Janel vs The Finals

My second semester in dental school has ended... and to cap it off, we celebrated (yeah, right) with an intense 7-finals-back-to-back spread. I don't think I've ever felt so busy academically. There was little time to devote to each exam, and knowing my ridiculous procrastination habit, I had even less time than most people.

Picture this... a 32 page endocrinology handout...
I summarized it in 17 pages of size 10.5 font, Times New Roman, and .25" margins.
I basically gave myself 30 minutes to memorize each page because I needed some time to do the practice exams.
So how much time did I have for this crazy task... from 4PM to 11:30AM essentially.
And no, I have never been able to pull an all-nighter so I did have to sleep.
So before every freaks out and yells at me for being bad... I did pull it off and did very well on the exam. All in all, a happy ending.

But, certain revelations were made regarding myself and my study habits...
(1) I'm a study guide person. Paragraphs and memorization just does not work with me. I need to see things in an outline or list format. I am probably better off rewriting my notes.
(2) I don't write very fast... it could take me 3 hours to reorganize a 7 page handout... or, take 45 minutes to 1 hour typing it. Unless I have to draw things, I think I'll stick to typing.
(3) Even if I'm a worry-wart... I definitely can mobilize myself under pressure.
(4) My Berkeley education was awesome... I might not remember everything I learned at the drop of a hat... but certain themes are so embedded in my mind that pick up of information becomes relatively quick. Also, I have mastered the quick uptake of large amounts of information.
(5) I should be thankful for getting through finals despite being ill-prepared and must do better next semester.

Dental school is soooooo odd. Sometimes, I hate it. Like when I'm stressed out because I think I'm going to fail amalgam because my cavity preparations might be less than ideal or because I might have flash on my amalgam placement. But after everything is said and done, and I realize that I actually didn't suck as badly as I think I did, I start to love it. It's a love/hate relationship. It's so much fun telling everyone about what I do at school. It's really exciting. Dentistry is a whole new world on its own... and I feel like being in the field makes me part of something so much larger and more important than myself.

Despite the fact that I get so stressed out, I'm so glad to be doing this. The difficulty of school is merely an initiation to a well-respected and amazing profession.

Kudos to all who got through second sem and to all the 4th years graduating at the end of the term.