

C'mon Selby! You can do it. 14-12 after clawing back from 12 - 5 down, surely you must believe you can win.

Only in America

I have just had a great lunch with the Little One and our "St.Andrews guide" bashing the US drinking laws. I cannot imagine a UK undergrad trying to survive in a country where you cannot buy alcohol on a sunday. Cannot carry a bottle without it being wrapped in paper,cannot drink in the open and basically have to carry ID to drink until you are above the age of 40!!
All this in Massacheusetts, which is probably the most liberal state in the country. It has the best health care plan in the country, allows abortion but is very strange about alcohol laws. I can only hope that the "Land of Arnie" is different!

Also saw Spiderman 3 yesterday despite kiddo's warning. It is pretty bad but not horrible. In its defence, the fight scenes are well done, Sandman is well created and the computer graphics are good. Also, Spiderman looks quite good in his black suit. However, after that everything else goes downhill. Toby Maguire and Kirsten Dunst need to go back to acting school. The writer must try and not put three comic issues into one movie and stop producing villians at the drop of a hat. The whole movie seems to be drenched in US patriotic fervour. From homilies about good and evil to Spiderman off to rescue MJ with a fluttering Stars and Stripes behind him the whole movie seems to be a Bush apology for sending US military casualty.

There was a point where Spiderman was being bashed up and MJ about to die, when one small kid in the audience piped up and said "God will save them"!! I suspect to some extent it sums up my fear of the US.

USMLE - My learning resources.

I depended a lot on forums for people's views and comments on preparation and this is my two bits. Its going to be a bit all over the place, so bear with me. Also, dont read any further if you are not interested in taking the MLE because its basically really boring.

Preparation time: My opinion is you could do one of two things - spend six months preparing or spend one month. I think anything in between is a bit useless and low value. I made the mistake of working in fits and starts - in the end I spent about 4 weeks studying at about 4 hours a day average which is not enough.

Pre-study preparation: I advise spending about 2 days reading all the forums available to get an idea about what is available and come up with a plan of what you want to achieve and how to go about it.

Text Resources: I would use First Aid (FA) for study outline. Most of the areas they touch on is covered by the exam, but their content is nowhere close to sufficient. Here is my list for the subjects:

Microbiology - Kaplan notes are quite extensive. I found FA very good for a quick revision. Correlate it with every system you read. Correlate it clinically as well - causes of UTI,Pneumonia,Wound infections etc. Also, know everything about HIV/AIDS, especially opportunistic infections.

Immunology - I think you need to have a very fundamental understanding of the subject. I did not really study it at all - hoped that teaching and doing a PhD might help. It did not!!

General Pathology - Robbin's Pathology is what I skimmed through, but would recommend as standard book. Emphasis on oncogenesis seems extraordinarily high. If you ask me its slightly absurd testing me on the transcription factor responsible for aniridia, but thats what the Board wants. Understand how oncogenes,tumor-suppressor genes work. Also, I looked at all the pictures in Robbins. Cancer in every system is frequently asked so you have to know everything about everything.

Pharmacology - crucial you understand basis of neurotransmission, G protein etc. Kaplan notes in Pharmac and Biochem cover this ground well. Also, I did not read Kaplan for system pharmac but used Lippincott's review of Pharmacology + kaplan + FA for new drugs.
I usually studied Pharmac with Physiology although I found that I spent too much time on Physiology and not enough on Pharmac. I think you should study them separately.

Physiology - you have to read a good text book. Kaplan is very good for Endocrine,reproductive sciences but for the other systems I referred to bits of Ganong and some other textbooks.
It is absolutely vital that you understand the physiology of every system as most questions on pathophysiology cannot be prepared. Usually the question will ask you about parameters you have not really thought about. For example, in a question about secondary parathyroidism I was asked about Vit.D functions which was difficult as I had not thought about it.

Anatomy - mainly clinically relevant anatomy is asked. I spent a day on Anatomy and used Snell to study. Neuroanatomy is good in Kaplan Anatomy.

Embryology - again there are a few must know facts. Use FA for that. Clinically relevant embryology and defects I used USMLE Review Embryology.

Statistics,Behavioural sciences,Psychiatry - I think FA is more than enough but you must know everything in FA. For Stats do a lot of questions to understand the concepts.

Biochemistry & molecular biology - This is the hardest part of the part 1 exam. They really ask you some difficult questions. There were a few questions I could answer based on working in a lab for four years but there is no doubt that I would not know any of the answers otherwise.
I enjoyed reading the Kaplan notes which I think are detailed enough for a first read and then back it up with lots of questions.

Question Banks: As with most such exams, the best preparation is questions galore. The way to start is to do about 200 questions like an exam. Then spend a day analysing your results. Break it down into questions you guessed,did not know and were absolutely sure about. Then sub stratify them subjectwise. Now that you know what you think you are good at or poor at, make a study plan. Its critical to study smartly. For example, there is really no point studying a pyschiatry text book when only about five questions are asked and you can answer them anyway. I spent an inordinate amount of time on Microbiology but thats because I realised a large number of questions are asked in various forms.

Which qbank is the best?
After spending some time reading about other people's experiences and also my own experience of three qbanks, my answer to this question is - "It depends". ( I am a good scientist and as all scientists will tell you, the answer to every question is "it depends")

On what? I think two things:
1. How much time you have - If you are spending six months or more to prepare, an unlimited budget then do every question bank you can lay your hands on. If not,then I would argue for a more circumspect strategy.
2. How much money you are willing to spend -
I did questions from - Kaplan QBank, USMLE Rx (this is the web version of First Aid),Kaplan Q Book, First Aid q book and Appleton Lange Question book.
Of these -
USMLE Rx is very good for factual learning and reasonably cheap $59 for 1 month. It is not remotely similar to the actual exam. I used it to memorise facts and do questions topic wise and make sure I cover most topics. They do not have a very big collection of epidemiology,biostats and behavioural sciences questions but otherwise they are ok. I mainly used it as a guide to topics in every system I must not forget to study.
The Kaplan Q book is ok and again use it after you finish studying a particular topic. The First Aid Q book is terrible because all the questions are based on facts given in the First Aid text book and therefore not very detailed or extensive.
I used the Appleton Lange book once to do a seven hour exam. The questions are ok and again a rough guide to the actual exam and also because it has about 13 blocks is useful in terms of quantity of questions.

Kaplan Qbank which is really expensive(costs $199 for one month) for only 2000 odd questions is supposed to be the closest in content and difficulty to the real exam. I found the exam much more difficult however the Qbank did cover about 90% of the topics asked in the exam. My advise with the Qbank is not to rely on it entirely and remember that you will almost never have a question repeated from Qbank in the exam. I had someone tell me that no question was repeated and so the Qbank was not great - well dont expect questions to be exactly the same.

I found the Qbank useful even if I was unable to complete all the questions so would recommend it to everyone, but use it sensibly. I only took complete 50 question blocks similar to the exam with all topics included and found it was useful.

NBME - The 4 block 200 question Forms(as they are called) are closest to the real exam in terms of difficulty. I recommend doing all of them if you have enough money. It costs $45/form.
The other big problem is that you cannot reveiw your exam and dont know what the correct answers are or where you went wrong. So, use it to scare yourself into working harder. I only did Form 4 two days before the exam and it terrified me into studying Biochemistry for the next six hours.

Lastly, USMLE ECFMG CD - the one that they send to you. Kaplan has the explanations for the CD questions. I found that the CD is pretty close to the real exam and although I never went through the explanations, I would recommend doing the CD at least one week before your exam.

Doing a complete exam - 7 blocks in a timed way is absolutely vital. It allows you to get used to sitting down and concentrating for 7 hours, learn about timing your breaks and also about your score over 350 questions rather than 50 questions. It gives you a much better idea about your strengths and weaknesses. I did the 7 block exam twice and did pretty badly both times. However, it allowed me to test my endurance limits and whether taking three blocks at a time is feasible and also sort out my food,coffee and toilet breaks.

Internet resources: I did not use that much of the internet resources that are quoted in First Aid but I did use a few. here are my USMLE bookmarks!
The Biology project - useful for quick basic mol bio concepts.
http://library.med.utah.edu/WebPath/webpath.html - Internet Pathology slide website. I did not find this as useful as it is made out to be but its good to have a quick look at it , perhaps one day or maybe when you are having dinner or something.
The really useful part on this website are the review exams. I found the neuroanatomy ones very useful for revision.
Lippincott USMLE test - I dont know about this. I did not take the exam so cannot comment.
Parasitology quiz - ok. dont waste time if you dont have it.
The Princeton review - Again similar to Kaplan but I didn't have the money to do both.
USMLE Web - I found some of the free questions, forums etc. useful. Again, you cannot spend too much time on this stuff if like me you only study for four weeks.
NBME - Good. Must do the tests on this website. Scares you into studying harder.

At the end of all this, my gut feeling is that your basics will get you through. I feel as if all I actually studied in my first and second year in college and all the hard work I put in paid off because there were lots of topics I did not study this time and just hoped that whatever I had learnt over 10 years ago will help me out. It sometimes did, so I expect if you slogged instead of pissing around this exam might help show that up.

Two Faced

I wish I could have seen this match. It must have been frightfully difficult to play for both players although Federer must have found it more difficult. Swiss tennis God is intelligent enough to change his game when he plays on different surfaces whereas Spanish BullDozer (looks like a bull and his games put me to sleep) has the same game on every surface, which is why I suspect he won.

Interesting concept. Personally, I grew up on clay and for my old game I preferred clay but I then started to serve and volley and although never played on grass in India, Oxford spawned a new love affair with the grass.

Notwithstanding the fact that I would be throughly embarassed to watch myslef play now(my year long lay off stems from a horrible thrashing by North Oxford and a non-existent backhand), I still love to play on a good grass court. Its gorgeous!

One more thing I am going to miss.

I dont know if D reads this, but I know GI does. Just wanted to thank her for detailed,useful and unstinting advice. I doubt whether I would have taken the exam today if it wasn't for a morale boosting email. D needs to be repaid for getting me all these Kaplan books, but somehow I suspect Napa Valley and some Talisker in the evening might cancel the debt!
I met AS on Monday and thermos purchase is thanks to him. He also gets credit for me suddenly realising that Neuroanat and biochem are important areas to be studied.
Now its off to bed and then to Boston where the Little One seems to have stuff half-planned,except for forgetting to book Spiderman 3 tickets!!

IT IS OVER

Its over. At precisely 14:49 today, I left the examination room after having accomplished the arduous task of attempting to sit in a chair for more than two hours continuously.

A minute by minute account of my day (for posterty and my pre-senile amnesia):
3:30 am - Appa's calls from HK - inadvertently waking me up half an hour earlier than planned.
3:45 - 4:25 - milky coffee assisted revision of the water excretory system.
4:25 - off to make Indian type chai(refer to earlier post for protocol) + sandwiches
4:40 - in attempt to pour chai into newly purchased 1L thermos flask, spill it over the sink.
4:42- chai leaks out of flask,spills over floor. This occurs when I tried proving that gravity exists by turning the flask upside down!! (Note to self - physics and sleep deprivation is BAD!)
5:30 - catch Oxford tube after the Bong Thing etc. is done.
Bus driver is being harassed by inebriated man asking for Liam ....
5:30 - 6:30 - bugs and other such undesirables are being memorised
6:30 - sleep hits me at Hillingdon. With thermos ready to slide off table ave to sleep hugging dear thermos.
7:45 - reach Pellipilar House to find that I am early as usual. Anyway, things are quickly soreted out - I am provided a locker to dump my bag, jacket and thermos and we are off.
8:13 - Exam begins..I am nervous,sweaty,hungry and sleepy. fortunately, catecholamines(adrenaline - just finished reading physiology,give me a chance to show off) come to the rescue.
9:50 - take my first break. A Cadbury's roll, quick swig of tea(which I now realised did not have enough sugar and was too dark),cold water splashed on face and back into the room.
The room is like an internet cafe. Multiple computer terminals separated by a hard high screen. This means that while you cannot actually see what the other person is doing, you can hear everyhting thats oing on in the room. Thankfully, they had the big earphones with big rubber pads which muffled the incessant typing of the guy sitting next to me. Of course, I must have been equally annoying to everyone else around me, swiveling my chair, stretching backwards and generally making tiny movements to stretch myself without actually getting up from the seat.
10:00 - Block 3 starts. This and block 2 were my worst blocks..probably got 50% of the questions wrong. Block 4 ok..not great and then pushed on for Block 5 which in hindsight was a poor decision. Very similar to Jayawardene delaying his powerplay - it backfired bigtime. Block 5 was a disaster. 2 hours sitting is ok..3 hours was about 59 minutes too much. By the tenth question, I could not wait to get out. My back hurt,my mind wandered to boston in the summer, SF in july, Napa valley..everything except the fungus causing erythema nodosum.
12: 50 - break no.2. half a sandwich(sundried tomatos and olives on houmous), two cups of yucky tea and a chocolate roll later, I felt half human again.
13:10 - Block 6 starts. I had to start the block by erasing all my previous doodlings from the erasable note paper using my finger. Of course, being a hyper secure testing center, we could not take any pens in and were supplied with these laminated sheets called erasable note paper and a couple of markers. I thought of using my hanky to wipe out my doodlings but decided against it considering clean handkerchiefs are always in short supply.
13:54- break before the last one. Focussing the mind..
13:58 - Block 7 - the last hurdle. I dont know the answers to first ten questions. So much for the final hurrah and a strong finish. Deflated, I potter on and complete the last block and question no.350!
14:49 - Emptiness engulfs me. What am I to do now? decide to call people up - everyone's phone is busy. Embankment and London, here I come. Shuffle on,Cat in my head and a glorious summer day...I walk all the way from Bank to Victoria doing a circle around St.Paul's while talking to Amma.
16:15 - On the Oxford tube and wowing Little One by using the bus' wireless. Plans for the evening. 10 year oldWarre's,tofu and rice(Cafe Orient). and PGW...escape to Blandings!

USMLE - Ten Things it has taught me

1. Preparation for exams lasting 7 hours should be for a minimum of 7 weeks, not 7 days.
2. Reading short study guides instills false confidence, it does not really help answer questions in the exam.
3. I hate Biochemistry, Endocrinology and Reproductive Sciences.
4. A PhD does not help when it comes to mugging the Kreb’s cycle and lysosomal storage disorders.
5. Sundried tomatoes can make anything taste good.
6. Never schedule an exam during the Crucible or a World Cup.
7. Making caffeinated beverages for sustaining cerebral metabolism requires practice!
8. No exam in easy, don’t believe people who tell you otherwise unless they have failed it.
9. You retain as much in 7 days of reading as in 48 hours - so spend the extra time watching sport!
   
10. Sleeping during an exam seems to make time go quicker (unless it is IIT-JEE..but that’s another story)