At this point, I've finished 4 of my exams, with the last exam taking place this Friday. Exam week started last week, with my first one on Thursday, next on Friday, the one after on Saturday, and the 4th one completed just today.
Overall, my 1st semester of 1-st year exam experience hasn't gone too well, and I'm hoping I won't end up doing as terrible as I am imagining. My primary concern was for that first exam (ECOR), with the TSE (mentioned in my last post) portion of the exam tacked on. Again, if you don't pass TSE, you fail the whole ECOR portion automatically, so naturally, it had me worried.
I started studying for this course on the Monday of exam week, memorizing each and every fact presented in the outside readings and in class material. Mind you, it was solely ECOR and TSE I was studying for, so I put all the other subjects in the back-seat. I spent most of my time listening to the lectures I recorded, and going through all the material.
The exam itself wasn't too bad, there were just a couple questions I had to make an educated guess on. The TSE portion wasn't too bad either, although there were a few questions that were a bit ambiguous to me. For example, a question asked about why the native people in the north were at a higher risk of having persistent-organic pollutants in their bodies. I limited it down to 2 possible answers: 1) Because bioamplification is particularly high in the north and 2) Because their traditional food is high in animal fats. In my point of view, both answers are correct, but number 2 seemed the MOST correct. Bioamplification is particularly high, yet it doesn't not explain how the POP gets into the bodies of the native people. Answer 2 explains that because their diet is high in fat, which a large majority of POPs are stored, bioamplification has a higher chance of occurring, with a greater impact.
So generally, all was well for that exam. I did not have much problem with the information-based questions, and questions which needed you to do some basic math I completed with relative ease. As always, I took all 3 hours of the exam, just to make sure I corrected any stupid errors. If I hadn't taken that time, I would've killed myself after for saying that the result of a cross product is a scalar.
The next day after was the Biology exam. Of course, having focused on ECOR the previous days, I had to do some intense cramming right after my ECOR exam. This entailed having to learn all the content after the last bio midterm AND to review everything before. I did learn MOST of the content I needed to learn, which unfortunately left me only about 4 hours to review everything else. I had recorded my lectures, but I didn't have the time to listen to them. It was just speed reading through ppt presentations and doing the online exam preps.
The 1st half of the bio exam was pretty easy, with most of the content I've learned over and over in high school, such as: which macromolecule has the correct monomer. The second half of the exam was something else. It was ALL the material that was after the last midterm, meaning, it was all the stuff I had to learn in a 1 day period. Freaky. I managed to get through some of the questions, but I alot of guessing was done, especially the last page. The content was on human genetics, and I found most of the content interesting, although with the limited time I had, my interest only went so far in helping me to study. Though I know I haven't achieved what I was planning to on this exam, I'm fairly confident I passed.
The day after was the chem mid-year exam. The chemistry I'm taking is a full-year course, so the content on the exam was everything learned in semester 1. As for the bio exam, I had 1 day to prepare for the exam, and like the bio exam, I had 1 day to learn everything after the last midterm and review all the other material. Catching up wasn't too too bad, there wasn't alot of the text-book to read, but instead of understanding was what presented in the ppt slides, I was reduced to memorizing and NOT understanding. Luckily, the exam was in the afternoon the next day, so I had a little more time to cram. After pouring through all the past mid-year exams, and memorizing all the needed equations, I was ready for the exam.
I'm telling you, I almost fainted during my exam. It was one intense, brain-stomping, 3-hour ordeal that I had to muster non-existent energy to complete. I didn't have a good sleep the next before, and I hadn't eaten lunch. Two things which probably led to my down-fall. Most of the theory questions I got through with ease, guessing on the ones I wasn't familiar with. The second half of the exam was the mathematics portion, where I had to remember all the needed equations. While I'm sure I recalled correctly each equation, having to do question after question of math really does a number on the brain (when it has not slep and eaten well). Half way into the second portion, my concentration was wavering and I was becoming increasingly tired. Instead of paying attention to what the question was asking, I started to 'plug-and-chug' equations. I took all 3 hours of the exam period, getting together the minimal energy I had left to exit the exam hall.
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That night after the chem exam, I had an interesting conversation with my parents about medical school, telling my mom about the various things I've learned through forum and blog browsing/stalking, and conversing about my future endeavors of medicine. While I have spoken to them about medical school before, I detected the same level of shock in both my parents. This shock, I sense is part 'being proud of a son who has 'real' life goals, and part 'how is he going to do it?'. They know this son didn't come out high-school the top of his classes, but JUST made it to the A+ level. They know this son wasn't particularly the brightest out of 3 'gifted' sons, as he was the most prone to failing. They know this son didn't win any 'high' awards or 'large' and 'prestigous' scholarships. But they know this son has a heart of faith, and a gut of steel. They know that when this son fails, he takes the opportunity to learn from his mistakes. They know that when he gets pushed down, he always gets back up.
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With a refreshed mind, it was back to studying, this time, for my linear algebra exam. Linear algebra wasn't particularly challenging, as I entered the exam with a 100 percent. Not to be mocking at all, but any high-schoooler could get the same grade. The prof counted 2 best out of 4 midterm tests with 5 of the best 7 tutorial session marks, combined to create the mark going into the exam.
Studying basically consisted of skimming through all the required readings in the textbook, going through all the past tutorial assignments and test, and doing all the online exam-prep. I had ample time to study, as I had the whole Sunday to study. Surely, I thought to myself, this exam wasn't going to be as intense as that chemistry exam I did the Friday before.
For some reason, I had the worst after-exam feeling after the linear algebra exam today. There were alot of questions I had trouble on, and wasn't too familiar with. There were 25 questions in total, combining to count for 50% of the grade. Most likely, I've lost my A+ in linear algebra, and probably JUST passed. My concentration that morning was wavering. I had a relatively good sleep the previous night, and a coffee in the morning. I wasn't confident in any of the math I performed in all questions, and I even forgot how to matrix multiply. Naturally, I took all 3 hours of the exam, and left quickly to expel the urine that was begging to be released because of the coffee.
In retrospect, my exam experience could have been better if I had accomplished a couple of things:
1) LEARN THE MATERIAL WHEN IT WAS TAUGHT and PAY ATTENTION IN CLASS: I would lean on my recorder to catch me up on classes I've slept through (Biiology), or too lazy to pay attention to (Chem), or even just classes I would not even bother paying attention (ECOR and MATHs). Instead of listening to a whole Bob Marley album in Biology, I wouldn't have needed to spend most of my cramming session catching up. This can also be said for ALL of my classes.
2) DO NOT HIGH SCHOOL STUDY but UNIVERSITY STUDY: High school studying for me was reviewing (cramming) the night before the test and exam. I worked...at least it did for high school. I 'high school' studied for all my 1st semester midterms and it also worked. I mostly achieved A+ level grades. However, I've noticed that this DOES NOT WORK for the exams for many reasons. Firstly, university usually has MORE content, more content than can be successfully learned, crammed, and memorized in one day. Secondly, this does not help you in the long run. Cramming entails pure memory and memorizing enough to do the exam. Little learning is actually performed, and in the future where you need to recall the memorized information, it is likely impossible. The moment you step foot out of the exam, you forget all the information
3) GET A GOOD SLEEP and EAT WELL: While I'm sure you can gain energy through decomposing your fat reserves, it is not recommended and it is painful. I would regularly skip out on a few lunches per week, and I would just ignore the pains. As well, I don't do very much sleeping. Most of the sleeping I do is on the weekend where I get upwards of 10+ hours per weekend night. Maintaining a well balanced eating/sleeping to study schedule will definitely help you to perform well. I was one of those people who thought they were exceptions to the rule, but grueling through 3 hours exams, day after day, painfully tired, doesn't really help you at all with academic performance.
4) GET HELP WHEN YOU FIRST ENCOUNTER A PROBLEM: I'm usually the person who ignores a problem, thinking that it won't show up in an exam or a test, and then having the problem resurface when it really hurts you the most. Don't be shy to approach a fellow-student, professor, or TA to help you out a bit. Learn to put down some pride so you can keep it intact at the end. Over the years, my pride has continually kept me from asking for help, usually hurting me in the end. This leads me to the last point...
5) GET OFF YOUR TOTEM POLE AND WALK AROUND A BIT: Coming out of high school with relatively high marks, I was expecting to get marks around the A to A+ level. While I have achieved these marks in the term work, I know I haven't achieved these marks in my exams. Unlike high school, doing bad on the exams really hurts your mark, and your ego. Don't let your pride and ego get to you. Just because you're a hyper-competitive, supposedly-intelligent, pre-med student, you're not the best at everything you do. Compose a mental list of questions you don't have answers to, and be pro-active in finding someone with the solutions.
I know many students are in the midst of exams this time of month. For those of your who are doing well, keep up the good work. For those who aren't achieving what they wanted to...
6) NEVER GIVE UP!!!!! It'd take me a couple days to tell you about all the things I've failed in. I've probably failed more than I've succeeded. I'd get hit hard with failures, and fall to the ground. Sure I'd sulk over it a couple days, but what will sulking over it help you? Speak to someone if you need to. Don't hesitate to get some help, whether from your friends, family, teachers, etc. Know that failing at this one thing won't be a complete failure if you learn from your mistakes. If you have a dream, and you're working hard to achieve it, even going through failures of all kinds, there's nothing in your way to stop you from achieving your goals. Even I, a pre-medder, is possibly very close to losing my scholarship and then benefits of maintaining a high mark. I'm planning to rebound from my failures. Wouldn't you?
So that's how my exams have gone so far, and I'm hoping even I can follow up on the things I've posted above. Life is a learning process and success doesn't alway entail success in the process of succeeding. Failing is just getting you prepared to succeed even more.
Good look to all students writing exams, and I wish you the best! And remember, as the Kings of Convenience song goes, "failure is always the best way to learn". See you after exams!
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