My final mark in my English course was an A-. I was really disappointed with this. If I had just done better on my final, I would've got an A for sure. I guess the name of the game for me is consistency. If I can just follow through this semester in January, I can definitely improve my application to med schools.
But, considering I was always really bad at English, this is definitely an improvement. I'm pretty certain I got like a 73 in high school English. And I was not a slacker in high school.
The amount of time that this whole med school timeline has been taking had started to take a toll on my optimism. But there is a new game changer in the works for me. For almost 4 years now I had been taking a medication for mood. The medication has always given me great fatigue, but I always just managed as best as I could. And sometimes I couldn't manage. Well now, I've come up with a plan with my doctor to go off the medication, hopefully reducing my debilitating physical fatigue and giving me more energy and maybe even feeling normal again. I won't see the reduction in fatigue until at least a month from now, and it may take longer to adjust, maybe 3-6 months. Anyways this is a huge development for me because now without fatigue, I can undoubtedly perform better. Going off the medication was my idea, and my doctor was very hesitant, but I basically told him enough is enough. It is unlikely I would've been able to complete medical training with these physical fatigue levels to begin with, before even starting. My family doctor actually told me this (and I think I posted about it, hah something about how I was going to make it work). And now reflecting back, it makes a lot of sense. This whole time I thought I just wasn't getting enough sleep or eating too much fat. And while those contribute, the difference between myself on the medication and the rest of my life that I wasn't on the medication, is tremendously stark. This is always why I was hesitant to study for the MCAT. Because I didn't know if I had the physical stamina to study 8 hours a day for 3 months straight. Now I'm feeling a lot more optimistic about the MCAT.
I'm still hoping to finish much of my organic chemistry course by New Years Eve. I told myself Christmas wouldn't get in the way, but that's easier said than done. Especially if your friends are calling you every day to make sure you're coming to the Christmas party tonight. I'm going because I think it would be fun. And not going would be a bit much. So I'm going to go tonight, and I've gotta clean the house today for Christmas. On Saturday it is unlikely I'm going to do homework because all of my closest family is in town so I think we may spend the day together then have our Christmss Eve dinner. We always have our turkey dinner on Christmas Eve. So I might start up organic chemistry again on Christmas Day, then work straight through until December 31st. I self imposed a January 1st deadline because I'm writing the final exam on something like January 12th. So that will be great to finally get this course out of the way. I need to do everything right, one step at a time. And another important thing that I was reflecting on after I got my English mark was that I need to become a dedicated student again. I need to prioritize school above the business, day-to-day things, friends, and anything else that might occupy my time on any given day. I realized I need to be a dedicated student, or else med school will never happen. Dedication is an important word for being a student. It means you will always do your required work, no matter what happens. It almost implies that a student is studying for a higher purpose rather than just putting in a check mark on a box. The latter is what's I've been doing. I've been barely getting by. It's because I've been wanting to do as little as work as possible. Granted, a huge part of it is how fatigued I am every single day. But still, I think a shift in thinking needs to happen. It means less fun in my life, but it's a trade off I'm willing to take. For now I'll focus on the next couple weeks, and dedicate myself to my studies so I can finish organic chem. I'm excited to decide which course I'm going to work on after organic chem.
Anyways MERRY CHRISTMAS 🎄 to all you incredible and wonderful people. Ill enjoy it while it lasts, because in all likelihood, 36 hours from now I will be knee-deep in figuring out my 2nd (out of 6) unit of organic chemistry. I'll start the updates once I finish some more units. Talk soon take care and Merrry Xmas.
Friday 23 December 2016
Friday 16 December 2016
English Final Exam Thoughts
@$%#! That final exam for English was awful. It's not that it was too hard, it's just that I didn't perform well. I was slow in the beginning of the exam because I was organizing my thoughts for the essay for a while. The reason I was slow is because I didn't get a full chance to tidy up a few things and thoughts for my ideas about essay topics this morning. I went to bed late last night and accidentally set my alarm for 7pm instead of 7am. I use my phone for reminders in the daytime so that's why I had it on PM from yesterday. And I was just tired when I set it and didn't check if it was AM or PM. Usually it wouldn't be an issue because I wake up reasonably within time naturally anyways, but if you're going to bed really late because you're cramming then this exact situation could be detrimental if you don't wake up naturally at the right time (which personally usually happens to me without an alarm). It could prove to be determintal for you just as it did for me in this situation. Anyways I was rushing the last minute prep this morning, and the prep took longer than I thought. Showed up late to the exam, had less time, was still doing prep in the beginning of the exam (was organizing my thesis in my head to make sure it made full sense), took a long time to write the exam because I'm not a person who ever finishes early. I'm always the last person in the room during the exam. Always. Anyways this pefrect storm no doubt lead to a reduced mark on my essay. I wouldn't be surprised if I got 60% on the final. Moral of the story always check to make sure your alarm is set for AM, as well as well as the right time.
Luckily I did well enough in the latter half of the course, up to the exam, to provide a good buffer. I did manage to finish up my last assignment and I received 90% on it (worth 5% of final mark). So in total I'm looking okay. Basically the final exam didn't make the course grade useless. I can't make a prediction because I have no idea what mark I'm gonna receive on my final. Hopefully it's not an awful B+ but we will see.
I need to cheer myself up. I should submit an organic chem assignment and get 95 on it to make me feel better. Yeah that's what I'll do. On Sunday it'll be done. Done deal.
Happy Friday though! Hope people have some Christmas fun. I'll be studying everyday this Christmas, but that's irrelevant. My point is I want to live through you guys, haha so have some fun for me. Going out, movies, family, hobbies, volunteering, reading or whatever. Just enjoy yourselves because Christmas is a great time of year. People noticeably act different (nicer) so we all might as well make the most of the December joy. Don't worry I'll post plenty before Christmas too. Talk soon!
Luckily I did well enough in the latter half of the course, up to the exam, to provide a good buffer. I did manage to finish up my last assignment and I received 90% on it (worth 5% of final mark). So in total I'm looking okay. Basically the final exam didn't make the course grade useless. I can't make a prediction because I have no idea what mark I'm gonna receive on my final. Hopefully it's not an awful B+ but we will see.
I need to cheer myself up. I should submit an organic chem assignment and get 95 on it to make me feel better. Yeah that's what I'll do. On Sunday it'll be done. Done deal.
Happy Friday though! Hope people have some Christmas fun. I'll be studying everyday this Christmas, but that's irrelevant. My point is I want to live through you guys, haha so have some fun for me. Going out, movies, family, hobbies, volunteering, reading or whatever. Just enjoy yourselves because Christmas is a great time of year. People noticeably act different (nicer) so we all might as well make the most of the December joy. Don't worry I'll post plenty before Christmas too. Talk soon!
Tuesday 13 December 2016
Home Stretch of English 101
So I got my mark back for my English term paper. I got 85% on it. It's solid but I was actually very disappointed because I thought I could've received a higher mark on it.
Anyways I'm going to see if I can get some feedback on the paper - because, I thought I worked it pretty well. I actually did not think my mark was going to be as low as 85%. So I need to find out what I did wrong. This feedback should help me a bit before the final. Yup the final exam is on Friday. I'm still working on my last essay worth 5% though. And the final is worth 25%, (which was the same as the term paper). I'll be done the essay tomorrow, and then after that it's all finals prep for English, aside from a few errands I have to run in town Wednesday and Thursday.
The math for what my final mark could be for English isn't looking good. I'm not sure what mark I'll get yet. But an A+ might still be possible. Since this final isn't worth a high amount (relative to the usual 50% final exam weighting) I think that's a half decent sign this late in the game.
For courses going forward, I know I'm on the right track. Organic chem is coming along too, and I can't wait to be done English so I can put all effort into orgo. I'm going to be done orgo by Dec 31st, minus the final exam. That's the goal I've set for myself and I think I can do it.
Anyways! I might post again before my final. I'm so glad I have this blog in times like this. It's therapeutic writing on here, but what I like is that people come read my blog posts. That's what makes it for me. I'm going to brush my teeth and floss then I'm off to bed. I'm going to try to wake up early tomorrow to finish that essay. Take care and talk soon!
Anyways I'm going to see if I can get some feedback on the paper - because, I thought I worked it pretty well. I actually did not think my mark was going to be as low as 85%. So I need to find out what I did wrong. This feedback should help me a bit before the final. Yup the final exam is on Friday. I'm still working on my last essay worth 5% though. And the final is worth 25%, (which was the same as the term paper). I'll be done the essay tomorrow, and then after that it's all finals prep for English, aside from a few errands I have to run in town Wednesday and Thursday.
The math for what my final mark could be for English isn't looking good. I'm not sure what mark I'll get yet. But an A+ might still be possible. Since this final isn't worth a high amount (relative to the usual 50% final exam weighting) I think that's a half decent sign this late in the game.
For courses going forward, I know I'm on the right track. Organic chem is coming along too, and I can't wait to be done English so I can put all effort into orgo. I'm going to be done orgo by Dec 31st, minus the final exam. That's the goal I've set for myself and I think I can do it.
Anyways! I might post again before my final. I'm so glad I have this blog in times like this. It's therapeutic writing on here, but what I like is that people come read my blog posts. That's what makes it for me. I'm going to brush my teeth and floss then I'm off to bed. I'm going to try to wake up early tomorrow to finish that essay. Take care and talk soon!
Monday 5 December 2016
Restless Energy
I submitted my term paper on Friday night and I ended up taking much more time to tinker with it than I initially thought I would need. Anyways it's in now so I'm just waiting for it to be marked and for my grade to be posted online! Nonetheless I have to prepare for my English final exam on December 16th too. But before that, I have one last essay to write but it's only worth 5%. I could've finished that today but I was doing some things for the business in the day time.
I'm just sort of starting to work my way back into my organic chemistry class (it has an end date in mid January), but I'm dreading getting my fet weet in that class because it has been so long since I worked on it. I'll basically have to re-teach myself the entire first 1/3 of the course that I already learned months ago. But it is my fault for not working on it before. I can't blame anything or anything else to try to make excuses.
My head is really in the game though. I've been doing general and diverse reading to prepare myself for CARS. I do feel I'm quite good at analyzing arguments and basically figuring out not only knowing "what people are trying to say", but also getting to the real heart of the issues too. But I'm still humbled by how much I'm learning too. Even when my confidence goes up, the uncertainty goes up a little too because then I realize there are all these things that I didn't know or didn't consider on a variety of topics. Or it could just be how much detail is possible in a variety of disciplines. But I find it fascinating that this stuff isn't boring me, it is actually very interesting. It might be because I have tremendous respect for passionate people, and for that much thought to go into a topic or an issue, or for it to be examined in that great of detail, then I just plain have respect for these people who are working on their craft, and doing work on what they care about.
Lately I've found myself to be much more productive in the evenings into the night. This was the case for the latter part of my English class. Last night I also finished a discussion that I thought I did a pretty good analysis on, and once again that took a lot longer than I thought it was going to take!
Anyways the lectures for the English class are over, but now that the class is nearing an end, I wish I could take more classes like this. I never thought I'd say this but I actually enjoyed an English class. The caveat is that it was not based on literature though, so I did have some optimism when I registered that I just maybe might actually enjoy it. I'll go into a bit more detail later about what this English course was about and what I learned, just because I actually enjoyed it quite a bit.
I started this post around quarter to 11pm-Pacific time. I haven't been exercising nearly as much as I wanted to in the last few weeks, but I'm still at a decent weight. Nonetheless, now I have this restless energy that is telling me I should go hit the treadmill at the gym. And literally as I just wrote this post I realized it started snowing around 8pm, and I just looked outside and saw snow on the ground. Stupidly, I never put winter tires on my car. But I mean c'mon I think it snowed for 2 hours last year. Anyways, I'm too restless so I'm gonna go hit the treadmill for an hour anyways. Hopefully I won't crash on those snowy roads, but I think I'll be OK. Talk soon!
I'm just sort of starting to work my way back into my organic chemistry class (it has an end date in mid January), but I'm dreading getting my fet weet in that class because it has been so long since I worked on it. I'll basically have to re-teach myself the entire first 1/3 of the course that I already learned months ago. But it is my fault for not working on it before. I can't blame anything or anything else to try to make excuses.
My head is really in the game though. I've been doing general and diverse reading to prepare myself for CARS. I do feel I'm quite good at analyzing arguments and basically figuring out not only knowing "what people are trying to say", but also getting to the real heart of the issues too. But I'm still humbled by how much I'm learning too. Even when my confidence goes up, the uncertainty goes up a little too because then I realize there are all these things that I didn't know or didn't consider on a variety of topics. Or it could just be how much detail is possible in a variety of disciplines. But I find it fascinating that this stuff isn't boring me, it is actually very interesting. It might be because I have tremendous respect for passionate people, and for that much thought to go into a topic or an issue, or for it to be examined in that great of detail, then I just plain have respect for these people who are working on their craft, and doing work on what they care about.
Lately I've found myself to be much more productive in the evenings into the night. This was the case for the latter part of my English class. Last night I also finished a discussion that I thought I did a pretty good analysis on, and once again that took a lot longer than I thought it was going to take!
Anyways the lectures for the English class are over, but now that the class is nearing an end, I wish I could take more classes like this. I never thought I'd say this but I actually enjoyed an English class. The caveat is that it was not based on literature though, so I did have some optimism when I registered that I just maybe might actually enjoy it. I'll go into a bit more detail later about what this English course was about and what I learned, just because I actually enjoyed it quite a bit.
I started this post around quarter to 11pm-Pacific time. I haven't been exercising nearly as much as I wanted to in the last few weeks, but I'm still at a decent weight. Nonetheless, now I have this restless energy that is telling me I should go hit the treadmill at the gym. And literally as I just wrote this post I realized it started snowing around 8pm, and I just looked outside and saw snow on the ground. Stupidly, I never put winter tires on my car. But I mean c'mon I think it snowed for 2 hours last year. Anyways, I'm too restless so I'm gonna go hit the treadmill for an hour anyways. Hopefully I won't crash on those snowy roads, but I think I'll be OK. Talk soon!
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