Friday, December 12, 2008

Finals....

Well, I just finished my finals week and I am exhausted. This week was crazy - it's like a marathon for your mind. I went to sleep some nights not because I was physically exhausted, but it was more that my mind couldn't study/function anymore. I was usually studying for 3-4 days before taking an exam during the semester, but that's not possible during finals week. Finals week is a whole new ball game. You study, take an exam, start studying for the next exam, and continually repeat until the end of the week. I probably studied only 12 for today's immuno exam. Thankfully, it wasn't that bad, but I definitely wasn't ready for it.

I went from having goals for a certain GPA to just trying not to let my grades fall that much. I have definitely learned from this semester to try and keep up with the material and start studying early for finals.

I am usually not one of those students that sacrifices sleep to study, but I did have to this week. Last night, it was like I was a little kid that couldn't sleep on Christmas Eve. I was so excited to be done with this semester. I am 1/8 of a doctor!

Now that I don't have to study, I don't know what to do with my time.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Finals Begin

Tomorrow is my first final of my first semester. I have 8 more days and 6 final exams until the end of the semester, and I am soooo excited to be done. Animal Handling is tomorrow, and it shouldn't be too bad. This next week is going to be filled with studying though. Monday - Neuro, Tuesday - Histology, Wednesday - Animal Science, Thursday - Anatomy, and Friday - Immunology. We are used to one or two tests a week and now we have 5 so this is going to be fun.

Something I get asked a lot is: How does vet school compare to what you expected? I kinda think that it is easier than I expected. I had heard a lot of horror stories from other vet students so I expected to fail a bunch of tests and never have a break from studying. While the tests are harder than undergrad and more material is covered, there are breaks from studying and occasionally I have a life outside of vet school. However, I think the best answer to the question is that it's different. Vet school is a lifestyle change. I had to learn how to study a lot without getting burned out. I had to get used to the constantly changing class schedule. Something that I think is really cool about vet school is how the material in the classes overlaps and complements each other. For example, we learned about the eye in probably 4 different classes - anatomy, physical exams, histology, and neuro.