(this is gonna be a loooooong af post since I haven't posted here in ages and feel like rambling rather than studying, lol)
I just had my first comparative anatomy exam of the semester yesterday (was supposed to be thursday but we had an ice day lol, yay extra study time). So far this anatomy class is waaaaaay more chill than last semester (here, we have the major dog/cat based Gross Anatomy in our first semester, then Comparative which focuses on large animals and is more of the species-specific structures and clinical relevance, rather than going deep into the details of every foramina and all that). Like CDO said, we aren't allowed to touch, but I think the anatomy team is pretty good about making the pinned/tagged/wired structures as clearly visible in orientation as possible. While it would be nice sometimes to touch specimens, I can understand why it's not allowed, and tbh I've rarely felt the urge to due to the clear labeling (I think there were rare occasions when a specimen/model would say OK to touch, usually when it was asking to identify a bone and which side it was from). Anyway, although I know I missed a few things, I feel really good about that test compared to our anatomy exams last semester! Not having to worry about remembering the stupid muscle attachments feels SOOO GOOD. I actually love anatomy as a subject of study, it just sucks when there's so much detailed material to regurgitate, so I'm finding this class more enjoyable than the first anatomy.
Unfortunately, our next exam coming up is in phys 3 on monday (about gut physio, specifically) and ugghhh that class is such a drag. The gut material is very biochem-esque, with a lot of neuro stuff too (parasymp, preganglionic, postganglionic, what?) and with the way the prof does his notes, I. cannot. ever. get myself to study this material. His PDFs are extremely detailed, and at 10-20 pages each there's so much dry material to go through and figure out what to focus on for the exam. We do have weekly quizzes, so I've had to do some semblance of keeping up, but so far I've consistently gotten around 75 on each quiz
makes me feel a little dumb, since a very large portion of the class has managed to keep 90s and even over 100...but hopefully I can bring my grade up with future exams over different subjects
Most of our lecture courses use scantron-based paper exams with maybe the occasional written question, but this prof hates MC questions and uses mostly long-format questions in which you must complete the paragraph by circling choices or filling in blanks. I agree with the people who said they need a paper exam so they can mark out answers, underline things, jot notes/diagrams, etc.--I'm a hardcore computer user in all other aspects of school, I rarely if ever crack open physical textbooks or handwrite notes, but I definitely prefer having a hard-copy exam for those reasons, and don't think I would enjoy computer-based testing for everything. BUT get this, this prof made an announcement to the class that he doesn't "need" or want students to make additional markings/notes of any kind on the quizzes. NO crossing out answer choices, NO making extra notes/diagrams in the margins, etc. WTF. i was
floored when he said that. I can understand wanting people to be reasonably neat for ease/clarity of grading, but it should be obvious that margin-notes and crossing-out etc. are just part of some students' exam process, including myself--not some kind of note or show-off for the grader. Scratch paper is not provided for the quizzes, idk if it will be for the exam. Just another reason to be annoyed with that class ig. I've honestly been sleeping in and attending those Phys III lectures less and less, since I zone out and thus don't get anything beneficial out of it...
So...random rambling, but reading some people's posts talking about a vet school level straight biochem course/course segment makes me infinitely grateful that my physio courses weren't set up that way, lmao. I'd also like to thank my vet tech education for including a Parasitology course, because now I feel like I can kinda put my parasit course on the back burner. Here we have 2 (or 3??) parasit courses in the core curriculum, and so far in Parasit I the material we've covered is nearly identical to the course I took in undergrad. So at this point, it's more of a refresher course for me rather than having to learn all of these nematodes' names and information from scratch, and I still have all my old notes/study charts. I feel bad about it since I like parasitology, but I've been sleeping in for some of those lectures as well...because the one thing I like less about this semester compared to last semester is the fact that we actually have 8ams now when we used to start most days at 9, and I have not been adjusting well
my overall feeling on vet school so far is...challenging, but honestly not nearly as bad as I feared based on descriptions! But, I think a lot of that is due to me being maybe-kinda-sorta used to this type of schedule from my last degree program (plus having a little bit of background in things like anatomy, parasitology, medical terminology, etc.) Being a jaded 26 year old who's been going through school for a long time instead of a fresh-outta-undergrad 22-23 y/o might also have something to do with it though, haha.
While the classes are obviously higher level in difficulty and quantity of info, I feel like I'm overall used to the schoolwork balance so that *MOST OF THE TIME*, it doesn't feel too overwhelming (except when it's like midterm time and there's 3 giant major exams coming in rapid fire...) I definitely would have been eaten alive if I'd gone straight from regular undergrad to this, and I've had to switch my studying style from cramming to reviewing a little bit each day. Some of my classmates obsess about total study time, or freak out about certain lower-credit-hour classes when they could instead be focusing their efforts more strategically...while I of course aim for a good grade, in the end I'm ok with just passing and focus a lot on obtaining learning experiences outside of class--I go to as many relevant wet labs as I can, and I try to make time to volunteer at the kitten shelter at least once a month. Will that bite me in the ass later, I don't know, but I don't vibe with putting myself through extra stress and turning down opportunities just to maybe make an A instead of a B or whatever. I take time to chill out on saturdays and I have never felt like I don't have time to care for my dog and guinea pigs (that being said, I'm lucky enough to live within walking distance of my school which cuts out a lot of commuting/petcare issues, and obtaining a
new dog would be a different story...). I was lucky, with my final exam scores I managed to pull off straight Bs in my core courses last semester (courses which at one point I thought I was on track for straight Cs in, lol). So I'm NOT a top student by any means, but I'm doing ok!
honestly slightly bitter that a full semester of professional school which took me 3 tries to get into was still 10x more doable than Physics and Ochem which totally haven't helped me!
if you read this whole thing you get a 👍
