It all comes down to this…

So Thursday is my first exam in BBS 501, which is our basic biomedical sciences course that all 1st year graduate students take in their first semester… Thus far, it’s really just been a review of biochem class from Truman State… The thing I’m slightly worried about is the amount of material being covered. I’ve been through 16 lecture periods at 1 hr each…which translates to over 5 weeks of MWF classes at Truman… So yeah, when you think of it that way, 5 weeks of material in any science class is a decent amount…but at least it has been mostly review…

Anyway, I don’t think I’ve described how grading is done here. It’s all graded on a curve (such that, typically, a 70% is considered a “B”…) and you’re graded with your peers from previous years, so they’ve been keeping records of how students have done over the past 7 years of the program. Therefore, if the average of all those students (~50 – 60 people) on this test was an 80% being an “A”, then that’s what this will be… So yeah, it matters how well we as a class do…but it also matters in reference to previous years, not just ourselves… I’m not sure whether to take this as a good thing or not…probably, I guess… We do get 3 hours to complete the exam, so that’s somewhat comforting.

Also, we aren’t taught by one professor. We have a rotating group that teaches each section. This time, we had 4 different professors. Each professor gets 5 points-worth of questions per lecture period so, for example, Dr. Shilatifard taught us for 2 lectures…meaning he can only write 10 pts for the exam. So if I really didn’t understand his stuff, then it’ll account for 10 points out of the 80 possible… At least I know generally how many points each day is worth going into the exam…it’s a little easier to pick out the key points of each day this way…I guess… We were also encouraged by our advisor to seek out old exams so that we know how each professor words their questions…and, supposedly, these questions don’t change much from year to year…

Therefore, this week has got me studying for my first exam of graduate school. It’s especially difficult to study knowing that a). I get a full day off on Wednesday to study for the Thursday exam, b). it’s all been review material thus far and c). lots of shows are premiering this week, so I want to watch TV instead… 😛

I’m not sure whether to be worried, though. There are a few things going for us and a few things going against us… I guess, in the end, it all comes down to how much effort I put in over the next few days…

…and how many beers I have… 😀