MCAT Prep Course and Books

In mid November, I attended a diversity event hosted by UBC med students for non traditional applicants. This was an absolutely excellent event and I'd really recommend people go check it out next year.

Later that week in mid November, I went to another premed event hosted by the UBC premed society. At that event, there was a raffle for a free MCAT prep course by Princeton Review. For some reason, I had a feeling that I was going to win. And what do you know, they called out my number. I was very happy about this, as the certificate is worth $2500. So I will of course be doing my MCAT prep through The Princeton Review. Earlier, I was doing some preliminary research, and I figured I was going to go with either Prep101 or Princeton Review. Although as a warning, if you are trying to decide between courses, I would say that I did NOT research on the topic extensively. I've heard that The Princeton Review and Kaplan get generally good reviews, and I know a few people that have used Prep101 and said that it was okay, but it was not really that necessary to their studying. So I probably would have went with The Princeton Review anyways. I think the most important thing is the practice tests. I know that The Princeton Review has both full length practice tests and thousands of practice questions. I am not sure how many Kaplan and Prep101 have. Of course I don't really have to worry about choosing because I need to use my free prep course voucher for Princeton Review.

If I was choosing, I would look at how many practice questions the company has, how many full length practice tests they have, how many hours of instruction they have, and also extras. For example, Princeton Review has the extra of "amplifire" which is some sort of online learning resource that uses memory techniques to help a person quickly learn science material.

Now that I think of it, I'm pretty happy that I'm going to be going with The Princeton Review. But one thing I have to remember is that SN2ed and the folks over at SDN are making a schedule for the 2015 MCAT. They have a widely known schedule for the old MCAT, and apparently it is pretty legit. So I'm not totally out of the woods with MCAT costs yet, as I will probably buy whatever books they recommend for the 2015 MCAT. I'm hoping they recommend Examkrackers because I've heard so many good things about their books. I guess I will have to see what they recommend when the schedule comes out! Can't wait!

Part-time Job Applications 2.0

It;s been almost a year to the day (9 months ago to be exact) since I made a post about doing part time job applications. I'm not sure if I addressed it in a later post, but I chose not to get a part time job while I'm in school until I've had a full calendar year of successful studies. Since I got exactly 80% in the 2014 calendar year, I feel confident that I can take on a few shifts, and still do well in my courses. When I applied for jobs the first time around 9 months ago, I only applied to research and medical jobs. This was because I was set on killing two birds with one stone, by getting a job that gives me some money while also being medically relevant. This time around I'm a lot more open to different types of jobs. In fact, one of the jobs I am really hoping for is a job at Superstore grocery store. I also applied for pharmacy assistant jobs. I think I would like those jobs the most out of all of the online postings I have seen so far. I understand it may take me a while to find a job, but I find it very hard to be patient.

Since I have a pretty big audience, I figured I might as well pose the question if anyone knows of any job leads in the Vancouver area. My email is premedpostfailure@gmail.com. If you want to email me about something else, that's cool too!

I'm glad I waited to apply for a part time job, because if I did apply earlier in the year, I think it would have severely affected my grades in a negative way.

Fall 2014 Final Grades and Overall Average for 2014

So my final grades for this semester are B-, B-, B, B. My average for this semester is 74%. Not good enough but my average for the calendar year of 2014 is 80%. That's a better average. But for 2015 I want a 90% average to bring my last 2 years average to 85%. I think part of the difficulty was getting used to 4 classes, but also being in all science classes made it tough too.

I can confidently say I will try my best to never get below an A again. If I were to make a prediction I'd say it's going to be all A+'s from here on out, except for maybe organic chemistry and calculus.

Finished last exam!

I am officially finished the 2014 fall semester! I feel super relieved and I was getting more and more excited as I was going through each question, progressing through the test in my last exam today. Im currently at the ferry terminal in Vancouver waiting to go to Vancouver Island. I'm not gonna get too comfortable though because I've already bought my books for next semester, and will start studying the textbooks shortly. I also have to study for both of my anatomy and physiology classes (online classes from the summer) as I will be writing both exams soon, sometime in January, or earlier.

I'll post my grades as soon as they are all updated. Sadly, this semester won't be as good as last semester. But next semester will be my best semester yet!

Finally almost done...

I got my heart transplantation paper back and I got 88%. There were some other tasks associated with the project that weren't directly related to my paper and I didn't do as well on them, so I got 80% on the entire project. 80 or even 88 is pretty bad considering how interesting I find heart transplant surgery. However, I did get deducted because I used too many colloquial medical terms and that sort of thing, so it makes me feel better that what I was doing things that were, sort of in a way, too advanced for the course. Also I got deducted because I didn't include enough descriptive epidemiology. So that was a simple omission and not really a deduction from the content I put into it. She also gave no guidelines on how much descriptive epidemiology we need, so I figured a few graphs/tables were enough. Anyways if I had not used colloquial medical terms, and also included more descriptive epidemiology, I would've got about 97%. I can deal with a few simple mistakes, and I wish I had fixed them before I handed it in, but I also wish it didn't affect my mark so much. At least she thought my paper was "great" and "fascinating".

I wrote my third exam today and I only have one more to go. I'm in the zone for the next test, but my mark may be quite low in that class. I can't wait for next semester to bring my average where it needs to be. If I get straight A+s next semester, I should have around an 85 average for the school year. That is a good average and only about 3-5% below where I want it to be. That is only one year out of many though, and my overall average needs some work.

Crossing the Georgia Strait

I took this photo at the end of the summer. It is on the BC Ferries. Once I'm finished exams, I'll be on this ferry again from Vancouver to Vancouver Island. I thought I'd post this for anyone who is also studying in Vancouver but also going back to Vancouver Island for the break.

 The view won't be as nice because it may not be sunny, but I'm still looking forward to it. It will be nice to get away from my routine and relax for a bit.

B-ham

I've completed 2/4 of my final exams. It was quite stressful but I'm relieved it's over.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to Bellingham, Washington to drop my friend off at the Bellingham International Airport. I'm really looking forward to this because I really love going to the States. I think we are only going for lunch, but we may do a quick shop too.

I'm only worried about 1 of my last two final exams. I'm worried because I missed quite a few classes for this class, so it may be difficult to study. But the other final I have to do will be fine.

All in all, I'm feeling okay, not bad but not good either.

Eye of the Storm

Well I just finished a 4000 word research paper. Luckily I selected cardiac surgery (specifically heart failure and heart transplantation). My prof said to do 3000-5000 words. I was aiming to do 4500 words but I just couldn't do that much. I was spent. Did I mention it's 3000-5000 words not including references, tables, graphs, figures, etc? I was really pushing my limits because the longest paper I've ever done is 7 pages. I know, poor me has had it so good when it comes to papers. But anyways I'm glad that's over with.

So now that's over with, I have 2 exams in the next 41 hours. I've started reviewing for both exams, but not as much as I would've liked. So the storm isn't over yet.

The eye of this storm is going to be very short lived. I haven't decided what I'm going to do tonight. That is, if I'm going to study for my first final tonight or go to sleep. If I go to sleep, I would get up early in the morning to study. Regardless, I'm feeling good because I got that paper out of the way, so right now I just feel like eating and enjoying myself and going to sleep. But I know I wouldn't enjoy myself because the sense of urgency for my exam will be kicking in soon.

Note: I tried posting this at 11pm pacific time last night but it didn't work, so I'm posting it now.