Long time no blog 😀

I completely fell off from blogging during my last year at UBC, and didn’t even recap my graduation…sad!

I still get emails and Facebook messages from inquiring minds and I will definitely try and post something answering all the common emails I get.  Most questions seem to surround notes, midterm tips, my ER Scribe job, and miscellaneous course information.  Just so you guys know I unfortunately don’t have many notes/old midterms. My favourite part of a course ending was throwing everything away lol.  I’m going to re-organize all my school stuff and go through my emails to see if I find anything in particular and just post everything I have on here.  So if it’s not on the list, you can be assured that I don’t have anything.

Also in other news, I’m going back to school! Yikes, never thought I’d be back at UBC but here I am, getting ready for another degree to add to the list (FYI it’s not med school lol, I’ll go into that in my next post) 😀

I regret not blogging since graduation, because I think post-grad confusion is something MANY people face, and I could have shared some of the things I did during that time as they were happening.  Safe to say, I explored many routes, worked full-time and took some courses on the side, and tried to figure out what I’d do.  It’s also really interesting for me to look at old posts on here because it seems like a different person.  I don’t think I’m quite as immature and erratic now, maybe a bit, just not as much as I’m seeing in some old posts lol.  I contemplated deleting them, but YOLO, that was me at 18-22.

So I just wanted to throw a post on here. So for upcoming posts, my plan for the next month

• What I did since I graduated, what program I am going to, Post-graduation confusion, etc.
• Post on ER Scribe FAQ (I will try and get in contact with the doctors so this one might take a while, there is no information out there for Canada jobs so I will try my best)
• Notes/Any old midterms
• Plans for a new domain – going to blog on here for a while, but should be switching over hopefully before new years just need to figure out a domain name.

Anyways, thanks for reading.

Binta

Hello everyone!  I haven’t posted in a while, been very busy these last few weeks.  Another year done, and I’m glad this past year was my highest average to date at UBC.  There was a lot that happened, including my first ever withdrawl at UBC, it was MICB 325 (probably one of my easier courses, I’ll go into why further in the post never thought the time would come, but it happens!)  First of all I get a lot of emails about the ER Scribe position, I don’t want to call it luck, I made it past the interview, but just finding the opportunity was luck.  I never heard of “ER Scribe” until I saw the email from Premed Society.  And now I hear there’s a program starting up at St. Johns Hospital, this is great that its spreading now.  Its an opportunity more available in the states, and there should be more programs available in Canada.

Now for the courses I took.  I took MICB 325 (W), MICB 308, FNH 351, ISCI 330B, PHYS 102

MICB 308

This course: ughhh.  That’s how I feel about it.  I knew it was going to be my hardest course from what I heard from people who took it.  I expected it to be my lowest grade, it was.  Whats strange about this course is that it kind of takes you by surprise, it does not feel hard throughout the whole course.  I did well on my pop quizzes, and if that’s not judging if your keeping up, what is?  I thought the material was fair, it wasn’t an obscene amount, it was a lot to memorize, but thats standard for most micb courses at UBC.  The midterm went well for me (the prof never told us the average -___- atleast I never heard it, and everyone I asked didn’t know, thats a first), so I just assumed/hoped that I did 5% better based on the general consensus that it was an easy midterm.  The fact that I had 3 other midterms less than 24 hours before this midterm didn’t affect my grade, I kept up the whole term.  Well anyways my final grade dropped like 10-15% than what I went into the final exam with.  Judging that the average for the class was in the 60’s, im guessing a majority of people had the same thing.  I knew the final went bad, it was just so weird because out of all my exams I was the most prepared for this one.  Multiple techniques were presented in class but I don’t know how to explain it, I felt like for an exam that tests details some questions felt ‘up in the air.’  The questions that were memorization based (eg. Pap pilus assembly) I did great on.  I think I gave solid answers on those technique based questions, but I know I didn’t do well on those.  I’ve debated going to see my exam, and decided not to because honestly I am lazy this summer and have way too much to do with MCAT prep and travelling plans as well.   And OMG i forgot something else… I honestly think this was a bit cruel.  Why emphasize to students that the final exam is cumulative?  I actually asked on the discussion board to make sure about a week before the exam, and was told once again that it was cumulative.  6 Questions on the final and not one question was premidterm.  WHY?  UGH.  I was so agitated walking out of the exam cause I thought I had it figured out that 1/6 would be a pre-midterm and something not tested on the midterm (likely complement pathway).  The fact that I spent half a day reviewing pre-midterm really frustrated me afterwards.  What is the point of saying the final is cumulative..like at least throw a 1 bonus question pre-midterm, all those 6 questions were post-midterm specific.  If next year is anything like this year, just know cumulative is code word for post midterm only.  Anyways, yeah I think its safe to say this is going on my “least favourite course experience list” which is unfortunate because I actually enjoyed the material.  I always enjoy MICB topics, but courses like this….Overall I am fine with the grade, I knew this class would be brutal for the final which is why I tried to do really really well on the midterm and pop quizzes to beef up my grade the most I could.

PHYS 102

On a lighter note, I didn’t mind Physics at all.  I was definitely the most scared about this course which is why it took me till 4th year to take it!  I ended up doing well, and it’s one of my higher grades which is a shocker for me.  Did better in PHYS 102 than PHYS 101 and it’s because I fixed a lot of bad habits.  Number 1: ask for help, thats what the TA’s are there for.  First year I foolishly did everything by myself, even when I didn’t understand like i wouldn’t ask for much guidance.  During tutorials/labs this time around I would always get clarification when necessary, and trust me its the difference between getting a high A in lab/tutorial/homeworkassignments and getting a B.  I also used Physics for Dummies for topics where I just needed a simple introduction and understanding.  Like I did not learn one thing about capacitors or resistors from that textbook… The new textbook confused me for the first 2 weeks, and when I stopped following it super close, I started understanding everything a lot more.  I’m also really glad i took it because Physics is on MCAT and I think this will help me have a better understanding of things I could not grasp last time I studied for MCAT.  Also, for many med schools in the states 6 credits of Physics is necessary, so I had to get it out of the way.  My final exam did bring my grade down a bit, but not much, I really need to figure out a better final exam strategy.

MICB 325

This course was great while it lasted.  I honestly knew knew knew I should not have taken this course.  I am doing a 5th year which is very empty in terms of courses, and it would’ve been smarter to take it then, and spread out my courses.  Instead I took it this year crammed with working part-time and my horrible, horrible midterm schedule I just knew it was a disaster so I had to withdraw.  I felt bad that I’d now have a W on my transcript, but I know that I’ll take it next year when I have time in my schedule.  Now my time in the course wasn’t great.  I would rather have dropped MICB 308, but I need MICB 308 for MICB 408 next year.  The lectures are VERY important, because all you do is solve problems which is my kind of class!  Little memorization, and lots of problem solving.  I really liked the topics, and the courses I took in the summer set me up perfectly for this course: BIOC 302 and BIOL 234.  The problem with the course is that the prof is very ambiguous a lot of the time.  A lot of his problems have multiple answers, or unclear answers, and whenever someone corrects him, I get the feeling that someone probably made the same correction last year and that it was never fixed… I don’t know theres just a lot of ambiguity, which in real-life I find interesting to find flaws in science and whatnot, but when it might affect my grade, then I start feeling some kind of way.  Now last year the midterm average was like mid 80s and this year it was low 72, which he said was high.  Overall it was one of my favorite courses, just because of the structure, also liked how the class was dimly lit (random).  I’ll be taking it next year as soon as registration opens, hopefully goes better then!

FNH 351

So this class is A LOT OF MEMORIZATION.  I would say on a higher level than Anat, MICB and Physio courses.  Seriously and this is WITH a cheat sheet.  Even with a cheat sheet, its so much to memorize I think I nearly got carpal tunnel writing out my cheat sheet.  Preparing for this midterm was hell, but I felt prepared, and was glad I would be getting my pre-midterm 6 hours of sleep, but then I randomly decide to look at the syllabus..and found out that for the midterm the cheat sheet is to be ONE SIDED.  You can imagine the panic that went through me.  WHY ME?  Literally, the cheat sheet was microscopic, both sides, now I had to give one side up.  I chose a side and frantically found a big eraser and started going ham on that side of the paper.  Realized there were parts(headers) in pen, and I had no white out, so I was just brainstorming ideas like gluing a white paper to one side.  Foolishly didn’t think scanning one side and printing it wouldn’t work because the writing was soo small, but it did, and after running to chapman learning commons the next morning and struggling to scan the page for 30 minutes (chapman scanner wasn’t working with the printer), I scanned it and sent it to the computers on the floor below, and it worked.  I then crammed for the life of me the material on that one side that I got rid of.  If I didn’t have my Physics exam later that night I probably wouldn’t have slept but I knew I had to, and I’m glad I did, because the midterm went really well (my best midterm out of the whole bunch) and so did Physics so it worked out. I wouldn’t take this course unless it was a requirement.  I am integrating nutrition, and there are only a few FNH courses that count as Science, so that’s why I had to take it.  And also if you have a gut feeling something is a bit off, go and check, because I did and the prof submitted a grade change document and my final grade went up 2%.  This isn’t the first time this has happened to me at UBC, so now I am a lot more precautious every time I see a grade, I try and double check some every now and then.  The final felt like twice the information of the midterm with a one sided cheat sheet, it was pretty rough but it could have went worse, overall the course was OK.

ISCI 330B Science and Culture

This is one of the required courses I have to take in ISCI, well theres a bunch of courses to choose from, I just chose this one based on the title/description.  It was interesting, ISCI courses usually are, and ISCI profs tend to be my favourites as well.  During the course there were many presentations, and it centered on a book wrote by an author that was actually teaching with our main prof.  Overall I enjoyed it, anything would be great when you compare it to the other 4 really.

So while it was a whirlwind semester, I’m still happy how I left it, I am a far better studier today than I have ever been.  How much would you guys pay to have a conversation with your first year self?  Seriously!   Anyways as for my plans, I am doing another year, next year will be my last!  Finally!  This summer is based on one thing and one thing only which is the MCAT.  No summer school courses to distract me this time around, I have all my focus on MCAT.  I’m following a pretty structured schedule right now and its tough but very necessary, I have high aims for this MCAT.  I’m literally giving myself ~3months to focus on solely this.  I have had many people tell me all I need is a month.   FALSE.  Definitely need more time than that, I have already found so many weaknesses, little things I need to work on, and I’m just starting.  And I want to get through more than half of the AAMC Practice Finals, and to do 2 a week would already take 2 weeks (i think doing more than 2 a week might be a bit much) and thats already half a month…  Unless your a walking Greys Anatomy textbook, I recommend you give yourself some time.  For example, judging from SAT’s, I’m not great at Verbal Reasoning, and those kind of techniques take time.  I am aiming for a 33+, and it’s a big goal I’ll be very disappointed if I don’t get it, but if I don’t I’ll sign up for the exam 1 month following it.  I am using The Berkeley Review Books/ an AAMC Official Guide Book/ EK 1001 at the moment.  I’ll make sure to update in a month or so how MCAT studying is going.

Hey everyone, hope everyones semester is going well.  This is probably my busiest semester since 1st year, in terms of workload alone.  I am taking 5 courses and a lab.  Why?? Because I am here next year and cant even risk something going wrong next year.  I have to take FNH 451, MICB 407/408 next year and I could push my MICB 325 to next year but what happens if FNH 451 and MICB 325 are on the same time, or something else like that going wrong.  Being my 5th year I cant take any chances, and my ISCI mentor advised me to do MICB 325 this year..so I am taking 5 courses, and a lab, to make matters worse, my midterm schedule is something else!

Midterm dates:

February 13, 2014 11am – 12:30pm FNH 351 Midterm

February 13, 2014 6pm – 7:30pm PHYS 102 Midterm

February 14, 2014 10am – 11am MICB 325 Midterm

February 14, 2014 12pm – 1pm MICB 308 Midterm

I have no words lol.  I have emailed my FNH 351 prof to postpone my FNH midterm, that class is an incredduloous amount of memorization, Bioc302x2 to me. And MICB 308 is memorization based as well. I just think its the most reasonable to postpone, there should be midterm hardship like exam hardship.  PHYS 102 isnt worth too much, but the others are 20-30%.  If the prof denies my request I will ask if I can take FNH 351 earlier, i’d prefer taking it a few days earlier to this situation.

Anyways a summary of how my classes are going at the moment.  I am taking MICB 325, MICB 308, PHYS 102, FNH 351, AND ISCI 330B

MICB 325

Love the style of this course, class goes by quickly because your actually thinking/problem solving the entire class.  Class is mostly based on clickers, and I don’t think studying for the midterm will be too bad, because going to class is the same as studying/learning.  Theres homework 2 times a week, and its super doable, quick, simple and to the point.  And even better this class i’snt really memorization based. Taking BIOL 234 in the summer definitely helped me reinforce some of the more difficult topics.

MICB 308

On the other hand, this class is memorization based.  Taking MICB 302 beforehand is a good idea.  I’m not a fan of the pop quizzes, it prevents a situation of cramming near the midterm but I like to learn on my own time, but I always feel like I have to be completely up to date because of the pop quizzes.  So far material seems interesting, but still just a lot of memorization.  I do like how her notes are organized though, very clear and concise, but still a lot to take in.

PHYS 102

Really dreaded taking this class. WISH i did Phys 100/101 because I could have!  I never took Grade 12 Physics I don’t know how I even got into Phys 101 to begin with.  Took Phys 101 2010W..so pretty much forgot everything lol.  Whats worse is its been so long since math that a lot of the basic math is gone as well.  The new textbook isn’t great, I got Physics for Dummies just to dumb it down for myself lol, and I was able to do the problems, and understood everything a lot more after reading the Physics for Dummies.  Also because they switched textbooks, no more mastering physics, also means never finding solutions online, which may be a good thing cause then I’m forced to try everything myself.

FNH 351

TOO much memorization.  We had one quiz, and the multiple choice options were soo similar literally one word differentiates them all out of a list of vitamins.  Its just ridiculous, and whenever I find myself in a class like this, I kind of detach myself.  Because I remember Biol 204 where it was a lot of memorization, and I tried the whole understanding thing, didnt work, with these courses better off just memorizing everything.  I cant fall behind, I didn’t think it could get worse than FNH 350, but 351 is worse.  I try taking minimal minimal notes in class because the content is overwhelming enough without adding a lot.

ISCI 330B – Science and Culture

This is one of the ISCI courses, and I was a little worried because the prof said this was the first time them trying this particular course, but I like the structure, and the class is definitely more engaging than most of my other courses.  I have a group, and our presentation falls on “my hellweek” lol so its the tuesday before my midterms.  That week is going to be crazy stressful.

Hey everyone!  It’s been a long time since I blogged, second semester just seemed to fly by really quickly.  I am trying to enjoy these few weeks I have of peace before summer school starts.  This is actually the first time I have ever done summer school, so I am a little worried about how crammed everything is.  I am taking Biol 234, and Bioc 302 this summer.  This past semester I took Phyl 301, Anat 391, Germ 110, Isci 350, and Fnh 250.

Phyl 301

I didn’t really enjoy this class, I feel like regardless of whether or not you keep up, by final time a lot of that information is gone, the small details at least, and in a course where the small details matter, then you might as well start from scratch when your studying, not really reviewing.  The things I studied really well still felt brand new when I was studying for the final.  Luckily for the second final I had more time to study, than for the first.  I had less than 2 days for that final, and I felt like thats what messed me up the most for the first half of the course.  The second final I had 3 days + 1 night.  It was also a less stressful exam season so I had a clearer head when I was studying for this final.  I gave up on writing EVERYTHING which is what I do to memorize, and what I did for the last final, and just read and read and highlighted.  Overall, I didn’t like this course :/  I think its more about the structure (no midterms/quizzes) and less about the material.  It made me have second thoughts about medicine, but I enjoyed Anat 391 which is under Faculty of Medicine, so I wont let this class derail me too much.

Anat 391

In retrospect I wish I took Anat 390 instead, everyone says its easier, regardless I really enjoyed this class.  Its taught by Dr. A, and he is probably the best professor I have had at UBC.  He just teaches the material very well, and I actually feel like I am learning in class.  I feel like majority of classes at UBC, atleast science, you don’t learn that much in class, atleast for me.  But I felt like he really made things clearer in class, and also made it enjoyable.  Funny professor!  The material on the other hand, you are pretty much memorizing the entire textbook, like literally, there is so much to memorize it can be overwhelming, but its doable, and its strictly memorization, which is great because during the exam you should be able to feel out what you got.  On the midterms I knew my grade exactly when I left by just counting up how many I guessed on, and my guesses are never right, its a either you know it or you don’t class.  I wish the structure of Phyl 301 was modeled after Anat 391, with 2 midterms and a final.  Or in Phyl 301’s case as yearlong, 4 midterms, 2 finals.

Fnh 250

So as some of you know I am integrating nutrition in my integrated sciences major, and I really wish I didn’t take my first nutrition course ONLINE.  I got a little lazy this semester and I feel like online courses take another level of determination.  I left a lot of things to last minute, I could have done amazingggg in this class if I didn’t let things pile up.  Regardless, I enjoyed the material, and everytime I’d read the book, I’d wonder why I didn’t start reading earlier.  Compared to Micb books, its such a easy smooth read.  And did I mention the final was open book (online only).  Regardless I enjoyed the material, I am looking forward to the lectures I will attend for the next nutrition courses I’m taking.

Isci 350

In integrated sciences you have to take 7 credits of ISCI courses, so this was one of the courses I chose, “Darwinian Medicine.”  I really enjoyed the class, think I missed one lecture the entire semester and its because my body was too weak for a commute to UBC (any commuters out there, you know what I’m talking about!  Thankfully I will be on campus next year).  The class was small, and there were assignments every weak, and there are group activities, and a presentation, overall I’d say its one of the more interactive courses I have taken at UBC.  I really liked it, I feel like even moreso than Anat 391, I learned a lot just by doing activities, and going to class.  One of my favorite classes this semester.

Germ 110

I had a great prof for this course, seems like this was the semester of great profs.  She was great (Adelheid O’Brien) and the class was very interactive.  I got sick and missed more lectures than I wanted to, but overall it was a good class.  I want to leave UBC with a language, so I’m sticking it out and continuing onto the intermediate level (200’s).  If the next class is hard, in that case I’m moving onto swedish!  🙂

——————————————–

So this summer I am taking Biol 234, Bioc 302, and on top of that studying for the MCATS! 🙁  I really postponed this because I’m scared to not do amazing like I need to.  I wish wish wish I just studied last summer when I wasn’t taking summer school.  I am working, taking summer school, and studying for MCATS so this summer is going to be rough!  I want to be on a schedule by Mid May, and right now I’m just getting my study materials together, choosing which books to get, etc.  I will blog about how MCAT studying is going, and summer school is going.  Biol 234 scared me because I tend to do badly in courses that start with a “Biol.” So thats why I left it to the summer, dont want a Biol 204 nightmare.  And Bioc 302 I am also scared of, because a lot of people seem to fail this course, apparently its worse than Ochem, but Ochem wasnt that bad when you look back so I don’t know what to expect.  I have a few friends in Bioc 302, so hopefully that helps.  Going to be a busy summer, hope everyone is enjoying their break so far 🙂

Binta

Hey Everyone, Hope you all had a great break.  I never did a review of courses I took last sen so here: 🙂

Stats 200

Probably my favourite course this semester, and I was expecting it to be the worse.  I had Yew Lim, and I really liked him as a prof.  Even though it seemed like he went fast he explained things really clearly to me.  I went to about 95% of lectures and for a 9AM class I didn’t think that’d be possible for me.  The labs were straight forward too, and between clickers, lab, and online quizzes there are a lot of free points.  The first midterm was hard, it was in the morning so I pulled an allnighter (smh) but I got an A so it was worth it.  The only thing thats annoying is that the other section has a midterm different than ours, and much easier, our class average was like 64, and the other class average was 78.  Apparently they scale our class up and the other class would get scaled down.  All I know is that with my final mark in the class I didn’t see any scaling…makes me wish I stayed in the later section that I was in initially, but then again I liked the teaching style of Professor Lim better.  All in all a good class, I tend to get sidetracked midway and the online quizzes forced you to keep up.

Phyl 301

This course is supposed to be really interesting but I haven’t been interested during any lectures.  During the first 4 weeks I was really into everything, and keeping up, and then I kind of just fell off the material if that makes sense.  I think its the fact that theres no midterm, no quizzes (no that one 2.5% quiz doesn’t count really..), no clickers.  I didn’t realize there was solo much memorization until the final, and I was pretty behind.  A lot of people spent the full 5 days after the last day of classes and the Phyl Final to study, but I didn’t.  I used the last week of classes to study Phyl, and then started studying for Stats since it was my first final.  I regret this because I know Stats, and worst case scenario I can BS and still do well because its math at the end of the day.  Spent so much time making a cheat sheet for Stats that I didn’t use on the final.  So anyways I was done Stats and used the day to review Phyl, but the stuff I’d reviewed the week before (Neurophysio mostly) was all gone, it was pretty bad.  I’m glad its a year long course otherwise I’d be really sad about my grade.  Especially since the final was really easy, just had no time.  As of this semester it is my first priority course, going to do a study group thing to help keep up.

Micb 302

This course I found really interesting, and its a lot of memorization, but its interesting so it sticks easier.  My favourite part of the course was the material, since I work at a hospital a lot of the case studies were things I’d seen so it was cool to see the relevance of what I’m studying in real life.  Now heres what I didn’t like..  So I feel like this course is a third year level course, but that its desperately trying to be a weeder course.  If I keep up with a course and study like crazy and don’t do phenomenal on a midterm i don’t give up but i do start slacking a bit.  The first midterm grading I was like wow they are grading really harsh, damn.  Like I answered all the questions confidently, but the smallest things you lose marks.  I feel like this class is part memorization/learning and part luck.  Your lucky if you wrote what they wanted, your unlucky if you answered differently.  My first midterm went way better than my second, which I expected since I didn’t keep up as much.  Regardless this is the type of stuff that just isn’t right, Micb 302 needs to be multiple choice, even if its tricky multiple choice I prefer that to writing everything I know and losing marks over random irrelevant stuff like this

eg.

aren’t organs made of tissues though….  like I said I would have loved this course if it was multiple choice, or even mc and short answer alternating.

Regardless of the technical issues, in terms of material I liked it wayyyyyy better than Phyl 301, and would actually recommend it, go to the tutorials, keep up, and go to class, the clickers are 10%!  So there are some free marks to get.

Germ 100

Actually this was my true favourite class.  It’s my first time taking a language since French in high school, and I was nervous because of the kids in the class who knew more than Beginners German.  Regardless the pace of the class was really good, I actually learned from the teacher more than the textbook [this has never happened at UBC for me…], and it’s also fun to know a language.  I already planned on taking it till the 300 level, and I definitely will after this class.  There are  a lot of free marks to get from German if you try: attendance, quizzes, online quizzes.  I really loved our teacher too her name is Eszter Lazlo, she was really good and fair.  The practice midterms were literally another form of the real midterm.  It wasn’t a million times easier than the real midterm [unlike some other courses eg. stats 200, micb302, the list goes on]  It was my highest grade at UBC ever, safe to say I don’t think I’ll ever see another A+ on my transcript till I graduate, unless Germ 110 goes well, fingers crossed!

And what am I taking next semester?  Germ 110, Phyl 301, Anat 391, Fnh 250, Isci 350

ALSO I get a lot of emails from people to send them practice midterms, finals, etc.  I got a new laptop this year so all that stuff is in my old laptop thats turned to crap.  It’ll take me a while to get all the files out but I will have a post with everything I have on there.

ALSO  I am selling my Stats 200 textbook if anyone is interested, bought it last semester.  And I am interested in buying FNH 250 if anyone has it. 🙂

It has been so long since I blogged, I realize I tend to blog when I want a little rant and I haven’t had any rant moments this summer.  But I have got a lot of emails about the ER Scribe job I currently have so I’ll answer all of those, but give a quick UBC update.  So I have pretty much finalized with myself, because I am such an indecisive person which is why I keep changing my mind about majors!  I just want something doable, yet something that interests me.  If you’ve read my blog for a while now, you know I was biology, then I transitioned into CMS and then I debated CMS and Integrated Sciences.  I really liked my transition between biology to CMS because of the flexibility.  Biology is a great program and suits some people, but it doesn’t suit me.  CMS and Integrated Sciences offers the flexibility I want, and is a smaller program which is always good.  So I pretty much decided this summer that Integrated Sciences was for me, and I started off wanting to Integrate Microbiology & Immunology and Physiology.  But it seemed too heavy for me, and didn’t really capture what I want to do in the future. 

I want to go to medical school,  and I’d also like to go to third-world countries at some point and do relief work and help with the health in different communities….all I know is at some point I want to go to probably Africa and help with the nutrition, vaccinations, and techniques to limit disease.  Based on all of this, I finally decided that an Integrated Sciences major tying Nutrional Sciences and Microbiology would be optimal for me.  I haven’t had my complete application approved yet, apparently its a long process…but a process I’m willing to deal with because I really want to do this major.  For the major you have to pretty much set up a plan, course by course, fitting in all of the Faculty of Science requirements as well as Integrated science requirements, and this part is what took me the longest.  Based on my plan it looks like I’ll be done at UBC December 2014 instead of June 2014, only because certain courses were only available first semester and I can’t do it second semester and be done June 2014.  It’s things like that, that made the planning such a hassle, I think if I’ll be stuck till December I might as well make it an honors degree and add a few credits I’ll have to talk to the advisor about that.  Anyways!  I will be posting my schedule for next year when I’ve finalized it, I should post it within a week.  It may change a little bit if the Insc people dont like some course selections but I’m pretty certain of what I’m taking.  Since MCAT studying didn’t go quite as I planned this summer (that story is for another day) I’m gonna get a little headstart with some courses, especially Phyl 301 which seems like a semi-nightmare. 

Now on to my job.  I started my position as an ER Medical Scribe this summer, and it’s been a really great experience.  I’ve seen so many different patients and cases from mild to quite serious.  I think the coolest thing I’ve seen so far is the doctor stick a tube into a patients chest to reinflate the lung (atleast thats what I think he was doing).  Nonetheless, very cool to see.  One thing I am certain of now is that I’m not grossed out by blood, weird bodily functions, pretty much anything cringe-worthy I’m not grossed out by.  I already kind of knew this, but now I’m certain.  Someone emailed me that my blog came up when they searched ER Scribe Vancouver, which is pretty cool, just goes to show how new this is in Canada.  Also impressed that they were looking it up, as I didn’t know about being an ER scribe until I saw the email from Pre Med Society.  I did a little FAQ below that covers most of the questions I’ve been getting.

FAQ
1.  How did you find out about the position?
Through pre-med society at UBC.  It’s quite funny to me how everyone and their moms wants to do med school at UBC yet such a small amount of people are part of pre med society.  Anyways, join! 

2.  Where can I get more information about the program?
Well I’m in the first ER scribe program in Canada, so I assume there isn’t much information out there.  Before I had my interview I looked up the job in the states, and it’s pretty much the same duties.  So google!  If better resources for information become available, I’ll definitely put it on here. 

3.  How are the hours?
Well all the scribes have a doctor they primarily work with and you show up when the doctor comes, so that could be a normal morning/day shift, or it could be an evening/night shift.  The night shifts take getting used to, but their actually my favorite because I’m naturally a night person. 

4.  Can I get into the program?
As far as I know there are more doctors wanting scribes, so there likely will be opportunities, look out for it, sorry I can’t give a more specific answer.

5.  What exactly do you do?
I follow my doctor with patient’s chart and write down the past medical history, subjective, and objective (physical exam), as well as a few miscallaneous tasks.

6.  How long is training?
I’m sure this differs, I think I was done training after 6-8 shifts with each shift being 8 hours, somewhere around there.

As for all the people who wanted me to email them with more details, I will be getting to that very soon.  Also, apparently blog squad is going to be featuring only first year bloggers, I’m not sure, but bookmark my blog should that happen 😛  Hope everyone is enjoying their summer! 😀

Second semester was about 10x better than first.  During the later part like early April, I got the flu!  And I had never had the flu before so when I was on my bed feeling like the world was on fire, I was really confused/scared/pissed.  Mostly pissed because I missed the Blog Squad Party, and because I couldn’t study for my IHHS final and catchup with Micb like I planned.  I ended up sleeping a lot before my final, doing most of the reading like 3 hours before the final, and managed to remember everything luckily.  But That was very annoying.  I am now done my finals though, all five of them 🙂  Reviews are below.

IHHS 200

Going in order of finals, and this was my first one, it was actually on the last day of school. And I had the flu still, so it wasn’t fun the night before.  Now I took this course to lighten the coursework.  It’s pretty much a small class, my class had 50 kids, and its more on the gpa bumping side when it comes to difficulty.  I took this class for a reason, but it also turned out to be very interesting.  We watched videos (which I love, cause if you know me I watch a lottt of tv, and things I watch stick).  A lot of the lectures seemed more conversational, like we really got to know the prof.  As for the structure, its midterm, paper, participation, and final.  Now you can replace the midterm with volunteering, so thats a free 25% and then participation, and he said he is lenient with the paper, and the final was straight forward mostly.  So there you go, I expect a 90+ and nothing less than 86, 80s im guessing i completely effed up something im unaware of.  I advise this class to someone who wants to go to an interesting class every other morning, and not worry about doing poorly.  Technically you have no obligation to write notes for the first half of the course if you dont plan on taking the midterm, since the final isn’t cumulative…yet the way some girls would violently write, knowing they werent doing the midterm shocked me.  Like really…? *sideeye* Anyways, great class, AMAZING prof, as I’ve stated before, and I’m hoping to do IHHS 300 next year, wish I could minor in it but not available at UBC.

Chem 205

Still shaking my head at this course, which I had the most time to prep for..sorta, but managed to just screw up.  I didn’t care about the course too much going in, because the final was 70%, so I’m like, my midterm means nothing, and the quizzes are 15% im set either way, just gotta go nuts with the final.  I ended up doing good on the midterm, and getting 95+ on quizzes, so I was going in solid.  I had a day in between microbio and chem, and I was majorly behind in MICB, so I spent a lot of time reading instead of doing chem, by the time I was doing chem, it was too last minute, and I know I need time to be efficient.  I finished the problem sets, and I slept 6 hours that night (big mistake, shoulda done an allnigter) and during that final, there were many uncertainties, when I know its the kind of class where your just like ok do x, get y, do z get whatever.  Like I was unsure of some steps, and I changed answers on a few things, so I just dont know how it went. Coulda went great, could have went horrible.  Thing I thought would be hard (Spectroscopy) turned out to be the easiest.  Probably the most ignored course this semester, wondering if my grade shows it.. 🙁

Micb 202

Favorite class this term.  Immunology was a great introduction into the course, the topics were actually interesting.  Sometimes I feel like I am mindlessly memorizing, but the topics of this course were too interesting to not reflect.  I felt very prepared for the midterm, and got the average, 78, which was disappointing, but also showed how smart the kids in Microbio are wow (most of the class is I can assume..microbiology students).  After reading week, I pretty much stopped my routine, there are a lot of factors that contributed to this, but before I know it, Micb readings piled up, luckily I read Bacterial Diseases, but I still wasn’t even halfway of Virology when finals started.  Regardless of me stressing and cramming, the material was great, the final was good, some sneaky tricks, but what else can you expect from UBC Science.  I ended up remembering things I did a long time ago(weeks-months) better than things I did 1 to 3 days before, I’ll make sure to keep this in mind for next year. Overall I think I did well.  Because I left Biology (best decision of my life) this course was what I pretty much chose.  I chose it over Micb 201, and I’m glad because Micb 201 seems like such a bore.  I think I disliked Bio program so much because it felt more like Animal Biology than Human, and of course the way exams are structured.  There are 3 different profs for this course to teach the 3 different sections.  Immunology was my favorite, Virology the easiest, and Bacterial Diseases the most straight forward but long.

Eosc 326

I took this course as part of the whole Combined Major scheme, and switched out of CPSC, probably ended up being a good decision.  There are 2 midterms, one 15%, and one 20%, two labs each 10%, and a final 45%.  I studied hard for the first midterm, did really well, slacked for the second and did not so great.  The class is online, so the midterms are open book, but timed.  And trust me, doesn’t matter if you have everything typed on a word doc and your fingers are glued to CTRL-F, it just doesn’t work out.  Luckily the labs are not timed, so its easier to do well.  The final isn’t open book, so this can be a huge jump if your used to the online midterms and labs being open book to suddenly being expected to memorize everything.  I pulled an allnighter for this final, well I slept 2 hours, survived on digestive crackers, coffee, and pepsi.  The final was a 7pm final, so I slept 5am-7am that night, and blazed on till 6:30pm and walked to the final.  It went well, it was 50% multiple choice, which I killed, I kind of like multiple choice I’m seeing that now, big change from high school. There was fill in the blank, and I know I got 8/10 on that, and the last part was just explaining some aspect of a nautolid shell…but one of the things I memorized, so I’m feeling good about this class, glad I switched in.

Bio 201

Last final I took!  You can imagine, I was ecstatic when I finished this, well not too ecstatic, I had a day to study between this final and Eosc, and had maybe 2 days before eosc.  Overall, I felt time was thin for this final, and I under-estimated how much time I would need (i always do this).  People pace when they are nervous, I write out a schedule, to almost assure myself, things can get done.  I think I gave myself 2 hours for each problem set, and somehow it dragged onto 4 hours, so at that point I knew, I’m not sleeping for this final (12pm).  I really liked Bingle, but ended up skipping a lot of the later classes because of at first just tiredness, but then when I got sick, I didn’t go.  I’m hoping I luckily still get all my clicker marks.  The final was better than I thought it’d be, I thought itd be some mindcrunching, confusing, tricky headache, but I was going really slow, managed to finish, and even understood the part I thought I wouldn’t.  So I’m excited to see my grade for this class as well, won’t be as high as I wanted I’m sure, but still higher than like 4/5 of my classes last semester…smh.

OVERALL:  Best semester yet, around a 20% jump from last semester to this semester is my guess.  Last Year it was a 6% jump between semesters, so I don’t know what it is with me and first semester.  It might be the weather, weather affects your mood, and the weather is very depressing first semester. Not sure, but I hope the good grades, continue I need to work hard the next 2-3 years to rejuvenate my average so I have a chance at med school.

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ALSOOOO some good news on the side, that I will elaborate on later –>  got a job for the summer and onward, at a hospital.  I will be part of the first ER Scribe program in Canada (and its limited in the States), if you want to know some of what they do google it  :).  I will be doing training first, and need to go read a Medical Terminology for Dummies book (cens 202 will definitely help) but I am so excited.  Having that firsthand experience and exposure is priceless!

Reading Week

…was awesome!  Not academic wise, i got nothing done.  But I did volunteer at an elementary school in the east-side of Vancouver, and it was great.  It wasn’t what I had anticipated I didn’t know the volunteers would be in the class the whole day for 3 days, pretty much following a lesson plan created by our group leader.  And a lot of times we would have extra time, and it was fun to kind of think on the spot, and think of a game or activity for the students.  I taught grade 4/5 students, the experience was so great, the kids were so awesome.  Kids are really smart!  I wish I had their memory, these kids memorized things from day 1 that we taught that I couldn’t remember.  I will be going to volunteer hopefully once school is over, it’d be fun to go back.

Now because I had to be up early every day, I couldn’t stay up late.  This was a problem for me, because I study better at night, its weird but when I studied for all my midterms I was studying hardest like 2am to 7am and then i’d sleep and wake up 2-3 hours before my midterm(they were all evening midterms), Bio 201 was 7-9 and this worked really well for me because this has been my best “midterm season” since I got to this school.  I think the key difference is that I got 6 hours before every midterm too.  Now, the only midterm grade I didn’t have after reading week was Biol 201, or Biochem.  And it showed up on vista, and I was so scared, because its a whopping 35%, a huge chunk of my grade.  I felt like I did well on the midterm but its usually safe to deduct 10 to 15% from what you ‘think’ you got.  And when I saw my grade my first thought was like “what happened!” Because it was really low.  Like were the ta’s grading crazy, did I screw up somewhere, what happened!  This was the first midterm grade that was bad, and below average (I later found out the average was 72).  So this depressed me so much, like how come I’m below the majority after studying 3 days straight.  I didn’t study much for like 4 days after this, I guess I went into a bad funk if that makes sense.  You know how it is!  Those days you try to study and its just not working out and you just sleep and fall more and more behind…-_-  Well anyways I signed up to view my midterm to see ‘just where it all went wrong’  And I looked through it.  Biol 201 TAs are real cruel about a few things…if you went to see your midterm please tell me you agree!  Like I’ll have the right idea completely, know exactly what I’m talking about, for a few questions the answer key and my answer were almost verbatum… and then i’d add the word “better”  as in… “creating a stronger nucleophile would lead to a better attack..yada” instantly because of the word ‘better’ -1.  Apparently its redundant and makes it seem like I don’t understand what nucleophiles do *sighhhhhh*  And because i repeated myself in different words another -1.  But nothing I said was incorrect, a few redundant statements maybe, but I’ve never been a great writer!  I BSed my way through English 110.  So it annoys me that I lost most of my marks on trivial things like that.  I guess I know now how things are, so when the final comes around, I know to really pay attention to how I am writing, and to keep it simple.  BUT THATS NOT EVEN THE CRAZY PART.  So I accepted the grading, and decided to just add up the marks before I left, I did and my heart literally dropped.  Because the number on my calculator was 10% higher.  I re-calculated, same thing.  Then I gave it to my prof to make sure I wasn’t crazy, and he got the same number I did, and there you go, now my grade makes more sense!  I’m ok with it, I still want to improve for the final, but WHAT A RELIEF.  This was 35% , and a 10% increase goes a long way.  THANK GOD I added it up, before I left sheesh.  This just goes to show how important it is to look at your midterm over, TAs aren’t computers and don’t think for any reason your midterm won’t be the one they screw up on.

Binta

Hey guys,

This will be a short entry, I want a break from studying for my Biol 201 Midterm.  It’s like an “exam,” its 35% and 2 hours long..and I haven’t kept up, so I am just taking the next 3 days to ignore every other course…and focus lol.  As for my other classes, well I don’t “go” to chem 205, because it’s actually pointless to me, I’d rather sleep and have the energy to study for the course.  That sounds like such a bad excuse, but this new prof writes on the board so I will go now.  But we got our midterms back, I am fine with my grade.  It’s above average, I wish it was as high as my chem 123 midterm, but that multiple choice… in the long haul, I only lost a few percents, so I’m good.  Micb 202 grade should be out by Friday latest, i feel like I did good, but at UBC you just never know!  I feel like this has been my most chill semester since I’ve been here, like I sleep more, eat more, chill more..lol.  This new major is what I needed!  Freedom!  I’m hoping to pull my average up like 15% from last semester (it was that bad…) and it’s veryy possible with my elective.

I took my Eosc midterm last night, so annoying.  I didn’t read till the day before (WHY!) and it’s online but clearly I didn’t know my stuff well enough.  I got a B, and thats fine, it’s just one of those classes you know damn well you could get an A.  My first midterm went too well, and I figured this one would too, this just goes to show, ALWAYS BE SCARED.  AlWAYS think you’ll fail, that way you prepare for the worst, and you’ll be prepared.  So, I want to stop being comfortable, I should hang up my Bio 204 midterm from last semester in my room as motivation of what can happen if you get comfortable lol. 🙂  Back to Biol 201 studying ! -_-