Studying for the barrage of science finals and the MCAT, simultaneously, is a relatively independent enterprise. You can try to study in groups, you can attend the review classes, and you can go to the library to be around others, but in the end the process involves you and a lot of text. I tend to avoid the library around exam time, because entering the chemistry library around now is like waiting in line at the drugstore for a prescription during flu season: you’re afraid to get too close to anyone because everybody looks like hell. As an avid people-watcher, I’ve found that coffee shops are too distracting, so my go-to work site is the desk in my bedroom. And I am good at it. I can sit down and focus for hours on end, plugging away at physics or organic chemistry or whatever is on the table that day.
Classes
The MCAT Begins to Loom
We’ve started our review course for the MCAT. I wrote about the MCAT back in October, where I attempted to defuse my fear surrounding the test by referring to it as an actual cat. Unfortunately, I have to treat it like a real thing now, with books and studying and practice tes- oops, I just vomited a little bit. The overwhelming scent of failure is nauseating.
If you remember the SAT Subject Tests, the MCAT is sort of like 5 subject tests all mashed together. It covers general chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, biology, and verbal reasoning/essay-writing. It’s about five hours long, computer-based, and evil. Continue reading
Oops.
I should say that it’s pretty impressive that I, a legendarily klutzy individual, made it through nearly two-thirds of the academic year without a significant accident in a chemistry lab. Alas, my streak ended yesterday after a disastrous experiment. Continue reading
Bromo Sapiens
That… did not go well.
We just got done with a pair of midterm exams – first physics, then biology. I thought I did okay on physics yesterday and terrible on bio today, only to come home and find my second consecutive unacceptably bad physics grade waiting for me online. Awesome. I can’t wait for biology’s grade to come out. A text message conversation with a postbac friend, “L,” went as follows: Continue reading
M-Cat
I have a physics test tomorrow. We’ve all been studying for it for far too long, as evidenced by the following story:
During a morning conversation with a few other postbacs about how screwed we all were, which somehow involved talking about someone’s dog, we got to talking about pets. A brilliant idea surfaced: We should get a postbac pet that can roam the halls of the continuing studies building (okay, perhaps not the best idea). We were talking about what we should name this hypothetical pet, and the thought suddenly popped into my head:
“We should get a cat and name it… <dramatic pause> M-Cat.” (aka medical college admissions test, for those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about)
My friends smiled, laughed a little, and moved on. I, however, could not. The idea of M-cat began to root itself in my brain and expand, firm in its own belief that it was the Funniest Thing Ever. I came up with a hundred jokes in the next twenty minutes:
- I’m gonna get a cat and name it M-Cat. Then I can be honest when I say I’m allergic to the MCAT. (The last time I visited a friend with a cat, named Cosmo, I had to take so many Benadryl that I couldn’t make a sentence with more than one clause).
- The cat needs to be very friendly at first, then when you say the wrong thing to it start scratching the hell out of you.
- We should take M-Cat and throw it around. Then we can say we passed the MCAT. In fact, we can paint it, then say we passed it with flying colors.
- We can… okay, I’ll stop now.
You get the point. The rest of my day has been completely ruined. Case in point: during our seminar discussion on the American healthcare system (syllabus: everyone is fucked), I thought of an M-Cat joke – I won’t spell it out, but it involved getting a couple of kittens and calling them Practice M-Cats – and nearly had to get up and leave the room for fear of being overcome by giggles.
I know, I know, I’m procrastinating and should be studying instead of writing on my blog about things that no one actually cares about. Fine. I’ll go read my study materials: The instructions on the cat food I just bought in preparation for M-Cat.
Things That Are Awesome
In today’s edition of TTAA (Things That Are Awesome) – okay, the first edition of Things That Are Awesome – we are going to talk about ether.
Why ether? Why not?! We just finished up with an organic lab that dealt heavily in ether, and I would like to extol the virtues of this somewhat heady chemical for a moment. Continue reading
Being Suboptimal: Stupid Is As Stupid Does
Disclaimer: not funny.
My first thought walking out of my organic chemistry test last night – yes, last night – was, “Pitz would have killed me.” Dr. Pitz, one of my favorite professors in undergrad, taught a psychology class called “Decision Theory.” The whole principle of the class was that people are irrationally rational – that is, they behave in predictably stupid ways. Continue reading
Feeling the Pressure
Now we’re into our first real week of class (with labs and everything!) I can tell you that this is going to be a very challenging semester. We postbacs are finally settling into our schedules, trying to figure out when we can eat lunch and go to the gym, feeling out our easier days and our hell days, and looking ahead to those multiple-test weeks looming over the horizon.
No huge homework assignments are yet due and no tests are coming until the end of next week, but I think we’re all beginning to feel a little bit of the pinch. There’s that sense of, “we’re about to get murdered with work, but we aren’t sure where it’s going to come from yet” hanging over everyone. At least, it’s a nagging thought in the back of my mind – “what should I be working on right now?” Continue reading
Back to School, Back to School…
“I love the first day of school, man. Everyone all friendly and shit.” – The Wire
Vacation ends today. First thing tomorrow morning, we brave postbacs start organic chemistry. Surprisingly (or it will be to most of you), I’m looking forward to “orgo,” because it’s taught by our program’s academic director and hopefully won’t be the insanely tough class it sometimes can be.
Summer of Chemistry In The Books
Well, yesterday was our final exam. It was one of those exams where everyone was expecting to get murdered and it turned out to be much more of a breeze than anyone was expecting. Turns out the practice problems we were sent were designed for national-level chemistry competitions, not gen chem tests. So we all worked ourselves up into a frenzy over nothing. Continue reading
crashing resident 