The Under M1 Club: Come on in! part 01

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Originally posted by BallerinaTina16
Hey, I wanna be in your club. I'm a second year at UC Davis and I'm still doing my pre-reqs as well. Some personal family problems my freshman year caused me to have to put off the harder courses till I was more able to concentrate on them so I will be doing my O-chem series during my junior year. Still trying to figure out how that is going to play out with MCATs... Anyways, its nice to have some folks in the same boat I am. Hope to get to know you guys better!
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i didn't remember my orgo, but i still did ok on the mcats. just think it'll be fresh when you take the test!
 
So I decided to take a break from studying for my Chemistry test. This test is gonna suck so bad. Oh yes, and Skaterbabe74, don't worry about strippin' my belt anytime soon...I've been on this thread longer than you have after all. It'd take a while for you to surpass my large amount of posts. By the way, my waist size is 36, and it looks like I'm gonna have to lose some of those pounds 😛

To continue on, I've found some more info on the ACS exam that I will be taking. From all accounts that I've heard of it so far, it's going to be the same one that you'll be taking. That totally sucks, because how the heck am I supposed to know G. Chem II stuff from just G. Chem I? 😡 My professor better base his grade fairly, or I am going to be so unhappy...

Hey oldman, it's been a while. Where you been, lurking on this thread?

I'd like to say welcome to the club, BallerinaTina16! Don't worry, we get new members all the time. There's always room, right agent?

Anyways, I wouldn't worry about having to take Orgo your junior year. I talked to a guy who took the MCAT before and after it was changed, and there are less Organic Chem questions on it now then there were before. So don't worry, you'll do fine! I myself am also going to be taking O-Chem my junior year, so we'd pretty much be in the same boat.

That guy was also nice enough to burn a CD with his MCAT notes and give it to me to look over. So far, it's been quite informative, and he said that if he could do it all over again, he'd have begun studying for MCATs at my age! I think that's insane...I'm only 18. Plus, my Physics skills...well, I didn't take Physics in high school, so my first real exposure to learning the subject will happen next year. I can't wait 😎

Hey samenewme, it's been a while, but I am glad to hear from ya again! As for me, hospice is doin' okay, but unfortunately the brunt of my volunteering is still in helping out around the office. It's very difficult for a volunteer to get a patient, but I've still got 3 years...I can wait. What I can't wait for is to be in the same position as you, not worrying about having to study for my Chemistry. I'm just too burned out from this semester to find it any fun anymore. I just want it to end (with all my assignments turned in, complete, and done to the best of my ability of course).

minx - sorry about not responding in my last post. I was in such a rush at typing that I totally forgot about it. Anyways...your advice to Valinor is solid (THINK POSITIVE), and I do hope that you follow it. Don't worry about the 2.82. My pre-med advisor told me that "most of the students I advise don't do well their first year [both semesters], but they improve so much by third year that it really doesn't matter."

I should let everyone know that it has come to my attention that a gunner from my school has been found (or at least from my Chemistry lecture LOL 😛 ). Turns out that the girl who socked me is a gunner. I found out that she has to go around asking everyone what their grade is, and it's really annoyed a friend of mine (she asked this friend about 5 times). I guess that may be why she was so mad at my puny A- (and I say puny because there are at least 16 people in the class who are doing much better than that).

But then I am glad that gunners are rare here! :clap:

And there is the completed version of my responses. Now, I will not respond again 'til Thursday for sure. I'll be too busy working on revising my English essays tomorrow after the dreaded Chemistry exam. 😱
 
gunner? that should be a term for med students only! 🙂

as far as where i've been? i've been drowing in bacteria, viruses, neuro pathways, and physio. it's my vacation week! 🙂 i survived finals and i am not officially a ms-1.67 next week we begin summer session. booo!

Originally posted by Biodude


Hey oldman, it's been a while. Where you been, lurking on this thread?

I should let everyone know that it has come to my attention that a gunner from my school has been found (or at least from my Chemistry lecture LOL 😛 ). Turns out that the girl who socked me is a gunner. I found out that she has to go around asking everyone what their grade is, and it's really annoyed a friend of mine (she asked this friend about 5 times). I guess that may be why she was so mad at my puny A- (and I say puny because there are at least 16 people in the class who are doing much better than that).

But then I am glad that gunners are rare here! :clap:

And there is the completed version of my responses. Now, I will not respond again 'til Thursday for sure. I'll be too busy working on revising my English essays tomorrow after the dreaded Chemistry exam. 😱
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Hey, can I join this club? You guys seem like a nice bunch!

I have a physics final tomorrow. Yuck! You would not believe the different ways of procrastinating I've discovered. I'm just so burned out on pulleys and rocket ships and stupid rotating bicycle wheels I don't think I care enough anymore to really study very hard for this!

Well, wish me luck anyway. In my attempts at actually doing any studying, if nothing else...

I hope I can join your club! 🙂
 
Welcome BallerinaTina16 and 2ndDave (about time you found all of us dual OPMers/SDNers dave lol)!

Long time no see OldMan! Glad to see you've managed to get out from under the bacteria/virus/neuro/physio deluge long enough to say "hi" 😀

Tina - don't worry about taking orgo the same time as MCATs...from what I heard about this years exam there were only like 2 orgo passages anyway.

Biodude - You won't take exactly the same thing I will...basically yours will cover the 1st 5 units in our study guide (atomic structure, molecular structure and bonding, stoichiometry, states of matter/solutions, and energetics) while mine will cover everything else too (dynamics, equilibrium, electrochemistry/redox, descriptive chemistry/periodicity, and lab chem). There are 4 versions of the full exam out there and I'd assume 4 exams of just the first half too, and 4 of just the 2nd half but we may get some of the same questions.

I know exactly how you feel 2ndDave. I'm majorly burned at this point, but still trying to somewhat work through my chem study guide since soo much of it is from last semester lol. I've kind of blown off abnormal psych but will review the stuff on schizophrenia and personality disorders later tonite, but the other 2 chapters substance abuse and sexual disorders are pretty basic stuff just about everyone already knows.

I got a 90 on my last lab exam for A&P so I just have to manage 107.5/150 on my final to keep my B which should be easily achievable thank goodness.

Good luck on your physics final 2ndDave and good luck on the ACS exam Biodude!

--Jessica, UCCS
 
Its definitely a challenge here at Davis and its nice to have support cause at times I feel here that everyone is out for their own good and its discouraging. I am supporting myself through college and that is a challenge in itself! Working to go to college is tough but I think I am a better person for it. How do med schools see that anyway? I work 30+ hours a week to pay my bills and still go to school and get decent grades and do my internship. Do they take that into consideration? I am also happy to say that my year at my job means that next school year I will be a supervisor for the program I work for under the direction of the police department. I will be the only girl but hey, it just shows how I can handle people!

Also I have my biochemisty and neurobiology midterms on the same day next week which will be killer, but I'm already starting to review for it so I think I should be okay. So I keep on keeping on....
 
Chem 2 and Bio 2 over, I totally dominated both finals, I also went to see what my final grade was in calc- 92.5. Semester grades are looking good so far, gonna pull yet another all nighter tonite though I gotta get ready for my Astronomy and Physics 2 final. Im practically a walking zombie at this point and my I can barely grip a pencil after all that writing I did in my Bio final (NO MULTIPLE CHOICE?!) all essay, which is always the case in that class but I guess I was vainly hoping my professor would toss us a bone for our final. Well I shouldn't complain too much; the stuff was pretty basic: explain fetal circulation and Adult circulation, and draw a diagram of it; I did find some questions to be completely pointless: draw what a normal EKG read out looks like, and then explain how exercise, accidentally cutting of the N.A node, or cutting the S.A node would affect the read out. well Im done ranting time to hit the books!

P.S thanks for all the support about that EVIL calc final good look to all you guys going trhough this finals hell week with me! we can do it guys Im starting to see light at the end of the tunnel!
 
BallerinaTina16 - Of course med schools look at what extracurricular activities you have (your job taking up the majority of your non-class time) Once your internship is over try and fill in with some health-related work/volunteering and you should be set. I tried working 25-30 hrs/week my first semester and it didn't go so well for me (but then again it was retail commission so no study time at all) so I took this semester off completely from work (didn't have work study yet either). Suffice it to say I'm in awe that you can work soo much and still make the grades so wtg! 😀

Good luck on your neurobio and biochem midterms! Biochem should give you a great start on your MCAT reviewing!

Valinor - WTG on your chem and bio finals! Congrats on your calc grade! I'll be right there with ya in the walking zombie dept between tonite and thurs when my A&P final is over lol. Definitely pulling an all-nighter tonite. Chem finals at 10:50 am and my abnormal psych right after that one is over at 1:40. 😛 Therefore I have to be ready for the abnormal psych and chem by the time I leave the house in the morning since chem will probably take the whole time or almost the whole time lol. Good luck on physics and astronomy! You sure managed to take a full load this semester lol!

--Jessica, UCCS
 
my grades arent wonderful! I'm pulling a 3.1 with two less than great grades in classes i wasnt able to give my absolute attention during some hard personal times. but i hope when i take those over my gpa will go up a bit.

i'm definitely looking for some volunteer work this summer as well as a research position (hopefully paid so i can save some money!) so i hope that goes well and i find something i enjoy.

college is definitely different than what i was used to in high school. i worked really hard and through a lot of sleepness nites my senior year i was able to graduate top of my class (i am still in awe of that!) but in college i found myself a mere small fish in a huge sea and i lost a lot of confidence and have been trying to pick myself back up. i know that in high school its easy to get As and that in college its harder so i am just trying my best. A B or B+ is means a great deal to me. That occassional A just blows me away and keeps me going!

med school is my dream and i will basically do whatever it takes to get there, even if it doesnt happen perfectly. so whatever advice you guys have to give me and encouragment as well, i appreciate it so much!
 
Tina - a 3.1 cumm is nothing to sneeze at given your work commitment. Since you're a soph you still have another year to keep on trucking. You're beating both Biodude and me on the gpa thing, but we're both in our first year still. Just show upward trends and do your best. If there's any way at all to cut back on work hours (or find another job that pays better and let's you do more homework) I'm sure you're grades will improve no prob. If not, then don't worry too much about it. With taking a full load at school it's typically only recommended to work like 10-15 hrs a week and you're doing over 2x that! lol....adcomms will see that and take it into consideration. I don't know what your financial situation is or whether you're considered an independent student, but if you are you may want to see how much aid you would receive if you quit work completely. I know it's a huge leap, but if you get them to take into account your "new" finance situation you'd probably end up with an EFC of like 0 or something tiny and get tons of aid and work study. When I cut back on work majorly I had my school refigure everything and I came out with grants where I was only eligible for loans, and then when I got laid off I was eligible for work study and full grants and loans so that I can cover expenses without finding another job outside. Might be something worth looking into if you're an independent....

Also I don't know that I'd retake whatever classes your less than stellar grades are in unless they are below a C. If they are then by all means retake them and rock them. If they aren't I think you may be better served by taking upper division courses in similar subjects and rocking those. That'll show that you can handle "harder" concepts and have the background from the first classes that you need rather than showing that you "got" the material the second time around (which I know wasn't your situation, but it'll probably be perceived that way).

I totally agree that college is a totally different beast than hs tho lol. I went to a high academic hs where a 3.3 wasn't even in the top 1/4 of the class but I also didn't work my butt off....it all came pretty easy (except math and the awful chem class I had). I have found that some classes are way, way easier than others in college tho. My A&P class is a bear (almost done tho) so I'm ecstatic to be getting a B (providing I don't totally bomb the final) in it after a C first semester. Gen Chem was way easier than I thought it would be although I'm right on the line between B+/A-/A at the moment. Abnormal psych has been my easiest class so far here but it's based on only 300 points between 3 tests so you really can't bomb anything and keep an A or B (although I had some his/lit/poli sci classes at a CC that were extremely easy too). The key is to find the right balance between the hard and easy lol. I lost a lot of confidence after my first semester too (got a C in A&P, a D in calc I, a B in Chem I, and a B- in spanish II) especially after rocking my CC classes since starting back to school, but this semester has definitely been a confidence booster. My calc grade still sucks (I'll probably be taking it thru UC-Berkeley Extension this summer), but my other grades are A's and B's.

Hang in there...we are right there with ya 😀

--Jessica, UCCS
 
Wow, good to see so many new faces! Tina, 2ndave, welcome.

Skaterbabe, I've bought the Examkrackers books. Clean and concise is the style for me. I have their Audio Osmosis, but I stopped listening to it when I stopped doing weight training. Bad, bad Denise! So I'll pick that back up between semesters and I hope to keep it going through the semester as well. It's not like I don't have the time; I've blown many a half hour here and there surfing that could have been spent exercising my mind and booty.

Good luck to everyone on finals.

And great news for me, I spaced out on my schedule and it turns out I'm working hospice NEXT week, so I can go contra dancing this week, probably the last dance of the season (these Midwestern wimps think it's too hot to dance in the summer. Ooh, it's 80 degrees, it's balmy. Please.)

Biodude, I'm lucky that in our area there is a hospice residence as well as respite care in patients' homes. So right now I'm doing two-hour stints in the residence, getting some confidence on getting to know people and the few patient care tasks volunteers are allowed to do. Oh, and doing laundry. ;D I tell you what, you do a little laundry and load the dishwasher between visiting patients and the patient care tech will love you forever. Laundry is the bane of existence at a small hospice where they don't have a laundry service. The same is probably true of a family--if they'll accept help with the laundry, do it, especially if the patient is asleep when you're there.
 
Hey all~ 2 down, 2 to go! 😀 I don't think I did quite as well on either of them as I would have liked but we'll just see what happens. The ACS Chem exam was a bear. If you're given the option of buying the study guide it's worthwhile somewhat for topics covered but definitely go through problems in the book for each topic. I concentrated on the questions in the study guide instead and they were mostly worthless! I still think I did ok on it despite that fact, but it was definitely one of those "I feel soo stupid, thank god it's multiple choice" tests. (There were only 3 questions I was totally lost on and had to guess blindly on.) Abnormal psych was fine I just ran out of time to study for it the way I wanted and as such don't think I got as many right as I would have liked. I should find out about chem either tonite or tomorrow, and psych should be out by fri but we'll see how quickly the scores actually get updated on the system lol.

Oh and I soooo loved the "little" pressure to do well our Chem prof threw in before handing out the exam. "Dr. Couch's section all scored way above the national average." So since we're the "honor" students we're expected to do better. I soo didn't need to hear that right before taking it.

It sounds like our school is considering going to the split year ACS exam and maybe adding in a teacher-written final as well next year. I think it would have been much better to only have to concentrate on one semester's worth of material instead of 2!

I get to do another one of these dang exams next year in organic too...boo! lol.

Anyway, I'm off to write the 2 pg paper on our lecture last week that I completely blanked on, and then study for my A&P exam tomorrow!

--Jessica, UCCS
 
Astronomy and physics are DONE, one more final left....psych though whatever I get in that final is inconsequential to my grade so I will actually get some sleep tonight.

LOL that was some mind job youre professor laid on you guys before you final Skaterbabe

Something that has been on my mind alot lately is why I want to be a doctor;it seems like everyone has some deep compelling reason for wanteing to pursue a career in medicine, and when i think about it I don't really have one. I just happened to follow 2 of my friends into a mtting of the pre-med club at my school. I ended up thinking it was kind of cool. Anyone else here feel like they don't quite know why they want to be a doctor?
 
Hey dudes and dudettes, I just couldn't wait 'til Thursday.

Welcome to the club, 2ndave! I myself am so burned out that I don't think that I can last any longer. The semester is comin' to a close and I've still got about 3 papers to do for my classes that I haven't even started on yet!

Valinor - hey dude, don't worry. You are not unique, my friend. In fact, I would be surprised if a traditional student actually has a crystal clear reason for pursuing the pre-med track. Most of us are quite confused. Post-baccs, well, you are all definitely solid, and that's why I like hangin' out with people like you! Anyways, Valinor, I often change my reasons on a daily basis, but one thing has remained clear with me through all of this though: I want to be able to help people. Yeah, it's cliche, and pretty much anyone who wants to go into medicine wants to help people. But still, I know now that I won't get no satisfaction from my job unless I help people, and medicine seemed to be a good fit...being able to help people in a meaningful way with science. Valinor, I think that you should go and volunteer, or do something, where you are helping people, and think about if that is what you want to do, dude. By the way

Skaterbabe74 - Thanks for the heads up regarding the ACS exam. I'll be taking mine on Tuesday. Oh yeah, and people who have taken it already in G. Chem I say that they should have taken it in G. Chem II since the material in the exam that I will be taking covers things in G. Chem II, so I do think that I will be taking the same type of exam. That'll totally stink for me and my classmates, unless I find out that my Chem prof is gonna grade a bit differently...

samenewme - What I meant in the last post was, I always seem to have bad luck when contacting my patients, even before the visits start, so that doesn't really help my situation. But I will keep those tips in mind when I actually do get a patient who will finally let a young college boy visit! 😉

BallerinaTina16 - I doubt that anybody's GPA is lower than mine (so far)...it's a 2.5. But I'm not depressed...besides, there's still plenty of time for improvement, isn't there? Plus, medical schools will totally understand hard personal times. If you explain that abnormality in your interviews, I'm sure that they would understand and accept you.

That's all. Though my e-mail ain't workin' too well, so I will have to drop in myself on occasion. Later everyone!
 
Wow, how did I miss this...

I'd like to join the "Under M1" club as well...well lets see where to start...im a sophmore at a jc...transferring to UCI come january 2004...a bio and psych major...i plan on graduating from uci in 2005..then ill take the mcat and apply to med schools..and use that extra year for research or job...gpa isn't so high right now so gotta work on that...

is this enough for an intro?😉
 
Hey Biodude - Thanks for the encouragement. You know its weird. I am a bit apprehensive about the personal hardships I experienced this past year. In a way, I feel bad about using that as a reason for my poor grades cause so many people are able to maintain their performance in school and balance their personal life as well. On the other hand to ignore it would be to ignore the person I am cause it has shaped me into the Tina today. So I don't know. We will have to see.

Anyways, I am very excited about getting to know you guys more. After all, still got two years to go!
 
Break time hehe 🙂

Biodude - I suppose there are a couple things that 2nd semester would be useful for....if you have time try to look at your acid/base, titration, redox, and thermodynamics chapters just to see what they are about. The thermodynamics stuff is easy...mostly just adding up KJ lol. I was lead to believe that the 1st semester exam only covers those 1st 5 topics I told you about, but there may be a couple concepts within later chapters of the book that may be helpful for those...if it's true that your exam will only cover those topics the redox stuff won't be necessary but we're obviously getting such different opinions on what the exam is like that who knows lol. We have to do this exam for organic too so at least I'll know better than to spend all my time on the study guide lol.

WTG Valinor! You're almost done woohoo! Wish I could say the same...I still don't get why they set up our finals week the way they did, but at least it gives me more study time lol. I wouldn't worry too much about a clear cut reason for medicine....you obviously had an affinity for it or you wouldn't have started on the journey, let alone be sticking it out lol. I think we all wonder if we have really "good" reasons for becoming a doctor besides wanting to help people. I don't know that I have a "deep, compelling" reason either, but it is something that has had my interest since I was little watching "Emergency" and "Trapper John M.D." lol. So you came to it later than some...big deal...you've definitely got reasons other than just money for doing it or you wouldn't be putting yourself through the rigors of premed. With experience and time I'm sure you're reasons will become articulated.

Welcome to the "club" Undergrad!

Tina - I can understand your apprehension, but most people don't manage major life stresses and school very well. The difference is that when things happen to "most" people they aren't doing the rigors of a premed program and as such they may seem like they are handling everything fine but things do still slip...it's just not as noticeable in other programs...

Don't sell yourself short. Millions of people in the world go through difficult personal life situations (depression, death, financial, etc) and don't know how to deal with it and need to take the time to figure out how to deal so they can return to a high level of functioning and balance. It's nothing to be apprehensive or shy about. The key will be (personal statement/interview-wise) to not "blame" your entire performance on the problems, but to show the facts of the situation...all this stuff was happening and as a result I wasn't able to keep up with things schoolwise like I would have liked. But once these things got figured out I was able to totally commit myself and see what I've accomplished...

Ok - back to my studying 🙂

--Jessica, UCCS
 
Another warm welcome to the Undergrad! Hey, dude, how's it happenin'? I've seen you post before on some forums. It's normal for us to accept new members each week. Looks like this club is growin' faster each day! Say, dude, if you're going to go to UCI, why not meet in-person? I've yet to meet anybody from SDN in person! 😀

Oh yeah, and I've got the worst GPA in the club, hands down, unless you've got lower? 😀

First off, I'd like to say that the Chem test totally fried my brain yesterday. It was so freakin' hard! I couldn't believe how difficult it was for me with how much I pulled myself together to study for it. Now I feel like that studying was in vain. Oh well, I hope that I got at least a 70 on it (that's a B).

Skaterbabe74 - I'm going to go talk with my Chem professor tomorrow and see what's up with the ACS exam. By the way, how are you doing in your final exams right now? As for me, I'm doin' okay I guess except for that darn Chemistry exam I got yesterday.

BallerinaTina16 - Well, Skaterbabe74 had said it best...but, just because other people can do something doesn't neccessarily mean that you can too. Of course, just because other people can't do something doesn't mean that you can't either. Your situation is very understandable. As for mine, well...my excuse isn't so hot. I totally goofed up my first semester because I was still adjusting to college (too much freedom + relatively few classes to study for = too much partying, too little studying and too low grades). Oh yeah, and if you've still got a lot more courses to go in order to complete your degree, and you work hard in them, then I predict that you'll have around 3.45 to 3.5 by the time you apply, which is about the average for a medical school applicant.

My lab is gonna start in a while. The second-to-last one of the semester. I think that maybe this semester went by too quickly. Also, I wonder what happened to some of the members who posted here when the semester began? Where are all of you people? Maybe you're busy? Well, I hope that you're at least lurking.

I found out something about my pre-med advisor today, that's made me more hesitant to go and sign up for his classes when I reach upper-division (junior/senior) status. The thing is, he curves the grades. But, while that might sound good when students all get 48% on their tests, it's actually pretty bad to students when the majority does well. Basically, he moves the curve up! That means that if the majority of the class scores an 89% on an exam, then an 89% is a C! 😡 He seems so hell-bent on giving only one or two A's to students, while the majority get hit with C's. Darn, and those are interesting classes that he teaches too! Immunology (which we will all be taking in medical school) and Biology of Cancer (cancer is always interesting to learn about, I think). He's the only professor who teaches these courses. So if you want to learn Immunology at my school, then you'd have no choice but to take the pre-med advisor.

Personally, I think his classes are only hard 'cuz he's the pre-med advisor. And well, I have a feeling that his reputation as a hard professor was what got him into being a pre-med advisor (that and his experience as a medical school faculty member). He seems like an okay dude. He certainly doesn't try to sugar-coat anything. So if you've got no chance (1.9 GPA and 18 MCAT for example), he'll say that you've got no chance. Of course, I'm still in my freshman year, so I've still got a chance.

Well, now I think I should change my plans: maybe take an A & P class (those are always good for pre-meds I guess, except that UCLA medical school dislikes applicants who take it - they discourage applicants from taking any courses that would overlap with med school courses 🙄 ), Mammalian Physiology class (recommended by Johns Hopkins medical school), 2 Biotechnology classes, and the rest genetics and molecular biology courses. A Cell Bio course would help for the MCAT I guess, but with the male Cell Bio prof (remember my rant about him?) taking the helm of most of the Advanced Cell Bio courses, you may understand my hesitation.

I'll definitely take Bio-Chem though. I hear that college-level Bio-Chem helps a lot in medical school-level Bio-Chem.

Is there anything else that needs to be said? 😛 I'll be heading out to my Chemistry lab now, and I will be back tomorrow.
 
Tina,

Everybody else's problems always sound bigger than yours to you and they always look like they're handling it better than you do. It's an annoying fact of human nature. You do what you can do, you set the priorities that work for you, and you get through the hard times as best you can. If it messes up your grades, you do the best you can to fix it later. You don't have to decide whether or how to explain it until you see how your grades average out at the end. Maybe it'll be a small issue. Maybe some other life experience you'll have between now and then (a happy one, I hope) will be so stupendous that you'll be dying to tell everybody about that instead. Anything can happen!

Welcome aboard, U-grad!

Wow, we're all getting really chatty. Is this post-semester giddiness or what?

And Agent, how're you doing?
 
Oh thank goodness! Ok, I'm sure Dr. Weiss (chem prof) wasn't exactly thrilled with our performance on those dang ACS exams. The average percentile was in the 70s (right around nat'l ave) and the low was a 30! Thankfully I wasn't the lowest. Me and 2 others scored in the 40-50 range (41 for me). As a result this would have drastically changed a lot of our grades so he decided to drop our lowest test and multiply our total exam score by 1.25 to keep the 500 points awarded for exams. As a result I'm gonna have a solid A (providing my lab prof doesn't totally wale on my lab portion lol). I'm now sitting at a 92% without my lab grade (200 points)! Woohoo!!!

I'll be curious to see how your prof ends up doing things Biodude. I personally hate the idea that I scored below the nat'l ave by a good 10 points but I really ended up studying all wrong for this thing so now I know better. Actually by my prof's decision to add things up the way he did I ended up with a better class total than I would have if he'd just dropped the score😀

Abnormal psych I won't find out for a few days at least I think, but it'll either be an A or B.

I leave in about an hour for my A&P exam which I don't think will be too awful (fingers crossed).

Good luck everyone!
--Jessica, UCCS
 
I've been reading everyone's posts almost every day, but been so busy haven't had time to jump in 🙂.

I've until August 3 to finish my last 12 units for my social science degree. I can tell you that I am BURNED out. Writing papers has become the bane of my existence!! I have 20 more to write before the end of the term. (It's distance learning) I CAN'T wait to start my post-bac/second BA (Bio) where I get to study the sciences (I'm even yearning for math right now!!! Call me CRAZY!)

Work has also been driving me crazy (8 1/2 more months til I hand in my notice and enter school full-time!!!!!). I'm trying to juggle it with my studies (and I care a heck of a lot more about my studies). Sometimes it's hard to "fake" it though around my boss..."Sure I care about marketing crap...." blech. 🙄

Anyway, just needed a little venting 🙂. Good luck on your finals BioDude and SkaterBabe!!! Valinor - you are kicking some major butt! Congrats! And to all the newbies, welcome!! Post when you can (like me) and update all of us on how things are going!

Roselee
 
It's over! finished up psych at 9:17 this morning, and then some friends and I went to see the matrix reloaded; it was awesome! can't wait till the next one.

BIO dude solid advice! im going to go volunteer at the local homeless shelter tomorow, and im filling out an application to volunteer at a hospitla as I type.

Good luck on youre final skaterbabe! glad to hear that all seems well in yure chem class.

Rose lee- I hate writing papers! I try to avoid classes that require alot of them like the plague, thats actually the first question I ask humanities professors before I sign up for thier class

gtg guys talk to yall later!
 
great for all of you guys finishing up and doing well...👍
I have a question.I told our FP that I would be there in the summer of 2004 to shadow him.Turns out the research program conflicts with this schedule.Since I am depending on this Doc for a letter of recomendation would it look bad if I canceled? I was thinking tho that I could always do the research in 2005.(I will even have some lag time after graduation if all goes as planned.)
I really feel that this "patient contact" is important.So far all I can claim is sitting with family members an cleaning up vomit because everyone else was so grossed out about it.I just would like to make sure that I have enough clinical experience on my app.Sigh.Am I just stressing over nothing? It's been that kind of a day.....+pity+ .So what do you guys think-go for the patient contact or the research???? 😕
 
A&P is now officially done! yay! :clap: The test unfortunately was a lot harder than I thought it would be. There seemed to be a lot on this one that wasn't covered in the book and that's what I usually concentrate on study-wise. But out of the 75 questions I can miss 21 and keep my B so I should still be fine. Even my worst tests in that class last semester were in that range and I don't think this was the worst.

My last final is Monday nite at 7:15pm so I'll be studying for that most of the weekend, but today/tonite I'm just relaxing and being thankful I'm done with the classes I care about lol. (Well I care about Calc but I don't have much shot of getting a C or above so I'm pretty much planning on spending my summer redoing it again lol).

Samenewme - I think it's a combo post-semester/finals week-I'm fried giddiness lol. But I'm always chatty online. Offline is when I have trouble coming up with things to say lol.

RoseLee - 20 papers by August?!? Holy crap! lol....I am soooo glad I went with a science degree then. I write fine, and usually don't mind the process too much, but I think I'd go nuts if I had to write that many papers! I've taken a lot of my humanities online and will continue to do so but the most papers I've had to write for a single class is like 5 (it was an intro lit class). My US History online class was also writing-intensive but each essay was only like a page long (you'd have 2-3 per chapter and then a bunch of other questions to answer).

Congrats on being all finished Valinor!! I'm hoping to catch up on a few movies in the next couple weeks myself before summer semester starts 😀

2badr - I'd discuss the options with your FP. See if he'd be willing to change the shadowing schedule so you can do both. If not, then yeah I'd probably choose the shadowing over research since you'll probably be able to do that next year still. Also, the fact that you're even getting the shadowing opportunity is impressive considering the new privacy rules that are out. I think the sort of program you're getting to do is gonna get harder and harder now so I'd definitely do that for sure this summer. Good luck and have fun with whichever you decide!

--Jessica, UCCS
 
Well, it looks like I miscalculated my chem grade a bit. I ended up with an 88% in lab and will end up with an 83.6% for the course making it a B+🙁 Don't worry I'm not one of those that is gonna go ballistic over a B or anything, just a little disappointed after having an A/A- almost the entire semester. My chem prof hasn't officially posted letter grades yet, but I'm not holding out much hope that he'll feel generous enough to bump that up to an A- (85%). Assuming I get a B in A&P and a B in abnormal psych and another D in calc I'll only have a 2.575 gpa for the semester, and a science gpa of 3.15 for the semester....not exactly what I was hoping for. Still an improvement over last semester, but damn I wanted to be above a 3.0! If I actually manage to get an A in abnormal psych and a C in calc that will bring me up to a 3.075 so it looks like I'm gonna be spending literally all my time this weekend on calc (although I was planning that anyway). I sure hope summer and next fall improve more 🙂.

I also found out that my chem prof already is overloaded with fall researchers so I won't be able to work for him in the fall. Guess I'll have to go knock on some doors and probably be told that I don't have enough of my core sciences done yet 🙄 .

Anyway, I'm gonna go wallow for the nite (I'm also very tired lol, which is making my disappointment more pronounced at the moment) and then start studying for calc tomorrow 😉

--Jessica, UCCS
 
Wow this thread really multiplied behind my back! I've just spent the last hour getting up to speed on all your lives. I'm pretty much the opposite of most of you-I tend to be very chatty in real life and less so online. Don't know why..........I do a lot of reading and lurking but not a lot of talking. Probably because my Internet time is usually my relaxing time after the kiddles go to bed and stop bugging me!

Skaterbabe-That blows about your chem grade! When you think you have one thing but then find out you have something lower (even if it is still a B+) it's really tough! Oh well, I'll send vibes to your professor to bump you up!

2badr-Patient contact, definitely. You are extremely lucky to get the shadowing opportunity. Me, I'm reduced to waiting to hear on job applications for menial positions.

Valinor-Ummm can I fly you here to tutor me for calc next spring? I am so terrified of that class and am just in awe of a 92.5. Wow. Oh well, I guess I'd better just dominate my precalc this fall and I'll see how I do then.....but I won't be a gunner and give you a virtual punch in the arm-I'm much too mature for that......lol

Biodude-well, I think I've got you beat on lowest GPA (technically for now) until I appeal to the academic actions committee at my school to get an 18 credit semester's worth of F's changed to W's (extreme extenuating circumstances supported with plenty of documentation). Mine's 2.33 until the committee meets in three weeks.

Anyway, not much going on here with me except my 3-week Intro Psych class starts Monday. I got into it with the bookstore manager today b/c she refused to sell me my book for summer session until Monday (they were all lined up on the shelves and everything!) Well, the bookstore opens up at 7:30 and my class starts at 8. Not to mention it's going to be mobbed with 200-some people at 7:30 who have classes starting at 8 and NO ONE will get checked out in time (there's ONE register), my problem lies in the fact that my children don't leave for school until 7:50 and I can't leave them unattended and have no hope of finding a babysitter. Making class at 8 is no problem since I live four blocks away, but to try and get a book in there too? How stupid is this policy? Her reason was that everyone needed a fair chance to buy used books. My reply was "fine, I'll buy a new one if that's the problem! Just sell it to me today b/c I CAN'T be here at 7:30 on Monday! Well, she wouldn't, so I'm going to be late to class and I'll tell the professor exactly why if she harasses me about it (she's reputed to be a harda**)

And I put in my application at the local community hospital for a pool ER Tech position. It basically said CNA certification with clerical experience, but healthcare experience level was "open", so with any luck I'll get it. Still waiting to hear back on this though.

Good luck to all on the rest of your finals

😀
 
Originally posted by Biodude
Another warm welcome to the Undergrad! Hey, dude, how's it happenin'? I've seen you post before on some forums. It's normal for us to accept new members each week. Looks like this club is growin' faster each day! Say, dude, if you're going to go to UCI, why not meet in-person? I've yet to meet anybody from SDN in person! 😀

Oh yeah, and I've got the worst GPA in the club, hands down, unless you've got lower? 😀
Click to expand...

Thanks for the welcome guys...and HEY Biodude!

Yeah I'll be attending UCI in Winter 2004...junior year! It seems like yesterday when I graduated from hs and now I'm already halfway through college!😱

Yeah lets meet why not...I'll let you know later when I get to Irvine😀

My Gpa? I bet yours is better...I'm standing at a mediocre 3.05...pretty bad..gotta work harder...

Well its late and my bed is calling me, so ttyl later..

Bye
 
Well, today really sucks ass. I found out yeserday that my employer will not be keeping me past my probation period. I was hired for a new position, and with the governor's social service budget cut of over 40%, my employer had to eliminate the position. So needless to say, my world feels like its coming crashing down on me. This really sucks ass.
 
CJ2Doc-That sucks! At least it's out of your control though. This economy has hit everywhere hard-it used to be a piece of cake for me to get a job and now it's proving really hard! What area do you work in-was it just something to get you through school or was it a decent medical-related job?

Undergrad-3.05 is about average for us here so don't despair!

Uggh, I'm late-gotta leave to take my aunt to her radiation treatment at a hospital an hour and a half away (this is what managed care will do for you as a patient! 😡 )
 
All these replies and I have had no notification in the mail about it! 😡

So, I decided to take a break from studying for my Psych quiz today. My last one is next week.

the undergrad - hey dude, my GPA's still lower...2.5 Anyways, when you get to Irvine, maybe we could have some fun at the local Boomers there, playin' laser tag and all

jenni4476 - I hope that things work out for you, and I don't think that it's really ever too late to improve it unless you still have about that much GPA when you plan to apply. Also, I hope that all things work out for you. I think that I speak for everyone in the U.S. when I say that I hate HMO's. They totally suck, and I do hope that it all gets changed when we're all doctors. Greedy pricks...

CJ2Doc - If I was in your position, I'd pretty much picket fence the governor 😛 But seriously though, that totally sucks. Well now you know that you're not gonna vote for that governor again. Is there any way that you could find another job?

2badr - Hey, I was ranting about my own lack of clinical experience before, how funny! :laugh: Well, if I was in your position, I'd talk to the FP and the research dude (or dudette?) and see if something could be worked out. If not, I'd choose to shadow the FP, because you said that you could always get research experience in the next year, right?

Roselee - I know how you feel. I don't have as many papers due, but the ones that I have due are weighted very highly (for example my English essays that I will turn in next week counts as the "final" for that class). Oh yeah, and don't be afraid to use this thread to vent; that's what it's here for.

Skaterbabe74 - Hey, now, there's always next year to find a research position. Most schools don't allow someone to participate in any research until after two years of sciences, it seems. Well, you could go talk to your professor and see what your actual grade is. And I think that it's justified to be frustrated with a B when you maintain an A/A- over the entire semester. I know that I would be. As for me, right now I'm worried that my last test grade has dropped my grade from an A- to a B-. I know what you mean about chatting online...it's funny, that I can be loquacious here but I'm usually quite silent in public.

Valinor - I sure hope that you get some perspective and I am happy to hear that you are taking the initiative to start volunteering. Just don't overload yourself with it, or else your grades might suffer (assuming that you will volunteer while going to school). I sort of did that last semester and my GPA speaks for itself. As for writing essays...oh boy are you gonna hate the writing section on the MCAT 😀 At my school, EVERY GENERAL EDUCATION CLASS aside from the natural sciences (like bio, chem, physics, etc.) has essay writing assignments. It's ridiculous...I had to do it for Art 101, Speech 100, Psych 101, and well, my Political Science professor thought that that was stupid too, so she gave a really easy one-paragraph type writing assignment instead. I'm going to have to do it for my History classes too, I think. That'll suck.

Well, it's been almost an hour since I started typing this post, so I guess I'll update on little 'ole me...

Today:

- Chemistry: Normal lecture day, covering the last chapter of the semester. I'm gonna ask my Chem prof about the ACS before class begins. Afterward, I'm going to his office to pick up my test (though my grade is probably horrendously low - compared to my expectations I mean).

- Psychology: Professor evaluation day! Followed by a quiz! Yeah! Not. 🙄

As for Political Science, my next exam is next Thursday, followed by the final exam on Tuesday after that. English, well, I'm frantically scrambling to prepare for the next bout of the in-class essay and trying to make improvements on my two essays that I will have to turn in with it.

I wish that I could have the summer ROP schedule so that I could check out which classes I could sign up for and prepare me for working in a clinical setting (hospital assisting is preferred for me because then I could help out in the Emergency, ICU, Radiology, and Surgery departments after training is complete). I think that I'll start volunteering at CHOC (any SoCal people heard of this hospital?) over the summer. I'll definitely have enough time to do it. It'd be nice to visit and play with the little kiddies and talk to the physicians who take care of them. By the way, if you don't know what CHOC stands for, it's Children's Hospital of Orange County. There are pediatric residents there too! Um, I guess that I could count as clinical experience...a little bit. But, my intention isn't to get the clinical experience from there, it's to sort of make the kids happy that someone cares.

Well, until next time...:clap:
 
Bio dude- It's not that I can't write essays- i'm actually quite good at writing them, but I just don't care for them. I always try to find classes were there is one big paper to write instead of many little ones. One of the reasons I dislike the humanities is the fact that writing papers are a part of them.

BTW, I hate those teacher evaluation sheets!
Undergrad we might see each other in 2004 , I'm considering transfering to UCI for fall 2004.

Jenny- calc is all about what teacher you get, some are easy and some make life a living hell! I heard one of the calc teachers at my school actually let students use notes during test! and they didn't have to do any proofs! anyway, if u have any problem that you can't seem to solve feel free to PM me or post the problem on this thread; the other people and I that have taken calc on this message board would be happy to help you. That is after all the whole purpose of this thread right? to help each other.
 
Cannot believe I missed this thread. My name is Nathan, 23, currently in LA but moving back to Tampa to attend USF for post-bacc. I have a question to any of the folks who are a little further than me, I plan to take Bio 1, Chem 1 and Physics 1 all with labs over the next semester. I will be living at home (thanks mom I love you) so I won't have to work, but most likely I will volunteer at the local hospital. So to the people that have experience with these classes, is this load going to break me? My under grad GPA is 3.25, but I was lazy, rarely, if ever hit the books. I am determined to bust my tail and try to pull off all A's, but how realistic do you think that is?
 
hi i haven't been writing latelly because since one holiday nothing exciting is happening this week.
thanx for youre encouragements everyone :clap:

biodude-reading the CHOC program i think its really nice, i love to join i a few 1000's km's apart. i'll to some kind of voltiring for this summer.
lots of luck for your Psych quiz

Roselee- paper i don't like them at since since i take three hundred years to finish them and i ts hoorible when there do really soon and rush. i not such a good writer.Also there is the fact that i'm so perfeccionist. i also think i depends on teachers . before i used these really boring teacher but last semester i had areally good one ,which actually made things fun.
+pissed+
Valinor- on essays i agree totally.
 
Wow....I'm not getting email notifications either anymore and there were a ton of posts today! 🙁

Anyway, I got a B+ (83.6%) in Chem (only 4 students were below an 84...the other 16 were above...we even ended up with someone who got a 100.5%.) As far as talking it over with my prof I could, but I really don't want to be one of those premeds that does that lol...the line for A- was an 85 and I didn't make it. Besides with everything he ended up doing for our grades once the ACS scores came out I really don't want to push it. Besides a B+ in an honors course (even tho our transcripts won't show it as that cuz it was a pilot program) is nothing to worry too much about. I'll just do my best to rock organic lol.

And I know it's commonplace to not be able to get into a lab group until after your second year...I was just hoping that this would be an easy way to get my work study lol. Now I'm actually gonna have to look and ask around to fulfill it. No biggie...

Welcome Nathan!! I think you'll be fine with those classes. Most of us end up taking a bio class (not necessarily gen bio) with organic and physics so taking gen bio, gen chem, and physics shouldn't be too awful. Physics and Gen Chem will be all about working problems over and over, and gen bio will involve more memorization (although you may actually remember some of it from hs classes). Just be ready to commit the time and you'll be fine...especially without having to work 🙂

Jenni - that sucks....I take it your schedule doesn't allow you to buy the book after class either? Our interim/short class books all go on sale a good week to two before the class starts...full summer ones will go on sale the week before the class starts. As a result I was able to pick up my comparative religions book today but will have to wait to get my biopsych book.

Another idea if this ever happens again tho....if you know what book is being used (or call the bookstore and find out) see how much it is on Amazon.com. It's usually a couple bucks cheaper and they usually ship pretty fast...oftentimes you'll qualify for free shipping too.

Sorry to hear about your job CJ2Doc...will you qualify for unemployment since you've only been there a short time? I'm sure you'll find something even better tho....and make sure you get your school's financial aid to redo your package...not having a job should qualify you for a lot through them.

Ok I'm gonna ask a dumb question here, but I've seen a lot of you talk about ROP. What is ROP? and how much does it cost?

I've even heard of CHOC and I'm not a socal person lol....there was a show on either Discovery-Health or the Health Channel about them that I caught lol. Children's Hospitals are always fun places to volunteer!

I'm the same as you when it comes to writing papers Valinor...I don't mind writing a couple a semester, but anymore than that and I'm ready to kill someone lol. That's the main reason I didn't go further than the first year in a foreign language lol. Spanish II I ended up spending sooooo many hours every week just to write like 3 pages worth of essays lol. I liked the conversations and the classroom stuff, but I soo don't have the time to be looking up every other word in a dictionary just to write a stupid one page paper lol.

I totally agree that a teacher (or class subject) can make or break a writing experience Minx. I hated my english composition classes because we kept having to write papers on essays and short stories that I really didn't like or care about at all. On the other hand, I loved my Intro to Lit class because we were reading cool things and had a cool teacher that really encouraged us rather than my composition teachers who would tend to shoot down everything we wrote as being "wrong." Sorry, there is no writing style, imho, that is "wrong." Yes, there are certain technical standards (grammar, transitions, etc), but that doesn't mean we have to write things exactly how you want us to. Or that our views of something have to agree with yours. Too many composition teachers try to force us to think and write just like them and that's just not right!

Anyway I think I've rambled enough...have a great weekend all!

--Jessica, UCCS
 
Originally posted by NathanG82
Cannot believe I missed this thread. My name is Nathan, 23, currently in LA but moving back to Tampa to attend USF for post-bacc. I have a question to any of the folks who are a little further than me, I plan to take Bio 1, Chem 1 and Physics 1 all with labs over the next semester. I will be living at home (thanks mom I love you) so I won't have to work, but most likely I will volunteer at the local hospital. So to the people that have experience with these classes, is this load going to break me? My under grad GPA is 3.25, but I was lazy, rarely, if ever hit the books. I am determined to bust my tail and try to pull off all A's, but how realistic do you think that is?
Click to expand...

It's not going to break you, but it will certainly be challengeing for you to get all A's, I took chem 2, physics, bio2, calc,psych, and astronomy (why did i take this class?😡 ) and got all A's except in astronomy which i got a B, all while serving at my school's intervarsity council, and doing most of my pre med club's activities (we are a VERY active club to say the least), my social life was limited to going out every other weekend if at all, and if I had to do it all over agian I probably wouldn't. You have no idea of how many nights I didn't get any sleep, and im not even going to tell you how hard finals week was. This is just my experience however, and If you feel that you can put all the work in then go ahead, it all depends on circumstances: easy or hard teachers, whether youre school spreads out finals over a longer period of time than mine did (I did all of mines back to back in one of the worst weeks of my life). You're only taking 3 science classes so maybe it will be easier for you since youre not taking additional BS classes, but it will still be challenging no doubt, so if you feel you're up to it then go ahead and try it, but if early on you feel that you can't handle the load don't hesistate in dropping a class before the W date of youre school. Also I would suggest you and around 4 other guys get together and for a group to do labs and HW with; this was incredibly helpfull. You should also avoid being at a "wobble" grade in all youre classes; you don't want to be at around 88% in all you classes; it just makes it a B***h to study for finals when the pressure is on in all youre classes. So ideally you should have atleast one class who's final you can just blow off so you can concentrate on your others. Good luck in what ever you decide, but don't bite off more than you can chew; don't be in a hurry to finish those Pre-med pre-reqs!
 
I totally agree that a teacher (or class subject) can make or break a writing experience Minx. I hated my english composition classes because we kept having to write papers on essays and short stories that I really didn't like or care about at all. On the other hand, I loved my Intro to Lit class because we were reading cool things and had a cool teacher that really encouraged us rather than my composition teachers who would tend to shoot down everything we wrote as being "wrong." Sorry, there is no writing style, imho, that is "wrong." Yes, there are certain technical standards (grammar, transitions, etc), but that doesn't mean we have to write things exactly how you want us to. Or that our views of something have to agree with yours. Too many composition teachers try to force us to think and write just like them and that's just not right!

Anyway I think I've rambled enough...have a great weekend all!

--Jessica, UCCS [/B]
Click to expand...


LOL IT'S ALL ABOUT WHO YOU TAKE! I have finally realized this!
My english teacher last semester would fail people's eassays for a single gramatical error...........#$%!^&!, thankfully our final essay exam wasn't graded by her, but by 3 of her colleagues and I ended up getting an A in that classes, to this day I haven't the foggiest on how I got that grade, I failed half of my essays! very disheartening when the only thing u see is one little red mark!
 
U-M1ers-
Hope the semester went well for all. I've had a great scholastic week: secured a letter of recommendation from prominent chemistry professor, then had a beer with him and talked pre-med/med school planning (great advantage that us non trads have over underage freshmen), then got a surprise grade of A in Gen Chem 2. Next up: death march to OChem 1 in summer. Wish me luck and/or pray for me - I'll need it.
Bad work week though...those who are not intimately familiar with healthcare reimbursement should do some research into it...our finance director got the heave-ho, and we're telling our clinicians that we may have to reduce hours for treatments. Medicare reduced reimbursement by 4% this year, and now therapy caps are back (capitation is evil - write your congressmen!). Unless there are major changes, things will get rougher. But we gotta take the bad with the good!
Keep your heads up!

dc
 
Hey there peeps...

Welcome to the club, NathanG82! I would listen to Valinor...it's not impossible to get an A in all of your science classes dude, especially with your original undergrad GPA (when I was lazy hitting the books, I ended up with 2.5 GPA). That much and you were lazy hitting the books? I definitely think that an A is doable for every one of your pre-reqs, BUT, like Valinor said, you'll have to spend quite a fair amount of time studying! You'll have to budget your time, and if you don't want to settle for a B, then you might have to cut down on some of your social activities. If you need anymore help, just come on down here again. We'll be here.

Valinor - how's it goin'? 2004, let's see here...if it's Spring, then I'd be a sophomore, and if it's Fall, then I'd be busy prepping for the MCATs. But, like I said to the undergrad, we could go to the local Boomers and play some laser tag! Well, if you actually want to go to UCI that is. I do agree though, that for ANY class the professor matters A LOT! If a professor hates you, especially in a class with SUBJECTIVE grading like English 101, then you are screwed! That's why I'm being careful about choosing a prof for all of my classes. If my personality seems to mesh well with the professor, you bet that I'll go to that prof! Not the one that doesn't like my personality!

Skaterbabe74 - sorry about not clarifying ROP before...it stands for Regional Occupational Program, and depending on the location, the classes are either paid or free. Basically, they teach basic skills that allow people to be able to find entry-level jobs in fields like automotive repair, banking (bank teller), etc. Of course, in the health care area, they offer courses like medical assisting and dental assisting. They even have a free EMT class where I live...I thought about that for a bit and I feel that I would get better clinical experience as a hospital assistant. Plus, the training sites are totally excellent: UCI Medical Center (only 10 minutes away from my house if I take the freeway!), CHOC, HOAG Memorial Hospital. I'll get the experience I need to get a job working in the hospital. I hope that helps.

minx - hmm...well, I do hope that you will find something! Just keep your eyes and ears open. It might take quite a while, but I think that you will find your opportunity to gain clinical experience by the time you apply. I also hope that your volunteer experience this summer will be beneficial for you.

And now, and update on myself from this morning...

I went to go snatch my Chemistry test back, and let me tell you all, it was the lowest test score I have ever had in Chemistry. Darn, I wanted to drop the other test and do well on this one. So, this one's dropped, the other one's reinstated, and now my grade plummeted 10% (A- to B-). I guess that I will have to settle for a B for this class, assuming that I do well on my ACS exam and my 200 point final 😱

After my professor handed the test back to me, he asked me what my major was. I said Biology, and then he asked me what my career objective was. I said Medicine, and he shook his head and made a sort of grunting sound of disapproval. Oh well, now I can see that the classmate of mine wasn't kidding with that story. But it's ok, my conversation with my professor made me realize that my problem areas have to do mostly with picturing the molecules, bonding, etc. in my head...once I get that down I should do well on the last two tests and keep my B or I hope, get it back up to an A-.

Speaking of the ACS exam, my professor said that some of the topics will be unfamiliar in lecture today because they are covered in General Chemistry II...so Skaterbabe74, looks like I will be taking the same exam as you...or at least some of it 😀

But, on the plus side, my professor will not count the problems that relate to General Chem II. He just doesn't expect us to get those right. But he does expect us to get the G. Chem I problems right, of course. How he will grade it, well...

1) look at the raw score
2) do not count the G. Chem II questions
3) take the score and change it to a percentage
4) change the percentage to points out of 100 points

And that will be the official ACS grade relative to a student's grade in G. Chem. So if the ACS is 60 questions but 10 are from G. Chem II, then my prof will only count the 50 that are from G. Chem I and ignore the 10 G. Chem II questions. So, a 49/50 will equal to 90-something points.

The Psychology quiz was easy. I finished it in about 10 minutes. I will be busy this weekend, catching up on my friggin' essays and studying for the friggin' ACS exam (I will take it on Tuesday).

Man, I can't wait until my semester is over! Just 2 more weeks! I gotta get on the ball and finish up on all of my homework/essay assignments by next Friday, then I'll have my finals on the week after...I'm both anxious and quite excited that the end is near for me. Well, it's not exactly near for me. My summer school classes start the very next week after finals! No rest for the weary, I guess. Time to start planning for my Summer and Fall semester EC's (summer being...soup kitchens, food banks, hospice, and CHOC), and Fall, well, I'll be starting on one of my unusual ones, and become a member of the CSUF Wu Shu Team (after I get myself back in shape that is)! Time to show that fat Chinese dudes can still kick butt! 😀

Oh yes, and one more thing...CHOC can always use new volunteers, so if you live in Orange County, California, contact the volunteer coordinator there!
 
Definitely going for the clinical experience.(Can you believe it was my Mom who actually talked to the Doc for me?? 😀 )
But I will do the research thing later.i feel better having made a decision about something.
How long should I give the guys on that financial aid? If I borrow some money but the financial aid comes in,then what? Can I give the loan money back? (I know the interest charges will still apply.)
Anyway guys I thinl we should just try to enjoy this as much as we can.Stress year(2005) will be here soon enough! 🙂
 
Congrats on your Chem II grade and LOR BigDan!! Sorry about the pressures at work tho....cutbacks suck! lol

Wow - ROP sounds awesome...I wish we had something similar here. For us the only way to get qualified for stuff like that is to either go to the CC or one of the "tech" schools and pay for it!

Definitely go over drawing molecules a bit Biodude, but there weren't many questions about bonds and stuff on my ACS so you should be fine. From the sound of it your prof is grading the thing very fairly at least....Getting how to draw molecules, and understanding electron shell shapes will help a lot i think when it comes to Organic tho judging by our last guest speakers lecture on organic...but we'll see in the fall when I actually take it 😀 Have you tried any of those molecule building kits yet? That might help you start to visualize some of it? I've kind of always been a visual/spatial person so that part didn't really come too hard for me...

If I had decided to take an interim humanities class that sounded fun, American Cinema, it would have started the day after my last final lol. Suffice it to say I knew I'd need more than 12 hours break between semesters so I'm not taking it....so a week isn't sooo awful lol. I'm definitely glad I'm getting 2 weeks tho and that I'm starting with only one class that week...my 2nd class starts the week after, and then my UC-Berkeley class will start once I find out my calc grade and get the money together to send in the registration form lol.

2badr - I'd definitely go ahead and take the loan. If you get the financial aid you can always return the money or hang onto it in a savings account for if/when you do need it. Speaking of financial aid/loan stuff I got an annoying call the other nite. Somehow they'd gotten my number, but it was some company offering to reduce your student loan repayment terms. I was like...um...I'm still in school...don't graduate ugrad until 2006..and am then going to med school so I'm not even making payments yet! The dude was like....oh...well we'll update our records then..by the way....do you anybody who is repaying student loans right now??? I just said no, but I hate people that ask that when you're not interested in their service. I get cell phone salespeople all the time wondering if I know anybody who would be interested. Why in the world would I give out somebody elses information to a telemarketer in the first place, and why would I want to help some idiot do their job by giving them leads?!?:laugh:

--Jessica, UCCS
 
Hey all...

I took a look at the obstacle course that I will be taking this week, and it's quite a bit. But first, I'd like to reply to some people here:

2badr - That's nice that you finally made a decision. It's certainly difficult to find a doc willing to allow someone to follow him/her around (well, for me it is).

Skaterbabe74 - Hmm...well, my visualization skills certainly need some work. I thought that they were solid, but from my last 2 test results, they totally blow. My quantitative skills are good, as shown by my first 2 tests. I'll get together with a study group on Sunday night and see if they can help me out (the people in this group gets A's on tests whenever they study together)

bigdan - yeah, I noticed how the government usually screws over doctors. As for O-Chem over the summer...dude, that's pretty darn insane! Hopefully, CJ2Doc will offer some advice...

Okay, then, here is my schedule for the rest of the semester, according to what I have due:

Week of 5/18 - 5/23
Monday - nothing due in any class; just lecture

Tuesday - English, I have to complete the final draft of my in-class essay, and for Chemistry activity section I have to take the dreaded ACS exam

Wednesday - one of my Chemistry homeworks is due on this day

Thursday - My English portfolio is due (my "final" for the class), my 4th exam for Political Science is today, and my last Chemistry lab is on this day

Friday - my last piece of Chemistry homework is due on this day, my last lab report for Chemistry is due, and I have a quiz in Psychology

Week of 5/26 - 5/30 (FINALS week at my school)
Monday - Memorial Day. No school.

Tuesday - Final Exam in Political Science (I wish that I could skip this one, but I can't if I want an A in the class)

Wednesday - Final Exam in Chemistry (this is the one that I will spend most of my study time on, since it's pretty much the hardest one out of all my final exams)

Thursday - Would have been the final exam for English, except that English doesn't give final exams. I could pick up my grade now for that class. Oh, well, that's one less to study for 😉

Friday - Final exam in Psychology after turning in the 6 page term paper (which is worth half as much as the final)

So, I'll be quite busy over the weekend, since I didn't start on my term paper yet for Psych, I didn't revise my essays for my English portfolio yet, and my ACS exam is dangerously close to the beginning of next week, so I'll be studying my behind off! One thing that I didn't mention last time was that my Chem professor said to study for the ACS the same way I would study for the final. Why? Well, he'll expect me to know the same range of topics for it, but at least the ACS is multiple-choice (which is a pretty good thing in my eyes; I'll be more likely to get an A on it).

I'll come back on Monday.
 
Score for me! Connections rock:laugh:

So I took my kids to their Ice Cream Social last night and ran into a neighbor of ours. Turns out she works at the college bookstore! (Can ya see where this is going yet?) Anyway, she agreed to pull a book for me, I gave her a check, so she will "purchase" it for me before the store opens so all I have to do is swing by and pick it up on my way to class! I swear, someone up there is looking out for me!

2badr-Definitely take the loan. I was in that situation once and wound up just paying off the whole loan right away and the interest charges were only like 35 dollars. Better that you have it than not!

Biodude-Good luck studying this weekend. I took a class once on minority lit (my school requires 3 "diversity" credits) and the final was an in-class essay. Needless to say, my hand was numb after two hours of writing longhand in this stupid little booklet, and I was SOOOO nervous! Luckily, the prof and I got along really well, so I think that helped in that grade. Don't you hate when they do that? Much less revising-my theory is I made the paper as good as it could be the FIRST time I turned it in-what more do you want me to do with it?

Skaterbabe-Telemarketers blow! Luckily my state has a do-not-call list that I'm on and I haven't received a call in like two months. Spam, though, is another story entirely........+pissed+
Oh yeah, stupid question, where can I find one of those molecule building kits? The bookstore never heard of them, so I'm at a loss as to where to look.

NathanG82-My school actually recommends that you take your freshman year with Bio, Chem, and Physics, so I think you'll be fine. They're all 5 credit classes right? I can see it getting very monotonous with nothing but science though. If this doesn't bother you, go for it! Good luck 😀
 
wow - good luck getting everything done Biodude! 😛

I'm so glad everything worked out book-wise for you Jenni! Your school doesn't know about molecule builders?? Wow....well I guess try Borders, and maybe the ACS website can give you some ideas...Also, just ask your chem profs...they should know. I'll warn you that they won't exactly be accurate since the shapes are really more large clouds of electrons, but it will help you see things like tetrahedral, trigonal planar, etc...Oh just thought of another idea...call some of your model building stores, they may have a few too.

My day is going to include running an errand to the wal-mart, studying for calc, and hanging out with my bf tonite (if he isn't too tired...had a 7 am meeting at work which meant he was up at 5, and will work til at least 8:30🙁 ).

--Jessica, UCCS
 
Hey all - Just wanted to stop in and let everyone know that I got a B in A&P. The mean for the class was a 77.9% and I managed an 80.6% :clap: So my science gpa for this semester was a 3.15 and cumm at this school a 2.825, much better than the 2.0 last semester 🙂

And I loved my "end of semester" present from my bf. It's a hot pink short sleeve bodysuit (by Wolford which are usually over $100 in the States but by getting on ebay from europe costs less than half that) with ribbing in the center to give a sweetheart silhouette. It is soooo cool!

Now I just need to find out my Abnormal Psych grade (probably a B, but I may have lucked out and managed the A), take my calc final tomorrow nite and find out that grade and I am done! Thank goodness! This semester has been way too long lol.

Hope everyone has had a nice weekend!
--Jessica, UCCS
 
I can't believe you all are done or having finals. Here at Davis, I still have three more weeks left in the quarter and then finals! And speaking of school... I have two midterms this Friday so I am off to study on campus before work. Congrats to all of you doing your thang! :clap:
 
Hey all, I studied for my test and began on my essays. Unfortunately, I didn't finish them 🙁

So, I've been wandering around from thread to thread and it seems to me that dental and pre-dental students are goin' around bashing medicine all thanks to the idiotic people from our pre-allo board goin' over to bash dentistry on their boards 🙄

Hey Skaterbabe74, I saw your post response to that dentalvibe dude. It's a fact that most surgeons are quite arrogant or mean, but well, with most of the posts that guy put up, he seems so antagonistic towards physicians, it's ridiculous. I respect dentistry as a field, but it's not interesting for me to focus on teeth. Whatever, I hope that guy realizes how stupid and pointless it is to go around trolling the pre-allo boards (we've already got enough trolls over here!)...I'd just ignore him and let him spout his BS. It'll come back to bite him in the behind one day just like all the other trolls.

No replies since yesterday over here...

I would give another update on my current situation, but the last...10 - 20, must have bored everyone to death, so I'll skip that.

BallerinaTina16 - 3 more weeks? Well, if you run on the same schedule as all the other UC's, then I'm not surprised. My friend who goes to UCLA started her classes about 3 weeks after I started mine, so of course, she'd probably have to end hers 3 weeks after mine 😎

Just keep it up, and I know how ya feel. There were people finishing up their finals left and right on this thread while I was going through 3 more weeks. Oh well...

jenni4476 - Well, maybe you should keep that in mind. Some people call that someone God 🙂 Of course, I'm a Buddhist, but there must be plenty of Protestants here. Like I always say, you can't possibly have bad without good, and things do work out in the end...they sure did for me this semester.

Now to go back and study my Chemistry notes for the ACS exam tomorrow!
 
Hey all, I just checked out the ROP website, and it looks like they will have Hospital Assistant classes! Awesome! I'm gonna go take the first series over the summer while goin' to summer school. Then I can go and scout for a part-time job in a hospital during the Fall or Winter intersession. Or maybe I'll be doin' my hospital assistant II class during Fall. I really like what I'll be able to learn in these classes for working in a hospital (though I'll probably be treated even lower than a nurse assistant LOL 😛 ):

EKG skills
procedure set-ups
x-rays
mental health
diseases and disorders

And here's the departments that hospital assistants can work in after finishing their training:

Radiology - Hmm...not really interested in Radiology as a career

Physical Therapy - Well, I wouldn't mind working here, though I don't plan on becoming a Physical Therapist

Emergency Room - I've never seen the chaos of an Emergency Department before, and I am very interested in seeing it

Surgery - I probably won't get as much clinical experience here as adcoms would want, though surgeries are interesting to observe!

Dietary - Maybe I could get a few pointers from the workers in this department since I definitely need to go on a diet 😉

Central Supply - I don't have anything to say here

Patient Care Unit - I'd probably get the most clinical experience in this area (according to what the adcoms seem to look for)

And finally, here are the training sites:

UCI Medical Center
Kaiser Permanente
CHOC (Children's Hospital of Orange County)
Chapman Medical Center

Here's the website for the ROP that's closest to my house:

http://www.ropcentralcounty.tec.ca.us

And that's that. Now to go back to studying (it's pretty hard for me to study for a bit without taking breaks). My first class is going to start at 11 and it's 9:24 right now. Adieu!
 
BUMP!

Hey, where is everybody??? Usually I get a response within 3 hours of my posts. Are you all busy on Monday?

Well, regardless, I'll be bumping this thread up as the day(s) progress along.

Got any tips for me Skaterbabe74? I will be talking my ACS at 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time tomorrow, and this is yet another study break.

It's quite rare where I post 3 times on the same day.

Later!
 
Hey all~ Well I am officially done with Spring 2003!! :clap: :clap:

Had my calc test 😡 tonite at 7pm. It was even harder than the one I had last semester!!! However, silver lining is that she does grade on a curve based on the averages of the class on all the different tests so I still have a chance, just not a very good one. Now it's just sit and wait....the only class that has been placed on our "official" grade sheets was Chem but I already knew that grade lol. I want to know my abnormal psych grade and I'm dreading my calc grade....I soooo don't want to retake it again this summer!

Anyway, my bf picked me up at school tonite (It's freakin cold in Colorado tonite!! like 35 degrees before windchills!) and we spent some time chillin.

Tomorrow I get to just sleep in and relax...Woohoo!!!

As far as suggestions for the ACS Biodude just be ready to be made to feel dumb and don't be surprised when it happens lol. I honestly don't remember any of the questions we had....I'd forgotten them already the minute we walked out lol. I definitely wish you luck and I hope you fare better on it then I did! 😀

As far as my post in response to the dentalvibe dude - I know many surgeons are arrogant, some are even jerks, but it was more that I didn't want any of the new aspiring premeds out there to think that they *had* to be a jerk in order to be a surgeon. I get awfully tired of all the overgeneralizations/stereotypes that seem to appear on this site lol. It was more a reminder to others to take what the dude was saying with a grain of salt than an all out attack on him.

Your ROP program sounds way cool! I soo wish we had something similar here 🙁

Tina - Doesn't the quarter system suck!?! lol....One of the community colleges I went to was on the quarter system and with no air conditioning in most of the buildings that last month or so totally stunk!

Have a great week everyone!

--Jessica, UCCS
 
Yes the quarter system stinks. Its midterms after midterms and there is never any lag time. The only thing I think I like about it is that there are more grades to factor into my GPA. More chances to redeem myself. 😀

Still studying for those two evil midterms on Friday. I know more about myglobin and protein structure then anyone really should.

So I just figured out that I am done with all my GE and am thinking about picking up another major (a small one) or minor to fill up my schedule and keep me from killing myself in my science classs. Any suggestions? I'm a NPB major - Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior. A lot of people I know do Pyschology cause they kinda compliment each other. Hmmmm.... suggestions are welcome!
 
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