Does anyone ever look forward to stats?

Christmas day stroll along the front with my family.

Happy New year! I am sorry that I left things hanging a little two weeks ago. Now I have returned from deepest, darkest France and bonny Hastings I can happily report that I am not dead, I did pass and for the time being a state of normality has resumed. It has been a lovely two weeks without the constant pressure of having to revise, but it did take a few days for my brain to catch on and relax. I'm back on campus now doing some work before term starts again next week. Despite my best efforts I have spent more money than I should have and I need to try and undo the damage!

We start rotations proper on the 13th of February, but we have a few weeks of clinical problem solving and some lectures on how to go about our research projects with something resembling professionalism. I think it may be a little dull, but at least it's a nice gentle introduction. I am not looking forwards to stats. Does anyone ever look forward to stats?

Until next time.

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.