Doc Ahmad Hajiri

[Helpful for: All LUs/Year levels but not in all schools] Assalamu Alaykum! (Greetings of Peace!) Transcriptions or “transes” are the concise and summarized copies of the lectures by your professors. There should be some people who will do the dirty job of transcribing, and they are called the transcribers or in short: “Transers” Your class will usually divide you into groups of transers with three members each (some schools will have only two) and you will be assigned to a scheduled lecture for you to transcribe. It is then your responsibility as the transers to get the necessary and significant information discussed in the lectures. You also have to do your best to persuade your lecturer to give you a copy of their presentations and handouts. Some professors are generous while others are just plain, nasty ones. So you have to be prepared if you have to start from scratch for the trans. But this (starting from scratch) does not happen very often as you will also be ...

[Helpful for: All LUs/Year levels but not in all schools]  Assalamu Alaykum! (Greetings of Peace!) We have our daily lectures, and we want a copy of the handouts and presentations by our lecturers as much as possible, but where do we get them? This is where the heroic term “Transcription” comes in handy. The Transcriptions or shortly “Trans” (plural: Transes) are printed and/or electronic copies of the handouts, presentations, and other discussions in your past lectures. They are basically (and supposedly) the concise and summarized version of the whole lecture. These trances will always come in handy during exams so every medstudent must have a copy of these wherever they go (except the super nerd ones). Transes are prepared by the assigned transcribers or “transers" (will be discussed on the next post) and it is their responsibility to get all the necessary and significant information from the lectures in their trans. Depending on the agreed schedule of deadli...

[Helpful for: LU3 and LU4 (1st and 2nd Year)] Assalamu Alaykum! (Greetings of Peace!) We will jump from the topic on “lectures” to one of the dreaded yet fun type of exams: the Kodachrome exams! This was supposed to be in the later part but knowing the schedule of the exams is already near, I have to push this post up the schedule in hopes of it to be of use somehow. Disclaimer! I am not the best guy to give you these tips, but because no one is doing it, then what’s the trouble of doing it instead? Haha! So what is a Kodachrome exam? This one goes back in time immemorial when medstudents are still using the real kodachrome machine where pictures of specimens (usually tissues) will be projected on a white screen. (In LU4, you will experience using a real kodachrome machine thru Dr. Dimacali’s lectures in pathology :D). Nowadays we are using the overhead LCD projectors with the ever-so-convenient MS Powerpoint presentations where digital copies of the specimens wi...

]Helpful for: All LUs/Year levels] Assalamu Alaykum! (Greetings of Peace!) Being a medstudent means attending to seemingly endless classes: from boring lectures to eye-popping histo-labs and neck-breaking cadaver dissections. What is the purpose of the word “student” anyway if you don’t attend those classes that will—ehem—prepare you in your future professional career? And so, as much as we lazy students want to skip all those classes, we cannot deny the fact that we really need them—badly need them. But hey! Not all classes will be full of boring 100+ presentation slides; there will also be some cool professors with cool ideas to make their lectures livelier. Ever attended a class where you played games all throughout? How about a whole 3 hours of lecture while standing? Or just sitting back and watch a good movie? (Although I hate the “reflection papers” after those films). And how about professors that suddenly throw firecrackers inside the room to wake you up? Haha...

[Helpful for: All LUs/Year levels] Assalamu Alaykum! (Greetings of Peace!) So you made it to the most prestigious Med-school in the country. Congratulations! And say, Alhamdulillah (All praise is due to Allah)! And now you are part of a class composed of the selected crèmes among the crèmes of the crops; you all came from brilliant pasts, young minds who had very amazing accomplishments, those who graduated with flying colors in their past academic career (be it in college or high school). And yes, believe it or not, you are now part of that team! Yeah. That was too much praise I think. Not a good thing to do. Huhummm. Being the most prestigious school with the highest standard and the hardest “way to enter”, you can expect no less from those who really qualified and got accepted in each class. They are usually the Laudes (Suma, Magna, etc.) from the famous schools around the country. There will even be some who came from abroad. There are also the young geniuses...