thanks for the rec, dr. g! I will definitely take a look to see if it can fill a gap in my current youtube video/atlas/book approach.
the one highlight is that the night before the exam we have a human brain lab dissection, so that should help reinforce my studying. but I'd rather not wait until the night before to see how solid I am.
bleh.
Nah, definitely study first. It's so much harder to make things out in a real brain cutting. It's all just varying shades of white and gray, not nice and technicolor like the book illustrations! They'll be like, "See here, how the hippocampal tissue is sclerotic..." and you'll be thinking, "I see nothing! What the hell are you talking about?!?" At least that is my experience, but I'm not a visual person. I have to put it all into words and concepts. Not great for neuroanatomy, but I get by. ;-)
You've pretty much described me in my anatomy classes. I'm so glad it's over. I still have anxiety dreams about school and I finished grad school over 11 yrs ago. I've since decided that I'm never going back.
Post by phoenixrising on Sept 26, 2012 5:29:10 GMT -5
I eventually have to go to grad school, but the two things standing in the way right now are (a) the thought of more student loans and (b) the thought of writing a paper again. Once I get over those mental hurdles, I guess I will be go for launch. My goal is to start a program by the time I am 40, and I am 36 now, so I have time.
Actually, I just wish I would have figured out what I wanted to do before kids. Working fulltime, taking a FT class load, and having a toddler at home is hard! I get so jealous of the young, 23 year old MS and Law students in my courses. They have the life!
It's like childbirth. After a while your memory of how painful it was fades, and the end product is worth it, assuming you end up in a job you like. :-)
I don't know that my memory of the pain will ever fade (HELLO SSRIs and three years of therapy!), but I am very, very happy and thankful for my job.
ETA: The parts of grad school that were the most like undergrad (taking classes and writing papers) were the easiest and most pleasant for me. It was the research that made me want to poke myself in the eyes.
My first year of grad school was THE BEST. My friends and I played poker until 3 am every Wednesday, LOL. Things went downhill from there.
I'll join the "I love school" club. The only thing I didn't love about grad school was being broke as a joke.
But I do enjoy having free time outside of work.
Grad school was actually pretty easy for me, but I got it in International Affairs. I'm lucky I graduated in 2007 and got a job before the economy went to shit, otherwise I would probably regret grad school a little bit.
currently studying neurology. our midterm is one week from today. we ran out of time during our FOUR HOUR LECTURE and didn't cover half of the slides, so he told us we can just read the slides and study the book. all of the material will be on the exam.
love it.
I'm giving a quiz on probably the same material tonight. Is it an anatomy or a disorders class (I teach in the field you're studying)? There's a website with great mnemonics and songs that I used to give my students, Dr. Something, let me look for it.
It's like childbirth. After a while your memory of how painful it was fades, and the end product is worth it, assuming you end up in a job you like. :-)
I don't know that my memory of the pain will ever fade (HELLO SSRIs and three years of therapy!), but I am very, very happy and thankful for my job.
ETA: The parts of grad school that were the most like undergrad (taking classes and writing papers) were the easiest and most pleasant for me. It was the research that made me want to poke myself in the eyes.
My first year of grad school was THE BEST. My friends and I played poker until 3 am every Wednesday, LOL. Things went downhill from there.
It will! 5 years later I daydream about days of research in the lab. I even daydream about reliving my first year of grad school (by far, the worst) and doing pages of derivations again.
I am right there with you. We can suffer together. Unfortunately, there is really no alternative for me because there arnt really many (good paying) jobs for people with a psychology BA.
I'm going to jump on this train, except I'm in the middle of my internships.
I realized the other day that if my school had their shit together, I would have been able to graduate in 2 years instead of three. :-(
It's like childbirth. After a while your memory of how painful it was fades, and the end product is worth it, assuming you end up in a job you like. :-)
I'm 3 years out from my Masters and the painful memories have started to fade enough that I'm looking at Ph.d programs.
currently studying neurology. our midterm is one week from today. we ran out of time during our FOUR HOUR LECTURE and didn't cover half of the slides, so he told us we can just read the slides and study the book. all of the material will be on the exam.
love it.
I'm giving a quiz on probably the same material tonight. Is it an anatomy or a disorders class (I teach in the field you're studying)? There's a website with great mnemonics and songs that I used to give my students, Dr. Something, let me look for it.
I'm in an anatomy & phys class, neuro class, and then we work in the cadaver lab to reinforce the material from the other two classes.
I am hoping the generalities here are correct and that it will be easier after I adjust my study habits. I guess only time will tell. right now things are nuts. I know I GBCNd a lot yesterday, but every other day I've been pretty much straight studying for 12-14 hours. weekends aren't much better (around 10 hours/day). my brain is tired.
It gets easier, especially after courses shift to becoming more clinical. In my program, we push more difficult classes to the first semester to weed out those who can't keep up. Are you using Zemin and Netter for you texts (I'm always looking for new books)? What book are you using for neuro? Also, if you have specific questions feel free to ask me. Our curriculum sounds similar.
It's like childbirth. After a while your memory of how painful it was fades, and the end product is worth it, assuming you end up in a job you like. :-)
I don't know that my memory of the pain will ever fade (HELLO SSRIs and three years of therapy!), but I am very, very happy and thankful for my job.
ETA: The parts of grad school that were the most like undergrad (taking classes and writing papers) were the easiest and most pleasant for me. It was the research that made me want to poke myself in the eyes.
My first year of grad school was THE BEST. My friends and I played poker until 3 am every Wednesday, LOL. Things went downhill from there.
This. Classes: no problem, Writing: No problem, Teaching: no problem. Research: Omfg I've learned to hate it.
I was actually talking to someone who graduated from our program last year. She's pregnant with her first, while chatting she mentioned how she wasn't worried about labor and delivery in the least. "I survived my doctoral defense, labor doesn't scare me anymore."
booby, the lack of exams is really killing me! lol I have had 1 exam. 1! I did really well on that exam, but who knows where I fall relative to my peers in the rest of my classes. next week is midterm week though, so we shall soon find out.
jaybird, thanks so much for the support! I don't really feel like MY own professors want to waste time outside of class, so that's big of you. haha. for anatomy we are using 1) Hixon, Weismer, and Holt and 2) Zemlin. Young for neurology.
blessed, thank you for the advice! I appreciate it. I hope things in S. Africa are going well!
booby, the lack of exams is really killing me! lol I have had 1 exam. 1! I did really well on that exam, but who knows where I fall in my other classes relative to my peers. next week is midterm week though, so we shall soon find out.
The hardest thing to adjust to when I was in law school was the exams. In each class, we had one final exam, and our grade was based 100% on that one exam.
But once I got used to it it was kind of nice because I could cruise all semester and then cram at exam time
people, I need you to stop telling me that classes/studying was so easy and enjoyable.
I feel like shit. I cried in the bathroom last week, LOL.
My grad program ≠ your grad program. I know not all of them are easy. My classes were (for me, at least). In balance, my classmates who struggled with classes but excelled in research proved to be much better off.
people, I need you to stop telling me that classes/studying was so easy and enjoyable.
I feel like shit. I cried in the bathroom last week, LOL.
Depending on the program its all so different. Law/medical school is so heavy on classes/ exams, its a different world. PhD in the biological sciences, classes fill up time but its the research and writing that everyone really cares about.
people, I need you to stop telling me that classes/studying was so easy and enjoyable.
I feel like shit. I cried in the bathroom last week, LOL.
i have ugly-cried twice and it's only the last week of september. i totally get you on this. it's harddddd. i feel like i am at my limit already, lol. when will you be done? i'm finished in april 2014.
Never knowing when I would finish my degree was possibly the worst part of my grad school experience. The first member of my cohort defended her Ph.D. in 2008, and I just defended last month. :-(
i have ugly-cried twice and it's only the last week of september. i totally get you on this. it's harddddd. i feel like i am at my limit already, lol. when will you be done? i'm finished in april 2014.
Never knowing when I would finish my degree was possibly the worst part of my grad school experience. The first member of my cohort defended her Ph.D. in 2008, and I just defended last month.
I feel like thats the worst part too! Every other school experience I had was so strict on the timeline, you knew what needed to be done and when. PhD program has been so, when its done its done. When you have enough you'll know. It makes me crazy and I feel like I can never let me guard down.
booby, the lack of exams is really killing me! lol I have had 1 exam. 1! I did really well on that exam, but who knows where I fall relative to my peers in the rest of my classes. next week is midterm week though, so we shall soon find out.
jaybird, thanks so much for the support! I don't really feel like MY own professors want to waste time outside of class, so that's big of you. haha. for anatomy we are using 1) Hixon, Weismer, and Holt and 2) Zemlin. Young for neurology.
I actually use that Hixon book for my course, it's so much better than the others. Keep it for speech science because that portion is pretty good too. And I'm happy to answer any questions, I even have saved "stock" answers to some of the more common questions.
i have ugly-cried twice and it's only the last week of september. i totally get you on this. it's harddddd. i feel like i am at my limit already, lol. when will you be done? i'm finished in april 2014.
I ugly cried and threw up on Monday when I found out that the next to last class I needed to graduate wasn't offered next semester. Luckily I think I'm doing independent study and will graduate in May 2013, but I couldn't take it anymore. I'm working full time along with part time classes in a program that most of the students are full time students (Masters of Public Affairs).
I'm so over being in this program (been part time since Fall 2010) that I just couldn't take the thought of having to stay through next Fall to take one more course.
tacom, every program is so different. Just because others had it easy doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong, it just means others didn't go through your program. You're smart so there is no reason why you can't do as well as anyone else in your program.
I remember hearing from others how easy grad school was while I was struggling to stay afloat too, and it just made me wish I went to grad school for what they went for. It said nothing about me and I know my fellow students struggled too. I hope you are able to bond with some of your classmates, I think that truly makes a huge difference. I had a super small program (only 5 in my cohort!) and we never really clicked, the class a year ahead of and a year behind me both seemed so much happier and they were all friends with one another.