Friday 7 August 2015

T-minus 10 days, Midterm Mark, and No More Sluggishness

My final exam for my biopsych course is just over 10 days. My exam is not until 6pm at night on the 18th, but I'm not counting the day of just because I might try to get all my studying done before then. I will probably keep studying right until an hour or two before though, but the ideal thing would be to finish all of my studying the night before (from weeks of studying). The exam is not cumulative so that is nice, but for this course it just means the questions will be more in depth, so it's not really easier.

I got 74% on my last midterm for biopsych. I think my mark was a bit lower because I ran out of time for my long answer essay questions and I also made a few mistakes on them. I am going to go over my exam and make sure it's marked right because there was one section that I thought I got a perfect mark on but I didn't. If I do well on the next exam I could get above 80% in the course, which would allow me to use this course as a prerequisite for UBC graduate school. I also have an opportunity to get a bonus mark, so that will help. If I get 100% on the next exam I could get bumped up to 85% in the course, which would be an A. I'd be happy with that considering how tricky the exams are for this class. Every person I've known who took this class (which is a lot for some reason) have said the exams are tricky. And this class has a low 'easiness' rating on the ratemyprof website.



I'm also trying to finish two of my online courses, and the exams for those classes will be upcoming, but I'm not sure exactly when. If I finish those by mid September, I'm thinking I'll take another online class through TRU so I can work on it over the Christmas Break. The reason is that I need all the classes I can get to get my admissions average above the cutoff for UBC medical school. It'll be hard because I'll still have quite a few failed classes, but I'll definitely be applying once I'm over the cutoff, even if I'm only .5 percent over the cutoff.


I've noticed that I feel a lot more full of energy now. In the past two years I used to have this sluggishness that would persist throughout the day until the evening. I still did above average in my courses and I would exercise once in a while, but overall I just didn't have the energy to go very hard in all aspects of life. It very well could have been a physical thing from my medication, but it may have turned into a mental thing. There is a strong body-mind connection that can't be ignored, especially given my mental health history. I could always think clearly, but the fatigue was persistent, and it would hamper my progress and consistency in both school and exercise/activities. The good news is that I don't get this anymore. I can study hard for hours and exercise hard for hours. It may be the effects from exercising, particularly being able to exercise harder so maybe the typical effects are more pronounced. In any case, I'm definitely not going to stop this pace I'm doing for exercising because I don't want to go back to feeling fatigued. I think if I didn't have the fatigue I could have done much better on the courses I passed. I won't be seeking any sort of academic concession, just because I don't know if it would be a strong enough case. But I'm more willing to take my 80% average over the past year and a bit than have to start all over. I think that was a good start and I'm only going to do better this summer and this upcoming winter. Whenever I talk to people they always say that my days are so busy, and it's true that I have been going at quite a frantic pace. There are always lots of things I have to do, as any successful student knows. But it's not a chore for me. I actually enjoy it. It makes the odd time you relax that much more sweet as well. But I do prefer to be busy and accomplishing things as well. Basically I like to work hard and still have fun too. I think that is a good balance I've finally achieved.

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