Exam purgatory

When I am grappling with another set of mind-bending exams and trying to shoehorn vast quantities of material into the two weeks allocated revision time I sometimes begin to wonder if I would still have put myself through this degree if I had been in full possession of my mental faculties when I applied. The lifestyle of a veterinary undergraduate means you are almost constantly anxiously chewing your fingernails to stubs in anticipation of the results of the exams you just sat, or you are the shadow of a human being; living like a hermit in a hovel fashioned from books and course notes. I'm not entirely sure how many students are truly aware of this on application; repeated warnings that it is a challenging degree are one thing, but you never really hear things from the horses mouth. 

Pharmacology revision doodles

Today is the eve of my end of fourth year clinical exams. I have been a student here for 6 years now and sat countless sets of exams over this period, but these final years are really beginning to take their toll. At the RVC the third and fourth year of the BVetMed are shortened into two terms each and consequently you sit two sets of major exams in one year with less and less time to recover. This doesn't seem so bad when they tell you, but in practice it damn near kills the average student. For most students here this means an inability to spend time on anything else without being consumed by guilt about not revising. There is a huge spectrum of emotional responses to this sort of stress ranging from suicide through depression to general hysteria. Unfortunately this environment contributed to one of our number taking her own life this term and she will be very sadly missed. The remainder of us have spent the last five days in exam-purgatory and hope all the work wasn't in vain. Please keep your phalanges crossed for us. 

Not quite the all singing, all dancing prodigal child

It is said that if you want to get into veterinary college you must be the all singing, all dancing prodigal child. As a child that grew up in a relatively deprived corner of the United Kingdom, attended the local girls only comprehensive and who wasn't considered outstandingly bright it was safe to say I didn't stand a chance. At least, that's what the careers service told me when I sat in their must office aged 16. I'll reserve my venom and bile about the schools careers service for another time, but I suppose they did do me one favour; they rattled my cage sufficiently that I decided to show them what a determined child can do.

Fast forward through 3 years of A-levels, a BSc (Hons) in Veterinary Science and two and a half years of the accelerated BVetMed degree and that is where I find myself, hunched over a laptop at the Royal Veterinary College and writing this blog. The plan for this blog is to give you a realistic view of veterinary education, the associated trials and tribulations and to prove that to get into veterinary college you do not need to be the all singing, all dancing prodigal child, but you do require a reality check and a healthy dose of determination.