Only one more exam. I keep telling myself, “Only one more exam”. It isn’t helping. I am discovering new highs in my ability to procrastinate. So far, I’ve cleaned the kitchen, arranged my desk, posted on Old-PreMeds, re-arranged my desk, posted again, and then decided I deserved a nap. I even cleaned the car out. I need help here!
Anybody who knows how to get through these last few hours (62 to be exact) to finish the semester, let me know! I took the Path and Path Lab exams this morning after 30 hours of study over the weekend, and I just can’t bear to look at one more book- but Virology looms on Thursday morning, and I am simply struggling to find the motivation. (It doesn’t help that I don’t need to ace the durn thing- I just need to get through it and I’ll have done quite nicely in the class. If I needed a good score, terror would be a great motivator. Yes, I know I should feel motivated to do well just for the satisfaction of doing well. Apparently I used that motivation all up in studying for Path). So… HELP!!!
Thank you for your attention to my rant. I couldn’t help myself.
I will now return you to your regular OPM browsing.
Okay, so your problem is… what exactly? 
Sounds like you’ve studied hard to this point, because, as you say yourself, you don’t feel a lot of pressure for this exam. That’s GOOD! 
My own suggestion would be to make a SHORT list of the MOST important things from the course, and just satisfy yourself that you know something about each of those topics. Don’t beat yourself up thinking that you really should study every waking hour between now and Thursday. It’s perfectly okay not to if you ask me! It’s been a long haul and it is not a sign of weakness to admit that you are sick of studying.
(caveat: this advice is from the person who simply could not stand the thought of doing any more studying prior to my clinical psych exam last Friday, and thus spent Thursday evening on-line, shopping for a used car. I think I did okay on the exam.)
From the queen of procrastinators…
Mary,
Okay, guess I really didn’t have a problem- just knew that I needed to study and plain didn’t 'wanna, and needed to vent about it to people who have been there- only someone else in med school could understand how at times you can reach a point where you seriously believe that cleaning out your sock drawer is both something that is critically needed, and amazingly interesting.
Anyway, I did start studying by finally doing the only thing that would stop my procrastinating- went where I couldn’t see the tempting sunshine, and where I could study with other people who really didn’t want to study either. Painful as it is, it works. (Besides, usually when I study with classmates we end up managing to have some fun with it, and laughter is good medicine, right?) Anway, I’ll do the same tomorrow, and then Thursday afternoon I’m done and going to a ballgame, before indulging in a complete and utter collapse.
On a side note-- has anyone else noticed that over the course of their first year, what would have sent me you into an absolute panic last September is now commonplace and routine and no longer phases you? The amount of material that seemed (and perhaps was) “impossible” then now seems like nothing. It’s a pretty amazing phenomenon, isn’t it?
Anyway, thanks for enduring my rather incoherent ramblings.
One of OMD’s secrest to making finals week sooooooo much less agonizing and stressful – go into it with as large a buffer as you could. I cannot tell you how relieving it is to know that you can even do poorly…make a 40, 30 or a 10 and not fear failing the class! One, it makes “studying” for finals far less of a task. Two, if you’ve worked hard enough all term to earn that buffer, it’s much much easier to buff up on things for finals. And three, you can breathe a sigh of relief cause you damn well deserve one.
And I thought I was the only one who got a clean house out of finals week… 
bzmom4, my house is now nearly immaculate
OMD, I agree with that tip, and it works. I guess what is so frustrating about this exam is that I need a FEW points. The course is structured with course score, and a unit score. Even though I have enough points to pass the course, without passing the unit, I don’t pass- and the unit only has two nearly equally weighted exams, If I needed a nice solid score, the fear would be motivating. Okay, so I’m NOT seriously worried. But, as has been pointed out by somebody on this board at some point, if you aim to just past, you are likely to just miss passing. So I trudge on, trying to remember that knowing precisely how parvovirus replicates really IS important…it is… 23 hours and counting…
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| bzmom4, my house is now nearly immaculate |
isn't it amazing how much we can get done when we're avoiding getting something else done?
hang in there, it's almost over!
Beth
counting down 3 more weeks to my semester
Robert Benchley wrote a delightful essay on this aspect of procrastination. He developed a clever scheme to list his tasks in the wrong order so that, when procrastinating, he would inadvertently do the most important task first. No, sorry, it doesn't really work. The man was a humorist.