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Dec. 17th, 2007 05:14 pmIt's kind of amazing how much I can stress about an exam where the professor has pretty much told me that as long as I make some kind of decent showing I'll get a B for the class, and I suspect it would take more or less an act of God to get an A. (This is the class I that I did poorly on one of the exams while I was quite ill. And... well, that most of the students had already had med school neuroanatomy before they took the class has also increased the challenge, especially since it's graded on a curve.) Okay, I'll admit to suspecting that if I really did a good job on this exam the professor might give me an A just because (she knows the grad students are mostly coming in at a significant disadvantage, and she's made a point that improvement counts -- and I did do a lot better on the second exam) and I'm still terrified that I'm going to get a C and end up on academic probation despite reassurances to the contrary... but it's tomorrow, and the fatalism (i.e. what will allow me to sleep at night if I do indeed manage to sleep tonight) is starting to set in. That, and I've pretty much covered all the material I was trying to cover, and looked up everything that confused me in other sources. A little more review when I get home, and then I'm taking the evening off.
It's been an educational few days. For instance, yesterday I learned a lot about driving in the snow. It's one of those things I've technically known how to do, but haven't done a lot of. (My mother claims that it was a blizzard, but... oh, heck, it was windy and blowy, but not really *that* bad.) I like driving in the snow far better out here -- not only is it less hilly, but people actually slow down and don't try to kill you. It was an hour and a half to get to bagua... but only hald and hour to get back. Driving is weird.
By the way, I really disapprove of stressing over grades. I feel strongly that learning is the point of education, and focusing on grades often leads to not appropriately stretching oneself, and making safe rather than interesting choices. (If one looks at my educational record -- and particularly the number of times I've plunged into courses without taking any of the prerequisites one can see that I've lived by this.)
This doesn't mean I'm not stressing. However, I just got all of my rotation paperwork and lab matching stuff in, so I guess I'm officially a biology student now. And it looks like in addition to (which will mean instead of) the GAANN fellowship it looks like it's *very* likely I'm going to be on the Neuroscience training grant. As a Biology student! Which means I'll have to take a bunch of neuroscience courses, but oh, that will suck ;-) Somehow, this is helping me stress a lot less. Yay, funding! (I wonder if I can still put GAANN on my CV... I mean, technically I've been awarded it, just they won't actually pay anything if all of my funding comes from elsewhere.)
It's been an educational few days. For instance, yesterday I learned a lot about driving in the snow. It's one of those things I've technically known how to do, but haven't done a lot of. (My mother claims that it was a blizzard, but... oh, heck, it was windy and blowy, but not really *that* bad.) I like driving in the snow far better out here -- not only is it less hilly, but people actually slow down and don't try to kill you. It was an hour and a half to get to bagua... but only hald and hour to get back. Driving is weird.
By the way, I really disapprove of stressing over grades. I feel strongly that learning is the point of education, and focusing on grades often leads to not appropriately stretching oneself, and making safe rather than interesting choices. (If one looks at my educational record -- and particularly the number of times I've plunged into courses without taking any of the prerequisites one can see that I've lived by this.)
This doesn't mean I'm not stressing. However, I just got all of my rotation paperwork and lab matching stuff in, so I guess I'm officially a biology student now. And it looks like in addition to (which will mean instead of) the GAANN fellowship it looks like it's *very* likely I'm going to be on the Neuroscience training grant. As a Biology student! Which means I'll have to take a bunch of neuroscience courses, but oh, that will suck ;-) Somehow, this is helping me stress a lot less. Yay, funding! (I wonder if I can still put GAANN on my CV... I mean, technically I've been awarded it, just they won't actually pay anything if all of my funding comes from elsewhere.)
