Problems with studying.

[Adumbration]

So, for the last year or so I've been in the army. (Involuntary conscription, see Finnish army for more details.) Before that, I went through high school.

Now I'm applying for the university of veterinary medicin. I was once doing a job introduction thingie for couple of weeks at a pet clinic, and I liked what I saw. A lot.

Here's the problem. I'm not sure if I can make the exam. More, I'm not sure if I can make through the preparation course I entered for that purpose. The exam is still a few months away, but the workload is immense, and due to the army, I even missed 4 days of the course last week.

The course cost my parents a 1000 euros, but it's killing me. Each day, I have to travel 2 hours by bus to get to the place, and back, to participate in 4 hours of course (missing lunch entirely). There I'm taught by older students of the med school, along with about 34 other people, of whom I know none and have failed to get to know entirely in the last few weeks.

Not only is the teaching fast paced - several new formulas for physics and chemistry each day, not to mention the biology - but they don't even have the time to go over them properly in the given time.

And the homework... Today we got 2 A4s of physics stuff to do, for an example, but we never go through them at class later. From biology, homework each day, plus a weekly assignment, plus daily tests.

I... I just don't know if I can do this. I failed completely at the physics stuff I tried, and chemistry and biology are hardly better. It's nothing like high school, really... There at least I had friends for company and help.

PS: Oh, and to top it off, next week my parents leave for a vacation, leaving me home alone. And our dog is at my big sister's.

I just feel so trapped... I can't relax properly - if I do, I feel guilty about not doing the homework, and when I do work on the homework, I get depressed about how hard it is. And what if I fail? Not only I fail myself at my dream, but I also squander my parent's money.


:smallfrown::smallfrown::smallfrown:

EDIT: Ahh, great, now I feel bad about whining about it over the internet instead of studying.

[Don Julio Anejo]

Something to keep in mind: while I don't know about veterinary medicine, normal med school is about 3 times worse. Change "4 hours a day" to "10 hours a day" and "2 A4's" to "40 A4-size pages of reading in a textbook".

[Flickerdart]

My Design courses are similar, but thankfully the 2 hours of travel one way only happens twice a week. Hang in there! If you don't tough it out during the hard times, you'll never get to the good times.

[Winter_Wolf]

Chin up, Adumbration. Or whatever the expression is over there. Some bland and irritating platitudes I can offer: nothing worth doing is ever easy. Your sacrifices now will be rewarded later.

If that doesn't make you feel at all better, I can't say I blame you. They totally failed to make me feel better when they were told to me, and frankly I doubt the wisdom of the latter saying.

I will say this, because I believe it with all my being: no knowledge without sacrifice. I don't know you, but I have faith that you can succeed, and I hope you do.

[Ashtar]

Use the time travelling wisely. Read your notes on the bus instead of listening to the Ipod / zoning out. Eliminate "negative" (ie. useless) time from your schedule. Make sure you get plenty of sleep. Try to find someone to team up with, it helps a lot.

I went through something which seems similar to you when I did the Special Maths Course to enter my university. It was 50 hours of maths a week, with evening lessons of French, English, Geography, History, Economics, Physics, Biology and Chemistry. And I arrived in class 6 weeks late due to the military service. I survived by focussing, working hard, finding a person to team up with (and staying at their place from time to time to revise together and have a nice dinner).

I made a notebook with "solved" problems where I extracted the knowledge and method of how I solved each problem, next to a simple example of an application. That helped. I learn through examples more than theory, is it the same for you, too?

Also remember, it is possible to fail and try again.

I wish you luck, fortitude and courage.

My final oral exam in Analysis II has stayed in the annals of the course. Luckily, I still passed. Yay! The big advantage was after such a load, the first two years were a charm, so it really does help.

[thubby]

look into your school's refund policy.
i don't know how it is in other places, but at my school, if you drop before a certain date (in one it was any time before the final) you get 1/2 your money back.
so if you know you'll do terrible, take the class up to that date, do the work etc, then drop and try again next semester (or whenever). protects your gpa and won't cost you as much :smallbiggrin:

[Adumbration]

Something to keep in mind: while I don't know about veterinary medicine, normal med school is about 3 times worse. Change "4 hours a day" to "10 hours a day" and "2 A4's" to "40 A4-size pages of reading in a textbook".

Ahem. The med school has precisely the same entry exam as the veterinary school. In fact, out of the 35 people on the course, about 30 are applying for the med school. So yeah.

Anyway.

Had a good night's sleep - around 9.5 hours - and if not feeling cheerful, at least I'm not as down as yesterday. It's the physics that's giving me the pain right now, really - I'm bloody good at chemistry, and I've worked hard on biology, too.

Thanks for all the cheers, folks.

[Atelm]

Damn, that makes my studying and prep cource, along with all associated stress, seem tame in comparison. Best of luck, that's pretty much all I can say that hasn't already been put into words by someone else.


EDIT: Ahh, great, now I feel bad about whining about it over the internet instead of studying.

Don't. It's good to get stuff off your chest, it's way better to talk about things that stress and bother you rather than letting them simmer inside you.

[Don Julio Anejo]

Ahem. The med school has precisely the same entry exam as the veterinary school. In fact, out of the 35 people on the course, about 30 are applying for the med school. So yeah.

I meant the actual med school itself and the workload there.

[Eldan]

You could perhaps do what many others do on these fora, from time to time: ask.

Perhaps you have seen the threads around here with titles like "Help! I don't understand this mechanics problem!". The forum is full of people who are students of higher semesters in all kinds of fields, and many will be glad to help you with your problems. I'm a master student in evolutionary biology/ecology as an example, and I could help you out in that area, as an example. Physics and math are certainly not my greatest strength, but I think many others around here can help you more with that.

Otherwise, do what Ashtar told you: a lot of sleep, focused work. I commute 1.5 hours a way daily as well. In the morning, I sleep, on the way back, I read books and papers. Works reasonably well, especially when you can get some ear plugs.

[Zaggab]

Something to keep in mind: while I don't know about veterinary medicine, normal med school is about 3 times worse. Change "4 hours a day" to "10 hours a day" and "2 A4's" to "40 A4-size pages of reading in a textbook".

I don't know what experience you have of medschools (maybe some silly high-profile school which enjoys to unnecessarily overload students because they can get away with it), but according to my experience attending medschool what you said is very exaggerated. Sure, I have 3 times as much work as my friend who studies multimedia, and significantly more than another friend who studies engineering, but it's nothing that can't be handled in an effective 8 hours of work each day.

Rumor has it that we have it easier than the vets, because we only need to learn one animal, instead of several. Plus, later when you actually work, we can actually ask our patient about their problems, something vets can't.

This is Sweden I'm talking about, and I think that Swedish education is quite similar to Finnish education. I think...

My tip for the OP: Study as much as you can on the bus. Sleep well. Eat well - bring lunch sandwiches if you can, or something. Try to decide how many hours you will study each day, and stick to it. When you have studied 6, 8, 10 or whatever hours that day, you have time off to relax.

Think ahead - it is said that the hardest part about med school (may apply to veterinary medicine too) it getting in. Once that's taken care of, the rest should be easy.

[bluewind95]

The things you eat may also play a part here. A balanced diet will help a lot. And sleep. Definitely sleep.