First off I just wanted to say that I am sorry this blog will even mention the word embryo because if you’ve read any blogs from a pre-med student then you will know that every single one of us mention our laboratory where we make human embryos. To be honest I would have missed this out entirely except that this is the inside world blog and inside my world; embryos have been playing a huge part. I don’t mean this literally but I mean that in addition to listening to embryology lectures, people doing pre-med -whether they are doing first year health science (like I am) or Biomed- have been talking about this lab for a solid two weeks.
“I heard its really hard, have you started prepping yet?”
The people who asked me this weren’t wrong, the lab is difficult but mainly this is because of the time restraint so try to go fast and you’ll be fine. I was originally excited for the lab because molding clay sounded like a sweet change from looking down a microscope, but then the hype of this lab started to get to me and even though I had done sufficient preparation, I was so stressed at the start that by the end of the 3 hours I was scrambling to finish.
Which brings me to my first the best piece of advice I feel I could offer you about my journey so far=
- Don’t get caught up in the hype, you know what works for you so do what works for you.
For me, the hardest thing has been learning to deal with other people. Especially in a competitive course like First Year Health Science and Biomed people are always going to be intense. Sometimes people ask the craziest things and you have no idea what they are talking about but don’t worry. Just remember when you start out at Uni, don’t listen to other people or think about other people. At the end of the day you may be competing against them (if your degree has limited spots that is) but really you’re only competing against yourself so try not to think of it as a competition and you will enjoy your time a lot more.
So far I have survived my first exam and am stressing out about two more. My first exam was Population111 which is notorious for being difficult. To clarify- it is definitely the strangest test I have ever done. The test was so different to NCEA and to school, I guess I would summarise it to say that it was 30 brain teasers/ trick questions, crossed with statistics and thrown into what was my first major test.
And finally the third part of the blog- excitement. This refers to the fact that I have exactly one week left until the mid semester break and then I get to go home again. In saying that, during the next week I have 2 exams, 2 online modules, a laboratory, 2 tutorials and a pre lab to complete so it is going to be a stressful week. But then I will be able to see my family and go to the beach (concrete gets really boring) so I am really excited for that.
Thats all for now but you are more than welcome to ask any questions!
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