This weekend I worked my butt off studying for the organic midterm. I probably logged 24 hours worth of study time. Guess what? I FAILED. I haven't seen my grade yet, but based on the amount of guessing I did...I failed. It was like freaking GREEK. I just cannot get NMR spectroscopy to click and that was the majority of the test. I can look at an NMR spectra and determine the various groups, but organizing them into the correct molecule just isn't happening. I'm hoping the rest of the class did as poorly as they think they did (I didn't talk to a single person who thought they had passed, even the guy who loves this stuff and wants to work as a chemist.) and there will be a major curve...otherwise, I'm screwed.
I studied so much this weekend that I missed BubTar's double header baseball game. I had to keep KayTar home from her dance class. We missed the big fall festival at my school. The kids didn't get to have any friends over and we didn't do anything really. It was me and my books all weekend. Now it feels like wasted time. If I was going to fail the test, I might as well have enjoyed my weekend and my kids. I know, I know...it is important that I put the effort in and if I hadn't, I'd be kicking myself over that, too. Either way, it sucks.
I'm about 99% sure that I have an ulcer. Upper middle abdominal pain, below my ribs and above my belly button...it gets much worse when standing, so I think it is probably gastric and not duodenal. It does NOT feel good. Walking up to school today, the pain was climbing all the way up into my chest and radiating toward my back, too. It made it a bit hard to breathe. Not pleasant. I'm self-treating with Zegerid, which has helped with previous ulcers, but if it doesn't help quickly, I predict a trip to student health services in my near future.
Today was supposed to be KayTar's field trip to the farm, but we had to miss it because she has been sick. Yesterday she seemed like she was on the upswing and her fever broke in the morning, but she vomited before bed, so we decided not to push it. I feel bad about it now, because she's done great today and I think she could have gone and been just fine, especially since I was going to tag along. Bummer.
The only bright spot in this bleak, guilt-infested, grump of a post is that I got my midterm grades back for history and music and I got a 102 and 103 respectively. My history professor gave me a lot of wonderful comments on my essay, too. At least I'm competent at SOMETHING, right?
10 comments:
Congrats on the other grades! I NEVER got the hang of nmr- luckily I don;t think it shows up much on the mcat. I remember getting a 60 on an orgo test, freaking out, and finding out it was curved to a B. orgo profs are evil and like a low average, so they usually end up curving. I'm SURE you did fine :)
Was this your first orgo exam? Seriously, REALLY, don't worry. My class got curves of a good 15-20 points, maybe even more on a truly awful exam. My 60 something score effectively turned into a B+. I flat out failed one exam (though not by much, and I had just been way too distracted in the days prior) and still somehow ended up with a B. Do the work, log the hours. If you don't log the hours, it'll be far worse, and from what we've heard here, you're extremely smart and can totally do this. It's just that it's enough to cause a mental breakdown in chronic overachievers like us. :)
You are hugely competent at many things!
(I dropped out of organic chemistry and because a music major.)
You can do it!! If the whole class feels they did horribly and you are an otherwise excellent student then you probably did fine. I got an A in a class I routinely got 60s on the exams in. It sucks while you wait for the grade though! Sorry about the bummer weekend too.
Don't worry, everyone sucks at organic chem initially. Most Profs know that and adjust grades accordingly. What I never figured out, is, if as a prof you know everyone is going to fail the test, and you're going to have to give a 20 point curve, why not just make the test easy enough that most of the class passes with a 70?
it seems to me you have thought you've failed before, and done just fine.
and even if that studying didn't pay off on this test, it will go a long ways to working towards that "click" moment, or at least a basic "i get this enough to muddle through" moment. ;)
You life? Hard work (as evidenced by the ulcer). Medical people (Docs, Nurses etc.) make the worse patients if anyone else in your family had those symptoms, would you INSIST they go the doctor? Get thee to health services NOW. Because if the mamma goes down, the whole ship sinks! Hugs!!
I felt like I failed every gross anatomy practical and ended up pulling a B.
You're probably like me - approaching studying and life with such an "overdo" that it ends up working out in the end.
Thankfully, all that organic is kind of like fraternity sorority hazing for pre-med students. Pack it in, take the test, and let it go.
Good luck!
You guys are making me feel much better! I'm still dreading my test grade, but hearing that most people suck at this is comforting. ;)
I'm so sorry that test was that rough! I ended up in what we called "Baby Organic" (Organic Chem for nursing majors) and it was hard enough. I cannot imagine how tired your brain must have been afterwards.
And I'm so sorry to hear KayTar has been sick. I meant to email you about that the other day, but I feel like I've been swimming in my own sea of constant sickness over here.
I say let's go on a vacation to somewhere tropical...you're certainly due!
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