Finals in February

That's the way one of my classmates described this week for the sophomore vet students: "Finals in February."

And I certainly can't claim that's inaccurate. After all, we had 4 exams scheduled this week, and we have 4 finals scheduled during finals week in May. Plus this week we had 3 homework assignments and two extensive online exams due within the next 2 weeks that we are supposed to be working on.

I'm mostly glad I just survived. It's been a stressful last 10 days or so, what with studying and panicking and all, but I finished my fourth and last exam (online) about 10 minutes ago.

And, yeah, although I tend to flip out about this sort of thing, I have to admit that I did ok on the 3 online exams: A's on BoD, Imaging, and Surgery. I know I at least passed Therio although I'm skeptical about the possibility that I got an A. I was most worried about the surgery exam, seeing as that class is only 8 weeks long so this week's exam comprised 50% of our final grade.

Speaking of surgery class, I am ready for it to be OVER already. It's not that it's not a good class, or an organized class, or a well-run class, or an interesting class. It pretty much IS all of those things.

But it also adds four hours of lecture and recitation to my already plenty busy week. As I was thinking the other day about how tired and stressed I feel, it occurred to me that, thanks to surgery class, I am currently taking 30(!) credits, whereas after spring break (when surgery ends), I will be down to a mere 26 credits.

As far as quality-of-life is concerned, the end of surgery class will mean that I am only getting up for 8 am class on Mon/Thurs, not till 9 on Tues/Wed, and not till 10 on Fri. I did pretty well during the first couple weeks of the semester, but during the last week or two I've been finding it nearly impossible to find the motivation to get up early enough (5:15 am) to hit the treadmill before class. So I am excited to soon get more sleep and more exercise.

Overall, though, this was the "big" week, and it's now behind me. We have a couple exams next week, but those seem entirely doable after this week's marathon. The first exams of the semester are always the worst because you don't know what to expect - new classes, new types of questions, new professors, etc.

So with 3 weeks left till spring break, I am pleased to announce: the end is in sight!