I failed my first vet school exam

[luvpup]

I am a 1VM, first semester in vet school and we just took our first anatomy exam and I completely failed it. I just want to cry about it. I studied so hard for it during the past month and I felt relatively confident, but now I feel like I am not smart enough or worthy to continue. We are picking up on exams starting Monday, so I do not have the luxury to study for weeks for a single test/course anymore. We will be having exams every week and because of this exam, I feel like I won't be able to keep up anymore.

I feel dumb, I don't know what to do. I studied hard, practiced, went to study groups, rewrote my notes, "talked" to my dog about the material as if I was teaching the material etc, yet I got a like a 55% on the exam. Everyone else seems to get a handle on these courses, and I feel like I am not and am falling behind.

I just feel worried, sad and scared that maybe I wasn't meant to continue if I am just going to keep failing.

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[whoopsallpoodles]

The best advice I can give you is, it ain't over til it's over. If your school offers an exam review, go to it. If your school has a student success center, go there. Talk to your professors. Or, if you're like me, re-evaluate your study techniques. Adapt. Personally, I make my own outlines and challenge myself by going back and talking out the information between each point.

Exams every week can be daunting, but the biggest solace I take from them is that overall it means you have more time to get yourself "right" again, and there tends to be more wiggle room.

You are not dumb, you are just learning how to drink from the firehose and breathe at the same time. You got this!

 

[Stellar Mudd]

My friend in med school had to retake gross anatomy over the summer because they failed. Not to freak you out. But it happens and people move on. Reach out to the school and see what resources there are and policies.

 

[JaynaAli]

Often, vet students have to truly learn to study for the first time when they get to vet school. I know I rarely studied in high school or undergrad, things just came pretty naturally…until vet school. Failing one or even many tests is not the end of the world. Talk to the professor and see if they have any tips. Try different study methods…maybe these just didn’t work for you. Try a different study environment…I did most of my studying at the school but separate from friends because if I was at home or with buddies I’d be “studying” but really just socializing more than actually retaining information. Also, keep in mind that what works for one class may not work for everything. You may need different approaches for different courses. See if your school offers tutoring or other resources.

For anatomy specifically, what worked best for me was to come up with 2-3 reasons “why” for everything. This is the xyz nerve because it courses between abc and def muscles, and its smaller than the nearby 123 nerve. This is the 987 muscle because it attaches to the jkl tubercle via the 456 tendon. I don’t know if you have access to other people’s specimens, but looking at the people’s dogs also helped me learn how to find things since things look slightly different on different animals.

You’ll likely be okay. Grades aren’t everything. Just revise your study plan, try to see if there was a reason why you didn’t do so great, and try again. I remember the feeling…I almost failed out first year because of physiology. But I scraped by first year, my grades steadily improved, and now I’m a pathologist. And though ideally you retain the information you learn, vet school really just often becomes a series of cram, test, and immediately dump from your brain just to do it all again with a different subject for four years.

 

[luvpup]

The best advice I can give you is, it ain't over til it's over. If your school offers an exam review, go to it. If your school has a student success center, go there. Talk to your professors. Or, if you're like me, re-evaluate your study techniques. Adapt. Personally, I make my own outlines and challenge myself by going back and talking out the information between each point.

Exams every week can be daunting, but the biggest solace I take from them is that overall it means you have more time to get yourself "right" again, and there tends to be more wiggle room.

You are not dumb, you are just learning how to drink from the firehose and breathe at the same time. You got this!

Well thank you that helps! I plan on talking to my professor so see exactly what I missed and how to improve moving on

 

[luvpup]

Often, vet students have to truly learn to study for the first time when they get to vet school. I know I rarely studied in high school or undergrad, things just came pretty naturally…until vet school. Failing one or even many tests is not the end of the world. Talk to the professor and see if they have any tips. Try different study methods…maybe these just didn’t work for you. Try a different study environment…I did most of my studying at the school but separate from friends because if I was at home or with buddies I’d be “studying” but really just socializing more than actually retaining information. Also, keep in mind that what works for one class may not work for everything. You may need different approaches for different courses. See if your school offers tutoring or other resources.

For anatomy specifically, what worked best for me was to come up with 2-3 reasons “why” for everything. This is the xyz nerve because it courses between abc and def muscles, and its smaller than the nearby 123 nerve. This is the 987 muscle because it attaches to the jkl tubercle via the 456 tendon. I don’t know if you have access to other people’s specimens, but looking at the people’s dogs also helped me learn how to find things since things look slightly different on different animals.

You’ll likely be okay. Grades aren’t everything. Just revise your study plan, try to see if there was a reason why you didn’t do so great, and try again. I remember the feeling…I almost failed out first year because of physiology. But I scraped by first year, my grades steadily improved, and now I’m a pathologist. And though ideally you retain the information you learn, vet school really just often becomes a series of cram, test, and immediately dump from your brain just to do it all again with a different subject for four years.

I'll talk with my professor and go from there! I tried so many study methods so I will try to see what exactly is my best method. That's true but thank you that makes me feel better!

 

[pinkpuppy9]

I am a 1VM, first semester in vet school and we just took our first anatomy exam and I completely failed it. I just want to cry about it. I studied so hard for it during the past month and I felt relatively confident, but now I feel like I am not smart enough or worthy to continue. We are picking up on exams starting Monday, so I do not have the luxury to study for weeks for a single test/course anymore. We will be having exams every week and because of this exam, I feel like I won't be able to keep up anymore.

I feel dumb, I don't know what to do. I studied hard, practiced, went to study groups, rewrote my notes, "talked" to my dog about the material as if I was teaching the material etc, yet I got a like a 55% on the exam. Everyone else seems to get a handle on these courses, and I feel like I am not and am falling behind.

I just feel worried, sad and scared that maybe I wasn't meant to continue if I am just going to keep failing.

The class average for our very first 'quiz' was something like 30%. A 55% on an anatomy test in vet school is not a shocking score to me, to be honest (I am a U of I grad though, and our curriculum/testing structure was weird). I completely understand that it still stings - we are so conditioned to striving for that A+ for years that anything less feels like a failure.

Do you know what the class average for the test was? That can help you get a handle on where exactly you stand. If the class average was close to your score, I'd be less concerned. I agree with all of the above suggestions - talk to your professor, see if they can show you where you went wrong. You are spending time in the lab outside of class, right?

How are the practicals structured? If you have the type of test that takes you to a station and gives you 30s-1min to answer a cluster of questions, normal studying isn't often enough. My lab group spent a lot of time in the anatomy lab on nights/weekends rapid firing questions at each other. You usually know the answer, but when you're stressed out/exhausted, it doesn't always come to mind readily. Practicing having the answers on the tip of your tongue can help a lot.

 

[luvpup]

The class average for our very first 'quiz' was something like 30%. A 55% on an anatomy test in vet school is not a shocking score to me, to be honest (I am a U of I grad though, and our curriculum/testing structure was weird). I completely understand that it still stings - we are so conditioned to striving for that A+ for years that anything less feels like a failure.

Do you know what the class average for the test was? That can help you get a handle on where exactly you stand. If the class average was close to your score, I'd be less concerned. I agree with all of the above suggestions - talk to your professor, see if they can show you where you went wrong. You are spending time in the lab outside of class, right?

How are the practicals structured? If you have the type of test that takes you to a station and gives you 30s-1min to answer a cluster of questions, normal studying isn't often enough. My lab group spent a lot of time in the anatomy lab on nights/weekends rapid firing questions at each other. You usually know the answer, but when you're stressed out/exhausted, it doesn't always come to mind readily. Practicing having the answers on the tip of your tongue can help a lot.

The class average was an 80%, which bums me out even more. I do spend time in lab outside of class, which felt more like a punch for me. I felt pretty confident, but my grade did not show that. Rapid fire questions may be the way to go though, thats a helpful suggestion! I emailed my professor to see if there is a time we can discuss about it, so hopefully I can move up from there.

 

[stressy.depressy]

The class average was an 80%, which bums me out even more. I do spend time in lab outside of class, which felt more like a punch for me. I felt pretty confident, but my grade did not show that. Rapid fire questions may be the way to go though, thats a helpful suggestion! I emailed my professor to see if there is a time we can discuss about it, so hopefully I can move up from there.

How did you study while you were in lab? Quizzing and repetition were the best ways for me to learn for the dissection exams. I went in with a group and we would quiz each other by pointing at different structures and naming them. Active recall >> passive studying, ESPECIALLY for memorization-heavy courses like anatomy.

 

[luvpup]

How did you study while you were in lab? Quizzing and repetition were the best ways for me to learn for the dissection exams. I went in with a group and we would quiz each other by pointing at different structures and naming them. Active recall >> passive studying, ESPECIALLY for memorization-heavy courses like anatomy.

My friends and I would quiz each other and ask each other questions similar to what might be on the exam, which I found helpful, but there might be something I could be missing. I might have blanked during the exam or second guessed myself, I might have to do trial and error on what I need to improve on and what is most effective because it seems like I would do all the things recommended 😅

 

[battie]

Hello, here to commiserate. I did so poorly in anatomy that I failed first year and had to repeat the year. Highly unlikely to happen to you as the state side schools have pretty low attrition rates, but wanted to let you know theres a high chance there are more people struggling than you know. There's absolutely no shame in failing. All that matters is your recovery over the course of the semester/year.

For me, I met with the professor and my biggest problem was that I was thinking too big picture and forgetting small details (which was a problem in other courses as well). So I would forget branches of main arteries/veins as an example. My solution for that was drawing out the map of the arteries/veins on a huge whiteboard either at home or at the school. Checking out other dogs absolutely helped as well since they aren't all 100% the same.

 

[pinkpuppy9]

The class average was an 80%, which bums me out even more. I do spend time in lab outside of class, which felt more like a punch for me. I felt pretty confident, but my grade did not show that. Rapid fire questions may be the way to go though, thats a helpful suggestion! I emailed my professor to see if there is a time we can discuss about it, so hopefully I can move up from there.

No shame here - I think my first anatomy score was probably around yours. I was absolutely not a great student during vet school - bottom half of the class, constantly felt like I was drowning. Everyone acts like they have a handle on things, it's all for show. Everyone is struggling in vet school, just some people do test better than others. A lot of the struggle in vet school is just learning 'how' to study, and it's something I never really learned myself. I still ended up exactly where I wanted to be, even with a crappy GPA. All you need to do is pass.

This score does not mean you aren't where you are meant to be, and neither would another low score if you get one. I don't know how your school's grading is, but I would just be doing everything I can to get tutoring, talk to the professor, etc. Our anatomy lab instructor had a private tutoring session on a weekly (I think) basis for those with the lowest scores in the class - is this something your school could arrange? At this level, schools don't want to lose out on students, so they tend to be a bit more supportive than what you would experience in undergrad.

ETA: Also, it's early in the year so you are still getting to know everyone, but no better time to find a study buddy you vibe with. I got extremely lucky with my lab group - we had a few of us (myself absolutely included) that seriously struggled with anatomy, a few who had a decent grasp, and one who could probably still walk you through the entire anatomy of every single species we did, 9 years later. We helped and supported each other. If you don't have a supportive lab group, start asking others if they'd be willing to meet you after hours to study.

 

[luvpup]

Hello, here to commiserate. I did so poorly in anatomy that I failed first year and had to repeat the year. Highly unlikely to happen to you as the state side schools have pretty low attrition rates, but wanted to let you know theres a high chance there are more people struggling than you know. There's absolutely no shame in failing. All that matters is your recovery over the course of the semester/year.

For me, I met with the professor and my biggest problem was that I was thinking too big picture and forgetting small details (which was a problem in other courses as well). So I would forget branches of main arteries/veins as an example. My solution for that was drawing out the map of the arteries/veins on a huge whiteboard either at home or at the school. Checking out other dogs absolutely helped as well since they aren't all 100% the same.

Thank you, that makes me feel better! I see a lot of students around me getting good marks and feeling confident that I just feel ashamed saying I failed. That makes sense, I love the whiteboard idea! I am going to talk to my professor Monday to see what I can do to improve, hopefully is goes better from there!

 

[luvpup]

No shame here - I think my first anatomy score was probably around yours. I was absolutely not a great student during vet school - bottom half of the class, constantly felt like I was drowning. Everyone acts like they have a handle on things, it's all for show. Everyone is struggling in vet school, just some people do test better than others. A lot of the struggle in vet school is just learning 'how' to study, and it's something I never really learned myself. I still ended up exactly where I wanted to be, even with a crappy GPA. All you need to do is pass.

This score does not mean you aren't where you are meant to be, and neither would another low score if you get one. I don't know how your school's grading is, but I would just be doing everything I can to get tutoring, talk to the professor, etc. Our anatomy lab instructor had a private tutoring session on a weekly (I think) basis for those with the lowest scores in the class - is this something your school could arrange? At this level, schools don't want to lose out on students, so they tend to be a bit more supportive than what you would experience in undergrad.

ETA: Also, it's early in the year so you are still getting to know everyone, but no better time to find a study buddy you vibe with. I got extremely lucky with my lab group - we had a few of us (myself absolutely included) that seriously struggled with anatomy, a few who had a decent grasp, and one who could probably still walk you through the entire anatomy of every single species we did, 9 years later. We helped and supported each other. If you don't have a supportive lab group, start asking others if they'd be willing to meet you after hours to study.

That was my fear at first, after getting my grade, I was worried I wasn't cut out for vet school after all. Learning to study is definitely true, I always was able to pass my undergrad classes with good grades, so I thought I would at least get a C on this exam (even with the amount of studying I did). My school does offer tutoring session, which I plan to go to and I will be talking with my professor to see how my studying approach could improve or any tips they recommend. I do study with my lab group in the anatomy lab after hours, and they are great, which I might have to put in more hours for that as well.

 

[Doctor Ham]

Everyone acts like they have a handle on things, it's all for show. Everyone is struggling in vet school, just some people do test better than others. A lot of the struggle in vet school is just learning 'how' to study, and it's something I never really learned myself. I still ended up exactly where I wanted to be, even with a crappy GPA. All you need to do is pass.

This is wildly inaccurate and unfair to a lot of people who have put in a lot of time and effort to learn, not just "test better." Not everyone is "acting."

If you need help figuring out how to learn material, then you ask for help. It's not "for show," this is your career. It is in your best interest to master the material, and if that means partnering with people who are successful in that subject, getting a tutor, changing your study tactics, dedicating more time, etc. then you make changes. You've already identified that your study methods aren't serving you well - time to make some changes. But please don't belittle the efforts of people who are working hard and are academically successful in vet school - no one needs to drag someone else down to pull themselves up.

 

[pinkpuppy9]

This is wildly inaccurate and unfair to a lot of people who have put in a lot of time and effort to learn, not just "test better." Not everyone is "acting."

If you need help figuring out how to learn material, then you ask for help. It's not "for show," this is your career. It is in your best interest to master the material, and if that means partnering with people who are successful in that subject, getting a tutor, changing your study tactics, dedicating more time, etc. then you make changes. You've already identified that your study methods aren't serving you well - time to make some changes. But please don't belittle the efforts of people who are working hard and are academically successful in vet school - no one needs to drag someone else down to pull themselves up.

Not dragging anyone down. It’s not a secret that some people naturally perform better in a testing situation/on certain types of tests than others, regardless of time/methods spent studying. Not sure why someone on an admissions committee would deny this? Also, if you really think mastering every single thing learned in vet school is truly important for the career…

I stand by what I said - everyone is struggling in vet school. It is hard. It is probably ‘easy’ for very few people. It seems you are somehow interpreting (reaching) what I’ve said as ‘students with good grades didn’t work hard, they are just lucky.’ I never said that, not even close. I could turn around and take what you’ve said here and interpret it as your belief that those who don’t perform well/have high scores aren’t working hard enough. I, however, am going to assume the best and think you probably don’t mean it that way

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

This is wildly inaccurate and unfair to a lot of people who have put in a lot of time and effort to learn, not just "test better." Not everyone is "acting."

If you need help figuring out how to learn material, then you ask for help. It's not "for show," this is your career. It is in your best interest to master the material, and if that means partnering with people who are successful in that subject, getting a tutor, changing your study tactics, dedicating more time, etc. then you make changes. You've already identified that your study methods aren't serving you well - time to make some changes. But please don't belittle the efforts of people who are working hard and are academically successful in vet school - no one needs to drag someone else down to pull themselves up.

That's not what she was saying. She was saying the facade of knowing everything and doing great that people feel forced to keep up in vet school is "acting" and "for show". Because everyone is afraid to show that they are struggling, and therefore the many people who are struggling feel like no one else is.

Medical education nerd sidenote on multiple choice exams translating to actual mastery of material: getting a high grade on a multiple choice exam may mean that you have put in a lot of time and effort, but it does not necessarily mean that you have mastered the material. You'd be surprised how many of the best test-takers struggle with critical thinking skills outside of a multiple choice or pinned exam. Yes, you have to be able to know and remember the facts and that's the basis for everything - and if you can't get the facts, you need to ask for help as others in this thread have said..... but how we on the school side test 1) knowledge of these facts and 2) more importantly, if the person knows how to apply them, matters. Multiple choice exams are the easiest to grade on our end, and can provide a baseline assessment of factual knowledge, but are a poor indicator of true understanding of the material. Facts yes, but there is far too much reliance on word recognition, associations, etc as opposed to truly understanding why the right answer is right and the wrong answers are wrong. We're talking level 1 on Blooms Taxonomy framework. Maybe 2 if we are lucky. /MedEd rant ended

If it makes you feel any better, OP, I was one point away from failing my first semester of anatomy in vet school. I'm an anatomic pathologist now. You can do it.

I also highly recommend group study, which you mentioned. Peer resources are fantastic - don't feel like you have to go at it alone. A peer may be able to explain it to you in a much more accessible way than a textbook or lecture would. And utilize your professors - we aren't scary, I promise (well, most of us lol). We want to help. We don't want anyone to fail. We don't sit at our desks plotting ways to make people fail like little evil dictators, even though it feels like it sometimes.

 

[pinkpuppy9]

If it makes you feel any better, OP, I was one point away from failing my first semester of anatomy in vet school. I'm an anatomic pathologist now. You can do it.

Honestly, I am pretty sure I overall failed anatomy, or got a very low C or D? The one good thing about Illinois' grading/curriculum structure is that if you do okay in everything but bomb one subject, you will not fail the year.

She was saying the facade of knowing everything and doing great that people feel forced to keep up in vet school is "acting" and "for show". Because everyone is afraid to show that they are struggling, and therefore the many people who are struggling feel like no one else is.

Yep. Exactly.

I have a confession to make. I saw a lot from my perch in the back of our classrooms - more than I should have, and I always let my nosiness get the best of me. A few of my classmates who were the most vocal about how hard everyone should be working/who deserved to be there, ended up with some pretty abysmal test scores at least once even though they continued with the 'If you get less than a B, you should not be a vet' bit. In my experience, there was a lot of projecting in vet school, especially in the early parts of first year when everyone feels stupid, is deep in the pit of imposter syndrome, and feels they have to prove that they earned their seat. It settles down a lot once the friend groups form and you figure out who is too insufferable to spend time with. Then you get to clinics, where everything flips and it never really mattered how well you scored on the exams.

Inb4: I don't believe in the 'the top 10% of the class are the worst on clinics' stuff because it's simply not true. Just saying that your test scores, high or low, don't mean diddly when it comes to being a decent vet.

getting a high grade on a multiple choice exam may mean that you have put in a lot of time and effort, but it does not necessarily mean that you have mastered the material.

Yep. This feels on par with the fact that a high score on a standardized test does not indicate that you will perform better academically while in school. I am living proof of that, and have been since early grade school starting with the Iowa tests I've never been great with minutia, which is unfortunately a lot of what veterinary school testing is about. Always been better with general concepts, making connections, whatever.

Honestly, the onslaught of info and testing that is vet school probably means that a lot of info only makes it to the short term memory for most students. Ipso facto, material isn't "mastered." You were just able to regurgitate it for the test and then moved on. But the good grade has to mean something to someone out there, right?

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

I actually feel that the people who are in the middle and have to struggle a bit end up doing better in clinical year (and beyond) on the whole. The reason being that if you are great at association learning and have a great memory, you tend to score well on MC exams BUT….some of these people then assume they know it and don’t really revisit it or dig into the topic. The people who have to struggle or get things wrong initially end up having to grapple with the material more and take harder/more thorough looks at the material. If they keep at it and work hard, will have a better grasp of it in the end. This is why failure is as important as success the the early stages of professional school.

I’m not talking about everyone of course. If I had to ballpark it, I’d say around 70% of the top test scorers also make some of the best students in clinical year. However, the rest of them often really, really struggle with answering the question “why”. More so than the average students. They can associate X lab finding with X disease because they have memorized it, but they can’t explain why or how. They’ve never had to think about the why, or get down into the meat of it to understand WHY choice C is the correct answer, because they got it right and that’s all that mattered from an exam standpoint. Can you tell I hate multiple choice exams?! 😂 but unfortunately they aren’t going away anytime soon….

 

[Doctor Ham]

Not dragging anyone down. It’s not a secret that some people naturally perform better in a testing situation/on certain types of tests than others, regardless of time/methods spent studying. Not sure why someone on an admissions committee would deny this? Also, if you really think mastering every single thing learned in vet school is truly important for the career…

I stand by what I said - everyone is struggling in vet school. It is hard. It is probably ‘easy’ for very few people. It seems you are somehow interpreting (reaching) what I’ve said as ‘students with good grades didn’t work hard, they are just lucky.’ I never said that, not even close. I could turn around and take what you’ve said here and interpret it as your belief that those who don’t perform well/have high scores aren’t working hard enough. I, however, am going to assume the best and think you probably don’t mean it that way

Not sure why you've decided that I deny that some people are "better" test takers than others? I don't deny that. But it's unfair to imply that performing well on a test is because "oh that person is just a good test taker." My suggestion was not "work harder," my suggestion is to change the approach to learning the material.

I can tell you emphatically that there is a big difference between students who have truly learned anatomy versus the ones who have memorized material for a test.

No one person's experience can be extrapolated to everyone else. That goes for academic performance, emotional challenges, personal feelings. Everything. It isn't fair to paint everyone with the same brush in any category, in any direction.

 

[pinkpuppy9]

Not sure why you've decided that I deny that some people are "better" test takers than others? I don't deny that. But it's unfair to imply that performing well on a test is because "oh that person is just a good test taker." My suggestion was not "work harder," my suggestion is to change the approach to learning the material.

I can tell you emphatically that there is a big difference between students who have truly learned anatomy versus the ones who have memorized material for a test.

No one person's experience can be extrapolated to everyone else. That goes for academic performance, emotional challenges, personal feelings. Everything. It isn't fair to paint everyone with the same brush in any category, in any direction.

You are intentionally oversimplifying at this point for the sake of an argument, because I've already further clarified for you. Again, I am in no way trying to diminish higher performers. I have no doubt that some people are naturally more academically gifted than others. Some people also just don't experience test anxiety to the same degree as others, slept better the night before, have less internal distractions during a specific test (personal life events, for example), aren't regretting the Chipotle they had the night before (true story), have a better memory, etc. Regardless of how much time/effort is put into prepping for a test, there are factors that alter performance beyond how 'smart' you are or how 'well' you studied.