It has been ages since I last updated my blog. Can't
imagine the load of work in stored for vet students, this I gotta say!
Literally just completed my second semester of my second year with the
submission of my Parasitology and Entomology paper yesterday (Sorry, guys. This
post was meant to be submitted AGES ago. It has been a month since the paper
and my results are already out. So, apologies.) Which means there's like
another short semester and one industrial training away from stepping into the
operation theater!
*mixed feelings of excitement and fear*
The whole reason must be how I have to gather every piece
of knowledge I gained throughout my last 2 years in vet school and try to see
things in a different perspective now. However, hopes and dreams are saved for
later. I just got to update people who actually read this blog when they
somehow click into this when they are Google-ing "UMK Vet".
First of all, I got some inquiries from people from
time-to-time, especially after I have decided to blog about my experiences. I
realised that many people do not have the basic concept of what to expect when
they are entering vet schools. I mean, you hear from others ALL THE TIME about
how medical students (human) slogged like mad, being zombies and owls and
pandas etc. to complete their 5-year programme. Well, sad to say, being a vet
student is much more demanding than being a human medical student. (From the
experiences I heard from various sources, that is. Personal experiences from
seniors, 75% of my Facebook friends, bloggers who are studying
medicine etc.) I guess I should summarise the things that I wished I would've
known (or at least, paid more attention to back then *regrets*), for anyone who
is just interested or curious about this field.
1. There is ABSOLUTELY no time and space for
procrastination.
Whether it is an assignment, studying for quiz and tests
etc., no room at all, unless you want to regret for later and you aren't as
Asian as me. I admit it, I am quite Asian to the core. But I always end up
being average anyway, never the top student. Lol. So, I always have the problem
of just sticking to the book/notes and read whatever material I was supposed to
without logging into Facebook every once in a while, checking on my Instagram,
playing endless zone of Plants Vs. Zombies etc. Current obsession would be
Bingo. Yes, the granny's game Bingo. I have you know that this game requires a
lot of attention, patience and ability to mind your language when the server
does not call out the ONE number you need to daub to get a bingo. I ended up
having to install a little app on my phone called "Stay Focused" or
something like that, which sort of checks on you at random time to see whether
are you studying or something else. It's more effective for people who has a
conscience. Hahahahahaha. It worked at first for me, but then after a while I
just decided not to turn it on. Which lead on to this regret. *sighs*
2. Time management is of the essence. No joke about that.
I had this experience once with my Immunology assignment -
a literature review on the topic "Serological Tests and Its Applications".
If somehow Dr. Erki is reading this, thank you for guiding me and giving me the
opportunity to write a literature review, but I did have a tough time
completing it in time for submission. >.<
So when I first got the topic, my reaction was "Serological
tests? It's kind of a bore." while my other classmates got interesting
ones like autoimmune diseases, tumour immunology, vaccine failure etc. Betrayed
by my own birth date, 23. -.- Anyway, I was quite pumped up to do this
literature review. I got my layout and outlines ready by the first week after
the assignment was, well, assigned. Then the tough parts came to me like a
pouring rain, with all the other course works piling in: assignments
(non-ruminant production), lab reports, pop quizzes, tests, presentations. At
one point I was on the verge of just shutting myself out from the world. Like,
just do nothing. At all, except breathing perhaps. And lying down. It was
pretty overwhelming. If I were to tell any of my seniors what I've gone
through, they will probably shrug and smile saying "Been there, done
that." And the worse part is, it is not going to get any easier during
clinical years.
True that, Eddard Stark. One of my favourite character in
Game of Thrones. Don't bother liking any character, they will die one by one.
Except for Daenarys Targaryean. She's is still very much alive and I am loving
her so so much. Sorry for the constant diverging from the core topic. (See my
problem now?!) I ended up finishing the assignment a day before the submission
date, at 5.00am. Well, technically, I got it completed on that day itself. And
had to wake up at 8.00am to prepare for class which is at 9.00am. It was mad.
Completely. Probably one of the reasons why I had problem completing it late
when my other classmates managed to get it done before then was because there
are plenty of serological tests to cover on. I ended up submitting a 40+ pages
literature review when others are of an average of 20+. It's not something I am
doing extra to earn bonus marks. It IS what that is expected from me, to cover
the common serological tests and their applications, which are abundant.
So there you go, even without procrastination, bad time management can
also contribute to the stress of completing an assignment on time. And also eye
bags and dark circles. Forgive me, for I am a girl too.
3. Stay healthy for as long as you can.
Quoted from Christina Perri, we are only human. I
particularly fall sick the most often during the hotter months (around mid
February to May) and the monsoon season. I am personally prone to oral ulcers
due to the lack of water consumed and the tendency of heating lots of heaty
stuff. I have just recovered from dengue fever few days back, (am gonna write a
short post on that horrible experience of mine) and now here I am at the place
where I will be staying for my 2nd Industrial Training!
Feeling really excited about things. I guess I will update
more lists and things to expect on my blog soon. It’s gonna be UPU Results Day
soon. And I am pretty sure there are going to be people stumbling here after
searching about veterinary medicine. Lol. Hi there! See ya in my next post.
xoxo
