I got the first o. chem test of the second semester back last week, and did as poorly as expected. I'd managed to forget about it over spring break, but it was a downer to come back to. I got about a 60, which is probably a C with the curve at the end I think. So it's terrible, but still in the realm of correctable. Nonetheless I got pretty bent out of sorts last week, and even played hookie from my job (the first 75 degree day of the year probably helped with that decision, somewhat.)
In better news I found my third (and I think final) recomender. I'll meet him in early April, and then that will be all sorted out. My neurologist never got back to me, which is probably the fault of the secretary there for not passing on my message, but there's not really time to worry about that - looks like I'll have to get a letter from my general physician. Personal statements are in draft form, but not complete, and I have to schedule two mock interviews by I'm not sure when (but sometime really soon).
So. What next. I have a general feeling of anxiety, and am pretty sure things are going badly. The biggest problem is simply that I'm not getting time to study enough for the MCAT, and am fairly sure I won't be ready to take it and do well in May.
I think the real approach is to "ignore" the MCAT. Whether canceling it and retaking it next year, or taking it and doing badly and ending up taking it again next year.... either way it's a test I can take again in the worst case scenario. Obviously I don't/didn't want it to end up working like that, and making this whole process take one more year is kind of (very) disheartening, but there's really nothing I can do about this. If I let that stress me out I'll just mess up everything else.
So what really needs working on is O. Chem, because I don't get to retake that and change my GPA. The problem with the last test, as I said, was that the answers to problems aren't in our useless book. So that's what I need to fix. I have to start actively working on problems this coming Monday, so I can go in and talk to our teacher about them to see what's going on. Then I just need to finish the rest of the application stuff. Hopefully the letters will be reusable/holdable if I were to not apply this summer, and my personal statement will certainly work whenever. That way, I won't have to worry about doing it again.
Just for the record, second semester O. Chem seems to have become a legitimate nightmare, with more to figure out and memorize than you can probably imagine. But I'll go on and do my best.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Friday, March 11, 2011
A Busy Break
So I haven't had classes this week because of spring break, but I've been running around everywhere trying to round up some letters of recommendation. I've succesfully managed two so far, not including my faculty "mentor" who'll reccomend me in the committee letter I talked about earlier. So it looks like I need one more faculty member, and the reference of a physician. I'm trying to get in touch with my neurologist for that; it would be nice if I could keep some sort of neurology theme going on in my application, since that's my reason for applying. If I'm unable to get in touch with him I'll have to get my generalist to write one up, which should be easily doable, even if somewhat less desirable.
The third professor is a bit tricky. Ideally it would be a science professor. Unfortunately, my first year science courses at AU have been large and I didn't go to office hours, so I'm pretty sure the professors don't know me at all. My physics teachers might remember me, but physics was my weakest class and, probably, isn't the best place to go for recommendations. It's an option though - I'd go with the teacher from the first semester when I managed an A-. I went to his office hours a lot, and he'd hopefully remember me once he saw my face. He could talk about me visiting frequently and trying hard, if nothing else.
I was also thinking about trying to get one of my old law teachers to help explain/justify my transition from law to science. Having only one letter from an actual science teacher would seem odd though.... not to mention I've been completely unable to track down this former law teacher since she left her job after being nominated as an appellate judge.
I also need to finish my personal statement by Tuesday. I haven't really started (although I have a good idea of what I want to talk about), and that's a pretty important essay on my behalf, so it's I'm feeling a bit of stress. At least I'm good at that type of writing though, so it shouldn't be too hard once I get a draft done.
The funny/sad thing is that while I'm spending all this time working on my application, I'm not being able to find time to study enough for the MCAT itself.... that's going to be a problem in two or three months. A big one.
The third professor is a bit tricky. Ideally it would be a science professor. Unfortunately, my first year science courses at AU have been large and I didn't go to office hours, so I'm pretty sure the professors don't know me at all. My physics teachers might remember me, but physics was my weakest class and, probably, isn't the best place to go for recommendations. It's an option though - I'd go with the teacher from the first semester when I managed an A-. I went to his office hours a lot, and he'd hopefully remember me once he saw my face. He could talk about me visiting frequently and trying hard, if nothing else.
I was also thinking about trying to get one of my old law teachers to help explain/justify my transition from law to science. Having only one letter from an actual science teacher would seem odd though.... not to mention I've been completely unable to track down this former law teacher since she left her job after being nominated as an appellate judge.
I also need to finish my personal statement by Tuesday. I haven't really started (although I have a good idea of what I want to talk about), and that's a pretty important essay on my behalf, so it's I'm feeling a bit of stress. At least I'm good at that type of writing though, so it shouldn't be too hard once I get a draft done.
The funny/sad thing is that while I'm spending all this time working on my application, I'm not being able to find time to study enough for the MCAT itself.... that's going to be a problem in two or three months. A big one.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Foiled Again
The first O. Chem test of this semester is going to be this Tuesday. I've actually been working on that hard for the last two weeks but, again, not in the proper manner. And I didn't figure that out until a few days ago, so it was too late to really fix anything.
Our book is awful, and has no answers to the problems (you have to buy another 150 dollar book to get those.... which I don't own). I was planning on hitting my book really hard over these last two weeks to get ready but that's proven impossible. I can spend all the time in the world with my book, and it's almost useless if I can't confirm that I'm doing things right or not. I don't know why I didn't figure out that would be a problem sooner, since it's the same book as last semester. I guess it was less of a problem last semester of that other small o. chem book I had on the side. Without anything like that this time, I've been left kind of staring at pages.
The test won't go well.
The semester itself isn't ruined, of course. It just means I need to do better on the second test and, probably, I'll have to take the optional final this time (if I want a 4.0, at least. or a 3.7). I'll also have to change my approach to studying for the next test immediately, and suppose I'll have to break down and buy that answer manual. Even though this doesn't ruin anything, it's really really frustrating. Was hoping to do well on this test and have that trigger a wave of good happenings. No chance of that now.
Wish I had the test tomorrow, instead of Tuesday. I'm going to keep stressing over this all of tomorrow, while not being able to fix anything. It's something that just needs to get over with.
This will be the last week of courses before spring break though, so I'll have a week off soon at least. Or a week to spend trying to track down more letters of recommendation and work on personal statements, rather.
Our book is awful, and has no answers to the problems (you have to buy another 150 dollar book to get those.... which I don't own). I was planning on hitting my book really hard over these last two weeks to get ready but that's proven impossible. I can spend all the time in the world with my book, and it's almost useless if I can't confirm that I'm doing things right or not. I don't know why I didn't figure out that would be a problem sooner, since it's the same book as last semester. I guess it was less of a problem last semester of that other small o. chem book I had on the side. Without anything like that this time, I've been left kind of staring at pages.
The test won't go well.
The semester itself isn't ruined, of course. It just means I need to do better on the second test and, probably, I'll have to take the optional final this time (if I want a 4.0, at least. or a 3.7). I'll also have to change my approach to studying for the next test immediately, and suppose I'll have to break down and buy that answer manual. Even though this doesn't ruin anything, it's really really frustrating. Was hoping to do well on this test and have that trigger a wave of good happenings. No chance of that now.
Wish I had the test tomorrow, instead of Tuesday. I'm going to keep stressing over this all of tomorrow, while not being able to fix anything. It's something that just needs to get over with.
This will be the last week of courses before spring break though, so I'll have a week off soon at least. Or a week to spend trying to track down more letters of recommendation and work on personal statements, rather.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Mentorship
I said I'd talk more about the upcoming set of things I have to do, so here goes. The first up was find a faculty "mentor" for me by February 15th. Their job, more or less, is to review the 3+ letters of recommendation that I'm going to get, and add their own letter of recommendation that can tie the previous ones together into a coherent whole. So it's a pretty time intensive job on their part, and I'm glad I found someone to do it. However, it makes finding people for the actual letters of rec a bit harder, because I don't really know /that/ many teachers having not been in undergrad lately.
Anyhow, here's what needs doing (beyond studying O. Chem and MCAT material).
March 15: I need to my resume, a brief autobiography, a lengthy personal statement, and all of my transcripts from undergrad and lawschool brought into the premed office. The resume and personal statement are going to medical schools, so have to be super-well done.
April 1: This is my last day to have done a mock interview with the admissions-help people at the college. And that's a service I really ought to take advantage of, because the medical school interviews are actually really important in determining if you get in. Your grades and MCAT determine if you can get an interview, and then the interview by a panel determines if you get in the school. There was nothing equally like this for law school or undergrad, so it's worth preparing for.
April 15: All letters of recommendation have to be /recieved/ by this date. Which means that I'd better start asking for those letters right about now. People have stuff to do, and probably would want at least a two months head up on having to give me letters. Especially people I haven't been in touch with lately - if I wanted a letter from the law professor I did research with, for instance.
~May 15: This is when my transcripts have to go from the premed office to the AMCAS website.
May 29: MCAT Day. Can't push it back again and still successfully apply for this cycle.
~June 1: This is when the actual application can be submitted to most colleges from the AMCAS website.
Anyhow, here's what needs doing (beyond studying O. Chem and MCAT material).
March 15: I need to my resume, a brief autobiography, a lengthy personal statement, and all of my transcripts from undergrad and lawschool brought into the premed office. The resume and personal statement are going to medical schools, so have to be super-well done.
April 1: This is my last day to have done a mock interview with the admissions-help people at the college. And that's a service I really ought to take advantage of, because the medical school interviews are actually really important in determining if you get in. Your grades and MCAT determine if you can get an interview, and then the interview by a panel determines if you get in the school. There was nothing equally like this for law school or undergrad, so it's worth preparing for.
April 15: All letters of recommendation have to be /recieved/ by this date. Which means that I'd better start asking for those letters right about now. People have stuff to do, and probably would want at least a two months head up on having to give me letters. Especially people I haven't been in touch with lately - if I wanted a letter from the law professor I did research with, for instance.
~May 15: This is when my transcripts have to go from the premed office to the AMCAS website.
May 29: MCAT Day. Can't push it back again and still successfully apply for this cycle.
~June 1: This is when the actual application can be submitted to most colleges from the AMCAS website.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
MCAT Date Change
Well. I spent a long while trying to decide if I should push it back or not. After meeting with the pre-med adviser today I was able to get a pretty straight answer about how bad it would be to take the MCAT in May, rather than April, and was told it wouldn't matter much. And that's all it took to tip things for me, so the new date is May 26th instead of April 29th. I was actually able to keep the same location and test time, although I had to pay another sixty dollars to make the change.
I figure that if I don't get into school because I applied late, but got a decent MCAT score, that's a much better situation to be in than if I were to take the MCAT early and not get in anywhere because of a bad score that would stick on my record permanently. The extra month will be much needed: whether it's sufficient or not remains to be seen.
What keeps me hopeful is that I'm really more qualified for this than I ever was for law school. I got into law school pretty much on a whim, just because there was nothing better to do. I had no prior extracurricular activities or work that were relevant, and no particularly great letters of recommendation or personal statements. Getting into medical school is much tougher, but in the last few years I've picked up a job in a Chem lab, have worked in a hospital, have met people who'll give me good letters of rec, and have a great "why do you want to be a doctor" statement lined up from my own experiences with epilepsy. So .... maybe I can pull it off.
Anyhow. As far as actual MCAT studying goes, that's officially kicked off now. I've been trying to study at least four hours or so for at least five days a week now, if not more, and it's pretty exhausting. Especially with work at the chem lab just starting up as well. Work at the chem lab isn't time exhausting, but it's mentally draining. I feel really dumb not knowing exactly how stuff works there yet, and have lots of questions.
O. Chem is draining too. I'm behind on my mechanisms, and there are so many. But now I can study a bit more for O. Chem specifically, since the MCAT is a bit further off. Hopefully that will end up helping me out both in my class and on the MCAT itself.
When talking to my adviser I got a list of things I need to start setting up, and dates they need to be set up by. It was interesting, and helpful. I'll go talk about those in another post though.
I figure that if I don't get into school because I applied late, but got a decent MCAT score, that's a much better situation to be in than if I were to take the MCAT early and not get in anywhere because of a bad score that would stick on my record permanently. The extra month will be much needed: whether it's sufficient or not remains to be seen.
What keeps me hopeful is that I'm really more qualified for this than I ever was for law school. I got into law school pretty much on a whim, just because there was nothing better to do. I had no prior extracurricular activities or work that were relevant, and no particularly great letters of recommendation or personal statements. Getting into medical school is much tougher, but in the last few years I've picked up a job in a Chem lab, have worked in a hospital, have met people who'll give me good letters of rec, and have a great "why do you want to be a doctor" statement lined up from my own experiences with epilepsy. So .... maybe I can pull it off.
Anyhow. As far as actual MCAT studying goes, that's officially kicked off now. I've been trying to study at least four hours or so for at least five days a week now, if not more, and it's pretty exhausting. Especially with work at the chem lab just starting up as well. Work at the chem lab isn't time exhausting, but it's mentally draining. I feel really dumb not knowing exactly how stuff works there yet, and have lots of questions.
O. Chem is draining too. I'm behind on my mechanisms, and there are so many. But now I can study a bit more for O. Chem specifically, since the MCAT is a bit further off. Hopefully that will end up helping me out both in my class and on the MCAT itself.
When talking to my adviser I got a list of things I need to start setting up, and dates they need to be set up by. It was interesting, and helpful. I'll go talk about those in another post though.
Friday, January 21, 2011
MCAT Review... and Postponement?
I finally got my MCAT review book in the mail. It looks like a great book from the glance I've given it. It has good 150-250 page reviews for bio/gen chem/o chem/physics that are pretty clear and succinct (as far as a 200 page review could be), and should be a much better way to study than trying to wade through 400 page books on each topic instead. It also has an online thing I can access, with 4 practice MCATs, extra review stuff, etc. - and little monthly diagnostic quizzes that track your percentages, your time spent answering, and everything else.
Should be helpful, and assist me a lot in studying.
I'm thinking more seriously about pushing back my test from April to May now though. There's so much on it, and I'm very much not convinced that I'll be ready this April. Especially if I want to put in a good amount of time to studying Organic Chemistry for my tests there (I do), and to working in my lab (I do). There's no way to be sure... still a good bit of time between now and then.... but I don't want to make myself take the test early out of principle and do badly. I think as little as that one extra month could make a pretty big difference; a difference worth applying later in the cycle for.
One of the things that I'll have to check for is if I can still take the MCAT at the same location at the later date. I'm pretty sure I'd have to take it at an 8:00am time, which is awful, but if it's at the same location would still be close and familiar. Don't really want to wake up at 4:00 and have to go out to the middle of nowhere to take the test at 8:00am though, if it's not still open around here.
Should be helpful, and assist me a lot in studying.
I'm thinking more seriously about pushing back my test from April to May now though. There's so much on it, and I'm very much not convinced that I'll be ready this April. Especially if I want to put in a good amount of time to studying Organic Chemistry for my tests there (I do), and to working in my lab (I do). There's no way to be sure... still a good bit of time between now and then.... but I don't want to make myself take the test early out of principle and do badly. I think as little as that one extra month could make a pretty big difference; a difference worth applying later in the cycle for.
One of the things that I'll have to check for is if I can still take the MCAT at the same location at the later date. I'm pretty sure I'd have to take it at an 8:00am time, which is awful, but if it's at the same location would still be close and familiar. Don't really want to wake up at 4:00 and have to go out to the middle of nowhere to take the test at 8:00am though, if it's not still open around here.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
First Day On The Job
Well, was my first day. It didn't go exactly as scheduled - an awful freezing rain coated the ground this morning, and led to people showing up at different times, but eventually everyone involved was able to get together with me.
I'm getting a basic understanding of what the project is - and it's really really really just basic. Not even up to the level of basic, yet. But I'll try to explain it as best I can at this point to give an idea of what I'm doing. Not that I could be wrong, and this is subject to extensive change.
Anyhow. Basically, the deal is beta-lactam. Beta-lactam is a ring-like structure/molecular piece consisting of I believe three carbons and one nitrogen atom, and is notable because it formed the key component of penicillin (and other antibiotics with similar structures). In a fashion I don't quite understand yet, it's responsible for inhibiting bacterial reproduction by interfering with their cell walls. The problem is that many bacteria have or are developing resistances to these types of drugs.
In the lab, we're trying to synthetically create molecules that feature structures similar to, but slightly different from, standard beta-lactams. For instance, reversed chirality or the addition of tiny fluorine atoms are some of the things being tested. The specific disease we're focusing on happens to be tuberculosis, in part because it's a very relevant disease, and in part because some of the structures created by the lab so far seem particularly suited to interfering with it, rather than other diseases.
In my section of the lab, we're tracking fluorine atoms added to the beta-lactams to try and determine whether the synthetic molecule is interfering with bacteria around the cell wall, or whether the molecules created are going to other parts of the bacteria and proving less effective.
My own role is fairly simple to start, naturally. I'm going to help assemble the head groups of various molecules, and test their purity on the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance machine we have. My roll might grow as time/skill allows.
I'm not sure how much time will go into this yet. It's very open ended, and the people I'm working for all seem really nice. I'm thinking I'll start on the low end and add hours as possible, rather than plunge in only to realize I've over-committed myself. It's a neat lab, and would be fun to work for entirely aside from letter of recommendation purposes. But I have to make sure that basic MCAT studying still comes first. And I also have to make sure I keep up with my Organic Chemistry course, which will be as tough as ever.
I'm getting a basic understanding of what the project is - and it's really really really just basic. Not even up to the level of basic, yet. But I'll try to explain it as best I can at this point to give an idea of what I'm doing. Not that I could be wrong, and this is subject to extensive change.
Anyhow. Basically, the deal is beta-lactam. Beta-lactam is a ring-like structure/molecular piece consisting of I believe three carbons and one nitrogen atom, and is notable because it formed the key component of penicillin (and other antibiotics with similar structures). In a fashion I don't quite understand yet, it's responsible for inhibiting bacterial reproduction by interfering with their cell walls. The problem is that many bacteria have or are developing resistances to these types of drugs.
In the lab, we're trying to synthetically create molecules that feature structures similar to, but slightly different from, standard beta-lactams. For instance, reversed chirality or the addition of tiny fluorine atoms are some of the things being tested. The specific disease we're focusing on happens to be tuberculosis, in part because it's a very relevant disease, and in part because some of the structures created by the lab so far seem particularly suited to interfering with it, rather than other diseases.
In my section of the lab, we're tracking fluorine atoms added to the beta-lactams to try and determine whether the synthetic molecule is interfering with bacteria around the cell wall, or whether the molecules created are going to other parts of the bacteria and proving less effective.
My own role is fairly simple to start, naturally. I'm going to help assemble the head groups of various molecules, and test their purity on the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance machine we have. My roll might grow as time/skill allows.
I'm not sure how much time will go into this yet. It's very open ended, and the people I'm working for all seem really nice. I'm thinking I'll start on the low end and add hours as possible, rather than plunge in only to realize I've over-committed myself. It's a neat lab, and would be fun to work for entirely aside from letter of recommendation purposes. But I have to make sure that basic MCAT studying still comes first. And I also have to make sure I keep up with my Organic Chemistry course, which will be as tough as ever.
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