Week 15: final exam week!
Today begins my "official" final exam week (it's in quotes because I did have a final exam last week, but that was during the last week of classes, so this week is the real start of it).
My first exam is tomorrow at 8:30am, for my Neurological Disorders class. I feel reasonably good about it, as I met with some classmates yesterday to go over it, and they were surprised at my ability to communicate what I knew. And I have fun with it. My friend was struggling to understand what an epitope was. And I said to her:
"Okay, so this virus or bacteria comes along and a macrophage comes along to eat it. The macrophage engulfs the bacteria, and then the macrophage puts on a little hat, to tell his buddies that he was successful in killing the bacteria. (the hat is made of the bacteria, or the hat is what the bacteria was wearing, tell yourself whatever you need to, for it to make sense) The hat is the antigen. But when you look closer, there's a tiny little red feather on the hat. THAT is the epitope! While the T cells come to respond to the antigen, the epitope is what the antibodies get all up in arms about."
I really don't understand immunology that well - I just spent the last 4 weeks with my tutor asking her "Okay so T cells do what again?" So that's the only reason I have any semblance of what's going on, otherwise, I'd be confused as hell, like the rest of my classmates. Immunology was not a required course for this class (and is not even in my department, it's a molecular biology and biochemistry class; the only people that would take that are MBB majors or people intending on med school - and even that class is NOT a requirement for med school entry, just might be good to have).
My second exam is tomorrow at Noon! Yee haw, half an hour break! :P My Anatomy lecture exam. I hope it goes well. I've been studying lots for that too. My tutor yesterday seems to think I've made some great progress with it. I just keep writing shit down over and over again (I only found out last semester that while I can make information look pretty and put down a lot of stuff when I do my notes on my computer, I don't remember it nearly as well as when I write it down - work in the method you're going to be examined in! It's a lot like sport specificity in that regard. Maybe it's a motor learning program. Anyway...)
Wednesday is my Human Growth and Development exam at 3:30pm. I'm not sure how I feel about this one. Our midterms were awful. I have a feeling our finals are going to be scaled, but I'm not going to bank on that by any means. I just can't really study for it til tomorrow after my 2 exams are done.
Saturday is my Psychology of Work exam at 3:30pm. I'm the least worried about this one and the teacher loves me and is a fair marker. After this exam, I plan to drink some tasty tasty craft beers!! Can't get drunk though...need to work the next day.
So today, is ridiculous. I am off to school now to study with classmates and on my own some more for...a while!
My health has been okay...been eating a lot more since I've been stressed (though happy stressed...not worried or sad stressed) but that's better than sleeping 12-14 hours a day. And I just got back my 3-month average blood sugar reading and it's held steady since my last test late November, so I'm ultimately not worried and am riding this out til it's over, which is REALLY SOON! :D :D :D
OH AND IT'S SUNNY FUCK YEAH!!!
My first exam is tomorrow at 8:30am, for my Neurological Disorders class. I feel reasonably good about it, as I met with some classmates yesterday to go over it, and they were surprised at my ability to communicate what I knew. And I have fun with it. My friend was struggling to understand what an epitope was. And I said to her:
"Okay, so this virus or bacteria comes along and a macrophage comes along to eat it. The macrophage engulfs the bacteria, and then the macrophage puts on a little hat, to tell his buddies that he was successful in killing the bacteria. (the hat is made of the bacteria, or the hat is what the bacteria was wearing, tell yourself whatever you need to, for it to make sense) The hat is the antigen. But when you look closer, there's a tiny little red feather on the hat. THAT is the epitope! While the T cells come to respond to the antigen, the epitope is what the antibodies get all up in arms about."
I really don't understand immunology that well - I just spent the last 4 weeks with my tutor asking her "Okay so T cells do what again?" So that's the only reason I have any semblance of what's going on, otherwise, I'd be confused as hell, like the rest of my classmates. Immunology was not a required course for this class (and is not even in my department, it's a molecular biology and biochemistry class; the only people that would take that are MBB majors or people intending on med school - and even that class is NOT a requirement for med school entry, just might be good to have).
My second exam is tomorrow at Noon! Yee haw, half an hour break! :P My Anatomy lecture exam. I hope it goes well. I've been studying lots for that too. My tutor yesterday seems to think I've made some great progress with it. I just keep writing shit down over and over again (I only found out last semester that while I can make information look pretty and put down a lot of stuff when I do my notes on my computer, I don't remember it nearly as well as when I write it down - work in the method you're going to be examined in! It's a lot like sport specificity in that regard. Maybe it's a motor learning program. Anyway...)
Wednesday is my Human Growth and Development exam at 3:30pm. I'm not sure how I feel about this one. Our midterms were awful. I have a feeling our finals are going to be scaled, but I'm not going to bank on that by any means. I just can't really study for it til tomorrow after my 2 exams are done.
Saturday is my Psychology of Work exam at 3:30pm. I'm the least worried about this one and the teacher loves me and is a fair marker. After this exam, I plan to drink some tasty tasty craft beers!! Can't get drunk though...need to work the next day.
So today, is ridiculous. I am off to school now to study with classmates and on my own some more for...a while!
My health has been okay...been eating a lot more since I've been stressed (though happy stressed...not worried or sad stressed) but that's better than sleeping 12-14 hours a day. And I just got back my 3-month average blood sugar reading and it's held steady since my last test late November, so I'm ultimately not worried and am riding this out til it's over, which is REALLY SOON! :D :D :D
OH AND IT'S SUNNY FUCK YEAH!!!