Tuesday, December 15, 2009

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!

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