Well, I survived the first quarter of vet school. I'm officially 1/12th of a DVM! My first quarter was tougher than I expected, I'm not going to lie. A lot of unnecessary stress came from my living situation (which I will explain in a separate post), as well as stress with my family in Minnesota. I am relieved to be finished with the first quarter and am looking forward to a fresh start.
That is one thing I always loved about school, new semesters brought the opportunity to start over and correct the mistakes you made in the past. Plus, new school supplies! (does anyone else love school supplies as much as I do?) As part of the new quarter, I am setting some goals for myself to help me do better:
1. Write Notes in Class.
Before, I mainly just typed notes on my iPad with the Notability app. It is a great way to take notes, but I am the type of person that really retains information better when I write it out by hand. That being said, I also want to make the effort to not write every detail of what is on the power point, but rather use the lecture time to focus and take notes on what the professor is actually saying.
2. Preview the Lectures Before Class
Bouncing off Goal 1, I want to try to write out some notes from the power points before class, then add to them in class. That way, I am more familiar with the information, and I can better understand it and ask questions in class if I have any.
3. Study in Groups
I had previously been studying with an awesome group of girls, but I wasn't performing as well on exams as I wanted to, and I think a lot of the reason was that my study methods were not efficient. I was relying on writing things several times and repeating the information, and listening to others repeat the information. However, I was never prepared for the exam questions. During finals, I met up with a different group that had prepared note cards with questions and we asked the questions back and forth, and that really improved my grades on the finals. That being said, I think it is important to mention that everyone studies in a different way, and that you should never feel pressured to study with a group just because they are your friends if their method doesn't work for you. I was so worried that I would offend my friends by not studying with them, but in the end, they were supportive and really understood that I needed to study in a different way from them. We are still close friends and I am looking forward to hanging out with them outside of studying.
4. Make Notecards
Again, bouncing off my previous goal, making notecards is a form of active learning that has always helped me, but I was making them in the wrong way. For instance, I was writing things down, but not phrasing them as questions. Thinking of questions helps you anticipate what the exam will be like, and I think that can minimize a lot of anxiety that is associated with the exams.
5. Stay Ahead
The biggest issue I had this past quarter was that I didn't listen to the Dean when he said, do NOT get behind in your classes. The way our schedule was set up, we had one exam per week, usually on a Monday, so the entire week I studied only for that class. Sure, I was prepared for that class, but I got waaaaay behind in my other courses so when it came time to study for those exams, I had to go back and pretty much re-learn the material. Advice: LISTEN TO YOUR DEAN. They have been where you are, and they know what they are talking about. Plus, they want you to succeed and they want to help you as much as possible. My goal going forward is to really focus on looking at that days lectures and making my notecards, and then looking at the next days lecture to prepare. This may be a little more time consuming, but it will help prepare for the exam while not neglecting the other courses.
Vet school is hard, they weren't lying. But it can be fun, too. With a little preparation, finals don't have to be scary.
How did your first semesters or quarters go?
Congrats on your first milestone! It won't be long before you're in final year looking back, wondering what happened to first year.
ReplyDeleteI started out writing all my notes by hand, and I stuck it out longer than the majority of my classmates for the same reason as you--learning better with the physical act of writing. But by fourth year I got soooo overwhelmed by the sheer volume of material, lecture after lecture after lecture, that I got a tablet and changed my style completely. When I started just making extra notations on the powerpoints, I was utilising lecture time SO much better and I never looked back. I didn't have to be paranoid I was missing writing something down because I had the powerpoint in front of me, so I had a lot more mental energy to listen to the speaker. And yeah I agree, can't stress enough that keeping up with coursework is a lifesaver! A slight increase in daily stress to make up for a huge decrease in exam stress. I got into the habit of re-reading all my notes for the day before going home.
My first semester? It was shamefully easy compared to what came after :X It was like a normal semester of uni, really. Four or five classes, only four finals, lectures in the morning and occasional labs in the afternoon. As opposed to, say, fourth year where we had 8hr days every day, sometimes only lectures, 3 full-on labs a week, and 11 finals over 3 weeks, sometimes every day in a row. Ouchie. I still don't know how we survived it.