okay... this will be my venting blog.. it has A LOT to do when this ONE class i am enrolled in right now...and i am just.........* big breath*...soooo...frustrated with it all!!
For those who don't know.. I am currently enrolled in Immunology( my Biomed. capstone course)
Now, I have been looking forward to taking this class and the one next semester( Medical micro) since my Freshman year in college!! ( i know i am a nerd) WHY? you ask? well because out of all the classes that i have taken in my degree, THOSE two are most likely to resemble material that i might learn in med. school. and WILL benefit from.
Now don't get me wrong. I am enjoying what i am "learning"..but to be honest.. I am not learning as much as i would like to because the presentation and structure of the course is awful. i am constantly worried in that class. I think i am far enough into my college career that i should be able to follow a lecture and understand somewhat during..and go home..review and ask questions to further my knowledge. however, in this class... i am completely speechless because i have no idea what is being said.. or where this all fits in the bigger picture( which.. is not that hard, the entire class is on the human immune system!!!!!) HE(the professor who shall not be named)..thinks that the silence of the classroom when he asks if anyone has questions..is us understanding..when really its everyone not having the slightest clue what he just said...or what he was referring to. and if someone asks to repeat.. they would be given a snicker along with a head tilt( like aww... you don't understand??) and it will be repeated in the same exact manner... so you are still in square one!!
AND THEN! to tell us to not to pay too much attention to the details and learn the conceptual bigger picture..but then to go and ask a 4 point exam question on a detail sooooooo minuscule that you yourself skipped over and and mentioned in passing..giving the impression that its NOT THAT important in the" big picture" .
And that's just the Lecture part of the class
onto the Lab...
if HE actually was a researcher, organized this lab, WROTE the lab manual we are using and was constantly present in the lab hours. Wouldn't you think that the Lab would be smooth sailing???? the answer to that my friends, is NO!
There are only 2 sections in this lab A and B. I am in A which meets on Tuesday afternoons and B on Thurs. I can't even begin to count the number of times that due to "outside" factors the entire Section(A) did not get proper results... But yet SOMETHING would be fixed and the precious section B would execute everything properly and would get results.. that would then need to be given to section A. so what is really happening here is that section A becomes the guinea pig..and minor adjustments would be made for section B. I'M SORRY!! but if you claim that you have been doing this lab for 10 years, WROTE the lab manual and are present for all activity that goes in the lab... there should not be a single problem.. everything should run smoothly like it does it every other lab i have taken(with only a TA present)
Take this weeks lab for example. There were steps taken for the students to save time. Now i have no control over what someone else does. So if i am to run a Gel Electrophoresis, and the Gel was made incorrectly, it is not my fault that the results are not good. In the beginning, i had a feeling something was not right, so i raise my hand and bring attention to the matter. He attempts to fix the problem but then follows it by.. " oh....i shooould not have done theez"( there is an accent incorporated in these quotes)
And If a certain someones responsibly was placing a thin film(membrane) over my gel and it was put together backwards( therefore, i have LOST all my results) AGAIN, NOT my fault. but yet...i still get the snicker with a head tilt..along with a " oh....jyou guys...just meass everyting up!"
NOW i only pray that in med school they have professors that know HOW to teach and present the information in different manners for different "kinds of learners". BELIEVE ME, if i could read a textbook and understand everything in it perfectly without having to go to class... I would have done that by now. Although i think it is quite hilarious, that i happened to get a question right on a weekly quiz when i did not actually attend that portion of the lecture...and another question wrong when i was present on the lecture day. Perhaps i should skip class and just read it for myself more often.
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Haha, hang in there, Maryann! Immuno is tough stuff - we just finished our Immuno block, and I'm so happy to get as far away from it as possible! And yes, at least at my school, professors know how to teach. :) You'll be okay, just keep pushing through. Don't let it concern you about med school (although talking about being speechless because you have no clue what is going on sounds about like med school!) - the scariest part is getting in. Not that it's not the hardest thing you'll ever have to get through, because it is... it's just that they don't want you to fail out and the professors and staff will do EVERYTHING they can to help you through it! Let me know if you ever need any help or advice. Oh, and "Crash Course: Immunology" by Robert Novak is a very helpful little book, as is "Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple". Good luck!
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