More uni ramblings
Originally published at Skyline Pigeon. You can comment here or there.
Disclaimer: Some of this probably sounds like I’m being cocky. I’m not, I swear (I’m not denying that I can be sometimes, just not when it comes to this). It’s facts, that’s all. It’s the way I am, or was, or both.
To start with, let me give you a quick bit of history. I’m a perfectionist, always have been. I was a bright child, and always got good (and I mean good) marks at school. The day I got my Higher results and discovered I didn’t get my 5 As - I got 4 As and a B - I was not a happy bunny (to be fair, I had been told that I needed the 5 As to get into vet school, but anyway). I think it’s part of why I was never *really* happy at the vet school - I passed most of my course work (we won’t mention the exams - there’s a reason I’m not at the vet school any more), but it was an uphill struggle, and while I passed I never really got great marks. I know some people thrive in that sort of situation, but I’m not one of them. Put me in a situation where I have the potential to excel, and I will, to the absolute best of my ability. But I don’t do well if I have to struggle just to get by. Does that make me spoiled?
In all honesty, when I had to leave the vet school last year, I chose chemistry because it seemed like the best option, and at the time it felt right. I think it was. I’m actually enjoying uni now (well, apart from Quantum Theory lectures, anyway *g*), far more than I did at the Dick Vet. Now my bus goes past the vet school in the afternoon on my way back from King’s Buildings (the sciency campus) and I look at it and feel nothing. The only thing I really do miss from there is my friends (okay, one friend in particular, and if he reads this I bet he’s going to be really smug and take that as a compliment and I’m sure it’s not, okay
).
So anyway. I’ve always been good at chemistry. The fact that I had a really good teacher at high school helped, I’m sure. He was my class tutor for the first 4 years, then he taught my Higher Chem class. I suspect that if it wasn’t for him I probably wouldn’t be studying it now. So once I got out of the vet school, and started my chem course, I started getting the same kind of good marks I was used to once upon a time. For my labs last year, the lowest mark I got was 13/20 (65%) - I think I got that twice out of the 16 labs we had, most were 75% or more. And yes, okay, I did have a bit of a habit of arguing the point if there was a mark I’d lost I didn’t think I should have. I told you, I’m a perfectionist.
So, this week I got back the reports for the first 2 labs this year: 6/10 and 5.5/10. You can imagine how pleased I was (not) with those. They were both quantitative analysis of transition metal compounds - the first one for the anions, the second for the cations (for those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, it was pretty much running a series of tests on these unknown compounds to identify what they were). In each report, there were a couple I got wrong. Now, they’re constantly telling us that we’ve just to write down and interpret the results we get, and we’ll get credit for that even if our experimental results aren’t what they should be. But all of mine were checked by a demonstrator before they were handed in (and in one case, the answer I put on is the one the demonstrator told me to use, rather than the one I thought it was - and it turns out my answer was right!). There’s one where it says the solid that was produced should have been soluble in excess solution, and so I didn’t add enough excess - but I added enough to double the volume. It’s not like the whole thing is full of wrong bits, the majority of it is right. So why am I getting such low marks for them? Yes, yes, I know, 55% and 60% aren’t exactly “low” as such (particularly given that the pass mark is 40%), but I’m not happy with them. I’m going to speak to someone, if the problem is at my end (although I can’t understand how it is from just looking at the reports) I want to get it sorted out asap.
In other news, I saw Blood Brothers last week. A friend texted me last Saturday to let me know that Vivienne Carlyle is playing Mrs Johnstone in Glasgow (Linda Nolan is supposed to be playing the role, but her husband died recently), and saying I should go. I was intending to go when the tour reached Edinburgh - next week - anyway, and I probably still will, but I did want to see Vivienne. It was nice to see a show that I’d never seen before, I don’t get to do that much any more. Vivienne was wonderful, but then I expected her to be. The real surprise for me was Antony Costa (formerly of the boy band Blue, for anyone who’s heard of them). I’m not usually a fan of celebrity casting in musicals, but he proved that sometimes it can work. He doesn’t have the best voice in the world, and it’s more pop than musical theatre, but his singing was okay. He does have a real presence though, and he played the role well, his acting was far better than I expected. He and Simon Willmont (who is totally precious as Eddie, I love him) both have great comic timing. And they’re both really nice, which is always a bonus. Overall, I really enjoyed it, and I’ll definitely be going again once the tour reaches Edinburgh - either to see Vivienne again, or to see Linda if she’s back. Actually, the theatre is right beside my uni, and I have spanish class until after 6 three nights a week, so I’ll be making my trip back to the train station via there every night to check for understudy notices, because if any of them go on I’m so there (this is where I love the Festival Theatre, their ticket prices aren’t expensive).
I think that’s probably quite enough rambling for one night.
A. x