End of Freshman Year - Spring Semester Review

Spring semester seems to have passed by in a blur. Day to day activities took forever, and a single class seemed like it would never end. But at the end of each week you're amazed that it's over, and I seem to have made it to this summer unscathed.

Last semester I took:
Science classes: Organology, Veterinary Neurobiology, Veterinary Physiology, General Veterinary Pharmacology, Host Defenses (Immunology), Applied Veterinary Genetics, and Infectious Agents - Virology.
Rounding out classes: Professional Skills II, Animal Populations II, Clinical Skills II, Behavior Core (arguably a science)
Electives: Perspectives: Interrelationships of People and Animals in Society, Public Health Issues and Veterinary Medicine Opportunities, Equine Limb
For a total of 26.5 credits.

The hardest, in terms of studying and learning, was most definately Neurobiology for me. The combination of difficult material, me disliking the professor, and a shortened, intensive class almost did me in. Fortunately, due to a 97% Final Exam score that I'm extremely proud of, I squeeked by passing, and don't have to retake it!

For me, several of the classes were turned into much more difficult endeavors than they had to be due to poor professors. There were several different factors that played into this. In Host Defenses, they rearranged the lecture schedule due to a professor traveling, but that meant that we learned the material out of order and became extremely confused. I'd had the class before, so I didn't do too poorly, but many people really suffered. They changed the semester that Virology was held in, and I don't think that the professor was either enthusiastic about giving the class two semesters in a row, nor did he have enough time to implement the changes that he got in feedback from the previous class. As a result, there was much miscommunication and frustration - though I realize in retrospect that I learned very much from that class in a fairly short amount of time.

Electives were definately one of the hardest things for me to add in to my schedule. Although they are scheduled so that they don't overlap, they do add work and classtime to the schedule, which is enough to drive anyone batty. All were taken pass/fail, which I realized was only really necessary in one of them (Perspectives). I feel that I may have disappointed that professor, as I didn't put as much effort into some of the work because I know that I simply needed a C or better for a passing grade. My final score was in the high 70s (maybe 77%?), but that was because I had to miss a class for a Professional Skills presentation (8% of the grade), and chose to not make it up. I also didn't put as much work as I could have on my 25 page paper for the class - again because I needed my time and energy for graded, essential classes rather than a pass/fail elective. Give the chance though, I would take them again. They were a nice breakup from the monotony of both the curriculum and the classmates. In Equine Limb we got some nice hands-on experience with surgery and ultrasound, and that was more than worth the extra sweat and tears put into it!

I'm sure there's more to say about the classes, but I've waited until 2 months after finals to write this post, and I'm not sure that I can put my finger on anything in particular. I hope that I am much better (and "contemporaneous") next year, and give some insight throughout the semester rather than in a block at the end.