I know it's been a little while. Block 4 exams came and went, as did Finals and after 10 hours of flying, waiting, and driving, I'm back home in Rhode Island. I finally have time to reflect on the last two weeks and actually update you guys on how I did.
I still can't believe this semester is done. I'm sort of in a state of shock at the moment and I'm not quite sure why. The semester went by pretty fast, but the last two weeks felt like "Groundhog's Day." I just felt like I was reliving the same day over and over again. I would wake up, eat, study, and sleep, while never leaving my apartment and I just did the same thing day after day after day. Needless to say, things got old pretty fast. There came a point where I couldn't even motivate myself to look at another slide so I did something crazy and actually went to the library. I've been there about 5 times in the last 8 months. But the crazier thing is I actually studied for like 9 hours straight. I couldn't believe how effective the move was. It's amazing what a change in scenery can do for your study habits. Too bad this was the Friday before Finals. After taking Block 4 exams a few days prior, I was just so burnt out that the entire week was pretty much a wash.
The second semester class got jipped when it came to Finals scheduling. While most people at the school got to take their exams early in the day and finish at 1:00 p.m. we started our exams at 1:30 and didn't finish till 8:00 p.m. We had a 45 minute break in between. I'm sure there are some people who don't mind taking exams that late in the day, but I'm not one of them. My mind just refuses to work after a certain hour and the fact that I had to take my last exam at 6:30 at night.... yuck. That exam happened to be Physio, and it also turned out to be my worst grade (82%). I don't think I can attribute my score solely on the time though.
The incompetence of Dr. B and his INability to write a normal, grammatically correct, sensical question is astounding. What gets me even more is that the head of the Physio department refuses to do anything to fix the situation. There needs to be some screening process to his questions. I took Physio as a Junior in undergrad and honestly, that class was a lot harder than the one here and somehow I am doing worse when this is the second time I'm learning all the same material... okay?
Sorry for that. These thoughts have been weighing on me for a little while now and I just had to get it out. After my last rant about MCB Block 2, I went to the head of the MCB department with a couple other students and we told Dr. M about the situation. Afterwards I think he did go ahead and speak with our teacher and I'm happy to report that the last two block exams in MCB have been fair with no random/pointless/absurdly detailed questions, and the class averages have improved.
I'm sure some of you guys are wondering how I did overall. Did I or didn't I meet my goal? Did I get A's? Did I fail? Well, the two words that sum up my semester are "Just Short", unfortunately. I ended up with an 89 average in both MCB and Immunology for the semester. One point away from Honoring both those courses :( For Block 4 I had gotten an 84 in Immuno and a 92 in MCB. For Finals I got a 94 in Immuno and an 84 in the MCB Shelf. I just flip flopped. It's disappointing that I was doing so well in MCB all semester and getting that 84 on the shelf ruined my average. I had no idea it counted for so much. As for Immuno, all her exams and the Final are all evenly worth 20%, which is a rarity. Finals are longer with more questions and to have them be worth the same as all the block exams is definitely unique to Dr. Braciale. If she had placed more weight on the Final, I would have honored this class, but maybe its better this way. The average for the Immuno Final was surprisingly low--only a 78% so I guess those who did poorly were able to take solace in the fact this wasn't worth much more.
Physio quickly became my worst class after block 4 where I did terrible in the exam. We had an excellent teacher for that block teaching cardiovascular physiology, but unfortunately I was unable to finish the exam in time. Almost all my wrong answers came with the last 6-8 questions. My final course grade in Physio ended up being an 80% (p.s. that is somehow worse than when I took Physio the first time in college).
And lastly, did I meet my goal of making Dean's List? I'm not sure. To make it, a student needs an 87% average in their classes. When I took the average of my classes including Biostatistics, I had an 86.6% Do they round this number up? I have no idea, but I'm going to take the liberty and say that they probably don't. If 87% is the cutoff then that's the cutoff. Imagine, if I had gotten one or two more questions right in any of my other exams, I might have made it. *Shakes head* I guess there's always next semester.
I still can't believe this semester is done. I'm sort of in a state of shock at the moment and I'm not quite sure why. The semester went by pretty fast, but the last two weeks felt like "Groundhog's Day." I just felt like I was reliving the same day over and over again. I would wake up, eat, study, and sleep, while never leaving my apartment and I just did the same thing day after day after day. Needless to say, things got old pretty fast. There came a point where I couldn't even motivate myself to look at another slide so I did something crazy and actually went to the library. I've been there about 5 times in the last 8 months. But the crazier thing is I actually studied for like 9 hours straight. I couldn't believe how effective the move was. It's amazing what a change in scenery can do for your study habits. Too bad this was the Friday before Finals. After taking Block 4 exams a few days prior, I was just so burnt out that the entire week was pretty much a wash.
The second semester class got jipped when it came to Finals scheduling. While most people at the school got to take their exams early in the day and finish at 1:00 p.m. we started our exams at 1:30 and didn't finish till 8:00 p.m. We had a 45 minute break in between. I'm sure there are some people who don't mind taking exams that late in the day, but I'm not one of them. My mind just refuses to work after a certain hour and the fact that I had to take my last exam at 6:30 at night.... yuck. That exam happened to be Physio, and it also turned out to be my worst grade (82%). I don't think I can attribute my score solely on the time though.
The incompetence of Dr. B and his INability to write a normal, grammatically correct, sensical question is astounding. What gets me even more is that the head of the Physio department refuses to do anything to fix the situation. There needs to be some screening process to his questions. I took Physio as a Junior in undergrad and honestly, that class was a lot harder than the one here and somehow I am doing worse when this is the second time I'm learning all the same material... okay?
Sorry for that. These thoughts have been weighing on me for a little while now and I just had to get it out. After my last rant about MCB Block 2, I went to the head of the MCB department with a couple other students and we told Dr. M about the situation. Afterwards I think he did go ahead and speak with our teacher and I'm happy to report that the last two block exams in MCB have been fair with no random/pointless/absurdly detailed questions, and the class averages have improved.
I'm sure some of you guys are wondering how I did overall. Did I or didn't I meet my goal? Did I get A's? Did I fail? Well, the two words that sum up my semester are "Just Short", unfortunately. I ended up with an 89 average in both MCB and Immunology for the semester. One point away from Honoring both those courses :( For Block 4 I had gotten an 84 in Immuno and a 92 in MCB. For Finals I got a 94 in Immuno and an 84 in the MCB Shelf. I just flip flopped. It's disappointing that I was doing so well in MCB all semester and getting that 84 on the shelf ruined my average. I had no idea it counted for so much. As for Immuno, all her exams and the Final are all evenly worth 20%, which is a rarity. Finals are longer with more questions and to have them be worth the same as all the block exams is definitely unique to Dr. Braciale. If she had placed more weight on the Final, I would have honored this class, but maybe its better this way. The average for the Immuno Final was surprisingly low--only a 78% so I guess those who did poorly were able to take solace in the fact this wasn't worth much more.
Physio quickly became my worst class after block 4 where I did terrible in the exam. We had an excellent teacher for that block teaching cardiovascular physiology, but unfortunately I was unable to finish the exam in time. Almost all my wrong answers came with the last 6-8 questions. My final course grade in Physio ended up being an 80% (p.s. that is somehow worse than when I took Physio the first time in college).
And lastly, did I meet my goal of making Dean's List? I'm not sure. To make it, a student needs an 87% average in their classes. When I took the average of my classes including Biostatistics, I had an 86.6% Do they round this number up? I have no idea, but I'm going to take the liberty and say that they probably don't. If 87% is the cutoff then that's the cutoff. Imagine, if I had gotten one or two more questions right in any of my other exams, I might have made it. *Shakes head* I guess there's always next semester.
You truly are an inspiration! Good job and Best of luck with the rest of the semesters! =)
ReplyDeletedon't fret. those are great scores. onward to med 3 ! good luck ! enjoy the break.
ReplyDeleteHi there, a few quick questions. By any chance, do you know the average MCAT of the January class that is accepted? Also, if the MCATs aren't too strong, would they weigh more of the strong GPA into consideration or if one of them is weak, then you get rejected? Thank you so much!
ReplyDeleteThanks you guys. And to the second anonymous poster, I think the average MCAT is around a 24. If you have a strong GPA they will definitely take that into consideration, but you have to make sure that your MCAT score doesn't dip below a 21. If you are under that, they won't take you no matter what your GPA is.
ReplyDeleteHi Andrea, I couldn't find a better place to ask you this. However, for letters of recommendation... I'm not too sure of what they mean by pre-medical advisory committee - as we do not have those in Canada. I was planning on getting letters from a prof, a pH.D candidate with whom I worked and the volunteer supervisor at my hospital. Do you think that would be ample? Your feedback would be much appreciated. Thank you! Hope you're enjoying your break!
ReplyDeleteThat should be fine. Most people don't have a letter from a pre-med committee, I didn't either. As long as you have a couple of recs from professors who taught you (preferably premed classes) I think you should be fine. To get the final word you should contact MEAS.
ReplyDelete