Class of 2020... how you doin?

[Caiter92]

You don't have GPAs? How does that work?

All we have is class rank. We’re pass/marginal/fail, and they don’t assign letter grades or GPAs to us for a class. You’re ranked by class and then overall for the semester.

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[Caiter92]

Finally got scores back for the final I was most worried about and I passed! Now I can finally enjoy break

 

[KCgophervet]

Thank you! That makes sense since it's so variable. Where do you recommend to be in terms of class rank for lab animal?

totally depends on the program. Some prioritize top 10 % and some are more "not the bottom 10%.". Personally I think top 25-50% is good because you're in the range where you're smart and worked hard blah blah but also might be somewhat normal and not spending every second studying. Not that lower % is not smart but I digress

 

[britzen]

meanwhile at VMCVM...

pass >= 64
fail < 64

Sent from my SM-G892U using SDN mobile

 

[britzen]

You don't have GPAs? How does that work?

VMCVM uses the percentages you achieved in your classes to determine your class rank, and to my understanding your class rank is all they release.

(Somebody can correct me if I'm wrong).

Sent from my SM-G892U using SDN mobile

 

[Caiter92]

meanwhile at VMCVM...

pass >= 64
fail < 64

Sent from my SM-G892U using SDN mobile

Oh geeze, I’m jealous of this hahaha

Pass for us is 75-80 depending on the class. Marginal is above 72 typically (sometimes 70). Can I have this range instead

 

[britzen]

Oh geeze, I’m jealous of this hahaha

Pass for us is 75-80 depending on the class. Marginal is above 72 typically (sometimes 70). Can I have this range instead

They may raise the standards for 3rd year electives (I'll let you know when I get there in two years... I think the electives may even have *gasp* grades).

It's great for all the core mega courses the first two years though, for sure!

Sent from my SM-G892U using SDN mobile

 

[WildZoo]

meanwhile at VMCVM...

pass >= 64
fail < 64

Sent from my SM-G892U using SDN mobile

That's such an oddly specific number

Edit: or rather...evenly specific

 

[flameshock]

They may raise the standards for 3rd year electives (I'll let you know when I get there in two years... I think the electives may even have *gasp* grades).

It's great for all the core mega courses the first two years though, for sure!

Sent from my SM-G892U using SDN mobile

As a current third year, they don’t. And class rank will still continue into the elective shenanigans.

 

[Squeaksmom]

They've stacked the three hardest exams Wed/Thurs/Fri. Send help!

 

[SARdoghandler]

Oh my lord I just need to make it to Friday. Therapeutics exam tomorrow (and I am really bad at drugs until I have physically seen a case when I can use a specific drug), Theriogenology (which I have a low grade in) on Thursday, and a Food Animal Medicine and Surgery exam on Friday.

I love Food Animal. It is what I want to do when I grow up. What I do not love is having a cumulative exam in a 48 hour course worth 50% of my final grade. Am scare.

 

[SARdoghandler]

They've stacked the three hardest exams Wed/Thurs/Fri. Send help!

Haha get out of my head

 

[Squeaksmom]

Haha get out of my head

I posted first, so you must be in mine!

 

[awesomenessity]

I posted first, so you must be in mine!

Ya'll are dorks I just want Friday at 11:30 to be here... haha. We'll make it through guys!

 

[WildZoo]

Good luck!!!

Therapeutics exam tomorrow (and I am really bad at drugs until I have physically seen a case when I can use a specific drug)

I feel you on that. Pharm has been the bane of my existence the last three semesters.

 

[supershorty]

Is it 11:00 tomorrow yet?

 

[WildZoo]

Is it 11:00 tomorrow yet?

Yes

 

[Squeaksmom]

Is it 11:00 tomorrow yet?

Can it actually be 11:30 on Friday please?

 

[SARdoghandler]

My condensed review document for all the things I have to know on Friday's exam is 105 pages and 25k words.

 

[Caiter92]

My condensed review document for all the things I have to know on Friday's exam is 105 pages and 25k words.

YOU CAN DO IT!

Good luck guys! Almost there.

 

[Squeaksmom]

My condensed review document for all the things I have to know on Friday's exam is 105 pages and 25k words.

I feel like I might have to take the hit on like half of the old material, which is not inspiring confidence!

 

[Teepster87]

Cumulative finals are the worst! Hang in there y'all!

 

[supershorty]

DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE sleeping forever now baiiiiii

 

[supershorty]

Just hit me that today was my last day with my class and now I'm sad.

 

[Teepster87]

Just hit me that today was my last day with my class and now I'm sad.

A couple of my classmates are pausing for PhD work, and I think they're feeling the same way. It took awhile to build relationships with the class, and they aren't really connected to the classes theyll pick up in clinics with.
No one can take those relationships away. You may not be working directly with them for now, but you've always got a network to reach out to. And probably some trust worthy insight for when you hit clinics.

 

[Coopah]

Just took a final without studying because I'm running out of cares and I only needed a 36% to keep my A in the course. #yolo

How? My finals are always worth like 50% or more of my grade

 

[Coopah]

Our scale is pretty standard I think (it's close to what it was at my undergrad anyway) but yeah I would look more at the averages on the exams/in the classes to say whether it's "easier" or "harder". That's what I do to figure out which classes are harder here anyway. Like our average for respiratory was an 85, for cardio an 81, radiology a 79. Doesn't feel like much of a spread, but when you also know that people study their asses off for cario and radiology, it puts it into perspective.


90+ A 4.0
88-89 B+ 3.5
80-87 B 3.0
78-79 C+ 2.5
70-77 C 2.0
60-69 D 1.0
<60 F 0.0

And it is definitely never a thing here that professors would try to make an A unachievable. In most classes there's a typical bell curve.

Jesus this is nice! Add minuses to this scale and that's us. I feel so cheated lol

 

[supershorty]

How? My finals are always worth like 50% or more of my grade

We don’t have a ton of classes with cumulative finals - that wasn’t one that did, so the last exam wasn’t worth that much comparatively.

 

[Caiter92]

How? My finals are always worth like 50% or more of my grade

Don’t you guys usually only have two tests per unit though?

 

[Teepster87]

How? My finals are always worth like 50% or more of my grade

And you've got a 2 year cumulative test I've heard about. No thank you. That would annihilate me.

 

[Coopah]

Don’t you guys usually only have two tests per unit though?

No depending on the block though. We just had a two week block that was two tests. But for cardio we had 6 exams and the cumulative final was worth something like 47%.

And you've got a 2 year cumulative test I've heard about. No thank you. That would annihilate me.

Yeah the two year cumulative is terrifying but basically no one fails completely. You might fail a section but they let you retake that section. Basically, each block we have on the cumulative and we need at least a 70% on each section. 70% is a fail for basically everything anyways. Not that it's an F but if you get below a C you fail.

 

[Squeaksmom]

October (i.e. midterms) was a disaster, but I just found out that I passed all the things Four months til clinics....

 

[supershorty]

I just impulse-bought a fully articulated cat skeleton.

I regret nothing.

 

[supershorty]

Also, I slipped today when I went to pick up my skelecat and now seem to have acquired a skeledog too. Not sure how this happened.

 

[battie]

I would literally cut someone to get an A in a course weighted more than 0.75 of a credit

Same. Since we only get 9 real grades for our entire schooling, every point matters. My grandpa still swears that I ended up repeating first year with my 69.45% because they wanted the extra year of tuition.

 

[WildZoo]

Same. Since we only get 9 real grades for our entire schooling, every point matters. My grandpa still swears that I ended up repeating first year with my 69.45% because they wanted the extra year of tuition.

**** I didn't realize it was that close

 

[battie]

**** I didn't realize it was that close

Yeeeeaaaahhhhh........ They've included in every email so far this year (possibly last year, too), that rounding is not a thing at the end of each quarter and the end of the year. Sucks, but it is what it is at this point.

 

[Teepster87]

holy smokes! I've got like 2 days until I start clinics now. I've just got the sudden urge to go throw up now!

 

[WildZoo]

holy smokes! I've got like 2 days until I start clinics now. I've just got the sudden urge to go throw up now!

!!!!!!!!
You're gonna be great!

 

[Lupin21]

holy smokes! I've got like 2 days until I start clinics now. I've just got the sudden urge to go throw up now!

It'll be fine. Much better than the classroom.

 

[SkiOtter]

holy smokes! I've got like 2 days until I start clinics now. I've just got the sudden urge to go throw up now!

YAYYYY WOOOO YOURE GONNA DO GREAT.

 

[SARdoghandler]

Send help I've been back in classes for 39 minutes (labs all day yesterday) and I already want to go home and curl up in a ball

 

[PrincessButterCup]

Send help I've been back in classes for 39 minutes (labs all day yesterday) and I already want to go home and curl up in a ball

I have these feels too.

 

[Teepster87]

I had to rescue this from page 2.

Clinics isn't as terrible as I thought it would be. My tendency to just shout out the random things that come into my brain is showing some pretty strong early returns

 

[WildZoo]

Rescuing from page 2 again

I only had 3 days of class this week, and somehow i feel like I'm a month behind already

 

[supershorty]

Rescuing from page 2 again

I only had 3 days of class this week, and somehow i feel like I'm a month behind already

Same here except I haven’t started classes yet (yay for long winter break for grad students) and already feel behind!

 

[supershorty]

I've crammed reading books into this winter break, which is awesome except class starts on Tuesday and I have no idea what's going on in anything including my research projects.

Seems like a solid start to 2019.

But I've read 8 books so far this year, so that's something.

 

[WildZoo]

I've crammed reading books into this winter break, which is awesome except class starts on Tuesday and I have no idea what's going on in anything including my research projects.

Seems like a solid start to 2019.

But I've read 8 books so far this year, so that's something.

I'm so jealous! I didn't finish any of the books I meant to over break what books did you read?

 

[supershorty]

I'm so jealous! I didn't finish any of the books I meant to over break what books did you read?

1.) Evicted by Matthew Desmond
2.) The Radium Girls by Kate Moore (sooooo good)
3.) Just Mercy by Bryan Stephenson (also sooooo good)
4.) Antipode by Heather Heying
5.) When They Call You a Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele
6.) Me Before You by Jojo Moyes (somehow I hadn't read this even though it came out ages ago and is a movie now?)
7.) Locking Up Our Own by James Forman Jr.
8.) The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui (first graphic novel/illustrated memoir I'd ever read)

and now I'm reading The Cruelest Miles by Gay & Laney Salisbury, which is about the diphtheria outbreak in Nome, AK in the 1920s and the use of dogsleds to get them the antitoxin because nothing says a good story like the real-life Balto.

 

[Trilt]

and now I'm reading The Cruelest Miles by Gay & Laney Salisbury, which is about the diphtheria outbreak in Nome, AK in the 1920s and the use of dogsleds to get them the antitoxin because nothing says a good story like the real-life Balto.

Is it good so far? I mostly read/listen to non-fiction nowadays but have the hardest time getting good suggestions. That sounds super up my alley.