I got a 96 on my exam.

I say the following with the understanding that part of me is probably fishing for some kind of validation from you, one of the four people who actually reads this blog, while another (bigger, I think) part of me really and truly means it: I was not happy with that score.

I realize that 96% is great. Really great. I should be proud. And I am. Sort of.

The problem is that there are 20+ other people who got a 96 or above. Although my medical school is pass/fail, at the end of each block you either fail, pass, high pass or honor the class. Honors is the top ~10%. I missed the cutoff in anatomy by less than one point.

Getting honors in these classes will make it easier for me to get into the specialty I want (TBD) in the city I want (currently Los Angeles. Or, if you're reading this and your name is Drew, definitely L.A. without a doubt.)

Also, I'm just competitive and want to do better than everyone else.

And then finally, it kind of upset me when I realized that 4% of the test correlates with 23 pages of material. That's 23 pages I didn't understand. But that's a minor point because it also means that I did understand 577 pages. And even I realize that when you look at it that way, 577/600 is pretty good.