Between studying for exams, practicing every day for the next upcoming practical, and preparing for my SVOSH mission trip to Colombia, I often wonder how I can keep my head on straight. And that’s what made me think of the perfect topic for this blog. No, it’s not my first roadtrip vacation to New Orleans and Nashville, which I’m about to take over spring break, nor is it how I finally got my anterior segment exam practical time to under 8 minutes (woo hoo!). My topic is SCO’s note-taking service and Tegrity.
If you are an SCO student, you owe your lives and sanity to one or both of these things. Don’t even pretend that you don’t. You might be smiling and nodding your head right now. Prospective students, listen up because I’m about to rock your world.
You know when you professor just said a super complicated procedure, and you missed writing the entire thing down because your jaw was on the floor and confusion was in your eyes? You can’t ask your neighbor because they are either in the same boat as you or weren’t paying attention because they just beat another level of Candy Crush. You are lost and have no hope of getting the right information. I felt that way more times than I could count during my organic chemistry classes in undergrad. But that fear and foreboding does not exist at SCO because of a wonderful invention called Tegrity.
Tegrity is a program used at SCO that records an audio, video, and computer screenshots of every single lecture. After the class is over you can log into the Tegrity website to watch the class again and pick up anything you might have missed. This is a great tool for audio learners right before an exam. You can relax in class and not worry about catching every single word because you know you can just relisten to it at your own pace later.
Now, what if taking notes was just never your thing. I’m talking to you, the one whose doodles are intertwined with the steps of transcription and translation. Well, you can have perfect notes for every class as well. Every class has a class note-taker. It is this person’s job to take notes for the class and up load them every week to our class website. Between taking notes in class, relistening to the Tegrity, and looking at the note-taker’s notes, there are no excuses for why you may have missed a piece of information. I have been a note-taker for two semesters (and so has Feyi and Lisa-other bloggers!) and have benefited tremendously from writing notes and reading the other notes. I know that if I didn’t understand a specific topic, I can look at the class notes and see it explained in another way.
When the stress of the semester hits, have no fear because Tegrity and class notes are here! Prospective students- SCO has the tools and resources to help you succeed in the classroom. The class of 2014 didn’t have a 100% passage rate of Part 2 of National Boards for nothing. I’m sure the class of 2015 will be setting the bar high with their sitting of Part 1 in a few weeks. Me? The other 2016ers and I just want to make it thought pre-clinic checkouts, exams, and practicals in one piece. But that is the fun of optometry school. Don’t you want to be a part of this legacy also?