Happy Friday, readers!
I figured I should dedicate a post to one of the hottest topics on campus right now: midterm weeks. This is the first semester of “block” midterm weeks here at SCO. What this means for us is that instead of our exams being scattered randomly throughout the semester for each course, we actually have dedicated midterm weeks during which we have an exam in every single class (kind of like final exams week, except three times per semester). Based on my own opinion and the opinions of my classmates, there are pros and cons to this new exam schedule. One of the major benefits is that we don’t have regular lectures scheduled during the exam weeks. We still have our labs in the mornings, but the afternoons are reserved for exams ONLY. This is great, because it means that there is no new lecture information coming in during midterm week. This keeps us from getting behind in material that will be covered on the following exam when we’re busy studying for the current exams. Another advantage to our new schedule is that studying this way should help us down the road when we are getting ready to prepare for our National Board Exams. It (hopefully) will help with our time management and productivity when studying large amounts of material at one time.
As for the aspects of the new schedule that we don’t love quite as much, there’s the obvious downside: seven exams in one week is a LOT. Our first midterm week was two weeks ago and it was definitely tough. My class had our pharmacology exam on Monday, our binocular vision exam on Tuesday, our pathology AND optometric practice exams on Wednesday, our theory/methods AND ophthalmic optics exams on Thursday, and our pediatrics exam on Friday. By the time Friday afternoon rolled around, we all felt (and looked) a little bit like zombies. The schedule also makes it a little more difficult to spend a lot of time focusing on one class, and I worry that I may not be retaining quite as much of the information since so much of the studying happens in such a short period of time.
Overall, we are all adjusting to the new schedule the best we can! While it would be ideal for us if the midterm week staggered a weekend or if we didn’t have labs and school screenings during midterm week, I’m sure we will soon adjust and won’t be able to believe that our midterms were ever administered in a different way! I’ve heard from my friends at other institutions that this schedule grows on you quickly and that you actually come to love it. I’ll post again at the end of the semester and let y’all know what the general consensus is at that point!
Another big thing that has been going on at SCO recently is that our White Coat Ceremony / Convocation was last weekend! A big congratulations to the Class of 2018 on their exciting ceremony. It seems like just yesterday that my class was walking across the stage and signing the Optometric Student Oath in our brand new white coats. This is such an exciting time for the first year students and I am looking forward to watching them grow into the wonderful clinicians that I know they will be! At the ceremony, I was extremely honored to be presented with a First Year Basic Sciences excellence award and a beautiful engraved plaque for my academic achievements during first year. Clinical Sciences awards and various scholarships were also awarded to other members of my class as well as members of the classes of 2016 and 2015. The ceremony is an exciting day for everybody and it’s always so wonderful to see the SCO community come together and celebrate!
As a Student Ambassador, I had the opportunity to help out at the ceremony and to volunteer at the Graceland tour with friends and alumni of SCO the following day. I had actually never been to Graceland before, so it was an awesome opportunity for me! In addition to learning a ton about Elvis and seeing his home, I also got to meet some pretty awesome people at the tour. It was an exciting and busy weekend and it absolutely flew by. I’m sure before I know it, it will already be time for the Class of 2019 to get their white coats. :-)
That’s all I have for today! Thanks for reading and I hope everyone has a great weekend!
-Lisa