Junioritis

I'd say just about every student in my class is afflicted with a serious case of Junioritis that can only be cured with 'tincture of time.'

What I mean is, we've gotten to the point of having a visceral reaction to the thought of sitting in class any more. Studying for exams now consists of a half hour skimming through the slides from the lectures you skipped, then just winging it. Papers are written by jotting down whatever thoughts you can pluck through the exhausted haze in your mind, then going back later to find references to support what you wrote.

We have two more weeks of junior year left. And in those 2 weeks, we have 3 midterm exams, a behavior final, and 12 hours of capstone. Plus regular rotations every morning this week and regular classes every afternoon this week and next week.

Capstone (affectionately dubbed "Crapstone") seems even more pointless this year than the previous two. Our freshman-year capstone exam was given the day before we started sophomore year; the sophomore capstone was given the day before starting junior year -- i.e. at the end of a long summer with (assuming proper motivation) plenty of time to brush up on material from the previous year. Although I didn't like the last 2 Capstones, I understood that they had at least some purpose.

Capstone III, coming up in 6.5 days, has lost all purpose. With a full schedule of rotations and classes, as well as ongoing exams (basically one every weekend) and homework assignments (one or two a week), there just isn't really any time to study for Capstone. They say that the other goal of Capstone is to prepare us for a cumulative, integrative exam like NAVLE? Well, the numbers are in, and this year's seniors (the first class to have taken any Capstone exams) did worse on the NAVLE than the last few graduating classes.

So, yes. We are ready to be done with junior practicum. We are ready to be done with classes. We are ready to be done with homeworks and exams. And, most of all, we are ready to be done with Capstone.

Having seen how busy and fatigued the seniors are, I never thought that by the end of this semester I'd be just about longing for senior year to begin! Four weeks on Community Practice sounds like a veritable vacation compared to the final four weeks of spring semester. (I know -- check with me when I'm about 3 days into Community Practice, and see if that's still how I feel.)

I'm so ready to be done!