I e-mailed my adviser last night, immediately after remembering registration was open here, and got released to sign up for what will - hopefully - be my last set of undergrad courses. Ever. Thank god.
All I'm signing up for next semester is more organic chemistry, and the accompanying lab. It's a nice two day a week schedule, although I'll be busy the rest of the time trying to do MCAT work (or I'd better be, at least...)
I'll start worrying about formal MCAT prep soon, but right now I just need to finish up this semester one thing at a time. If I do well on my second chem test so I don't need to take the final, if I keep doing my "ok" lab reports for chemistry, if I get tomorrow's lab report for biology done "ok", and if I get the next two lab reports for biology done well, I might come out of things with a pretty decent semester.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Time To Reset
The lack of posts here lately is probably indicative of a general malaise/depression/fear I've been having.
Quantitatively, things aren't going that bad. I have an incoming O. Chem test in about two weeks, but until it gets here my GPA there is still an A. That test will be tough, but I think I can handle it ok if I start working hard now (which I have). My Cell Biology grade, and the effort I've put forth in that class, have both been lacking. But my grade there is no worse than a B (I got a 78% on that last test, by the way), and is almost certain to shoot up to an A- in the near future.
I just haven't been working all that hard on either course, which has got me feeling down on myself regardless of where grades actually stand. And I'm not sure my grades are indicative of anything either. I've pointed out the absurd grading system used here multiple times before - getting decent grades is something I /have/ to do, but it's not sufficient. And with little on my resume besides that time working at the hospital, I don't have much to back it up with apart from the possibility of the MCATs - and those are coming up way too fast.
I still haven't decided what to do for my test date, and I don't think there's anyway I'll come to some sort of wise decision. Taking it late would give me the most time to prepare, and I'd probably get ready for it, and I could get an extra year which would let me reapply for all those jobs with two year minimum requirements. But I've already put my career on hold for so long I really don't think I can stomach voluntarily pushing things off another year.
Taking the early MCAT means I'm fairly certain I won't be caught up on Physics though. And a bad score on it would effectively put things off another year anyways. The in between MCAT date /might/ give me enough time for physics, but it might not. And it would hurt my admissions chances more than they already are by virtue of having no resume.
I guess I need to make up my mind in the next few days, according to what I've posted on this site. I'm leaning towards the earliest date, and forcing myself into a "pass or crash" situation. Maybe that will re-motivate me. If it doesn't completely ruin everything.
I'll certainly have time to study for the MCATs at least, with only one course next semester (which I urgently need to remember to register for.... completely forgot until just now).
Quantitatively, things aren't going that bad. I have an incoming O. Chem test in about two weeks, but until it gets here my GPA there is still an A. That test will be tough, but I think I can handle it ok if I start working hard now (which I have). My Cell Biology grade, and the effort I've put forth in that class, have both been lacking. But my grade there is no worse than a B (I got a 78% on that last test, by the way), and is almost certain to shoot up to an A- in the near future.
I just haven't been working all that hard on either course, which has got me feeling down on myself regardless of where grades actually stand. And I'm not sure my grades are indicative of anything either. I've pointed out the absurd grading system used here multiple times before - getting decent grades is something I /have/ to do, but it's not sufficient. And with little on my resume besides that time working at the hospital, I don't have much to back it up with apart from the possibility of the MCATs - and those are coming up way too fast.
I still haven't decided what to do for my test date, and I don't think there's anyway I'll come to some sort of wise decision. Taking it late would give me the most time to prepare, and I'd probably get ready for it, and I could get an extra year which would let me reapply for all those jobs with two year minimum requirements. But I've already put my career on hold for so long I really don't think I can stomach voluntarily pushing things off another year.
Taking the early MCAT means I'm fairly certain I won't be caught up on Physics though. And a bad score on it would effectively put things off another year anyways. The in between MCAT date /might/ give me enough time for physics, but it might not. And it would hurt my admissions chances more than they already are by virtue of having no resume.
I guess I need to make up my mind in the next few days, according to what I've posted on this site. I'm leaning towards the earliest date, and forcing myself into a "pass or crash" situation. Maybe that will re-motivate me. If it doesn't completely ruin everything.
I'll certainly have time to study for the MCATs at least, with only one course next semester (which I urgently need to remember to register for.... completely forgot until just now).
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
I Guess Triage Works
Haven't posted too much lately. A combination of being busy, sick, and a bit out of it. But we got our first Organic Chemistry test back the other day. It was a fairly relevant test, since we only have two in the class. Even more so, since I skipped one bio lab report (our lowest gets dropped though) and most of my cell biology exam studying time to focus more on Organic Chemistry.
The test went fairly well. I'll use well in quotation marks, because it was another weird test where 20 points of extra credit questions were asked, so you were taking a test out of 120 but really only being graded out of 100. I got a 99.5% out of 100, if you count the bonus. Which is what matters for my GPA, I guess. I honestly wonder if many other less than top tier schools run their courses the same way - it seems quite possible, and disappointing, to me. If you don't count the bonus questions though, I still would have had an 89.5%, which isn't an awful grade in its own right.
I was fairly convinced I'd fail the bio exam - literally - after skipping my studying for it to focus on this. But I showed up for that test last Monday and it went ok. I didn't do great on it, and there's plenty I got wrong, but I didn't fail it. It should still technically be possible to 4.0 in that course even, although I'd have to score perfectly on about everything from here out. So an A- is looking like the more realistic outcome there. Not too bad though, if I can keep it above a B+. The key is going to be doing really well on my lab reports, since I got a 0 on the one I didn't do to study chemistry instead. That's been dropped, but if I do badly on any of the remaining ones my average in that course will bleed out.
Spring registration is coming up soon. And I guess I have to decide when to take the MCAT. I still kind of don't want to take it in April or June, in part because I don't know if I can figure out physics for it in time, and in part because I'm convinced applying to medical schools this year would be a waste anyways since I didn't manage to get any relevant jobs beyond my volunteering gig.
On the other hand, if the last year or two of these post has showed me anything its that I tend to expect to fail, get down on myself, and then things kind of work out better than I'm expecting.
I'll try to have a talk with the premed advisers, I guess.
The test went fairly well. I'll use well in quotation marks, because it was another weird test where 20 points of extra credit questions were asked, so you were taking a test out of 120 but really only being graded out of 100. I got a 99.5% out of 100, if you count the bonus. Which is what matters for my GPA, I guess. I honestly wonder if many other less than top tier schools run their courses the same way - it seems quite possible, and disappointing, to me. If you don't count the bonus questions though, I still would have had an 89.5%, which isn't an awful grade in its own right.
I was fairly convinced I'd fail the bio exam - literally - after skipping my studying for it to focus on this. But I showed up for that test last Monday and it went ok. I didn't do great on it, and there's plenty I got wrong, but I didn't fail it. It should still technically be possible to 4.0 in that course even, although I'd have to score perfectly on about everything from here out. So an A- is looking like the more realistic outcome there. Not too bad though, if I can keep it above a B+. The key is going to be doing really well on my lab reports, since I got a 0 on the one I didn't do to study chemistry instead. That's been dropped, but if I do badly on any of the remaining ones my average in that course will bleed out.
Spring registration is coming up soon. And I guess I have to decide when to take the MCAT. I still kind of don't want to take it in April or June, in part because I don't know if I can figure out physics for it in time, and in part because I'm convinced applying to medical schools this year would be a waste anyways since I didn't manage to get any relevant jobs beyond my volunteering gig.
On the other hand, if the last year or two of these post has showed me anything its that I tend to expect to fail, get down on myself, and then things kind of work out better than I'm expecting.
I'll try to have a talk with the premed advisers, I guess.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Not Looking Good
Well. The O. Chem exam is tomorrow. It's not looking too good, but not for lack of studying. I've studied at least six hours every day this last week, apart from today. I spent today trying to rush together an O. Chem lab report that's also due tomorrow. The lab report is, I can say with authority, awful.
The test will probably not go well. There's too much I only kind of understand. It's not like Physics, where I just wasn't getting it. I'd get it here if I had another empty week or so. That's not happening though. I'm going to get up early and go over everything another six hours or so before the exam tomorrow. It's not stylish, but will be fresh in my head, at least. If I'm a bit lucky, I'll do well enough I'll have a chance to fix things by doing well on the next test.
Doing well on the next test will take a different approach, I guess. Because this one week of heavy studying before the exam approach didn't really pan out. It would probably be better to just spend 1 hour or ninety minutes a day on it, but to manage to do that every day.
Keeping me from taking that reasonable approach is the fact I have another test coming up next week in Biology, and I'm far behind in that since I've put all my time into this lately. So..... it looks like I'll have to bounce back doing the same thing, and not getting great results anywhere.
And more jury duty.
The test will probably not go well. There's too much I only kind of understand. It's not like Physics, where I just wasn't getting it. I'd get it here if I had another empty week or so. That's not happening though. I'm going to get up early and go over everything another six hours or so before the exam tomorrow. It's not stylish, but will be fresh in my head, at least. If I'm a bit lucky, I'll do well enough I'll have a chance to fix things by doing well on the next test.
Doing well on the next test will take a different approach, I guess. Because this one week of heavy studying before the exam approach didn't really pan out. It would probably be better to just spend 1 hour or ninety minutes a day on it, but to manage to do that every day.
Keeping me from taking that reasonable approach is the fact I have another test coming up next week in Biology, and I'm far behind in that since I've put all my time into this lately. So..... it looks like I'll have to bounce back doing the same thing, and not getting great results anywhere.
And more jury duty.
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