Class of 2022...how you doin'?

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1) I never went into an exam feeling like I knew material because the exams are designed to be very tricky. So after a lot of curved exams, I studied a lot less than I should have bc “well it’s gunna get curved anyways.” Also I never felt good about leaving curved exams. Like I never feel relieved or happy to be done with it. I come away from an exam wondering how I did comparatively to others, and constantly worrying that I did worse than my peers.

2) Even if you get above the curve on one exam, how much better you do depends on the standard deviation. Same goes for bad scores. So even if you did way better than the mean, you won’t get a big grade boost unless you were like super stellar, as in 2+ SD’s above the mean

3) Generally, and this just might’ve been my undergrad culture, but it encouraged people to be less collaborative in orgo and whatnot because if you studied harder, you would theoretically do better than your friends and then get better grades, which would in turn improve your grade more.

So it bit me in the ass in several ways, lol
Ahh
See, my undergrad only curved things if we did spectacularly worse than previous years. So the curves were helpful for keeping us in line with other years. That’s why I couldn’t see why curves never helped you

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1) I never went into an exam feeling like I knew material because the exams are designed to be very tricky. So after a lot of curved exams, I studied a lot less than I should have bc “well it’s gunna get curved anyways.” Also I never felt good about leaving curved exams. Like I never feel relieved or happy to be done with it. I come away from an exam wondering how I did comparatively to others, and constantly worrying that I did worse than my peers.

2) Even if you get above the curve on one exam, how much better you do depends on the standard deviation. Same goes for bad scores. So even if you did way better than the mean, you won’t get a big grade boost unless you were like super stellar, as in 2+ SD’s above the mean

3) Generally, and this just might’ve been my undergrad culture, but it encouraged people to be less collaborative in orgo and whatnot because if you studied harder, you would theoretically do better than your friends and then get better grades, which would in turn improve your grade more.

So it bit me in the ass in several ways, lol
I could see part of the first one (here everyone fails bacT so no one fails bacT because it's always curved). At least for us, we still studied, but those exams were brutal, so it was nice to come out of it knowing you weren't really expected to do well.

That second part...really depends on how the curve is done I guess. Here at least, a lot of times something being "curved" is just everyone's score being boosted enough that the average is in normal range. Or everyone getting a certain number of points added. Or particular questions being dropped (which usually means everyone getting credit for them) if a higher % of the class missed it. I honestly have no idea how real curves work, but even if you aren't benefitting much, I always assumed everyone was benefitting some.

That last one...undergrad bull****. Shouldn't be a problem you see in vet school, with few exceptions. Tends to be much more collaborative.
 
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That second part...really depends on how the curve is done I guess.
In my undergrad every professor with a curve said that the curve would never hurt you. It was almost always one of two things: adding points to exams to raise the average grade to the average they want, or shifting the A/B/C/etc cutoffs so that a C is actually the class average. The A/B cutoffs would never raise from the standard in the syllabus though
 
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In my undergrad every professor with a curve said that the curve would never hurt you. It was almost always one of two things: adding points to exams to raise the average grade to the average they want, or shifting the A/B/C/etc cutoffs so that a C is actually the class average. The A/B cutoffs would never raise from the standard in the syllabus though
^^yeah I’ve had this
 
Also in terms of grades apparently my class is "particularly academic" as my immunology professor said... class averages have been B+s and A-s for most of our exams. Which you would think would be nice but it's kind of a stressful vibe being in a class of such high caliber. My Prof even said the higher ups are going to be upset if he doesn't have a good spread of grades because they don't want grade inflation

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Also in terms of grades apparently my class is "particularly academic" as my immunology professor said... class averages have been B+s and A-s for most of our exams. Which you would think would be nice but it's kind of a stressful vibe being in a class of such high caliber. My Prof even said the higher ups are going to be upset if he doesn't have a good spread of grades because they don't want grade inflation
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Our Lab Coordinator told us he literally has "no expectations for us anymore" because our quiz grades have been an average of 10-15% lower than the class before us :whistle:
 
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Our Lab Coordinator told us he literally has "no expectations for us anymore" because our quiz grades have been an average of 10-15% lower than the class before us :whistle:

Our teacher sent out an email after our nutrition midterm that said "I am sorry so many of you did poorly on the exam" so don't feel too bad:laugh:
 
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Our Lab Coordinator told us he literally has "no expectations for us anymore" because our quiz grades have been an average of 10-15% lower than the class before us :whistle:
LOL did he actually?

(As context for everyone not at our school, the class above us is the academically intense class, so they are making us look bad ;) )
 
LOL did he actually?

(As context for everyone not at our school, the class above us is the academically intense class, so they are making us look bad ;) )

He said that to a few of us haha. I guess we are just gunna look for the next four years :rolleyes:
 
How's everyone doing? I have my second round of exams starting Monday and am very unprepared. I would like to go hibernate for a few days instead and catch up on everything that needs done outside of school. :help:
 
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How's everyone doing? I have my second round of exams starting Monday and am very unprepared. I would like to go hibernate for a few days instead and catch up on everything that needs done outside of school. :help:

Hey!

I'm in your class and I want to know who you are! :)
 
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Theres 3 others on here from our class!
Wait wait... I want to know if you are going to let Raddy know who you are!! :shifty::shifty::shifty:

**** is insane! We had Histo written and practical this week, and then Bio chem on Monday which will end the 5 week spree of 1-2 exams per week! There is a halloween movie night on Monday, which apparently is the night that everyone gets the most trashed all semester. I used to think I was too old for that ****... but god damn, I am so ready for hydration5000.
 
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Wait wait... I want to know if you are going to let Raddy know who you are!! :shifty::shifty::shifty:

**** is insane! We had Histo written and practical this week, and then Bio chem on Monday which will end the 5 week spree of 1-2 exams per week! There is a halloween movie night on Monday, which apparently is the night that everyone gets the most trashed all semester. I used to think I was too old for that ****... but god damn, I am so ready for hydration5000.
Almost time to drown the sorrows!! I almost can't contain my excitement.:soexcited:
 
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Almost time to drown the sorrows!! I almost can't contain my excitement.:soexcited:
I'm about ready to drop kick AA metabolism outta this joint because listening to A on 1.75x is frying me :cow: Give me some of that blood coag handout style lecture which is so much easier to study. Too true -- can't wait. I'll have to come find you to have a cold one together. Make that 3, or 12 :shrug: Also, sadly, we aren't in Lab #2 together :beaver:
 
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Honestly so surprised and how much information Ive actually retained.

So far really enjoying this “one class at a time” thing! @StayingPositive2017 feels??
 
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After weeks of one test a week this is our first 2 test week and I am so tired -.- Our exam today has like 18 lectures on it including every cardio thing possible in physiology.
 
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Hahahahaha, we have a clinical correlations class, and guilty as charged for doing the same thing right now :whistle:

We're home free next week. Vietnamese round 2? // one of those med drinking socials that you went to before dinner in August :nod:

After weeks of one test a week this is our first 2 test week and I am so tired -.- Our exam today has like 18 lectures on it including every cardio thing possible in physiology.

Hang in there and good luck! We know how you feel :) 22 lectures for biochem on Monday. Break soon?
 
Honestly so surprised and how much information Ive actually retained.

So far really enjoying this “one class at a time” thing! @StayingPositive2017 feels??

Totally agree. Definitely working for me.
I'm jelly
In one day I might have completely unrelated lectures in 7 different subjects...cardiology, respiratory, radiology, zoonoses, multispecies medicine, reproduction, pharmacology (though significant overlap with cardio/resp this semester for that one). It feels a little absurd sometimes.
 
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I'm jelly
In one day I might have completely unrelated lectures in 7 different subjects...cardiology, respiratory, radiology, zoonoses, multispecies medicine, reproduction, pharmacology (though significant overlap with cardio/resp this semester for that one). It feels a little absurd sometimes.
I'm so glad that MN works really hard to integrate our program; microanatomy talks about the same things physiology does, we started immune tissues when we started immunology, we talked about signal pathways in biochem right before seeing them in cardio phys... It is extremely helpful.

Hang in there and good luck! We know how you feel :) 22 lectures for biochem on Monday. Break soon?

It wasn't too bad! We get out of class early but I have a lot of work this weekend... then on to studying for immunology!
 
Hahahahaha, we have a clinical correlations class, and guilty as charged for doing the same thing right now :whistle:

We're home free next week. Vietnamese round 2? // one of those med drinking socials that you went to before dinner in August :nod:



Hang in there and good luck! We know how you feel :) 22 lectures for biochem on Monday. Break soon?
tenor.gif

”Mel, am I ever going to see you again?”

ETA: I have an exam next Friday, so if everyone wants to get together again I could do after that.
 
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”Mel, am I ever going to see you again?”

ETA: I have an exam next Friday, so if everyone wants to get together again I could do after that.

I think we made all the ladies jealous ;) Ok cool beans -- let's see what's good closer to the time.
 
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I'm jelly
In one day I might have completely unrelated lectures in 7 different subjects...cardiology, respiratory, radiology, zoonoses, multispecies medicine, reproduction, pharmacology (though significant overlap with cardio/resp this semester for that one). It feels a little absurd sometimes.
On the other hand we have three exams next week, all for the same class (neuro/eye) A practical applications exam (re: reflexes, ophthalmic exam), a lab Anatomy exam, and a physiology/ whatever else they want to test us on final exam. Hopefully won't be too bad though...
 
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On the other hand we have three exams next week, all for the same class (neuro/eye) A practical applications exam (re: reflexes, ophthalmic exam), a lab Anatomy exam, and a physiology/ whatever else they want to test us on final exam. Hopefully won't be too bad though...
Nooope
nope nope nope
nope
 
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I have my first gross anatomy exam tomorrow. Wish me luck! I wish I were blessed with something other than the attention span of a goldfish
 
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This is not what I expected.

No matter how many times you hear about it from other people it doesn’t really sink in until it happens to you. I went from being a straight A student to hoping I can pull a 3.0 this semester so I can qualify for applying to scholarships. It is no longer possible to shine in vet school the way I did in undergrad. Everyone is extremely bright. Everyone is very qualified. Everyone is academically exceptional. You had some really cool veterinary experience with sea turtles in the Maldives? No big deal, Everyone has done something extraordinary (research on Narwhals in the arctic, killer whale necropsies, Mountain lion rehabilitation just to name a few). You are no longer special, you are just one speck in the sea of people who are also the cream of the crop. Coming to terms with being okay with what I used to consider mediocre can sometimes be a challenge.

But you know what? I am so incredibly lucky to be surrounded by such extraordinary people. Props to the CSU admissions department for choosing some of the most supportive, non-competitive, kindest people I’ve ever met. I am proud that one day these people will be my colleagues. We spend so much time in the classroom learning from professors, that its easy to overlook how much we have learned from each other. And its easy to forget how hard we all worked to be here, and how many years of our lives we dedicated to having a small chance to one day sit in the seats we are sitting in - a seat that over 2,000 people fought for. Somehow these people I’ve only spent two months with already feel like family, and even when I’m not doing as well as I’d like I find myself cheering them on when they are.

So yeah, some days I want to scream. I’m tired of feeling guilty all the time for doing something other than studying. I bet if I spent every waking moment of my life studying I’d be making straight A’s like in undergrad. But I don’t. Sometimes I watch Netflix. Sometimes I go to the gym. Sometimes I take a nap. And you know what I have instead of a 4.0? My sanity. And that, I’ve discovered, is the secret to vet school; every day, do what you need to do to stay sane. Somehow everything else works out.
 
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This is not what expected.

So yeah, some days I want to scream. I’m tired of feeling guilty all the time for doing something other than studying. I bet if I spent every waking moment of my life studying I’d be making straight A’s like in undergrad. But I don’t. Sometimes I watch Netflix. Sometimes I go to the gym. Sometimes I take a nap. And you know what I have instead of a 4.0? My sanity. And that, I’ve discovered, is the secret to vet school; every day, do what you need to do to stay sane. Somehow everything else works out.

This is so important. Take care of yourselves, everyone. Do whatever you've gotta do to stay healthy and happy in vet school.
 
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