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.