Friday, November 19, 2010

Transcription

In the UP College of Medicine, as in most med schools in the country, the basic unit of learning is the transcription. The trans is an expanded outline of the lecture; it incorporates salient points raised by the professors as well as important concepts taken from reputable references.

We've developed a system in class such that for each lecture, a group of four people is assigned to take notes, clarify important concepts from the lecturer, all in the hope of coming up a trans that would be sufficient to help us prepare for the test.  It's a system that has been on for years and years, the days when our old professors were still students themselves.

That way, we don't have to read our books—it's awfully time-consuming and often low-yield. Sure, the book is still the gold standard, and the trans may have errors. But that's how we catch up with the lessons. The trans is of such value to us that a low score in the exam is reflective of the low quality of the transes distributed.

This morning, we worked on a transcription about rashes. We're four in a trans group:  Casti Castillo, the Catangui twins, and myself. Upon their insistence, we worked at my place—an old building along Taft—and I hosted them for lunch. As promised, I'm posting some pictures.

They were intensely analyzing the case they couldn't even look back.



Miguel.



From left: Casti and Franco, working on the second case.



Miguel and I worked on the first case—mostly it was him; I did most of the talking. And proofreading. That's all I do, really.



Here we were, getting ready for lunch. Manong bought me cheap white wine the night before. It tasted great with roasted chicken. The rice I prepared was perfect, thanks to the magic 1:1 proportion of rice:water in our amazing rice cooker.



It was high time to invite my neighbors, Lennie Chua and Elizabeth Ching, who live a couple of floors below. They brought desserts. The twins brought porkchop and menudo. Casti brought drinks. It was a picnic. Praise God for the satisfying meal.



And what happened to our trans? Hopefully, our classmates would find it helpful.* We had great fun doing it. Especially when we changed our group name to Casti's Rashes, much to his dismay.

*Announcement just came in: our tans won't be included in the exam coverage. Oh well.

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8 Comments:

Anonymous Nico said...

Hi Lance! Nice post :) Btw, your place looks great! :)

Um. How do you assign the people who'll make a particular trans? And how do you assign which trans the particular group will make? I'm planning to make a suggestion to our class president because our trans system is somewhat disorganized. :| Your advice would be of great help :)

Sat Nov 20, 10:15:00 AM GMT+8  
Blogger Lance said...

Hi, Nico. Thanks, I made sure the photos were taken in the better-looking parts of the room. It's an old place, the tiles don't look as white, but it feels like home.

About transscribing? We do it alphabetically, by fours. It removes the hassle of having to choose your own groupmates. A committee uploads the transing schedules so that the assigned trans groups for the day can prepare accordingly. I hope that helps.

Sat Nov 20, 01:59:00 PM GMT+8  
Anonymous Nico said...

Thanks, Lance. :) God bless you!

Sat Nov 20, 05:01:00 PM GMT+8  
Anonymous kb said...

Hey Lance, naalala ko lang yung sinulat ko for Youngblood dati from your paragraph on transcription. I discussed that also there. Di ko lang alam if mapa-publish din yun hehe.

Anyway, sayang nung trans nyo, not included haha. Pero enjoy naman yung 'The Making' nun so masaya pa din noh.

Mon Nov 22, 10:16:00 PM GMT+8  
Blogger Lance said...

KB, sabihan mo ako kapag lumabas sa Inquirer, ha? The Making? Parang pelikula lang, ah.

Tue Nov 23, 04:32:00 AM GMT+8  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

lance!
i enjoyed reading this post. :)ang sosyal ng trans making niyo ah may wine pa hehe see you tomorrow! -aa

Wed Nov 24, 09:44:00 PM GMT+8  
Anonymous jayS said...

ngayon lang ako nakapagbasa ng post mo waaah! benta ang Casti's Rashes hahaha! ang saya nyo naman haha!

Thu Nov 25, 01:21:00 AM GMT+8  
Blogger Lance said...

AAce, nagfifeeling lang. Pero masaya nga. First time we did that, actually.

Jay, ka-level lang ng "Destiny's Child," ano? Haha.

Thu Nov 25, 05:18:00 AM GMT+8  

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