Aforementioned Good News

So I was debating whether to post this now or to post it in January of 2016 or April of 2016. But it's no secret that I'm closer to applying to medical school than I have ever been before. But the good news is that I have a very strong chance of being able to meet the 75% admissions average cutoff for UBC medical school in the 2016 application cycle.

As it currently stands, for my completed courses, my average is below the 75% average, due in large part to the namesake of the blog, which are my 11 failed courses. However, UBC med school removes the lowest academic year if an applicant presents 90 or more credits after the worst year is removed at the time of application. They call this an adjusted GPA or AGPA. So because of the AGPA, I may just have a shot at applying next summer. Of course, it is also contingent on all of the courses I'm taking this semester, and any courses I might take in January. But I was messing around with some calculations, and if I get an A- (82%) average in all of my current courses, then I will be a mere 0.5% away from applying. Of course that is below the cutoff, but I think an 82% average is a low estimate for me this semester. Also add in the fact that if I take 5 courses in January, then my average will shoot up if I get all As and A+s in those courses. And of course I'll be able to apply if I exceed my own expectations this semester and get say an 85% average or higher. So basically, this semester right now and whatever courses I take in January could very well put me over the top and make me eligible to apply.

Even if I get an 82% average for all of my courses until May of 2016, I will still be able to apply. That is a very low estimate for me. But I have to be wary because one 70 can change things in a hurry. And let's not even think about one botched final exam.

The reality is setting in for me. Academically I feel like I'm capable but I need to push myself to the next level. For non-academically I feel like there is so much I still need to do. But I want to start my application next summer and get my average as high as it can be for next May. I would be honored to even apply to UBC medical school, and once you apply, you never know what could happen. Despite the uncertainty for next summer, I'm so excited and I'm so happy for my future.

What is this phenomenon called?

On Saturday night I felt a bit off and wasn't sure if I was coming down with some sort of cold or flu. Well when I woke up on Sunday, I was definitely pretty sick. It might be some sort of flu, but I'm not really sure because I don't know if I had a temperature. Luckily I didn't miss out on too much over the last few days because I had completed all of the work for my immediate deadlines in the paced courses. But this brings me to my next point...

For some reason, whenever I have period of sustained work to do, which is then followed by a relatively long period of where I have no deadlines to meet, I almost always get sick right after I've completed the period of sustained work, which then ruins the following time where I could be relaxing or doing work at a lighter pace. For example, usually after exam time in December, I may get a bit sick not long after my last final exam. It is almost like my body knows that the work period is too important to get sick for, so my brain/body pushes through that period and maintains my immunity, but then once all of the deadlines and commitments are over, it is like my systems just start to relax and I get sick. It is pretty strange. I remember it all started when I was in grade 11 or 12, and I managed to get sick after school finished for the Christmas break in December, and then right at the start of Spring Break, and even at the end of the school year in June for the summer break. There was also a time where I got sick at the start of a 4-day weekend in between there somewhere. This period of work-followed-by-sickness doesn't happen as much as it did that year, which was after the start of every single break, but it just happens once in a while now. Does anyone know what this is called? I'm pretty curious about it.

Anyways I'm starting to feel decent now (*knocks on wood*) and hopefully I will be 100% in the next 2 days. This also makes me glad I'm in online classes because I literally didn't miss a thing. Although I do have some deadlines coming up next week and I wasn't able to start the readings for those yet, so I'll be busy at the end of this week and this weekend so that I can complete those. It should be manageable though.

And there are still no marks put up yet for some assignments and quizzes I did. This actually reminds me of the last time this happened, which was my first semester back at school after a year long hiatus. That was the same semester I started this blog and I ended up with an A average. I know that the time it takes for a prof/TA to mark my stuff isn't a function of my grades, but I just got reminded of it and it made me think of how I did well that semester academically. I know I shouldn't get ahead of myself as I haven't even written the final exams yet, but I can't help but wonder if I'm going to do better this semester than I did in that good semester that I had.

Higher Marks

So now that it's mid October, I'm figuring it's now basically the mid point of the semester. I'm doing 3 paced online courses through UBC and two non paced online courses through TRU. I actually haven't received that many of my marks back yet for my UBC classes, which is odd because some of the stuff I submitted was almost a month ago! Some of the marks I got back are 95% and 80%. Pretty sizable weightings too at about 10%. And I feel as if I did good on my other things that I submitted over the past month. They are things like discussion posts and assignments. For my TRU classes I'm around the same mark at 87% and 88% respectively for chemistry and psychology. I'm estimating being done about 30-40% of my classes, so I guess it's not quite the midway point yet. It's not all good news though because I did get one 75% mark back and one 14.65/20 mark.

I'm currently figuring out what to do for next semester. I have a new thing on my plate (this new thing is not related to the big news I was talking about in a recent post) which I may or may not pursue. It is tough to balance my academics, my earning potential, my social and family life, and any extra curriculars I might do. In all likelihood, I'll pursue a combination of those in January, though I'm not sure of the logistics of the aforementioned 'new' thing that I might pursue. I'll post more about it soon, but right now, I'm off to the gym to do some anaerobic activity.

Thanksgiving Extension

So in one of my online classes I had one discussion and one quiz due on Monday. With this being Thanksgiving week I knew I had to get them done by Thursday night. I wanted to do all of my readings for the quiz so I knew it was going to take me a while to do. Well, today my professor emailed the class saying both items have been extended, with the discussion due Tuesday night and the quiz due Friday night. This was a big relief because during the past two weeks I've been pretty busy with school work as well as helping my mom. My mom decided to apply to some jobs in Vancouver so we were considering moving to Vancouver (we currently live on Vancouver Island). We have been kind of going back and forth between what we should do. My mom is very likely moving to Vancouver in the future, but we aren't exactly sure when that might be. Much of the discussion has been about financial issues, as my mom doesn't make very much money. She works as a care aide. I think part of the hesitation is that we are sort of waiting for me to get into med school. Once I get into a Canadian medical school, that would of course be an almost guarantee for a well paying job in the long term. I would also get a large line of credit that would help in the short and medium term. So basically once I am accepted, we would have a lot more autonomy on things like where we want to live and that sort of thing.

I'm getting excited about how I'm getting closer and closer to applying to UBC Medicine. I may have some very good news about my future within a month or two. I don't want to post exactly what that good news is just yet. Of course, I share a decent amount about my life on this blog, so I'm sure some of you can guess what that good news may be. Of course I'll leave it at that and leave it up to all of you to guess what that may be! Also as many of you know I'm superstitious, so I don't want to announce news that hasn't happened yet. It may or may not be good news, or it may be delayed from now until sometime next year, Now that I think about it, I probably won't be able to post good news about this secret thing until next year.

I also apologize for posting infrequently. My days have been so busy and in any down time I have I don't always feel like posting. But nonetheless, I do love this blog and love posting, and I promise I will be more active in posts for the rest of this semester.