Weak

Many of us received an email recently from Neptune. It says:

"One of the (first-year) students under your name of the mentorship program did not do well in the examination. Please see if you can do anything (so that he or she would not be the next one to jump)."

It seems unbelievable to have suggestion of this kind coming from a group of extra-terrestrials who are so keen on (talking about) critical appraisal of medical literature and evidence-based practice. What it assumes are:

1. Students jump because they do not do well in the examination.
2. Our intervention could improve their performance.

Once you consider this, it becomes obvious that the two observations of point #1 are merely associations. (Isn't it more likely to have a student with underlying psychiatric disease or social problems, resulting in both phenomenon ?)

As to point #2, does anyone seriously think that practising physicians with senile dementia could help some students studying anatomy ?

PS. If you think you could, please name the 8 branches of the external carotid artery and the 8 pieces of carpal bone without referring to your textbook.