Class of 2020... how you doin?

Veterinary School Application Advising Ad
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Members do not see this ad.
Just got out of our second histophys exam. I think I've accepted that my confidence in doing well on an exam is oddly in inverse proportion to how much time I actually spend studying. Seriously, I just helped out with interviews all weekend so I spent last night and this morning cramming, and based on me going through Wikipedia and all of the lectures again, I think I did really well. Which is good, because my grade needs it.

Meanwhile, I study a good 30 hours for an anatomy exam and borderline fail. 🙄 I don't understand vet school. I really don't.

Also, welcome back VMH! I missed you! :joyful:
 
SandstormDVM said:
Just got out of our second histophys exam. I think I've accepted that my confidence in doing well on an exam is oddly in inverse proportion to how much time I actually spend studying. Seriously, I just helped out with interviews all weekend so I spent last night and this morning cramming, and based on me going through Wikipedia and all of the lectures again, I think I did really well. Which is good, because my grade needs it.

Meanwhile, I study a good 30 hours for an anatomy exam and borderline fail. 🙄 I don't understand vet school. I really don't.

Also, welcome back VMH! I missed you! :joyful:
Click to expand...
The studying less method works! 😀
 
Does anyone know anything about a Glass Dog/Glass Horse program from Georgia? We got shown some stuff today in anatomy on it, but I haven't been able to find how to obtain it.
 
Teepster87 said:
Does anyone know anything about a Glass Dog/Glass Horse program from Georgia? We got shown some stuff today in anatomy on it, but I haven't been able to find how to obtain it.
Click to expand...
I own the Glass Horse programs. I bought them through our school's Equine Club but it looks like you can buy them here - http://www.3dglasshorse.com/ http://www.sciencein3d.com/products.html
They programs themselves are pretty outdated as far as technology goes but the information is good. The colic videos are most helpful for me.
 
The glass horse colic videos are basically the only reason I understood all the stupid ways their abdomen can contort. Our library has the CDs available for rental, see if yours does if you want to check'em out.
 
I think we have those in our library... the syllabus said something about the glass horse resources being available. I'm really naive; i actually kind of wandered around the librady one day thinking they had a life size horse made of glass and looking for it...
 
Teepster87 said:
Does anyone know anything about a Glass Dog/Glass Horse program from Georgia? We got shown some stuff today in anatomy on it, but I haven't been able to find how to obtain it.
Click to expand...

I don't, but in case it hasn't filtered through yet, students should check out the IVALALearn 3D Anatomy on VIN. Students get free VIN access (or at least use to when I was a student?), and the 3D Anatomy module they just added is pretty slick. It is Canine-centric, but they do have an Equine distal limb module, Equine abdomen, Equine skull, and Feline skull. They also have a Canine echocardiogram sim module.

It's pretty nifty. You can click on anatomical features in a list to add them/take them away from the picture, rotate/zoom the picture ... it has a 'test' mode where you can click on the feature, type in its name, and see if you're right ... all-in-all it has potential to be a super useful tool to anatomy students.

Link (VIN access required): http://www.vin.com/members/cms/project/defaultadv1.aspx?id=4442294&pid=549&

If you want to see what it looks like and don't (yet?) have VIN access, IVALA has a promo video at: https://www.ivalalearn.com/
 
Last edited:
I was out late-ish last night, but not that late, and I only went to bed an hour later than usual. Still, ended up oversleeping by a little over an hour. No chance of getting to school in time for the first lecture, and wasn't willing to rush to get to the second. But I forgot that it's almost impossible to park if you arrive between 9 and noon. So I missed the third lecture too because I couldn't find a damn parking spot. Driving around the lot for half an hour was great.

But free dinner so overall the day was a win in my book.
 
I have a clinical pathology exam on Monday and it's going to be ROUGH. There's something like 24 lectures to study. So much material and I'm wondering how I'm going to get through all of it. Pretty much everyone is super overwhelmed right now.
 
been off this for a while trying to get my life together since starting this so called vet school! I think I have it together..... but then again maybe not..... cell bio exam tomorrow on metabolism is going to be killer..... never had real biochem class before
 
WildZoo said:
I was out late-ish last night, but not that late, and I only went to bed an hour later than usual. Still, ended up oversleeping by a little over an hour. No chance of getting to school in time for the first lecture, and wasn't willing to rush to get to the second. But I forgot that it's almost impossible to park if you arrive between 9 and noon. So I missed the third lecture too because I couldn't find a damn parking spot. Driving around the lot for half an hour was great.

But free dinner so overall the day was a win in my book.
Click to expand...

That's when you give up on being awake, curl back up in bed, and try again the next day.

I mean like, as soon as you realize you have officially missed lecture 1. Unless you know something important or interesting is going down in lecture 2 or 3.
 
twelvetigers said:
That's when you give up on being awake, curl back up in bed, and try again the next day.

I mean like, as soon as you realize you have officially missed lecture 1. Unless you know something important or interesting is going down in lecture 2 or 3.
Click to expand...
Guest lecturer in lecture 3 and it was his last day, and then I was going to have to be there for lecture 4 because no lecture capture for that class, and then had lab in the afternoon.
 
SandstormDVM said:
Urgh. Just... urgh.
Click to expand...

just want to commiserate about anatomy with you. we have our second test coming up on monday and each test is five hours long (2 1/2 lab, 2 1/2 written) and it's cumulative, including information from the first test, and the lab room of course smells like dead things so it's like spending 2 1/2 hours inside a giant coffin. Can't wait!
I feel slightly better though knowing we're all going through this together 🙂
 
ImAVet said:
been off this for a while trying to get my life together since starting this so called vet school! I think I have it together..... but then again maybe not..... cell bio exam tomorrow on metabolism is going to be killer..... never had real biochem class before
Click to expand...
You got this!!
 
WildZoo said:
Went to necropsy rounds today while starving. That was an interesting experience.
Click to expand...
My anatomy lab is right before lunch, so it feels weird to be wanting food so bad but dissecting an animal. We've made some strange comparisons to what foods some body parts look like!
 
lilylilac said:
My anatomy lab is right before lunch, so it feels weird to be wanting food so bad but dissecting an animal. We've made some strange comparisons to what foods some body parts look like!
Click to expand...
It all looks like hamburgers to me!

And an occasional hot dog+bun (quadriceps femoris).
 
When the girl with a masters in immunology says the first year immuno professor confuses her....ya
 
@SandstormDVM, have you talked to professional about how you are feeling? Honestly, I think it is time to reach out and get some help, but do not forget that we, your classmates, your family/friends, and your professors are also all here for you! If you feel yourself falling please reach out to us so we can catch you 🙂. I know there is a "stigma" about getting help for depression and mental health issues, but it is simply not true. No one is going to belittle you for reaching out. You might find yourself doing better in school even. Heck, there was some study quoted at us first year that 1/3rd of our class would be clinically depressed by the end of first year.. you are NOT alone, so do not feel like you are stupid or not good enough. Everyone is struggling right there with you, and please trust me when I say that you are good enough. Do not let impostor syndrome convince you that you are not good or smart enough for this profession. Because you are.


My PM box is always open if you need to vent 🙂
 
Sandstorm, I need to get back to studying for a test I'm wholly unprepared for 😛 but I wanted to respond to you; I'm going to be blunt and honest here so please don't take it as being harsh. I do believe right now your mindset may be contributing to your performance. You're definitely not stupid, you made it to vet school. This **** is tough, it's constant, and there's no breaks with little time to decompress (at least that's how it feels to me).

We all do poorly at times, and most of us will never perform at the perfectionist-levels that we want; that's just life. But, if you look at yourself negatively and start going down that path, it will simply exacerbate the problem. Many times, what you play back in your head over and over again manifests itself in the real world. I'm not saying to write little post-it note affirmations and stick them all over the walls of your apartment, I'm just saying you might need to change how you're talking to yourself. If that involves counseling, do it. If it involves getting back on anti-depressants (with some counseling mixed in), do it. But please don't constantly live your life thinking how the admissions committee made a mistake accepting you, about that next F that's going to make you fail out, and yadda yadda yadda, because it truly gets you nowhere, makes you feel bad, and will likely hinder your performance further.

I do realize it's easier said than done, and if you ever need to talk, PM me. Take care of yourself. You got this.
 
Last edited:
Ashgirl said:
@SandstormDVM, have you talked to professional about how you are feeling? Honestly, I think it is time to reach out and get some help, but do not forget that we, your classmates, your family/friends, and your professors are also all here for you! If you feel yourself falling please reach out to us so we can catch you 🙂. I know there is a "stigma" about getting help for depression and mental health issues, but it is simply not true. No one is going to belittle you for reaching out. You might find yourself doing better in school even. Heck, there was some study quoted at us first year that 1/3rd of our class would be clinically depressed by the end of first year.. you are NOT alone, so do not feel like you are stupid or not good enough. Everyone is struggling right there with you, and please trust me when I say that you are good enough. Do not let impostor syndrome convince you that you are not good or smart enough for this profession. Because you are.


My PM box is always open if you need to vent 🙂
Click to expand...

wheelin2vetmed said:
Sandstorm, I need to get back to studying for a test I'm wholly unprepared for 😛 but I wanted to respond to you; I'm going to be blunt and honest here so please don't take it as being harsh. I do believe right now your mindset may be contributing to your performance. You're definitely not stupid, you made it to vet school. This **** is tough, it's constant, and there's no breaks with little time to decompress (at least that's how it feels to me).

We all do poorly at times, and most of us will never perform at the perfectionist-levels that we want; that's just life. But, if you look at yourself negatively and start going down that path, it will simply exacerbate the problem. Many times, what you play back in your head over and over again manifests itself in the real world. I'm not saying to write little post-it note affirmations and stick them all over the walls of your apartment, I'm just saying you might need to change how you're talking to yourself. If that involves counseling, do it. If it involves getting back on anti-depressants (with some counseling mixed in), do it. But please don't constantly live your life thinking how the admissions committee made a mistake accepting you, about that next F that's going to make you fail out, and yadda yadda yadda, because it truly gets you nowhere, makes you feel bad, and will likely hinder your performance further.

I do realize it's easier said than done, and if you ever need to talk, PM me. Take care of yourself. You got this.
Click to expand...
Thanks, guys. I'm feeling quite a bit better today. 😍

Decided to skip the non-mandatory lectures today so that I could come home and just decompress for a few hours before hitting the grindstone hard. I'm really hoping to crush this anatomy test next week. I guess the good news is that after radiology and anatomy next week, and then histophysiology the week after, we're pretty much test-free until finals, so I can FINALLY breathe a bit and play catch-up with the material after this hellish past month. Just have to survive three more tests...

W2VM, I don't think you were harsh at all. No worries, and I suspect that you're right. I've always been terrible at the whole positive self-talk thing; I tried to improve my outlook on things in undergrad, which helped, but the stress of vet school seems to have made me regress a bit. I think it will start to get better as I continue to adjust to the workload.

Seriously, though. I know some of the things I posted were probably a little scary, but I promise I'm okay. I'm not going to do anything drastic. Even just venting helped out so, so much, as did recieving all of the comments and messages (both on here and on FB) from other students sharing their stories and reassuring me that things will work out and that impostor syndrome is a female dog. :laugh:

I really, truly appreciate it. I'm going to continue speaking with a counselor and I am going to do my damnedest to rock these next few tests and finals so that I can actually hopefully end this semester on a high note. And, even if not... hey, I tried, and at least I did well in 6/8 classes. That's not too shabby, really. Things could certainly be worse.

Thank you, everyone. 🙂
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Our second round of exams start Monday. I'm doing really well in everything but anatomy 🙁 it's just so not my thing and it just won't stick. I literally only care about passing at this point (don't even care if that's a marginal pass anymore---we do S/M/F grading here). I understand the material, I just have a hard time getting it to all stick, which is even more annoying.

So frustrating, but one of my friends is in the same position as me and we joke that if we fail at least we'll have each other when we repeat next year :laugh:
 
Our cvm has a guided meditation class every week for 30 minutes and almost no one goes. I went this past week and it helped so much. She gave strategies for getting through test anxiety and everything. It was extremely helpful and I'm going to continue going. Maybe there is something similar at your school, @SandstormDVM? Also try to look into more wellness/balance strategies. I've also found that helps even if I'm not spending that extra hour going over anatomy, the subsequent hours after some wellness time are usually far more productive and less stressful.
 
katashark said:
Our cvm has a guided meditation class every week for 30 minutes and almost no one goes. I went this past week and it helped so much. She gave strategies for getting through test anxiety and everything. It was extremely helpful and I'm going to continue going. Maybe there is something similar at your school, @SandstormDVM? Also try to look into more wellness/balance strategies. I've also found that helps even if I'm not spending that extra hour going over anatomy, the subsequent hours after some wellness time are usually far more productive and less stressful.
Click to expand...
Mindfulness stuff is so useful. Even if there aren't classes at school the Calm app can be pretty helpful, I used to use it a lot when I was hitting stressful parts of the semester.
 
Anybody have any methods for learning the actions of muscles? I am riding the struggle bus on that aspect of anatomy for sure 😕 So many random joint crossings you wouldn't expect!
 
awesomenessity said:
Anybody have any methods for learning the actions of muscles? I am riding the struggle bus on that aspect of anatomy for sure 😕 So many random joint crossings you wouldn't expect!
Click to expand...
I don't think I ever got all of them down but I did a combo of memorization and recall via notecards, consolidating muscles with similar actions into groups, and drawing simplistic diagrams.
 
awesomenessity said:
Anybody have any methods for learning the actions of muscles? I am riding the struggle bus on that aspect of anatomy for sure 😕 So many random joint crossings you wouldn't expect!
Click to expand...

Draw out the flexor surfaces! For the most part muscles either flex or extend X structure (plus some abduct, etc).

I drew a stick figure dog out and if I forgot would go off that. Actions I had down, insertions and orgins for things other than the front limb and neck.... haha
 
awesomenessity said:
Anybody have any methods for learning the actions of muscles? I am riding the struggle bus on that aspect of anatomy for sure 😕 So many random joint crossings you wouldn't expect!
Click to expand...

Ugh so hard for me too. One thing that helps me is thinking about if a muscle contracts, what moves? What does it pull on, and when it pulls on that what happens? Also forces you to think about origins and insertions at the same time.

I have a hard time with rote memorization, so if I can connect dots in some way like that, it goes a long way for me.
 
awesomenessity said:
Anybody have any methods for learning the actions of muscles? I am riding the struggle bus on that aspect of anatomy for sure 😕 So many random joint crossings you wouldn't expect!
Click to expand...
I used a combination of flashcards (via Anki's cloze deletion and image occlusion cards) and drawing. I would draw out one area of the body (say, the forelimb), and put each muscle into a group based upon if it was a flexor/extensor/adductor/abductor/etc. and which joint or structure it acted on. Then, I would color code those groups and color in the respective muscles while saying the name and function of the muscle aloud multiple times so that I could really burn it into memory, which helped quite a bit since I'm a pretty auditory learner.. For extra practice, I actually went through my big Miller's and colored in the muscles again, once again repeating the names and functions of the muscles as I did so. I'm actually doing the same thing for vessels right now.

Sounds super lame and dorky, but it seemed to work okay for me.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Guys I just found out how to import a bunch of notecards into Anki based on a word or excel table!!! So excite!!

I've only used it for basic cards so not sure if it would work for cloze deletion or anything, but I mostly do basics and image occlusion right now anyway.
 
WildZoo said:
Guys I just found out how to import a bunch of notecards into Anki based on a word or excel table!!! So excite!!

I've only used it for basic cards so not sure if it would work for cloze deletion or anything, but I mostly do basics and image occlusion right now anyway.
Click to expand...
Do tell me how to perform this magic.

I freaking adore Anki, but the time investment in making the cards is a bit crazy with the amount of material we're expected to know in vet school. Any time-saving methods like this one, I am very much interested in.
 
I mostly did a lot of dances to learn muscle actions. In general I learn best from hearing/speaking and from moving, so I incorporated those things into my studying a lot. I didn't remember what half of the muscles did until I thought about where they would be on me and acted it out. I danced a lot during tests last year.

I used to also come up with horrible puns and rhymes that helped me remember what things did or what animals had certain features.
 
SandstormDVM said:
Do tell me how to perform this magic.

I freaking adore Anki, but the time investment in making the cards is a bit crazy with the amount of material we're expected to know in vet school. Any time-saving methods like this one, I am very much interested in.
Click to expand...
Basically you save the excel sheet (if you made the table in word you can copy and paste it over to excel) as a CSV (comma delimited) file, and then you can import that into anki. You can do this with google sheets as well, just download as .csv

I was trying to figure out how to do it because there were existing notecard lists in a word document for some classes on our shared google drive, and it saved me a lot of time because I didn't have to make the notecards myself, just went over them to make sure everything was right and then imported. But I could also see using it to make notecards during class - it's a lot easier to keep track of your notecards and edit them in excel or word format (so you can start a notecard, leave the answer blank, and fill it in after class or whatever), and then just import them once they're done.
 
WildZoo said:
Basically you save the excel sheet (if you made the table in word you can copy and paste it over to excel) as a CSV (comma delimited) file, and then you can import that into anki. You can do this with google sheets as well, just download as .csv

I was trying to figure out how to do it because there were existing notecard lists in a word document for some classes on our shared google drive, and it saved me a lot of time because I didn't have to make the notecards myself, just went over them to make sure everything was right and then imported. But I could also see using it to make notecards during class - it's a lot easier to keep track of your notecards and edit them in excel or word format (so you can start a notecard, leave the answer blank, and fill it in after class or whatever), and then just import them once they're done.
Click to expand...

You can also do it in notepad (or notepad++), use commas for different cells, and save it as a CSV file if you find it awkward to type it in excel.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
WildZoo said:
Basically you save the excel sheet (if you made the table in word you can copy and paste it over to excel) as a CSV (comma delimited) file, and then you can import that into anki. You can do this with google sheets as well, just download as .csv

I was trying to figure out how to do it because there were existing notecard lists in a word document for some classes on our shared google drive, and it saved me a lot of time because I didn't have to make the notecards myself, just went over them to make sure everything was right and then imported. But I could also see using it to make notecards during class - it's a lot easier to keep track of your notecards and edit them in excel or word format (so you can start a notecard, leave the answer blank, and fill it in after class or whatever), and then just import them once they're done.
Click to expand...

SummerTheLynx said:
You can also do it in notepad (or notepad++), use commas for different cells, and save it as a CSV file if you find it awkward to type it in excel.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
Click to expand...
Sounds awesome! Thanks, guys! 🙂
 
SummerTheLynx said:
If you are able to recover enough pieces of your exploded brain, I would be able to provide enough pieces from when mine exploded to hopefully form 1 complete brain!


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
Click to expand...

Hopefully your pieces are good at histology.... because mine will be lacking those portions after tonight.
 
Pretty sure my brain melted and went down the shower drain. Thanks, biochem!

My dog is stretched out at my feet and snoring, and I have an exam in the morning. So jealous. I wish I were a dog. Then people would feed me all the time and tell me how cute I am, and I could sleep most of the day, and no one would care if I couldn't explain the tangled web that is blood coagulation because they'd just be proud that I didn't poop on the carpet.
 
alohacat319 said:
Hopefully your pieces are good at histology.... because mine will be lacking those portions after tonight.
Click to expand...
I'd let you borrow mine if I didn't have anatomy tests tomorrow!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

overcastkidjuno
Class of 2028... how you doin?
Replies
22
Views
4K
BioAg22
BioAg22
IvyMoose
Class of 2027... how you doin'?
2 3
Replies
114
Views
14K
thenontraveler
thenontraveler
K
Class of 2026... how you doin'?
3 4 5 6 7
Replies
303
Views
37K
futuredogtor614
futuredogtor614
PhiloslothicalStudent
Class of 2025... How you doin’?
6 7 8 9 10
Replies
490
Views
82K
TheGirlWithTheFernTattoo
TheGirlWithTheFernTattoo
K
Online, Self-Paced Animal Nutrition Class?
Replies
5
Views
543
Koffeekat
K
Top