I have a phys exam tomorrow and a histo "quiz" (worth 80 points) a week from tomorrow... and we get a week from Friday off for "fall break." HOWEVER, we have a big stinky anatomy exam the following Monday, a phys FINAL on Wednesday, and a written exam due plus another exam that Friday, which may both be easy but my brain will be giving up the ghost by that point. So, week after next, see you in hell!

physiology lab? do tell what you do for lab! i'm...kinda jealous since physio is my favorite subject:cool:

Lots of computer simulations, sometimes clinical correlations lectures (which can be cool, depending on the lecturer).

He was at Penn last week. Did he tell the elephant colic story again?
:laugh:

YES! OMG we were dying. The girl next to me literally had tears streaming down her face she was laughing so hard. I loved when he said "No longer was I the "New Kid Vet," I was "The Leopard Surgeon!" :laugh:

You can do it!!! :D

Did you know that Vet School is secretly where they train Superheros?? :eek: When you graduate you'll realize that it is possible to do what seems to be impossible!!

good luck on all those exams :love:

I'm enjoying vet school so far. I've had my days of stress and panic, but it's going pretty well overall. It's really nice for me to see that I can do this. My undergrad GPA was less than impressive, like way less than impressive, and it's really making me feel good to see that it doesn't mean that I won't do well in vet school. I've decided it's the pace that's helping me do well. In undergrad you go like a month between exams or at least a few weeks, and your final in a class isn't for 3 1/2 months after you start it. I had a hard time motivating myself to study when the tests were always so far away. Here, there's always a test so I'm always studying and it's working so far. Fingers crossed it continues that way.

This week and next week are sort of hell week for us (Mississippi). We had a neurology practical Monday, neurology exam Tuesday, then we have an Infectious agents exam and physiology (renal) quiz on Thursday.

Next week, we have an Anatomy practical and exam on Tuesday, an Infectious agents lab exam on Thursday then a Physiology exam on Friday.

It's been a looong semester for us! We started June 27th and have only had ONE day off since then!! Can't wait for Thanksgiving break!

I have no attention span for immunology. Our lecturer is monotone and rambles and repeats himself a lot. I wonder if he'd notice if I took a nap.

Yeah. One of our anatomy professors is a really nice, helpful, intelligent guy, but he turns two pages of anatomy notes into an hour-long lecture in far, far more detail than you'll ever really need to know for the tests*. I end up more confused from the lectures than anything, so I've learned not to listen.

On the positive side, a pretty solid A on the first anatomy test that we took Monday. Woo!

.... now if only histology cooperates tomorrow morning.

* Yes, I have intellectual curiosity and would love to learn for the sake of learning, but frankly, I'm in "know what I need to pass the test" mode because ultimately, I don't get my DVM if I don't pass my classes. So no lectures on intellectual laziness, please. I'm a little tired of all the "don't worry so much about your grades" lectures we get from teachers. I keep wanting to raise my hand and say "Great. If you will commit to giving me an A or a B right now, I promise to not worry so much about passing."

That makes two of us. To be fair, I think the professors are really the best part here at AVC, and I do feel like they want us all to succeed, even if that sounds super cheesy. But until we get that first test (the midterm, eek) out of the way, I'm going to be worrying.

I need to know the complete anatomy of the dog in T-6 days. I'm screwed.

Wah? We still have the pelvic limb/pelvis and head left...

Yeah Penn likes to throw the whole dog at you in 6 weeks.
You will be OK though and it is nice in a way to not have that test hanging over your head. My advice is to know your vessels ID's cold and to focus on chalk talk stuff.

You can do it:luck:

It REALLY helps if you read through Little Miller A LOT! I focused on just identifying the bold words and I crashed and burned! Knowing the text will help you answering the questions.

They must be making a tour of all the vet schools, because he was at A&M not too long ago (two or three weeks).

And god damn that elephant story was hilarious.

How I'm feeling vacillates dramatically from day to day. For example, yesterday was sucky (super long day at school with no break, felt behind in all of my classes, got 2 shots, one rabies, one flu). Then today, one of my classmates made cupcakes (he's awesome), we actually got to review stuff in anatomy (and I got to look at a dog cadaver instead of the cat we've had this week, which meant I could finally see structures!), and it felt so much better. We are more than half done with our semester, and the one thing that continues to surprise me is how dramatically my mood changes each day, based on how classes are going and my interactions with classmates.

i think my head is going to explode. i did not know it was physically possible to cram all of these facts in, and i literally feel like my brain has swelled from the information overload. 5 exams in 5 days, not fun!

Ugh. I just want to remind people to do their best to take care of themselves and stay healthy. I've been out all week with a virus. Fortunately it was a slow week for us, but this definitely not something I needed given I felt behind already. So get some sleep and take some time to take care of yourselves!

My roommate is currently a walking disease and two of my friends are really sick. I've been exposed to my roommate's cold for about 3 weeks now and don't feel sick at all! Vitamins:thumbup: Eating healthy:thumbup: Exercising:thumbup: Flu shot:thumbup:

Getting sick totally knocks you out, so I sympathize. I once had the flu during the semester, hopefully never again. I get a flu shot every year now, just in hopes of not experiencing that again. Our flu shots this year were on the same day as the rabies shot, so both of my arms were sore for a day or two this week, but it's so worth it!

Blah, I have been slacking this week and have fallen behind a bit. I'm having a lot of trouble finding the motivation to get down to business but I know I have to. For the next hour and a half I'll be trying to get this anatomy down (quiz on Monday), then going running, home to shower and out to eat with some vet school friends, then home to try and do more anatomy. Tomorrow I'm going up to the vet school with one of my lab partners to solidify the anatomy on our dog, then home to start working on Cell Bio to get ready for Wednesday's exam. For the first time I'm starting to feel the stress, and I tend to react to stress by procrastinating. Onnnneee step at a time, EllieG.

I don't want to study anatomy any more! Costocervical trunk, popliteal lymph node, dorsal ligament, right and left gastoepiploic, hind limb, pelvic limb, nervesmusclesorgans BLAGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!:boom:

One of my friends would say "costcocervical trunk" every time we studied. I asked her if it was a bargain, which never got any funnier, I guess!

Anatomy: Intrinsic ability, or learned skill?

I studied significantly more for my second anatomy practical, to get only 5 more points... out of 180. I kinda have the feeling I have a baseline talent at this and it is unmoving, despite my best efforts.

At least my intrinsic ability is passing, bahaha.

I think the section of the body has to do a lot with it too. I was much better at learning the internals than the externals. Innervations, blood supply, and functions of glands? Bring 'em on! The fact that the lateral digital extensor m. extends the 3rd and 4th interphalangeal joints? Not so much (I'm not even sure that's what it does really...)

Woke up with a cold. Could only study from the book for about 3 hours and went in to lab for one hour. Stuff I studied today is just not sticking. Will have to do better tomorrow or crash and burn in the practical. Bought a crapload of drugs from CVS, so hopefully that will help. One of my lab mates took the dev bio exam while delirious with fever. Here's to hoping this doesn't get that bad. Bought 5-Hour-Energy in case it does. Does anyone know how much caffeine is actually in those things?

I think it's equal to one cup of coffee? Sadly, they take forever to kick in for me. They make me super jittery.

Make sure you read the five hour energy before you take it. I'm pretty sure you are not supposed to take the whole bottle at once (my ex did that and he regretted it!).

and be extra careful if you're cross mixing while taking cold meds!!! (i.e. don't do it, but i know that wasted advice since i just had my anatomy practical yesterday heh)

mostly unrelated, but i bought caffeine pills at the grocery store today because it was cheaper than the migraine drugs that contained acetominophen (which i dont really care for), and i can easily quarter the tablets to get roughly (slightly less) the same amount of caffeine that they include in the mix. :cool:

So it seems our system is a little different here at Dick Vet, for better or worse - basically they are trying to cram two years of their curriculum into one year, so they divide it into four sections, two per semester.

We just had our "final" exam (only have one 3-part exam for each semester/section) that covered complete anatomy of dog, cat, horse, ox and rabbit. Plus cell bio, embryology and intro to lymphatics - ACK, talk about overloading in the first 5 weeks!! But, all the SDNers at Dick Vet survived and passed!!! (still trying to get used to the UK grading system though)

As for the 5-hr E, I was under the impression that it was the same caffeine as one or two cups of coffee - which we go through in this apartment like water. I think it can make you really jittery if you take it with a stimulant cold med like pseudophedrine (the real sudafed).

UF c/o 2012 puts on a scavenger hunt each year and it was last night. It was epic. Now I have to make up for the study time lost since I have an embryo midterm tomorrow that I don't feel ready for

I keep catching myself calling it that too and then I laugh and then I feel sad because there are no Costcos here :(

I've been wondering about this, too. My intrinsic ability is also passing, though I wish it could be better. I feel like I have to spend a lot of time in the lab quizzing myself, looking at the cadaver from different angles, working in groups....just so I can pass, lol. Tomorrow is our third practical, over the thorax, abdomen, and pelvis, and I honesty feel nervous about both the practical and written part. I have such a bad memory, and sometimes I'm scared about how I'll be as a doctor remembering lots of details to help live animals if I have such a hard time remembering all these details about the dead ones!

You might be a vet student if the highlight of your day was discovering that the Sharpie pen comes in FOUR colors...

...still pretty excited about that...

I'm officially freaking out about anatomy:scared:

Don't worry!! You can do it!! Breathe, (try to) relax, think of all the people who have passed anatomy before...you will be one of them soon. You don't need an A and You know so much already. Good luck!! :luck:

I'm the same way.

LDE extends digit V as well. Gotta keep the info correct for those 1st years!

Thanks, Gella. I was just at ryan hospital with my recently adopted dog and she has aspiration pneumonia. So it's not been a great few days. :(

My foster-turned-adopted dog ALWAYS was in the ER before exams. They have a knack for doing that :)
My guy ended up having ongoing medical / behavioral issues but it was so worth it <3

And good luck Penn first years on anatomy! It will be ok and you will be the happiest person alive when it's over!

Thinking about/studying for Wednesday's Cell Bio exam makes me want to cry. Ughhhhh. This is gonna suck.

On a brighter note, we got an email from the Associate Dean today informing us of some changes in the attendance policy. Whereas attendance to all lectures was once mandatory, it is no longer considered an Honor Code violation to miss didactic lectures. I've always felt this should be the case, and I'm really hoping it helps to eliminate some of the disruptive chit chat that seems to go on during lectures that is presumably from people who don't really want to be there but were forced to under the old attendance policy.

I think SDN needs the full story here. Pelagia is in my anatomy group and she makes me feel like an idiot every day in lab because she remembers everything after we've gone over it once and can list out every detail as fast as she can talk. My group members are awesome and I'm probably only passing anatomy because of them.

Yeah this is not me. :P

Good luck to all my fellow PennWe's! Get some sleep!

AVC 2015ers have our first midterm tomorrow. And because of the nature of the class, it's not something you can study for (problem based learning class on case studies). :scared:

lol, no worries, I can't even remember if it's the femur or the humerus that has the greater trochanter vs. tuberosity. In fact I don't remember the names of the bones of the carpus/tarsus all that well... like, at all. So I also had the same fears about my horrible memory. But you know what though, I surprise myself all the time when I'm looking at case studies and/or am in a class that really integrates a lot of material. A majority of the time, I really know my stuff!!! Just know that the important things will come up in multiple classes over and over, and it'll be difficult to actually forget. I mean... when will m. anconeus ever be important? I have yet to find out. And if it comes up again, and in a context that will be important to practice, I'm sure I'll remember it much better this next time around based on said context. So yeah, don't worry if you can't help the cram/purge (then promptly forget) cycle that most of us have for anatomy. A few things I would focus on remembering though, are landmarks on the living animal, radiographic anatomy, palpable organs, and the vessels important for clinical practice (for venipuncture, blood pressure, pulse, etc...). Not knowing that stuff will keep biting you in the donkey. True story. I know from experience.

The anconeus muscle has been on both of our practicals so far... :laugh:

by "important" i didn't really mean showing up on an anatomy practical:rolleyes:. out of the 300-400 anatomy exam questions i had last year, i could probably only answer half of them correctly now (and that's if i'm really lucky). and it's sad because i did really well in anatomy too. but will that make me a terrible vet? i highly doubt it. lol, i feel like a good portion of anatomy is more of a hazing ritual than anything else anyway.

Nah I got what you were saying, was just being sassy. :) I agree that it's hazing... but I think the nicer word is "conditioning" you to consume, decipher, and recall large volumes of information in short periods of time.

I'm not great at anatomy, soooo... here's to hoping it doesn't correlate with clinical ability. ;)