Last Week - Practicals, Exams, and Finals

Today is my third to last day of school for my first semester in college. What a relief it is going to be and how much my stress levels will decreas within the next three days. As each day passes, a little bit more of my stress is dropped off but it is still at an extremely high level right now. Starting tomorrow, the exams and finals begin. Now most of my classes do not even have finals, maybe just a final assignment, but nothing to fret about. This is definitely not true for my General Anatomy and Physiology class however.
Tomorrow, during a two hour lab slot time, I will be taking a Lab Practical and the Cumulative Final in the same sitting, one right after the other. A Lab Practical deals directly with the Anatomy of the human body and is basically just labeling parts of the body, not too bad, although still alot of information. The Cumulative Final however is a very different story. The Final will consist of information from twenty chapters and will be made up of one hundred questions. The Final definitely has a huge impact on your overall course grade. If you achieve between a fifty percent and a seventy-five percent on the Final your grade will stay the same. If you achieve above a seventy-five percent, your overall course grade will go up by two percent. But if you achieve less than fifty percent on the Final, your overall course grade drops two whole percent.
You may be thinking that most people would have no trouble getting over fifty percent correct on the Final, but in many cases that is simply not true. First of all, there is information on the test that derives from twenty different chapters. If you were to look over all these chapters specifically, I bet you there would be close to if not one thousand vocabulary words and tons of processes. But what is even more torturing and may lead people to fail is the other amount of work that you are putting into the class around the same time.
So I told you about the Lab practical and Cumulative Final that is being held in my case on Wednesday, but that is not all that we will be tested on unfortunately. We also have to take our final Lecture Exam. Personally, I am scheduled to take the Lecture Exam on Thursday. Now it might make a bit more sense on how it is so difficult to do well on the Cumulative. You already have sooo much else to study for!
And if the amount of studying is not enough pressure for you, in order to pass General Anatomy and Physiology and continue on with your program, you need to pass with a C. You have no clue how many students are right on edge of passing or failing, I would say at least two thirds of the class. That is why all these last tests are so critical. With your last Lab and Lecture points, you may be passing, but if you have spent too much time studying for those tests, and not enough on the Cumulative, you might fail anyways.
Overall, it is just a very stressful time right now! All my time outside of class is dedicated to studying but I guess I now know how college finals truly work!

I Believe

I believe in love. I believe in trust. I believe that everything happens for a reason. I believe in faith. I believe time can heal most anything. I believe in hope. I believe in wishing on 11:11. I believe in a better tomorrow. I believe in wishing on fallen eye lashes. I believe in not letting anyone else determine your mood. I believe in loving unconditionally. I believe in justice. I believe in vacations. I believe in marriage. I believe in monogamy. I believe in having lazy days. I believe in sleeping in too late. I believe in family dinners. I believe in the spirit of Christmas. I believe in God. I believe in you. I believe in my brother. I believe in commitment. I believe in responsibility. I bevlive in chivalry. I believe in soulmates. I belive in eating too much. I belive in exercising. I believe in good deeds. I believe in just thinking of you presents. I believe in Dr. Suess. I believe in romance. I believe in soul searching. I believe in making good decisions. I believe in expressing your love. I believe in the truth. I believe in change. I believe in the power of music. I believe in comfy beds. I believe in eaing healthy. I believe in spending the holidays with your family. I believe in your own style. I believe in bargain shopping. I believe in watching and wishing on stars. I believe in living simple. I believe in photographs. I believe in strength. I believe in the stair stepper. I believe in homemade cooking. I believ in dancing in the rain. I believe in accepting. I believe in apologies. I believe in best friends. I believe in myself. I believe in happily ever after.

Occupation?

So trying to decide what you want to be when you grow up is a pretty tough thing and an overall huge decision that will impact the rest of your life. This is why I have a tough time deciding what career path I want to choose and why I am scared that I am making the wrong decision. My plan as of last spring was to attend a Technical College in hopes of becoming a Physical Therapist Assistant. An Associate's Degree sounded great for me because I did not want to spend another six to twelve years in school. This way, I can go to school for a shorter amount of time, still make a significant amount of money, and start earning that money earlier. Not to mention the schooling is significantly cheaper.
I have also always thought about going in to the Psychology field. Especially now that I have been in Intro to Psychology with an AMAZING teacher named Alissa Minten, I have been thinking more seriously about changing my career. The only negative that I see about changing my profession would be having to attend school for four more years, as well as paying a ton more money that I would have to if I stuck with the Physical Therapy Program. I am already set up to begin the Physical Therapy Program next year so therefor I really need to hurry up and decide if I really do want to change.
I don't know how I am going to come to the decision however. I think I am going to do some research online that will hopefully help me determine which occupation I would like better. I might just stick with Physical Therapy until next year and see how much I really do enjoy it, and if I don't I will just transfer to a different school for second semester or the following year and just take more generals. I do not know the plan as of right now which bugs me because I am one of those organized people who always want to know what is going on but i guess that is just life!