Fawsome Friday

Friday! It's finally here!!!!!! I had class at 8:00 AM - crazy, I know - after staying out late the night before. Flashback to undergrad. Luckily, class was pretty fun - we did a sensory profile, and it turns out we have confirmation - I'm a freak. Well, ok, so there are 4 categories, and in all 4 I was +, ++, ++, and +. ++ means you're in the top 5% of weird. Anyway, professor said my system is probably just kind of deciding what to do and goes a little haywire - as long as it's not interfering with my life it's not a problem. So now I'm sure I'll obsess for awhile about whether or not it is interfering with my life and eventually forget and move on. Anyway, I'm not even entirely sure what the point of the test was. Bleh. I was going to fly to Austin, but due to a slight mix-up in that my sister never got my gchat request to be taken to the airport, I went home and took a nap, then hit the road. The drive was awful! It took over 2 hours to get to Waco because it had been raining for like a week and was not stopping anytime soon. And when I finally got to Waco, car refused to go over 50 without skidding so I was stuck in the right lane. Luckily the 2nd half wasn't so bad, so I made it in just about 4 hours (gross!).

Master Pancake did Jurassic Park, so we (Claire, Anthony, Camden, Ben, Mark, Me, Dale, Meredith, Eng and Eng's bro) went to the late showing. It was awesome! Beforehand, the guys were walking around and trying to get people to sign up for their email list, and Camden asked a question. We heard, "Have you guys ever thought about doing Passion of the Christ?", to which the guy answered something, "well, that would be really hard to make fun of..." I guess what he actually asked was if people ever request weird movies, such as... Anyway, I haven't seen Jurassic Park in ages, and even though dudes were talking over it, it still scared the crap out of me! Highlights:

- Pointing out the GAPING hole in the electric fence that t-rex could just wander out of

- when Laura Dern is running from dino in the shed dubbing over the scene (and song) from Footloose

- Making fun of pretty much all of Jeff Goldbloom's one-liners

P.S. - this picture is actually from Saturday, but I was bad and didn't take on on Friday and have a ton from Saturday, so...yeah :)

Torturous and Therapeutic Thursday

LAST MIDTERM!!! It was Kinese, so I was pretty sure it was going to be the hardest. It wasn't too bad, although when I left I wasn't sure at all how I had done. There weren't a lot of answers that I knew for sure, but based on what I do know I was able to deduce pretty well, I think. It was really funny watching everyone take the midterm - since it was Kinese, everyone was moving around in their chairs, doing the gestures to try to figure out what the muscles are doing. One of the questions asked which muscles are involved in putting on a bra behind your back - so natually, like 15 people have their hands behind their backs like they're putting on a bra. I ended up coming back to that question, so I did it twice (got it right, though!). As it turns out - I got an 89 - yay! I am very happy with that - I wasn't very confident in my kinese abilities at all. I feel like this semester is so much easier for me academically - I really well on all of the midterms (I *think*). Anyway, after midterm, I went to fieldwork, where I got to see some really interesting kids. It was really sad watching one of them - this child has pretty severe oral aversions, and I could tell it was something the kiddo really wanted to "fix", but trying to bite into a cut apple was clearly very painful and difficult. This child has been in treatment for years, and they've only made some progress, although any progress is still progress! Very sweet kid - I hope it all works out!
To end the evening, I met up with Luke at Sherlock's to celebrate end of midterms. After awhile (of course) other people came, too - Nicole, Sajid, Emmy and Wes, Aaron, and Lindsey. It was fun - we just talked about all kinds of stuff and told stories and chilled - such a nice change! Emmy has the BEST stories ever! Seriously, they are some of the funniest things I have ever heard. She could probably write a book about her adventures (such as being eyeballed by an agressive turkey named Pepsi). Of course I got in later than I had planned (what else is new?) but it was totally worth it!

Wicked Wednesday

Oh Wednesday - there aren't enough W adjectives to describe you. I knew this was coming. I was still not prepared. No class today - instead, 3 midterms pretty much back to back! First we had Qual/Quant - I'm in Quant this semester, so it's more statistics based but we all have to take both eventually. But we were all in one big room but divided up, because Dr Pickens was proctoring both classes. She mentioned beforehand that the Quan one would be quicker, so she said, "I'm going to hand out the quant exam first." For whatever reason, I decided to look over at the Qual people and say, "In your face!" Some people laughed - I think others were just thinking, "yep, she's a weirdo." Anyway - Dr. Neville is a great person - she's really funny, and clearly very smart and likely a great therapist. However, her teaching style confuses most. So does her questioning style. Some of the questions didn't actually have a question. Some just didn't make sense. and on one, the right answer was not a choice! Anyway, I ended up with a B on that one, which is A-Okay with me. As you may or may not know, stat is not my favorite anything. Next we had the big event - the one and only Peds exam. This isn't like any other exam you've seen, folks. In the 20 years I've had tests, I've never had one that looks like this. Before I explain, let us consider what a test is typically designed to be:
1) fair and equal to all students
2) a test of your knowledge based on lectures and readings
3)clear and concise
Keep these in mind as you read below!
Ok, so here was how the peds test was supposed to go:
We had 1 hour, it was on the computer, and we couldn't go back once we answered a question. Questions were not necessarily stuff that has been covered in class or even mentioned in the book, and they were randomly selected from a "bank" the teacher wrote and are varying degrees of difficulty. We could use our book, notes, internets, whatever except other people. But here's where it gets really messed up: We had to answer at least 50 questions correctly to "pass"; Questions answered incorrectly didn't penalize us. We had to answer at least 60 questions total (so in other words...if I answer 120 questions randomly and get 50 of them right, I pass. If I answer 75 and get 50 right, I pass.) More than one answer could be correct, but we had to pick the one that was "more correct" even though OT doesn't have a lot of concrete definitions and there are lots of theories, so different texts have different answers. So, basically, why would I waste my time looking up something when I can just randomly guess and essentially move onto the next question with a chance I'd get it right, anyway? And one of my favorite classmates, Aaron (Mere you know him as Notben), says, (to the teacher) "So, if I just go through and answer C for every question, and I get 50 right, I pass?" - yep. awesome. That was back when she said the bank would have like 300 questions, though.
This is what actually happened:
We were divided into 2 groups - one took the lecture exam on the computer, the other took the lab exam on paper, and we switched. There are 36 of us - and we were all in a room that holds max 30 when it's really full. Some people had to use their own laptops because there weren't quite enough computers. Once she gave us the password to start, we could start whenever - the computer kept track of the hour. I waited for everyone to get settled, then started. 3 minutes in, 3-4 people start complaining that the password wasn't working. So teacher went to try to figure it out. Not at all distracting. After about 15 minutes, people in the center started to finish their lab exams, so they turned them in and wrote their name on the board for the next available computer (despite the fact that we all started within 4 min of each other, so we'll all be done at the same time anyway!). THEN Blackboard starts crashing on everyone around me - the next question won't pop up. Page won't load. It logged me out. etc. So Teacher is frantically talking to them trying to get it to work. Meanwhile, I've literally got my hands over my ears trying to read the questions because everyone around me is TALKING (totally don't blame them, by the way - it's the set up). When there are distractions, my focus is like zero. Anyway, so about 20 min in, I see that I've answered 50 questions, so I figure I've got time to actually look stuff up since there are 133 questions total. And then I realize...I've had this question before. and this one. and THIS one. So I ask, is that supposed to happen? No. Turns out, she didn't program it right - either the questions got loaded multiple times, or they just didn't set on "no repeats". So the 133 question test is now an inifinity test. After 150 questions or so I was actually getting pretty tired - I almost wanted to quit, but what would be the point in that. By then, I had so many repeats I knew what the question was based on the first 3 words - so click click click and an hour goes by and I answered 283 questions. Bravo! But - OOOOOOO - the computer timer does not shut off. Indeed, it just keeps going! Hmmm...what do I do? So someone tells her, and she doesn't know what to do, but we can't just keep going, so she tells us to log out. Who knows if it saved? I still don't know if it did!
So we traded with the other guys, and I was taking the lab test in the center. Wait a second...some of these questions - I know these! Yep, sure enough, they were on the computer part. Therefore, MY group had had the opportunity to look the answers up in the book, so we'd know which ones were right. The other group didn't, and the lab portion was closed book. Another reason they should pissed. Anyway - yay! Trainwreck exam! We won't find out howwe "did" until after Spring Break. I have a feeling this won't be a repeat performance.

Torture Tuesday!

Ok, so it wasn't that bad, but again, I had classes and midterm. First, we had Ms Civello, who gave us back our case study projects. Our group actually did really well, but most people didn't, so, off to a great start. We also had to turn in our SOAP notes, and who knows how that went. Midterm wasn't until 1, so I ate lunch and then hung around the school, not-studying like I "should have been".

The midterm was Ways of Doing, which is a lab class. I pretty much had no idea what to study, as everything we've done in there has been doing rather than talking. Luckily, most of the midterm was common sense (with a few WTF questions thrown in), and I ended up doing really well on that one, too. Woohoo! We had to stay after for class (2 hours for a 4 hour class - at least she cut it in 1/2) but it wasn't terrible. I think everyone was just really exhausted. And knew they had to go home and prepare for the Wednesday from hell.

Monday = March midterm madness

Hello my beloved blog! No, I have not forgotten you - I just had midterms this week and felt like studying might be a good idea, although it turns out it was overrated. Monday's midterm - awesome. It was in OT Models, and I did pull it together long enough to study for an hour or two, and managed to make an A. Sweet! We also had class (um, hello? Midterms???), and that didn't go so well. One: there was more bitching about midterm for that class (to be taken Wednesday - see Wednesday's post for the trainwreck midterm). Two: at 12, we were given (in our mailboxes, which people only sort of check) a list of "electives" for our class. The rules are as follows: you cannot take more than one elective per semester (and they don't really want you taking 1 in maymester and 1 in summer), you have to have at least 2, and only 12 seats are in each elective class. We had to decide by 1:00 what classes we wanted to take. In Maymester there's 1 class with a particular teacher that people just kind of don't want to deal with - so that's pretty much off the table. There's 1 other class. Then in Summer there are 3 classes being offered: but one of them you have to take 2 parts parts, and...well.. knowing this professor, it's going to be a lot of work (she's a great prof, though). So that crosses off that one for most people (myself included). Fall: 4 more courses - one being the 2nd half of the above mentioned, and the other being a hands class - which, to be honest, sounds like torture to me. So basically I had 4 choices. yay. Not one of these classes is a pediatrics class! So, being me, I asked, "Just curious, why did you guys decide not to offer any peds classes?" and professor answers, "Oh, you're right, there aren't any (as if she hadn't noticed.) Well, we give first billing to our faculty who are on salary, since when we hire an adjunct, we have to pay extra." I just nodded dumbly. Ok. So you're telling me that my education that I pay for is being compromised so you can save a couple hundred dollars? REALLY? Ok, just so we're clear. She could have at least come up with a lie!!!!! 2 more people asked, "what happened to the autism and/or NICU class?" Then I guess she realized she had given a CRAPPY answer, so she asked how many of would be interested in either of those classes - big surprise, all but like 3 people raised their hands. So who knows what she's doing about that - if she's looking into it (doubtful) or just checking for future reference. I tried to ask (albeit at a random time) and she told me, "We really need to stay on topic". Meh. So everyone left school in a really bad mood Monday.

Lame Sunday

Sorry - all I did today was sleep, study, eat and watch a little bit of T.V. Super-lame! Hopefully once Spring Break starts I'll have all kinds of crazy stories. ;)

Lame Saturday

Study study study -and that's it.