It's been a while since my last post. I'll update you on what has been going on. Looking back to Term 1, it seems as though time flew by. It didn't feel like that into about half of term 1 though. I got to a point where I felt burnt out. I was sick of going to lectures and labs, I was sick of studying after lectures and having to keep up with the material. But I pressed on and got through it and ended up doing well, a B for my first term, not too bad. Terms 1 and 2 are considered to be essentially 1 class. You take 1 test about every 3-4 wks and this includes anatomy, biochemistry, genetics, histology, physiology. You get 1 grade for the test, instead of taking multiple different tests throughout the week. I like it this way rather than having a whole entire week of stress, you're pretty much done it two to three hours and then its party time or sleep time. Most students look forward to after the test and plan many activities together. This mainly consists of Banana's the night after the test to get drunk, and the next day is usually involving going to the beach, waterfall, or snorkeling, and finding time to pick up groceries for the next week, that is if IGA is stocked. Many times IGA will be out of many things, or they'll be missing a shipment or something of the like. Anyways, you just learn to deal with it, or eat out for a couple of days, ha!
So now to talk about Term 2, what has changed, what is the same?
In general it is the same....as far as the scheduling of tests and how they are spaced out, the labs/small group sessions. The three blocks this term are Endocrine/Reproductive, Digestive/Metabolism, Neuroscience/Behavioral. The first 3 weeks are Endo/Repro. It wasn't too bad actually I enjoyed this block, it's basically review of your Anterior and Posterior pituitary hormones, their functions, where they act and so on. The reproduction part isn't so bad either, it's basically learning the anatomy of repro organs, hormones, etc. Then comes Digestive/Metabolism block. This one was tough, I have to admit. It was basically anatomy of digestive system and biochem. We had to learn many pathways back to back and it got really overwhelming at times. The good things was we had a whole week to prepare for our test which was nice. Pathways covered were: Glycolysis, TCA cycle, ETC, Urea cycle, Heme synthesis, Pentose Phosphate pathway. Overall I was really scared about the test and ended up with an 86%, not too bad. Now i'm in the final block which is the longest, 10 weeks, of Neuro and Behavioral. So far everything is pretty new for me as I haven't taken neuro before. We're learning about anatomy in DETAIL! Let me tell you it is SUPER detailed and I have to go to wet lab for this one. There's so many nerves and blood vessels and fossas to learn! But i'll take neuro over biochem pathways anyday. I literally had no break at all when I was studying the pathways,. Now I go home, have lunch, rewatch the lectures and maybe do a few practice questions and have the rest of the night off. So, so far less stressful. It's hard to believe that Term 2 is over halfway over! Word of advice: Do YOUR best, but also live YOUR life. Find time to do something you like to do. It isn't all about studying, yeah you should study but not to the point where you've forgotten yourself. Till next time! :)
