Class of 2015... How ya doing?

Veterinary Science Graduate Certificate from UofI
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twelvetigers said:
Haha. I know, rite?

We're having the pelvic limb vessels/nerves and abdominal cavity exam Thursday, then it's only the head left. One more exam on that, and then the 250 point final... yikes.

We have 5 exams and we drop 1.

And any time he calls something a "point-gathering activity" (quiz of some sort) you know you're about to lose some points... because I would never quite gather as many points as was intended.
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Thorax/abdominal cavities exam on Wednesday. But before that, Histology exam on Tuesday (yay!)...until 8 pm, for my section anyway. On the night before the anatomy exam. I can't wait to have my ass handed to me.

Super glad we don't have point gathering activities though. We have no quizzes/homework type things at all really. Then again maybe that would force me to stay on top of the material (is that even possible?!)

I tried a new way of studying for these exams. I thought instead of being really up on a couple of classes and really behind in some others (as I was for the first set) I was going to do my darndest to stay up on all of my classes, by working a little each night. Great in theory. In reality, nearly impossible (for me) to accomplish. Now I am slightly behind in all my classes, playing catch up and wondering how I am ever going to make it through this 2nd set of exams. I would LOVE to be able to drop an exam right about now haha. We'll see what I can come up with for finals. Sigh.
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Bacci said:
Thorax/abdominal cavities exam on Wednesday. But before that, Histology exam on Tuesday (yay!)...until 8 pm, for my section anyway. On the night before the anatomy exam. I can't wait to have my ass handed to me.

Super glad we don't have point gathering activities though. We have no quizzes/homework type things at all really. Then again maybe that would force me to stay on top of the material (is that even possible?!)

I tried a new way of studying for these exams. I thought instead of being really up on a couple of classes and really behind in some others (as I was for the first set) I was going to do my darndest to stay up on all of my classes, by working a little each night. Great in theory. In reality, nearly impossible (for me) to accomplish. Now I am slightly behind in all my classes, playing catch up and wondering how I am ever going to make it through this 2nd set of exams. I would LOVE to be able to drop an exam right about now haha. We'll see what I can come up with for finals. Sigh.
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I will say, I don't miss UW's testing schedule philosophy! We never have night exams. All of them except practicals/anatomy are within the window of 7-9am, before classes. I hate getting up early, but I'd rather take an exam at 7am and nap during some other lame class then be worried all day about my 8pm exam.

I try the keeping up on all classes strategy... it worked really well for me until this week. I am not stressing though. There are literally times where you CAN'T be caught up with everything. Yay vet school.

Also last night I went out drinking to numb the anatomy pain... Since starting vet school, my tolerance has dropped. I have been SO HUNGOVER all day. Why am I such a wuss!?!?! Vet school has made me lame and sissy.

Waaaaahhhh.
 
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Today's distractions:

3-6:30: Breeder's Cup races
6:30-Forever: National Horse Show live feed

I fail.
 
breenie said:
I will say, I don't miss UW's testing schedule philosophy! We never have night exams. All of them except practicals/anatomy are within the window of 7-9am, before classes. I hate getting up early, but I'd rather take an exam at 7am and nap during some other lame class then be worried all day about my 8pm exam.
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wow! we have all our exams during the class it's scheduled for. this only stinks for the in class anatomy exam because we have 2 hours of class first (the lab is in the morning during lab)
 
Hey 2015ers! Hope everyone is getting by (and doing better than that!). I was wondering if anyone would have some spare time to procrastin- I mean, help me by providing some input about their first year. Sort of a how you are, if what you expected was true/false and how you're doing now as we head toward the end of sem. 1. Reason being, after a lot of chatting and soul searching, I'm thinking of myself back on the bandwagon but now I'll just be one year behind ya'll. So, feel free to flood my inbox with PMs or if you're insanely busy, don't :) I'd love to hear from my former fellow 2015ers who weathered the whole "getting accepted" process (which was supposed to be the "HARD" part).

Take care & love to you all!

P.S. Thanks for taking the time to post on this thread. It's been really helpful to me and I'm so happy you guys are making it toward becoming those amazing veterinarians one day at a time :biglove:
 
Yeah, can you maybe give us some more specific questions to start off on? Brain power is significantly reduced these days. :)
 
Anatomy final in 2 hours. My motivation to study for the written portion has crashed and burned. I can't remember all of that mumbo jumbo about the legs from 2 months ago!

In ~5 hours from now I will be done with dog anatomy, no matter what grade I get on the final exam, forever!
 
I never thought I'd say this . . . but, yay for biochem. It's good to have one class where I don't feel completely incompetent.

If my 2008 self could hear me now, she would be speechless with shock.
 
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EllieGirl89 said:
Got elected class president today :D
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^ EG, was there any doubt? I mean, I would've campaigned on your behalf;)

pooter said:
If my 2008 self could hear me now, she would be speechless with shock.
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If my 2011 (first half) self would see me now, she'd be slightly appalled that she is not a vet student. Don't even get me started on the 2010 self....

Okay - for TT & breenie's benefit specifically (and for mine as well!): I'm turning my earlier post more into an informal poll (can I do that??:confused:). Since I feel that I got to know some of you well (some more so than others), I'll try and keep it as straightforward as possible. (And I'd prefer not to pirate this thread at all, so PM please :) ) I'll keep it simple with a trifecta (or an attempt at least) of questions: a) How do you feel your first year as a student is going? As expected, better, worse, etc. b) Do you feel you were well-prepared going in or have you found out some surprising (good or bad) things? c) Are you happy overall that you decided to go to vet school/do you know this is still what you want rather than any change in career goals?

[Now, I will attempt to be brief as to why I deferred in case anyone is genuinely curious since I was so insanely pumped for my dream finally coming through and then I tried to destroy same dream. Oi...:bang::help::slap::lame::smack:: (enough self-abuse...). Over the summer, burnout really hit hard and it took on other faces, particularly my arch-nemesis, depression. I felt like the initial elation/honeymoon feeling for my acceptance into vet school had morphed into the "we're getting a divorce - get out, I'll mail your things just so I don't have to deal with you!" outlook. Not my best moment. My anxiety almost had me withdrawing from vet school all together but the wonderful adcoms at Tufts convinced me to request a deferment. So I was ready to head to grad school with new dreams in mind but idk the vet school virus seems to still be strong in my system. I'll blame ten year burn-out for how I could've even considered abandoning my dream of a veterinarian. So, I'm back - just 1 year late - and very happy to be here.]

The money/cost demon is still bothering me - anyone have remedies for that??
 
kaydubs said:
(And I'd prefer not to pirate this thread at all, so PM please :) )
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If you guys don't mind, it'd be nice if it was posted here, maybe started a new thread, because I'm curious also. You don't have to though.
 
pooter said:
I never thought I'd say this . . . but, yay for biochem. It's good to have one class where I don't feel completely incompetent.

If my 2008 self could hear me now, she would be speechless with shock.
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I also liked Biochem in Fall. You'll probably like Physiology in the winter/spring then. 10 credits as well.
 
PetPony said:
If you guys don't mind, it'd be nice if it was posted here, maybe started a new thread, because I'm curious also. You don't have to though.
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Done, PetPony. And note to anyone remotely interested in my informal, unmandatory poll - it has it's own shiny new thread. Post there if you'd like :)
 
pooter said:
I never thought I'd say this . . . but, yay for biochem. It's good to have one class where I don't feel completely incompetent.

If my 2008 self could hear me now, she would be speechless with shock.
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I didn't really like biochem in undergrad but I'm so glad for it now. Histo is good too. And ICVM. And wildlife. Basically everything but anatomy. Anatomy really bums me out. :diebanana:
Are you going to take the Global Health and Food Security elective in the spring? Wildlife 2? I wonder which one is more interesting
 
You can take both electives - I did. Wildlife 2 has awesome labs :)
 
EllieGirl89 said:
Got elected class president today :D
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Yay! Congrats EllieGirl. It's crazy that you just now had elections! Ours were over 2 months ago. Granted, I think we had them a bit prematurely and waiting a little bit to get to know everyone would have been better.
 
goldielocks137 said:
Yay! Congrats EllieGirl. It's crazy that you just now had elections! Ours were over 2 months ago. Granted, I think we had them a bit prematurely and waiting a little bit to get to know everyone would have been better.
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Thanks! Haha yep, we weren't even in school yet 2 months ago. This past week was week 7 (of 10) of Fall Quarter. I really liked that we got a chance to know each other first.
 
It's been a year since I had musculoskeletal/locomotor anatomy and I still think that memorizing muscles was the hardest thing anyone's made me do in vet school. :(
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Yah out of memorizing all the minutiae for pharmacology, parasitology, immunology, and so on, I'd still much rather be doing that than memorizing muscles. Ungh. The long digital extensor extends everything but the short digital extensor (yes I'm aware that's made up, I can't think of the correct muscle name atm) only extends the first and second interphalangeal joints, but ONLY the proximal and middle, NOT the distal!

Shoot man, the first phalanx is just a nub and missing half the time anyways. Why does it matter?
 
goldnretrivrgrl said:
But... Won't my head explode? :confused: Did you like the global health one as well?
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Yes and yes. I liked Global Health although sometimes I really had to drag myself to night lectures. Last year, when I took it, it was considered an independent study and it was basically just attending the lectures (they had a sign in), doing one brief paper and two group projects. I am not sure if - since they have made it a "real course" now - anything is different.
 
bunnity said:
Yes and yes. I liked Global Health although sometimes I really had to drag myself to night lectures. Last year, when I took it, it was considered an independent study and it was basically just attending the lectures (they had a sign in), doing one brief paper and two group projects. I am not sure if - since they have made it a "real course" now - anything is different.
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Save room for the Human/animal bond independent study class if you can. That is the most fun in vet school... Learning about animal assisted therapy, doing field trips, clicker training your dog, etc. It is an easy 2 credits.
 
StartingoverVet said:
Save room for the Human/animal bond independent study class if you can. That is the most fun in vet school... Learning about animal assisted therapy, doing field trips, clicker training your dog, etc. It is an easy 2 credits.
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I'm taking that right now! It's a great class and offered most semesters.
Since there are no other electives fall of 2nd year, you can always take it then to free up your spring of 1st year if you decide to take global health or wildlife.
 
bunnity said:
I'm taking that right now! It's a great class and offered most semesters.
Since there are no other electives fall of 2nd year, you can always take it then to free up your spring of 1st year if you decide to take global health or wildlife.
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So many options. Must contain enthusiasm!! I'll save human/animal bond for second year. Now I just have to decide which one to take. Or resign myself to an exploded brain. I'm glad I have you guys for input!
 
Hey Guys!

I haven't posted in ages I know, but since I can't seem to focus on anything tonight I'd thought I'd pop in to say hi from CSU!

I skimmed through the last few pages of this thread and am almost afraid to say how I am feeling about school for fear of sounding a little too much like "rainbows and unicorns" or whatever exactly it is! But really, I am overall very, very happy to be here! Sure, there are things and moments I am not super crazy about, but overall I am having a really good time. Working on my side is perhaps the fact that I have come directly from a career that I was really not enjoying, so maybe it is the contrast that is really helping me enjoy school. And I may very well still be in the honeymoon phase... although I'd like to think by now that I am getting a feel for what at least the first 2 years are going to be like. But maybe not!

Anyway, it was fun to pop in and see some familiar names, and to realize that all across the country and the world we are all in this together, just like we were all pulling our hair out with anxiety together at this time last year!

Take care everyone!

P.S. Congrats to EllieG!!! Very cool!
 
goldnretrivrgrl said:
I didn't really like biochem in undergrad but I'm so glad for it now. Histo is good too. And ICVM. And wildlife. Basically everything but anatomy. Anatomy really bums me out. :diebanana:
Are you going to take the Global Health and Food Security elective in the spring? Wildlife 2? I wonder which one is more interesting
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Very appropriate visual for anatomy? Are you the banana or the guy with the baseball bat? (I'm definitely the banana!)

I'm (almost) definitely doing wildlife 2! I'm still debating Global Health . . . it sounds interesting, but I'm a bit prone to burnout at the moment.
 
I've had a setback. My anatomy final was more horrific than I could've imagined. I studied like I had never studied before for this exam. I was in the lab hours before everyone else every day trying to figure stuff out, but the head just didn't make sense to me. I couldn't gain any spatial sense of where things were. I honestly don't think I would have done any better if they had given be a week longer to study. At this point, I'm hoping that I did well enough to pass the class. I did well on all my other tests and quizzes in that class so hopefully I pulled it out.

Next week is hell week, 3 finals in 5 days. I'm worried that I'm going to do poorly because of my mindset after the anatomy final. I'm trying to let it roll off my shoulders but it's hard to when your entire future is hanging in the balance.

Anyway, I knew this day would come...the day when I would be extremely disappointed in my performance on a test in vet school, I was just hoping it wouldn't be until later.
 
Bearby said:
Next week is hell week, 3 finals in 5 days. I'm worried that I'm going to do poorly because of my mindset after the anatomy final. I'm trying to let it roll off my shoulders but it's hard to when your entire future is hanging in the balance.
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Your future is very rarely hanging in the balance, so don't turn it into a bigger deal in your head than it really is. I'm betting that if you stuck with things most of the way through you'll pull it out. :) And if you fail it ... your school probably has a plan already in place that involves retaking it. I've seen more than one person take anatomy a second time. They're still in vet school. :)

Sorry it didn't go like you wanted, though. I know the feeling of being disappointed with your performance. It's hard to learn to let it go.

I'm with ya on the head. For some reason I had a really hard time keeping my spacial orientation right. Every time I'd go to trace some nerve or whatever I'd have to flip the head all over the place just to find my starting point. It was ... odd. I think it partly came from having two halves instead of one whole, but... I've always been a pretty good spacial orientation person. Not on that. Just glad we're done with it. Oddly enough, as much as I struggled with it in lab, it was my second-best lab test.
 
Raise your hand if you need Thanksgiving break to hurry up. :(
 
breenie said:
Raise your hand if you need Thanksgiving break to hurry up. :(
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My anatomy prof just gave us an updated schedule for the rest of the semester. I laughed when I noticed "Turkey dissection" on Thanksgiving.

But yes. Yes, I would be ok if T-Day hurried itself up.
 
LetItSnow said:
I'm with ya on the head. For some reason I had a really hard time keeping my spacial orientation right. Every time I'd go to trace some nerve or whatever I'd have to flip the head all over the place just to find my starting point. It was ... odd. I think it partly came from having two halves instead of one whole, but... I've always been a pretty good spacial orientation person. Not on that. Just glad we're done with it. Oddly enough, as much as I struggled with it in lab, it was my second-best lab test.
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Shush, y'all. We're just now starting the head. I don't want to hear about difficulty. I was hoping it would be easier than, say, the nerves in the abdomen and pelvic limb? 'Cause that sucked.

LetItSnow said:
I laughed when I noticed "Turkey dissection" on Thanksgiving.
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That's pretty cute.
 
twelvetigers said:
Shush, y'all. We're just now starting the head. I don't want to hear about difficulty. I was hoping it would be easier than, say, the nerves in the abdomen and pelvic limb? 'Cause that sucked.
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really depends on the person, so don't get too anxious. Limb stuff was incredibly difficult for me, and I absolutely am sure I could never be an orthopedic surgeon if my life depended on it because I just can't get that stuff to stick. I honestly can't really tell you where the biceps and triceps and quadriceps are (i did look up quadriceps recently for IM injections... but you get the drift).

The head stuff on the other hand was a cinch. All it really took was 2 days to study (lab stuff and all) and tada~! Sponged it right up, and I still remember most of that stuff.
 
Muscles are okay. Nerves and vessels, hatehatehate. I can't ever orient myself.

The title of this thread just made me think - whenever someone asks me, "How's vet school going?" I reply with, "It's going." Haha. Everyone probably thinks I'm miserable or something. :hungover: I don't do artificial bubbliness, so yanno. They get a shrug. They usually look disappointed.
 
Bearby said:
Next week is hell week, 3 finals in 5 days. I'm worried that I'm going to do poorly because of my mindset after the anatomy final. I'm trying to let it roll off my shoulders but it's hard to when your entire future is hanging in the balance.
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Things can always be worse - we have 7 in 7 days coming up in less than a week with half of them cumulative. You WILL get through it. Very few people don't. Sure, you may not be totally happy with your grades on all of them, but that's tough to do during a hectic finals week anyway. Do your best, get some sleep during that week, and just remember that C=DVM. I'm not saying that should be your motto during the next four years, but it's at least a comfort when you're freaking out about exams.
 
Minnerbelle said:
really depends on the person, so don't get too anxious. Limb stuff was incredibly difficult for me, and I absolutely am sure I could never be an orthopedic surgeon if my life depended on it because I just can't get that stuff to stick. I honestly can't really tell you where the biceps and triceps and quadriceps are (i did look up quadriceps recently for IM injections... but you get the drift).

The head stuff on the other hand was a cinch. All it really took was 2 days to study (lab stuff and all) and tada~! Sponged it right up, and I still remember most of that stuff.
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Same for me, on both counts (hate limb, head was easy).
 
StartingoverVet said:
ditto
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I really wish I knew what was up with that. Because I was the exact reverse: limbs are easy, whether it's muscles/nerves/cv. Head -- not so much. I mean, I can find a tongue. And maybe an eye or two. But ask me which muscle is the lateral pterygoid and ... we gonna have problems.

Anyway. I wonder what makes it so distinct?
 
LetItSnow said:
I really wish I knew what was up with that. Because I was the exact reverse: limbs are easy, whether it's muscles/nerves/cv. Head -- not so much. I mean, I can find a tongue. And maybe an eye or two. But ask me which muscle is the lateral pterygoid and ... we gonna have problems.

Anyway. I wonder what makes it so distinct?
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I dunno, I guess for me, it has a lot to do with the fact that I really like neuro, and there's a lot more going on in the head in that regard. I'm really not into mechanics at all, so levers and pullies bore the hell out of me. With limbs, it's just a bunch of hunks of meat that pulls on appendicular bones this way and that. I could care less. But with the head, it was much easier for me to compartmentalize the info. MM of facial expression, vs. mastication, vs. laryngeal mm, vs. tongue, etc. Cranial nn are so much more interesting to me than nerves on the limbs. It was a lot easier for me to relate specific structures to specific defects. Interestingly enough, I got the limb innervations down of major muscle groups once it got relevant in neuro (I just can't tell you anatomically where anything is).
 
LetItSnow said:
I really wish I knew what was up with that. Because I was the exact reverse: limbs are easy, whether it's muscles/nerves/cv. Head -- not so much. I mean, I can find a tongue. And maybe an eye or two. But ask me which muscle is the lateral pterygoid and ... we gonna have problems.

Anyway. I wonder what makes it so distinct?
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This was exactly my problem. I rocked out the limbs, but the head was just so confusing. I definitely agree with the statement about having the flip it around to find where you started. It sucks that even if I did pass this semester I have to battle it again next semester in the horse.
 
anyone have a good way for remember what the cranial nerves do? that has been a slow struggle of mine this semester and it continues to annoy me that i cant remember what they all do
 
jmo1012 said:
anyone have a good way for remember what the cranial nerves do? that has been a slow struggle of mine this semester and it continues to annoy me that i cant remember what they all do
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Idk if this will help with what you're struggling with but here's a mnemonic we were taught:

Some Say Marry Money But My Brother Says Big Brains Matter More

S - sensory
M - motor
B - both
 
StartingoverVet said:
too politically correct.

Should be "Big Breasts Matter More"
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thats totally how it would be taught down here, there is nothing PC about this island! i cant even begin to count the number of times my classmates and i have been shocked by something someone just said-you'd never hear them in the US!

thanks Chinola!
 
jmo1012 said:
thats totally how it would be taught down here, there is nothing PC about this island! i cant even begin to count the number of times my classmates and i have been shocked by something someone just said-you'd never hear them in the US!

thanks Chinola!
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Oh you would be surprised! We've had some very vocal professors here and i know one who freely calls students dumb-a**es if they mess up haltering a cow with a rope in the bajillionth way we have learned how to. 'Course he is also british... maybe that has something to do with it. That or he is LA vet and they usually tend to have a dirty mouth on those vets. lol
 
StartingoverVet said:
too politically correct.

Should be "Big Breasts Matter More"
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I heard big "boobs|brains|butts" ... take your pick.

Unfortunately, the more racy they are, the better they work, it seems. Which makes them unpublishable. :)

We totally rewrote that one (and I can't reprint what we came up with unless I want to be booted to the SDN curb). It's too bad I can't share it, because it had significant words in all the right places for the 'special' nerves... it went way beyond 'sensory,' 'motor,' and 'both'... was a pretty darn good mnemonic.

Ah well. :)
 
Haha, don't post much but had to chime in, the mnemonic we learned:
Some say money matters, some say brains, my brother says big balls matter most
(includes the three branches of trigeminal)
 
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