I was planning to write in colloquial Malay but after the second sentence, I don't know what to write. Haha failed. I need to berlatih karangan BM, maybe after the exam. Okay on with today's post.
Today we had our Surgery viva for 20 marks out of the 240 marks allocated for clinical exams. It is so ciput, less than 10% but it could well be the scariest exam out of the four clinical parts. Because Dr. Raafat is one of the examiner.
You know him, right? I wrote a lot about him, click the Surgery label. He taught our class every Tuesday and us classmates were especially very anxious for today's exam because we didn't want to be vivaed by him. I personally believe he likes us Malaysian students in his sadistic way and will give good marks to us, but I cannot handle that much sadistic play on an exam day. The psychological damage!
Yesterday Ara messaged me (rare) with a crying emoji (rarer). When asked why, she told me she was so scared of Dr. Raafat and asked me to pray for her (rarest).
See the effect he has on us? I used to be stressed out every Monday night because I dread tomorrow's class, torn between the tons I will learn from him and the psychological strain learning from him put on me. We had a ward-round-like class with him and even with a kind doctor nobody wanted to take the sheet, what more with a menacing aura like him? Because the one clerking will be broken down word by word, knowledge by knowledge, until you feel stupid and extremely sorry for it.
I ended up almost always have to clerk for my bed (thus the weekly dreading) and presented during our final class project with him. I remember standing there alone in front of the class, looking straight into the lion's eyes and mentally telling myself not to back down. Even when he incessantly fired his questions, our assistant lecturer Dr. Ahmed Abdel Salam pitifully chuckled at me for being butchered (I bet he got worse during their CME session hahaha) and the whole class watched in silent but gleeful pity. I went home that day and told my parents about it. They were grateful I had him for my teacher.
It's okay to die as long as you learn. And we really did learn a hell lot and I have high respect for him. The most important thing I learned from him is to know very well in depth of what I know. Basic has to be extremely polished. You have to have deep understanding of your knowledge (faith?) to remain unshaken and stand despite being tested.
If I could do it all over again, I would study harder for his class. Or maybe not... He's the type to torture you with postgraduate materials when he runs out of undergraduate materials to torture out of you. For God sake he taught us postgraduate level Breast Cancer lecture in our last class with him!
And you haven't got me started on how he takes pride when he fails a student. How he made students felt like they just jumped off a 40-storey after vivaed by him. A single basic mistake like exposing only one side of the breast during examination will earn you an instant 0 for that exam and he will damn follow your progress in other exams in order to fail you.
You understand now why we love learning from him but don't want him as an examiner?
Alhamdulillah, us in the right wing of Dept 25 completed the exam with no sign of him. It was when I got home that I came to know he examined a group in the left wing of Dept 25.
Needless to say how I felt about it. I feel sorry for the psychological damage they might endure, but I'm glad it wasn't me. I hope they enjoyed the learning process as much as we did.
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I spent my last day in Egypt before flying home for the summer break 2014 loitering at the hospital. I was waiting for someone in front of the OT when Dr. Ahmed Abdel Salam walked into it. He grinned at me in recognition and I grinned back sheepishly.
Hahaha, I wondered if he remembered me as the Girl Butchered By Dr. Raafat.
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