Tales of a Brown-Haired Freak

I suppose it's about time I mentioned exam week - I know you've all been breathlessly waiting to see how it went. Or something. How about I just tell you anyway?

( Lots of details are just one click away! )

38 days to go!

You want a piece of me, neuro? Huh? You think you can take me on? Well I'm not afraid of you. I'll beat you with one hand tied behind my back. Hell, I'll take you on with one hand tied *and* blindfolded! I'm just that awesome.

You think you're so tough, with your corpus callosums (callosi?) and your epilepsy and you rat sexual maturation tables? You think you scare me with your frontal lobotomies and your conotoxins? I don't care! I'll beat you so bad they'll be scaling you down for the next three terms! I'll beat you, and your friends too. That's right BSCE1, you can run home right now and cry to your mom, 'cause I'm in town and you're next! (Right after some beach time and an episode or 2 of House).

(*edit* - Rocked the physio too. I'm so fantastic I can't stand myself right now)

Ever worry that perhaps an exam was *too* easy? Me neither (immuno midterm doesn't count). But that's how neuro felt - and it seems to be the consensus. First order questions, straight from the notes. No thinking involved, just regurgitation. Am I happy about it? Of course - it means I might get my A after all. But at the same time, I'm miffed - I spent a lot of time studying for this test (complaining notwithstanding) and I kind of wanted more of a challenge, if not the mess that was the midterm.

But gifthorse, mouth, and all that jazz. At least physio's almost guaranteed to destroy my brain, and BSCE after that should be interesting.

Eight (soul-destroying, mind-numbing) hours later, I finally feel like I'm in a good enough place to put down the physio. Do I know it? Not really, but I can fake it until after neuro, when I'll have time to go over it all again.

Tomorrow is set aside for neuro, which I've pretty much given up on as the powers that be have seen fit to set things up so that the exam will be functionally cumulative, ie. far too much detail to remember for one test where I'm unlike to do better than a high B anyway. And yes, I know that was a run-on sentence. I plead literary license. Of course, the midterm was partially cumulative (is is considered reverse cumulative when they test you on things you haven't learned yet?) and I did reasonably well on it (though no where near where my effort-level should have resulted), but it irritated me enough that I refuse to bust my ass on the final. 'Cuz, you know, that'll show them.

I know - it's weird. It's barely halfway into September, and we're already down another class. Granted it was CPM and pretty much a gimme (smoking is bad for you, but if your family has a history of dying young from diabetes you can smoke, because it's not a risk factor for diabetes - only everything else. Oh, and don't be fat, because you'll die young if you are, and if you find out you have TB you should tell someone and take your pills at home instead of fleeing the country - they'll eventually catch you and they'll be pretty pissed off when they do), but still - 3 down, 3 to go for the term. Too bad the next three are the tough ones. Thoughts on the exam? Not much to say. I honestly thought it was a good test. The questions were fair and for the most part well-written. It tested more general knowledge than nit-picky details, and was easy and straight-forward enough to finish in about half an hour. Of course, as with any exam, people left the room and immediately started bitching about how unfair and awful it was and how the prof is a bad man and how half of the questions were bad because the word 'or' was not prominent enough in the sentence, and therefore they should not be docked points for getting it wrong because it wasn't their fault because the test was unfair...

They would make a better case for themselves if they didn't follow any discussion with complaints about how, since the exam only had 50 questions, they could only get 5 wrong and still get an A. What's wrong with just getting answers wrong, going "Oops/Damn!" and moving on? Why does an incorrect answer always have to be a problem with the exam?

Anyway, I celebrated the end of the class by going out and failing to buy milk and carrots (hurricanes are blocking shipping lanes so the grocery stores are running out of fresh food right now). I consoled myself by buying a lemon-basil plant and a pot to put it in, where it's now living happily on our porch, enjoying the sunshine. Then me and J watched Batman (the new one, with the spooky Heath Ledger and the angry batman with the annoying becostumed voice) and now I'm drinking rum and coke and getting ready to look at my new immuno packet, which frightens me, but only a little bit.

Well, thus ends the first 2 classes of 2nd term. The second final was today, followed by yoga and dinner.

How did they go? I'll tell you. Of course, that's a given - why else would I be writing this right now if otherwise? There were 2 exams : parasitology and genetics. Genetics was review, mostly fairly meh. On the other hand, parasite was both a fascinating and a horrifying class. Witness, .

Yes, this is Ascaris lumbricoides. It is a nematode. It's eggs are found in soil. But don't worry - you'd know if they were inside you. These worms multiply so fast and grow so big that they completely block your intestine before heading for your lungs. Pancreatitis, cirrhosis, and pneumonia are just some of the problems you're looking at before you die of asphyxia due to these little guys. But be afraid - this is easily treated, if your definition of easy is pooing out giant live (and dead) worms for a week.

In a way, Ascaris is sort of like a term in med school. You show up feeling fine, and get progressively more uncomfortable as time passes. You're not sure what's wrong, but you feel...full. And vaguely ill most of the time. By finals, you're a wreck, certain that you couldn't fit another ounce of knowledge in your brain even if you had the inclination, but after a week or so of doing the unspeakable (where by unspeakable, I mean excreting something. Knowledge, I think. And where there's a lot more of the unspeakable than you thought you had), you're fine again, though swearing that you'll catch it earlier next time.

There's worse, but if I told you about them you'd never eat meat, drink water, or pet a dog ever again. And don't get me started on the onces that penetrate your skin. Shistosomas are scary. Sometimes, ignorance really is bliss.

and I'm running out of steam, to say nothing of enthusiasm. Histo was meh - at least half the questions were directly (word for word) out of quizbank, so the only excuse for dong poorly is sheer dumb-assery. Honestly - it felt like cheating, it was so familiar. I'm trying to study anatomy right now but just can't be bothered. It'll take 94% to get an A in the class, whereas 70 will get me a B. For those of you keeping score at home, 94% on a 140 q exam means I can get all of 8 wrong.

Not going to happen. I'm satisfied with a B. B means relaxing tonight and watching dissection videos, sleeping in tomorrow, and skimming my notes and flashcards for a few hours. Gunning for an A means stress, waking up at the buttcrack of dawn, and taking my own life when I miss it by one point. Also, it means studying embryo.

At this point I just want to go home!

One down, two to go. Nothing too exciting to say about this one; it was about what I expected. Missed a couple of easy ones (or so I presume) because once again, I've been foiled by expecting more biochem in my biochem. But no worries - I'm generally pretty good at pulling right answers out of my butt when I need to (and yes, that is about as awkward as it sounds in the middle of an exam - next time I should really look into using my pocket). Onward to histo!

Not dead, just wishing I was. Brain is still trying to claw its way out of my head through my eyes. Painkillers continue to help...sort of. I can ignore the head, but everything else goes with it. Of course, codeine makes studying fun!

In other news, one friend is in the hospital with a new baby, another friend is in the hospital with a nasty illness. Good thoughts to both of them, please.

It's days like this that make me wish I was stupid/dishonest enough to fake ADHD. Some Ritalin would really have helped.

Slept in, but not too late. Went to study. An hour later, falling asleep. Coffee!

An hour later, falling alseep/bored. Energy drink!

An hour later, still sleepy, plus distracted. 45 min nap time.

Wake up. Try studying. 1 hour - distracted. M&M's will help!

An hour later, can't concentrate. Walk around campus. Go back to studying.

Now - hungry - make grilled cheese sandwich. Write LJ post. Debate trying to score some Ritalin.

I keep waiting for the "Ack! Finals!" switch to go off in my brain (you know, the one that enables you to study for 14 hours straight and then wonder where the day went), but it hasn't happened yet. Either I'm burnt out, or I've over-studied to the point where even the stuff I don't know is boring me. But I'm doing better on practice Q's now than I was before midterms, so maybe I should just go with it and not worry?