To anyone playing an XBox 360, that is the face of Medusa!
However, the timing of my Xbox's temporary demise was actually quite fortuitous. My Xbox decided to crash a few weeks before finals. You could say I was starting to "mail-in" my final's preparations. I had flipped the switch onto cruise control and was relatively self-assured about my grades. I was cruising with about a 94% in my Nutrition class so an A was pretty secure and I was hovering right around 80% in Pharmacology and I was very happy with the prospect of getting a B in that class.
***SIDE NOTE: To my friends out there who are pharmacists...much love and props. I will no longer make fun of you for counting out pills. That class was an ass kicker and I know we only had to learn a fraction of what you need to know!***
Well, as finals approached I was given two very unsettling bits of news:
1) My Nutrition professor actually used a plus/minus grading scale
2) My Pharmacology final was 60% comprehensive and 40% new material that we didn't really have time to go over in lecture.
So, you may be wondering how I took this news?
1) Granted, the plus/minus grading scale WAS on the syllabus so I should have realized this sooner (but lets forget about that fact) - So, my "A" was a bit in jeopardy. I needed to make sure I kept at least a 93% in the class to keep an A. This was troubling since I had been completely concentrating and stressing about Pharm and practically neglected Nutrition class. What sucked even more is that the class had a very low overall point total so there would be very little room for error. A few points could mean the difference between an A, A- or B+.
Thankfully, I did squeeze by and got my A by 4 points...that's what I call maximum results with minimal effort. The American Way!
2) Since the final was comprehensive, our pharmacology professor was kind enough to send us a study guide. Her suggestion was simple: "You only need know the study guide...oh, and know the new matieral...oh yeah, and just know all of the case studies".
It was a strange cosmic phenomenon, but after she said that I'm pretty sure the entire class (roughly 50 students) at that same exact moment had the same sarcastic thought "oh I'm glad that's ONLY what we need to know for the final".
The study guide ONLY had 150 items. There were ONLY 13 new chapters. There were ONLY 14 case studies. GOOD TIMES!
It had taken me about 3 tests to figure out how the professor liked to give exams, and while I wish I could have come to those revelations sooner, they came just in time for the final. I had been calculating over and over approximately what I needed to score on the final to ensure my B, but this proved to be difficult as we weren't going to hit the point total she had originally laid out in the syllabus. It was hard to say exactly how many points I would need and this was terribly frightening.
I felt so-so after leaving the final. I was among the first to finish so this scared me a little bit too. "Oh well", I thought, if I didn't know the answer the first go around, going back to change anything could be worse.
I spent the next few nights nervous and I didn't want to check my grade. I actually waited until that Friday to check my score (the final had been on a Tuesday) and by the grace of god I had scored high enough to snag an 82%! My only lament is that Pharmacology was also on a plus/minus scale thus I got a B-.
***SIDENOTE: I think its pretty sweet that you can pretty much get up to date grades online as the semester progresses. So many things are different than when I went to undergrad the first time***
So for now everything is right with the Universe. I got the grades I needed...and my Xbox is FIXED!!!
SLTSFFM
So many possible ways to,
Get me where I want to be,
Just get a little creative,
And you can put 'em on me.
"It's yours" by Rhea
***SIDE NOTE: To my friends out there who are pharmacists...much love and props. I will no longer make fun of you for counting out pills. That class was an ass kicker and I know we only had to learn a fraction of what you need to know!***
Well, as finals approached I was given two very unsettling bits of news:
1) My Nutrition professor actually used a plus/minus grading scale
2) My Pharmacology final was 60% comprehensive and 40% new material that we didn't really have time to go over in lecture.
So, you may be wondering how I took this news?
1) Granted, the plus/minus grading scale WAS on the syllabus so I should have realized this sooner (but lets forget about that fact) - So, my "A" was a bit in jeopardy. I needed to make sure I kept at least a 93% in the class to keep an A. This was troubling since I had been completely concentrating and stressing about Pharm and practically neglected Nutrition class. What sucked even more is that the class had a very low overall point total so there would be very little room for error. A few points could mean the difference between an A, A- or B+.
Thankfully, I did squeeze by and got my A by 4 points...that's what I call maximum results with minimal effort. The American Way!
2) Since the final was comprehensive, our pharmacology professor was kind enough to send us a study guide. Her suggestion was simple: "You only need know the study guide...oh, and know the new matieral...oh yeah, and just know all of the case studies".
It was a strange cosmic phenomenon, but after she said that I'm pretty sure the entire class (roughly 50 students) at that same exact moment had the same sarcastic thought "oh I'm glad that's ONLY what we need to know for the final".
The study guide ONLY had 150 items. There were ONLY 13 new chapters. There were ONLY 14 case studies. GOOD TIMES!
It had taken me about 3 tests to figure out how the professor liked to give exams, and while I wish I could have come to those revelations sooner, they came just in time for the final. I had been calculating over and over approximately what I needed to score on the final to ensure my B, but this proved to be difficult as we weren't going to hit the point total she had originally laid out in the syllabus. It was hard to say exactly how many points I would need and this was terribly frightening.
I felt so-so after leaving the final. I was among the first to finish so this scared me a little bit too. "Oh well", I thought, if I didn't know the answer the first go around, going back to change anything could be worse.
I spent the next few nights nervous and I didn't want to check my grade. I actually waited until that Friday to check my score (the final had been on a Tuesday) and by the grace of god I had scored high enough to snag an 82%! My only lament is that Pharmacology was also on a plus/minus scale thus I got a B-.
***SIDENOTE: I think its pretty sweet that you can pretty much get up to date grades online as the semester progresses. So many things are different than when I went to undergrad the first time***
So for now everything is right with the Universe. I got the grades I needed...and my Xbox is FIXED!!!
SLTSFFM
So many possible ways to,
Get me where I want to be,
Just get a little creative,
And you can put 'em on me.
"It's yours" by Rhea
