Posted by alexandra_k on October 17, 2014, at 22:05:49
In reply to Re: the solution, posted by alexandra_k on October 16, 2014, at 17:31:25
Feeling glum today... The weather has taken a turn...
The Truman Show is on TV tonight... I feel like I'm living in something like that, sometimes. Not that I'm TV entertainment for others... But that there might be some government people somewhere who are structuring things in my life in certain ways... At times I'm well aware that it is some kind of feeling of significance that is borderline delusional. Coincidences that... Simply have to be.
Followed a year through OY1 from this forum... It is... Nicer... To read about people whose grades are a bit lower... There was some stuff on strategy for parts of the UMAT... How you do the object completions that simply made no sense to me before. And some helpful stuff on how everyone seems to hate chemistry labs... How certain parts of certain courses are harder than others... And something of an outline of Chemistry... We do stuff on rates that isn't in the textbook. We did stuff on rates at the start of this year.. God dammit... I hated the stuff on rates. Sigh. I will need to revise that / actually figure out how to do it... And I've been revisiting the Ka to PKa conversion with the negative log scale and so on... That stuff will recur for sure. And it is pretty much expected to be revision for the kids who have done it already... And it will simply swamp those who haven't... The more I get done over the summer the better the grades I'm likely to earn, for sure.
Still... Ill motivated for my courses at the moment... I think it is because I don't see much in the way of correspondance between time / effort spent and actual payoff. Because... The lecturers present things more circuitously... Questions that... Aren't fair, really. And for law... It isn't about ideas... The ideas that I've been focusing on... Rather... It is pithy summaries of the ideas - most of which I simply can't countenance... Together with strings of facts about names and dates. It is mostly about applying the later to some kind of coherant story... Not about... Digging out the truth. If that makes sense... I just... Can't.
The Anatomy and Physiology textbook I've got... It really is growing on me a great deal. A lot of clinical content stuff... The only gripe I have with it is that the text description isn't well arranged with the in text figures / diagrams. I can't read the text and follow through the picture at the same time, you have to flip the pages about... I guess that is the advantage to having an anatomy book on the one hand and an atlas on the other... I guess it will help that they will give us diagrams again in our lab manual... It has becoming clear to me that the text goes into a lot more detail than I need to know (but that a few marks are devoted to rewarding people who have read it) and so... Read it for fun, I will. That is, uh, what it seems to be there for. The second semester the only course that matters is A&P (only need to retain a B+ average overall - which can be done with minimal work, really) and so those A+'s are... Hard earned. Very competitive. The exams are beautiful. It feels like... Learning medicine properly. Everyone says it is really well organised and presented and interesting... Looking forward to it a great deal.
Been looking at exams... Parts of chemistry are making me happy :) Even the stuff on rates... Looks really rather a lot like the questions from last semester... Population health... Seems to be (in part) a bit of a test of language comprehension... English language competence... Knowledge of the NZ health system... Questions that rely on your getting the difference between 'means tested income' and 'means tested benefit'... Harder for those who struggle more with the language, for sure. Those who don't know anything about benefits (ie harder for those who have lived sheltered lives, perhaps)... Stats / critical reasoning sort of thing... I think it will be fun, really.
I sort of feel bad for not being more focused on this year... But... On the other hand... It is important to focus, sometimes. I shouldn't have done law, really... But I did it for fun, I suppose. Biosci... My lab grades consistently improved over the course of the semester. And (I've managed to learn) the first is never actually assessed (though they don't tell you that)... So the first lab... To do with setting up the microscope and getting your magnifications etc... Is all a trial run. And you get feedback on what you have done for your next one (that really is assessed). I really enjoyed the dissections. I... Enjoyed labs a lot, really. Stimulating... Yeah. Needed down time... Yeah. But I really enjoyed them. Medsci... Multi choice quiz based on your prelab mostly. The dissections... Not assessed. It is just chemistry labs... And everyone hates them... And the average mark for them (including all those kids who didn't open their lab manual before class) is 13/17. And so... The thing to do is to NOT let them consume too much time beforehand... Suck it up... Copy / follow along. Amongst all the panicked eyes... (not enough demonstrators for the students is what it amounts to, I think)... Just get through them. Aim to be... Average. Average will do.
poster:alexandra_k
thread:1058481
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20141012/msgs/1072404.html