Monday, June 13, 2016

On how I faired last semester

I finished my last semester about 8 or 9 weeks ago to some great results. I am currently completing the last math that I need and that will be that in terms of upgrading. I have to admit that I cannot wait until the end of August when this will all be done. I am so looking forward to being done. I hope to take a mini weekend vacation in September and enjoy a few months off.


Eight or 9 weeks ago, I was busy studying for my finals. I was super busy and enjoyed as well as dreaded this time. I had two exams in one week and another the week before. My study methods were pretty simple. I created study notes for all classes and reviewed, reviewed, reviewed. Cramming is not for me so I could not do that. I was a nervous mess for all exams but in the end, I performed pretty good.


The final marks were posted with two days of the exams being taken so less stress for people like me who like to know how they did pretty much right away. My final marks were as follows.


Chemistry - 98%
Biology - 100%
Math 1 - 96%


Not too bad. The biology I was pleasantly happy about this (to be fair, I have always excelled in this course because I love the subject matter). I walked into the exam pretty confident but when I sat down, I got super nervous. I will say that chemistry exceeded my expectations. I have never enjoyed or liked the subject. Ever. I am not a technical person and find chemistry extremely boring. Or I should say, I just don't care enough. Even though I struggled in that class to keep the motivation up, sometimes it was lagging. I always had to force myself to really keep determined in this class but overall, I did pretty well. And, I am proud of my marks.


In terms of nursing school options, I made my choice and will be attending January 2017 (only to save money and my sanity). Fortunately, I was accepted to all schools (conditional on this math I am taking right now). I decided to make an informed decision based on the schools themselves. I took a drive to all the campuses and liked one of them the best. One was about 30 minutes away from my house but I did not like the drive. There is a large hill/mountain that straight out scares me. I do not fancy driving up and down that mountain in the middle of winter. And, if anyone knows about winters in Eastern Ontario, they understand where I am coming from. If I had no choice, I would of course made the daily drive. But, I decided to check out the another school. Now school two was my initial first choice but the location of my preferred campus was just too far away. But, because the nursing is so large, they offer the program on three campuses. I visited the other campus of choice for school two, and really liked it. It is an "unconventional" campus but the school is still the same. I was in real like. I gave myself a bit of a tour and saw the nursing simulation lab, the study rooms, the computer rooms, class rooms etc. Everything looks pretty good. The campus is very intimate which is a plus for me.


The third school is at the campus I am currently taking my upgrading courses. Although I do like the school, I chose not to go there. Although small, it is a large school and I prefer smaller campuses.


After stewing over my choices for a few days, I chose school two. I am very happy with my choice so far. It is a hard school/program and that scares me but I don't think any nursing school, anywhere, is easy. I mean, the subject matter is nothing to joke about so of course the material will be heavy.


That is all I have for you now. I have completed 3 of the 4 courses. I should be over this hump of my journey in August. I will do a write up on my experience so far and what this upgrading session does to my time line. Until next time, stay motivated!

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