Class of 2016....how ya doing?

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Hang in there DVM Dream, I think we're all feeling behind about now. I am just soooooooooooooooooooo happy that we only have 2 more exams and then get a little break (big break for most, but we have an anatomy exam on November 5th, I like studying anatomy though). The midterms have been crazy enough with them being spread out over a couple weeks, I am NOT looking forward to finals where we have one a day. I guess it will be a little different though, because we won't have to be in class all day and study around class, so that will leave a lot more studying time right before the exam. I am not a fan of having class all day then having an exam 2-5 in the afternoon. I'd much rather have them at 8 AM and get them done.

I have got to find a better system of studying though, so I can keep up to speed on stuff and not have to cram so much right before the exam. This is not helpful to learning the material long term! That's what worries me the most. I've already forgotten most of the stuff that was on the cell midterm and it was just 4 weeks ago, how much will I remember 3 years from now 😱 when I need it in clinics.
 
squirrelsrule said:
Hang in there DVM Dream, I think we're all feeling behind about now. I am just soooooooooooooooooooo happy that we only have 2 more exams and then get a little break (big break for most, but we have an anatomy exam on November 5th, I like studying anatomy though). The midterms have been crazy enough with them being spread out over a couple weeks, I am NOT looking forward to finals where we have one a day. I guess it will be a little different though, because we won't have to be in class all day and study around class, so that will leave a lot more studying time right before the exam. I am not a fan of having class all day then having an exam 2-5 in the afternoon. I'd much rather have them at 8 AM and get them done.

I have got to find a better system of studying though, so I can keep up to speed on stuff and not have to cram so much right before the exam. This is not helpful to learning the material long term! That's what worries me the most. I've already forgotten most of the stuff that was on the cell midterm and it was just 4 weeks ago, how much will I remember 3 years from now 😱 when I need it in clinics.
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I am trying to hang in there. I went from being over 20 lectures behind to being about 15 lectures behind.. It is frustrating. I am glad that we have the week off before exams to study, but a week is definitely not enough time to cram in everything. I have been thinking the same things, how will I remember this in x years, but I have to remind myself that I had anatomy last 3 years ago and when we started anatomy this year the information just appeared.. It was crazy how much I actually remembered... I forgot quite a bit too, but I retained more than I expected. So, the information works its way in there, you may have to review some of it, but the basics are in there. 🙂
 
Sometimes I wonder why I am putting myself through this. I could have a job and live comfortably with my boyfriend in our own place. I wouldn't have to go weeks without seeing him.
Instead, we are 600 miles away and I'm in my 4 bedroom apartment with 3 other people. Ugh..
We have an anatomy lecture and lab exam tomorrow on the thorax and some material from the thoracic and pelvic limb (review). Then we have a microbio exam on Friday, which includes a crash course in virology.:scared:
 
psilovethomas said:
Sometimes I wonder why I am putting myself through this. I could have a job and live comfortably with my boyfriend in our own place. I wouldn't have to go weeks without seeing him.
Instead, we are 600 miles away and I'm in my 4 bedroom apartment with 3 other people. Ugh..
We have an anatomy lecture and lab exam tomorrow on the thorax and some material from the thoracic and pelvic limb (review). Then we have a microbio exam on Friday, which includes a crash course in virology.:scared:
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I think we all wonder the same thing at some point. I have wondered it multiple times. Is it really worth being thousands of miles away from my family, pets, and friends? Is it worth all of this additional stress that moving to another country has created? But, I keep coming to the conclusion that it will be worth it, in the end. Just hang in there. I am just counting down the days until I see my family, that is what is keeping me going right now.
 
DVMDream said:
I am trying to hang in there. I went from being over 20 lectures behind to being about 15 lectures behind.. It is frustrating. I am glad that we have the week off before exams to study, but a week is definitely not enough time to cram in everything. I have been thinking the same things, how will I remember this in x years, but I have to remind myself that I had anatomy last 3 years ago and when we started anatomy this year the information just appeared.. It was crazy how much I actually remembered... I forgot quite a bit too, but I retained more than I expected. So, the information works its way in there, you may have to review some of it, but the basics are in there. 🙂
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A week off before exams is AMAZING! We have the Monday off so a 3 day weekend and then exams start one a day Tuesday to Friday and the following Monday and Tuesday 🙁. Only have exam then study time though, so hoping that helps. Gonna really have to make the effort to keep caught up, though, because I will not be able to cram that all in in that amount of time! They were kind to give us Anatomy on the Monday of the following week with just that and then animal behavior the following day so we'll have the weekend to study just anatomy. However, I wish they would have organized the previous week better because we have Epidemiology first (heard that one's brutal but it's only 20% of our grade so I will pass even if I fail it miserably if I keep my grade up where it is now), then radiology- won't be too bad but hoping for a better grade than on the midterm so I'll have an A, then it gets bad with Pathology on Thursday, followed by Histology on Friday. Those two are my worst and I hate that they're always close together (this week we have Path tomorrow and Histo friday). It'll be OK though 🙂.
 
squirrelsrule said:
A week off before exams is AMAZING! We have the Monday off so a 3 day weekend and then exams start one a day Tuesday to Friday and the following Monday and Tuesday 🙁. Only have exam then study time though, so hoping that helps. Gonna really have to make the effort to keep caught up, though, because I will not be able to cram that all in in that amount of time! They were kind to give us Anatomy on the Monday of the following week with just that and then animal behavior the following day so we'll have the weekend to study just anatomy. However, I wish they would have organized the previous week better because we have Epidemiology first (heard that one's brutal but it's only 20% of our grade so I will pass even if I fail it miserably if I keep my grade up where it is now), then radiology- won't be too bad but hoping for a better grade than on the midterm so I'll have an A, then it gets bad with Pathology on Thursday, followed by Histology on Friday. Those two are my worst and I hate that they're always close together (this week we have Path tomorrow and Histo friday). It'll be OK though 🙂.
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So many exams, kind of wish we had exams constantly at least it would motivate me to study, our next exam isn't until the end of November. It will cover pathology, immunology, inflammation, parasitology, virology and bacteriology... Lots of information on one exam.. which is why I need to keep on things, but since the exam is so far off my procrastination prone brain just sees all this time for studying... 🙄
 
Fall break! 😍

I'm on a spay/neuter trip put on by my school, staying in a ridiculously swanky (really, that's the only word) beach house. View from the deck outside my room:

afecz.jpg
 
It is true that eventually you start to see time in terms of exams. I am going to see someone at a conference in a few weeks and I almost messaged them back to say yep it's just 3 exams away :laugh:.

Fall break, how nice! Enjoy. We get Thanksgiving break, but no fall break I don't think.

Pathology midterm tomorrow :scared:, I feel I'm as ready now as I'm gonna get, so just looking forward to getting it done and over with. Hoping for an A accepting A or B 🙂. Won't be terribly disappointed as long as I pass.
 
squirrelsrule said:
It is true that eventually you start to see time in terms of exams. I am going to see someone at a conference in a few weeks and I almost messaged them back to say yep it's just 3 exams away :laugh:.

Fall break, how nice! Enjoy. We get Thanksgiving break, but no fall break I don't think.

Pathology midterm tomorrow :scared:, I feel I'm as ready now as I'm gonna get, so just looking forward to getting it done and over with. Hoping for an A accepting A or B 🙂. Won't be terribly disappointed as long as I pass.
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I was also shooting for an A or B...until I realized that you can only get 10 wrong to get an 80!!

I love this class!! Hoping for a good exam!
 
It's 10 out of 50, though. And we got the cases for 12 of the questions, so those shouldn't be bad, plus we got the 6 questions from the one lecture (I sure hope he was serious that those are the 6 questions he'll ask!) so that's 18 questions. If you narrow all others down to 2 choices and get half of them right, you'd be at a 17. So, hope that there's about 14 additional questions that you know, which there should be since we got the study guide for some of it and it wasn't too bad.

I am worried about the parasites (majorly, I made a chart, but haven't actually learned any of it 😱) and the characteristics of the white blood cells (I get it all mixed up in my head).

I did what I could though, so I'm ready to just get it over with. We have 3 hours free during the day before the exam, plus I'm studying an hour before school. Hoping to get the white blood cell characteristics in my head this morning then look at the chart I made during the day today and hopefully it will all magically come back to my mind during the exam. Even if I don't do as well as I had hoped, I'm focusing on all the stuff I've learned, I mean just think about where you are now compared to where you were day one of school! We've learned sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much!

Plus it's Monday 😀, I just can't help but smile on Monday because the weekend is over (I am starting to really dislike weekends because I study 10+ hours a day). Looking forward to the upcoming weekend, though, because I'm going home 😀. It'll be OK, though, I have confidence that we are both gonna pass and we WILL be second years next year!
 
I'm behind, in most of my classes, but the boyfriend and I are really good right now. I guess that's the trade off, and while I want to do better in school, I'm ok with where I'm at.

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Jamr0ckin said:
I'm behind, in most of my classes, but the boyfriend and I are really good right now. I guess that's the trade off, and while I want to do better in school, I'm ok with where I'm at.

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👍
😀
 
Emiloo4 said:
Came on to pathetically make a point and defend my honor 😉

Grade on test: C

:lame:
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You passed! Considering what you've had going on, thats a pretty good accomplishment by itself. I can tell you that first year second semester when I had people back home dying/sister dealing with illness/parents divorcing and bitching about each other all time...most of my grades on the exams during the worst times were not in C range haha. Thank goodness for nice professors who helped me through it, gave me tips/ shoulders to cry on, and I'm pretty sure in one case, gave me a few extra points because there is no way my grade should have been as high as it was!
 
cowgirla said:
You passed! Considering what you've had going on, thats a pretty good accomplishment by itself. I can tell you that first year second semester when I had people back home dying/sister dealing with illness/parents divorcing and bitching about each other all time...most of my grades on the exams during the worst times were not in C range haha. Thank goodness for nice professors who helped me through it, gave me tips/ shoulders to cry on, and I'm pretty sure in one case, gave me a few extra points because there is no way my grade should have been as high as it was!
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Thanks 🙂 Yeah I'm fine with it. Got a B in the class so whatever. Just wanted to show nyanko that doing poorly on a test is definitely not an A- to me 😉
 
Anatomy midterm is over. The lecture portion was fine, the lab portion not so much. I spent so much time in the lab going over everything and it didn't translate. I don't know what happened. I think I passed but barely. Glad it is over.
 
Pathology midterm went much better than expected 😀. Now just one more midterm on Friday. Saved the worst for last 🙁. Need to do the review questions and some serious studying or I'll fail.
 
We have a couple of professors who will notoriously not get through their entire lecture, so the end of the lecture is rushed and then the professor will say, "Ok. There is some more information there at the end, go read it. You are responsible for it."

Today the professor not only didn't finish the lecture but decided to go OVER time on the lecture to speed read through a couple of slides (which at that point no one was listening to) and then he didn't even finish the topic that he was attempting to speed read through once the lecture had technically ended. If you are going to waste time and go over time on the lecture, just finish the damn thing, don't half ass it and then still leave us with crap to cover at home. It is very annoying and not worth my time.
 
DVMDream said:
We have a couple of professors who will notoriously not get through their entire lecture, so the end of the lecture is rushed and then the professor will say, "Ok. There is some more information there at the end, go read it. You are responsible for it."

Today the professor not only didn't finish the lecture but decided to go OVER time on the lecture to speed read through a couple of slides (which at that point no one was listening to) and then he didn't even finish the topic that he was attempting to speed read through once the lecture had technically ended. If you are going to waste time and go over time on the lecture, just finish the damn thing, don't half ass it and then still leave us with crap to cover at home. It is very annoying and not worth my time.
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yes x 1000
This happened so much during second year that my classmates made a video about it for skit night:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6ArKyfqD2k
 
About once a week we get an email from our Dean about professors running over. Not sure how every one else's schedules are, but when you sit in the same seat of the same classroom all day long, your ten minute breaks and 40 minute lunch are GOLDEN. When professors run over.... 😡
Don't get me wrong, I hate to complain about anything bc I am very very grateful to be here and these professors are clearly due the respect of sitting for as long as they want us to, but when the dean is constantly up their butts about running over... why do they still do it?! 🙄

Our dean is really good about it though, and she is always on them about making sure we get a FULL ten minutes for each break. 😍
 
Emiloo4 said:
About once a week we get an email from our Dean about professors running over. Not sure how every one else's schedules are, but when you sit in the same seat of the same classroom all day long, your ten minute breaks and 40 minute lunch are GOLDEN. When professors run over.... 😡
Don't get me wrong, I hate to complain about anything bc I am very very grateful to be here and these professors are clearly due the respect of sitting for as long as they want us to, but when the dean is constantly up their butts about running over... why do they still do it?! 🙄

Our dean is really good about it though, and she is always on them about making sure we get a FULL ten minutes for each break. 😍
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Never before have I loved a 10 minute break so much... 😍

I honestly would not care if the lecturer went over, but please FINISH the lecture if you do so, otherwise why are you wasting part of my break? 😡


Then again we have a full 3 hour break between morning and afternoon lectures this Friday and I am wavering between staying and studying or leaving early... the latter is currently winning.
 
Managed to pull out a great score on my histo "quiz," which was a pleasant surprise considering that I walked out of the practical portion feeling AWFUL about myself. Still maintaining my grade in the class!

I also had a dream that I got an A on our anatomy exam on Monday. Then I woke up and cried a little because I am super nervous about it.

In other news, I baked a bajillion things this weekend and my class got muffins Monday, and both birthday girls got brownies!
 
Whyevernot55 said:
Managed to pull out a great score on my histo "quiz," which was a pleasant surprise considering that I walked out of the practical portion feeling AWFUL about myself. Still maintaining my grade in the class!

I also had a dream that I got an A on our anatomy exam on Monday. Then I woke up and cried a little because I am super nervous about it.

In other news, I baked a bajillion things this weekend and my class got muffins Monday, and both birthday girls got brownies!
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Note to self: Spend more time in the first year classroom
 
cowgirla said:
Note to self: Spend more time in the first year classroom
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We have a large number of bakers apparently - most birthdays, someone has baked something for the birthday person. And people frequently come in on Mondays with something tasty. It is fantastically fattening.
 
Oh Histology, how I wish I hadn't ignored you all semester 🙁. 26 hours til exam time :scared:.
 
Anatomy exam in 2.5 hours :scared:
Not feeling as well prepared for this one as the others.... Lord help me! 😱
 
On average, how many hours do you all spend in class? Including lectures/labs/discussions/CBL/PBL, etc. we are capped at 20 hours per week here at Davis. I believe this is a feature of the new curriculum approach and was wondering how things varied with other programs.
 
August West said:
On average, how many hours do you all spend in class? Including lectures/labs/discussions/CBL/PBL, etc. we are capped at 20 hours per week here at Davis. I believe this is a feature of the new curriculum approach and was wondering how things varied with other programs.
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We have class M-F from either 9-4 or 9-5. Figure in time for travel to and from the vet school which is about an hour each way for me. I would say I spenf somewhere between 35-45 hours/ week at school and traveling to and from school. We do have at least one hour break each day, sometimes 2, just depends on the day.
 
August West said:
On average, how many hours do you all spend in class? Including lectures/labs/discussions/CBL/PBL, etc. we are capped at 20 hours per week here at Davis. I believe this is a feature of the new curriculum approach and was wondering how things varied with other programs.
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How does this work?? That's only 4 hours a day! What is your normal day like?
 
Kpowell14 said:
How does this work?? That's only 4 hours a day! What is your normal day like?
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I'd say on average we'll have 3 lectures (50 minutes each) and then either a microscopy lab, animal lab or other discussion or CBL/PBL for an hour or two in the afternoon. It varies, though, but that is pretty much as long of a day as we'll experience. Some days are even thinner. It feels surreal at times and I am under the impression that this is not typical of other DVM programs.
 
August West said:
On average, how many hours do you all spend in class? Including lectures/labs/discussions/CBL/PBL, etc. we are capped at 20 hours per week here at Davis. I believe this is a feature of the new curriculum approach and was wondering how things varied with other programs.
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I'm in class from 9-5 normally with an hour at noon for lunch. Sometimes it's a bit more if I have a VBMA course or my wildlife elective that day.
 
I've noticed that at least here, first year was 8:30am-4:30pm solid every week. Second year has been like oh right, class. We're averaging ~25hrs a week and I think the number of times I've been home after 3pm has been very few indeed. Mostly because our labs don't go the full time, we have an hour for lunch, we have tutorials for pharm 1hr each but you only have to go to 1 out of 4 per week, diagnostic imaging lab is only every OTHER Friday morning (final for that class is Monday, though, so free Friday mornings from here on out 😀) etc.
 
9-5 or 9-3. Sometimes our exams will be at 8am. We get an hour for lunch. So probably ~32 hours/week.

I am sooo tired...I just want to go home and sleep. Doing PBL in histo today..Need to study for virology/immunology exam tomorrow..😴
 
Our days vary. I was done at noon today, but on Monday, class and labs ran until 5. We often have 2 hour breaks because of labs being spilt up due to size.

We always have 10 minute breaks between classes (I can't remember a professor going over more than a minute) and we have an hour for lunch, no matter what.

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August West said:
I'd say on average we'll have 3 lectures (50 minutes each) and then either a microscopy lab, animal lab or other discussion or CBL/PBL for an hour or two in the afternoon. It varies, though, but that is pretty much as long of a day as we'll experience. Some days are even thinner. It feels surreal at times and I am under the impression that this is not typical of other DVM programs.
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It's not typical of the curriculum that preceded yours either. We are in class much more than 20 hours per week (usually more on the order of 30-35 hours). It was definitely part of the new curriculum's learner centered approach.
 
nyanko said:
It's not typical of the curriculum that preceded yours either. We are in class much more than 20 hours per week (usually more on the order of 30-35 hours). It was definitely part of the new curriculum's learner centered approach.
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I must say that I really like the new curricular approach. It affords us plenty of time to get various clinical exposures and club involvement outside of the classroom, along with early exposure to the clinical rotations and PBL/CBL self-learning experience. More importantly, it helps me work on my crossover on the b-ball courts, my tan and get drunk with the ladies.

The fact that most of our entire class is still looking refreshed and all smiles is a testament to the new curriculum, which I believe you helped construct (??) Now whether or not we will be prepared for our boards and post-academic professional life is another story... 🙄
 
:GASPING FOR AIR:


We're starting our second week of 2-exam weeks and there's no end in sight 'til Thanksgiving break.

Just a quick death, please. Just a quick one. 👍
 
August West said:
The fact that most of our entire class is still looking refreshed and all smiles is a testament to the new curriculum, which I believe you helped construct (??) Now whether or not we will be prepared for our boards and post-academic professional life is another story... 🙄
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I think the class of 2015 can tell you that it will definitely start to get more intense by the end of this semester. However, the goal is actually to make it "stick" better in the long term by trying to decrease the binge and purge crap that we do - I don't really think that sitting in a classroom for 35 hours a week and having 2 exams in totally different subjects per week is really conductive to long term retention, so I doubt you guys or 2015 will be 'behind' at all when it comes to preparation for boards/vet med as a career just because you had less classroom time.

And yes, I'm on the curriculum committee.
 
hopefulinva said:
:GASPING FOR AIR:


We're starting our second week of 2-exam weeks and there's no end in sight 'til Thanksgiving break.

Just a quick death, please. Just a quick one. 👍
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I know the feeling! Last exam tomorrow for me, but it's been a rough few weeks with exam after exam. Looking forward to the weekend. Now to just keep studying just a little longer to try and pull off a miracle and pass my histo exam tomorrow.
 
Our schedule

We're pretty much in class 8-4:30 Monday, Wednesday, Friday - Tues/Thurs really depend on what laboratory is scheduled. There are a couple elective classes, too, but really very few - most of our coursework outside of the core classes is during full-time selectives at the end of the semester.

I'm in zoological rounds, so I personally have another class 4:15-6pm on Thursdays, which can make that day very, veerrryyy long.
 
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