Cohesive

Contrary to medicine, we also had a black-and-white viva list for surgery, duly posted on the student notice board the evening after we finished the clinical examination.

In other words, both fortunate and unfortunate candidates did have a whole night for preparation.

I still remember when the viva list of our class was out, we segregated into a few groups:

• Classmates with distinction viva would hide and study.
• Those who need to attend pull-up viva studied in the common room.
• Those who were free would help to brush up the knowledge and practice viva technique with the unfortunate ones.
• (None actually enjoyed the evening with ease outside, because the medicine viva list was not out until the next morning.)

Take aside all the stress and psychological trauma, the system did serve as an excellent cohesive force for a class of 120 students.