Crazy few weeks at school

The last few weeks of school have been really crazy. The craziness finally ends this Wednesday, but basically for the past two weeks, I have had either a midterm or an essay due every other day. I don’t think I have been this stressed out in the regular school term since high school.

Of course, a lot the stress is due to my procrastination habits. But even if I wasn’t such a major procrastinator, I think having something due or a test to take every other day would be pretty excruciating for any student. But for anyone interested, here are some interesting highlights:

Molecular Biology 2 =(

I wrote several weeks ago that I did really bad on this test, and that I was just hoping to pass. It’s funny how your opinion changes when you get your mark back, but view it in relation to everyone elses =)

Yes, I did pass with a straight 60%. But it felt pretty awful to hear that the class average was 71%, and that out of a class of ~57, I was in the bottom 10. I don’t think I’ve ever scored below average on a test ever, so that was not fun. It also doesn’t help that this grade is worth 25% of my final mark.

The sick thing is that because the test was out of so little (26 marks), every mistake you make gets amplified. For example, for one of the questions asked what would happen under condition A and what would happen under condition B. Well, I completely mixed the two up, and that mix up costed me at least 15% or something like that.

If I get into medical school this year, even if I end up with a 60 in this course, it probably won’t matter. It only becomes significant if I don’t get in this year and I want to apply next year. While it won’t matter for UofT (which lets you drop some of your lowest marks) or Queen’s/Western (where there are GPA cutoffs), it hurts me for McMaster and Ottawa. In fact, assuming the applicant pool doesn’t change, getting a 60 in this one course would likely result in a rejection from Ottawa next year. That’s a pretty sick feeling considering how the rest of my marks are really good. The university GPA system is pretty brutal, where one low mark can significantly impact your GPA.

I have my second 25% midterm this Monday, so hopefully that goes a lot better. I’m just trying to be optimistic that I get good news on May 15, and so I don’t have to worry about this course.

Geography Midterm Re-Re-Re-Write

This one is just super plain annoying. So a few weeks ago we were supposed to have a geography midterm. Basically we were given 9 essay topics beforehand and told that 3 would show up on the test, and we would pick 2 and write essays for them. So in the middle of writing my first essay on the topic of Empires (remember this), some student in my tutorial class decides they are not ready for the test and pulls the fire alarm. Of course, because of course policy (and I guess for fairness since we have technically lost time by the time firemen come and let us know what we already know, i.e. that there is no fire, and let us back inside) the test gets rescheduled for two weeks later. Now, I have to say I’m not particularly surprised a fire alarm got pulled – in some other tutorials, the alarm had been pulled for a map test a few months back. Fortunately the fire alarm was not pulled for my map test, which would have really upset me considering how much time it takes to study every single country and capital in the world. Having to restudy for this geography midterm wouldn’t be so bad, considering I had planned out all my essays before hand, and would just need to memorize a bunch of points.

So the geography midterm gets rescheduled for this past Monday (April 13). I got into the test room, and funny enough, the topic of Empires is again one of my three choices. So I start writing that one again. After 10 minutes, the fire alarm goes off for the second time, and we are forced outside and the test is canceled. I was honestly really pissed at this point. I mean, we had an extra two weeks to prepare for this midterm, and yet for some reason, someone still isn’t ready. Forget the fact that not being ready is your fault etc., but seriously, you had another two weeks and the extra long Easter weekend. Are you planning on never writing this midterm? Why not just drop the course?

The midterm gets rescheduled for a second time now for Friday of that week (April 17). That really upsets me because I had my second Macromolecules midterm scheduled right before it, and had stayed up 4am the night before to study for that. In fact, I was so exhausted that after trying to review my Geography notes a bit, I just gave up and went to bed. Fortunately, after having studied for that same midterm twice already, most of the points were stuck in my head.

So on Friday April 17, after my Macromolecules midterm, I walk into my geography tutorial for my 3rd attempt at writing the midterm. Funny enough, the Empires topic is again a choice. So I am now writing the same essay for the third time. Twenty minutes into the test the alarm has not been pulled, and this is the best version of my essay yet. I’m pretty psyched because the shenanigans were finally over, and my essay was looking pretty sick. But then I hear some soft beeping, and in my head I’m praying “Please just be someone’s cell phone”. But nope – someone pulled the fire alarm for the third time.

Honestly, this is just ridiculous and super irritating. I have never had a fire alarm pulled in any single class before, and now for the exact same midterm, I’ve had it pull three times. We have basically had two extensions for writing the midterm, and someone still isn’t ready.

I mean, I could understand this happening for something like Organic Chemistry. But seriously? For geography? Where you are given all of the essay topics before hand? I mean I would definitely be way more upset if this happened during a biology or organic chemistry midterm because those require ridiculously more short-term memory and effort, but having this happen three times is just ridiculous.

That being said, I understand the difficulty of finding a resolution for this, from the geography professors’ points of view. If you make the test a take home or have it done online with never before seen topics, students (and rightfully so) will complain. But I still think it’s bad for the professors to just keep giving in and let students pull the fire alarm until they are ready.

I told my TA that the professors should just give an ultimatum and tell the students that the midterm is going to be schedule one more time, and if the alarm gets pulled again, this % of their grade will be placed on the final exam, and the exam will be harder. Of course that isn’t fair, and like I said I don’t think there is any real fair resolution to this problem, but if I were the professors, I would rather do this and provide some deterrence instead of giving in over and over and over again.

Admission/Rejection Countdown…

I was going to write more about random stuff, but I think anything else I could mention pales in comparison to the frustration I’ve felt with this whole geography midterm thing.

In any case, medical school first round offers go out exactly three weeks from yesterday… I’m trying to be optimistic, but also don’t want to think too much about it. I’ve finally stopped thinking about all the interview mistakes I’ve made, which is nice. Though that might just pile up again on May 14

But here’s a question: Have you guys had any crazy/annoying/frustration/funny test or exam stories? Please let me know if you’ve had something more frustrating than mine so I don’t feel so bad.