Hello everyone, welcome back to the Vet Files with Gretel and
Mckaylin. Today we are talking about a
reflection of the past semester, to be exact, our first semester
ever in vet school. Earlier in the year we talked
about our first month in vet school and now we we have
succeeded, we have passed, we have made it past semester 1.
Great. Yes, 12.5% done if you're in a
four year program like us, and I know a lot of people are
celebrating that at the end of the semester.
And I was like, technically it depends on the school you go to,
but we are 20% done with classes because we do 2 1/2 years of
classes and I think you do, you're at 2520%, yeah.
Right, closer to 20%, Yeah, as we go a little into the summer.
Right. But the two by two and we have
like a 2 1/2 by 1 1/2 essentially.
So it's definitely interesting, but if you had to describe your
semester in one word, what would it be and why?
This is a tricky one. I've been trying to think of the
perfect word and I'm like I'm going to go with adaptive.
A lot of changes. Yeah, I don't even know what I
would say. I guess just we're talking about
whirlwind before that word is kind of settling with me right
now. So definitely a whirlwind.
Lots of different things going on for me, personal, academic,
it was crazy. But yeah, I, so I think compared
to undergrad, one thing I was worried about it was the
transition between undergrad and vet school.
And I was really worried because I wasn't always like, I don't
want to say I was a bad student, but my academics weren't always
my number one priority. I was very focused on my social
life, not a party girl, but you know, I had friends.
I like to hang out with my friends and I had, you know,
clubs and I had jobs and my last focus was school, to be honest.
Like I was pretty much a straight B student.
A's and B's, some C's, some D's, some I don't know.
Anyway, so I was really worried about, you know, was I going to
be able to withstand academic rigor That is vet school.
And overall, I think I did really well.
I don't know my GPA. I'm just choosing for my piece,
not to keep track of that. But I passed all my classes and
everything is good. What about you?
The same kind of feeling like it was weird going from, you know,
A's and B's. And then like also, Michaela,
you were a great student. We're in vet school, so
everything we did was good enough for us to get in and go
well beyond it. So I was nervous because in
undergrad, you know, I love school, but I was a
procrastinator. Looking back now, I realized
like undergrad could have even gone better had I attained the
skills that I know now. So my procrastination ultimately
stopped me at the same time, like you were talking about
Michaela. And like, I saw friends, like I
worked a million jobs, I was in a million extracurriculars.
And guess what? I'm glad I did.
And I'm glad I didn't just sit and study all day because we
have multiple years to do that now.
So I'm glad that we ventured out.
And let's think about it. Was it as hard as we were warned
it would be because we were always folded underground?
Don't do it. It's like the worst thing ever.
What are your thoughts, Mikaelin?
Yeah, I remember somebody told me or I don't, I don't even
remember. Everything is a blur.
Like once I got again, whirlwind of the semester, like it's been
crazy. So it's slipped to my mind now,
but somebody told me or Eyewitness, I don't know, a girl
I went to undergrad with, you know, was sitting, she got into
vet school and her first semester she was sitting on a
little wall outside of the vet school smoking a cigarette.
And I was like, how are you doing?
And she's like, I'm OK, don't go to vet school.
She was like, I love it, but it's hard.
And I was like, OK, well, that's about, you know, that makes me
scared. But honestly, I don't know if
it's because we're on the new curriculum or I don't know.
I didn't think I've said this before.
It was not easy by any means, but I had psyched myself out for
it to be so bad that when I got here I was like, OK, this is
like, manageable. Like people graduate like, this
is fine, you know? And so I was glad to make it
through this semester. And it's OK to fail test.
A lot of people I know that they had this arc that was, you know,
they started at the bottom and then they slowly went up as we
got through the semester. I kind of had the opposite.
I started really high and I was doing good.
And then at the end of the semester there, I just had so
much lifestyle going on and I just, you know, I think I ended
up with 1C, which is fine, I don't care.
But it's like very important to me to be open and honest and
say, like, I didn't make straight A's and B's when I
first got to that school. Nobody's required to share their
grade. But I always feel comfortable
and open saying like, hey, it's OK to struggle.
It's OK to like not do so hot in a class or two.
It's OK to fail out and restart next year.
You get there when you get there, you know.
Definitely, I think looking at it, they knew it was going to be
hard. And I've also spoken to, you
know, we had our episode with operating and everyone and
talking about comparing veterinary schools.
So looking back on the year, well, the past six months and
then talking to my other friends who go to different veterinary
schools that I hadn't spoken to yet, I have gotten the consensus
that right now Mizzou with the two and two is a bit more
intense than their programs now. I don't know if that's like
forever the but that was what I was warned about when I chose
this. So for me, I constantly felt
like I was drowning and exhausted and there weren't
enough hours in the day. Especially the first two months,
we were really rough. Like over 1/4 of my class was
asked to like possibly have to repeat, and I was not in that
group. But at the same time, it kind of
felt like at any moment one bad test and you could be there.
So the first two months were incredibly draining.
But you figure it out as you go, you get better, you learn
better, study tactics. I remember going home and
sitting after the first couple of weeks and not really
comprehending that I should be like studying.
It's that like arrogant assumption because in undergrad
I was a procrastinator. Like I'll just study two to
three days before the exam, but that's like not how to do it.
And Mizzou were constantly tested.
So every test is like 2 weeks of material except our program you
do a semester in eight weeks. So really it's like 4 weeks of
material and and it's so much more material than undergrads.
So that had really like clicked in my brain.
So then you learn though, and you get better and you roll the
punches. And now I look back in the exams
I was really afraid of were like my easier exams by then.
Anatomy though is like everything else went fine except
for anatomy. So I'm in the same boat as Zema
Caitlin. There's always that one class
that just doesn't job with you. Yeah, and I think what was
interesting is I actually really liked everything we were
learning. I just didn't have the
wherewithal, the motivation, the energy to study it and to get an
A on the test. So I like bombed my last two
exams. And ours is called Form and
Function but anatomy and Physiology and Histology all
combined. Anyway that class I like bombed
my last two exams and it was only it was like 40% of our
grade and I was like I passed hands up.
Like I did what I could. Barely made it out alive with
like a 71. I'm happy because genuinely,
like I thought I've been saying for months, I'm cool with the C,
I'm cool with the CA Lot of people say I'm cool with the CI
just want to see and then they get really upset when they get
an air B, which is about that's fine.
I thought I was going to be that way too, but whenever I got ACI
was like, oh, Hallelujah. I genuinely didn't even care.
I was like, I'm so over it. I'm done.
I just want this semester. I had a lovely semester.
I love my vet school. I just, it was, I just had a
rough end of this semester and so I was just kind of like, I'm
ready for it to be over. I passed it's whatever.
And now we're moving forward and now we're starting.
Gretel and I are both starting on large animal, which is more
our Forte. And so we're both like, yeah,
let's get into this. You know, it starts off I'm
starting off with bones and so I was in love tails like coffin
bone. I'm going to ace this test and
then don't quote me on that because in about two weeks when
I'm testing on it, don't ask me that like.
Exactly. It's like, I'll retain it for
the exam. Actually, this morning the
professor was like, OK, write down everything you remember
from the axial skeleton. And we all sat there like, oh,
and she goes, this is not good, guys.
I'm like, I know, I know. OK, it's Monday.
It's 9 AMI guarantee we know more than we think.
So that was funny. But anatomy was not my favorite,
my favorite and said, let's see. See, sometimes I felt like I
just had to study so much that I didn't even have time to pick a
favorite because it's like, I don't have time to have an
emotion about this. I just have to do that.
That sounds horrible, but it's true.
Like people were like, oh, aren't you miserable or
anything? I'm like, no, I don't really
have time to have emotions about it.
I just have to do it to survive. And So what?
That's OK. That's just my reality.
And while I was away for the two weeks, I was like, you know
what? I can come back.
I can do this again and I'm looking forward to coming back
and doing this again. I know like our professor did
the same thing, you know, 8:00 AM or I guess it was 9:00 AM
this morning. They were like, OK, write down.
We started with the thoracic limb and they said write down
proximal to distal every bone and then another list, write
down every joint from proximal to distal of the thoracic limb
of the canine. And then I'm going to teach you
about, you know, the differences between that and the horse.
And we're like, OK, apparently there was pre work.
Apparently we were supposed to do that as pre work.
Didn't read that. I didn't look at that.
I was like, I'm not starting before 8:00 AM on Monday.
I'm going to write my schedule down.
I'm going to make sure I don't have like quizzes before 8:00 AM
Monday and then I'm just going to show up.
And so I was OK, didn't do that. Of course, that's not the
hardest thing in the world, but you know, doing it off of memory
without like a model, I think it's easier with the model to
say, oh, this is this joint, this joint, this joint.
Then you have to go in your head and think about that.
But yeah, that was definitely not what I expected first out of
the gate lecture because we started off with an intro to
this current course because it's still new and there's a lot that
doesn't make sense to some people at first because it's the
new curriculum and it's set up a little different.
Our lab is completely different than what we did last semester,
which I think is pretty consistent across the board
because you go from dissecting a full dog because you know dogs,
they're not easier to get, but they're easier to fit 200 or
however many you might have in the room.
Whereas not every student is going to be able to dissect out
a whole horse. It's not reasonable.
So we were kind of prefaced by saying like, OK, here's how it's
gonna go. We're gonna have stations, we're
gonna have this, which I much prefer.
But I think you can't really get through vet or Med school
without doing a dissection. It's like a rite of passage.
Even though I didn't really enjoy it, I worked at necropsy.
I was like I'm over this but. You've seen it too many Times
Now. I'm not a fan of like cleaning
the fat and fat Shaw off, but I am so excited that we're doing
horses and ruminants. I would say anatomy was my least
favorite just because of the sheer volume of everything in my
brain. I have found its Max capacity.
And with Mizzou's, like we're tested every two weeks.
So really like even if you went into the anatomy lab every
single day before the exam, it's really not that much time
because just to get through a little chunk of it takes hours
and then you have to go back and do it again and again and again.
But I am figuring it out as we go.
And obviously I passed, so I survived on to the next.
My favorite course is probably cell bio because we learned a
lot about cancer and that's one of my biggest interests.
And it actually came in handy a lot because unfortunately I had
one dog who passed away from cancer this year.
And I have another one, the one who just jumped on the bed
behind me who just got diagnosed with Melanoma.
So it's horrible and it's sad, but I, I do understand it and I
feel like that's helped me a lot throughout this process.
Like it even helps to grieve it because you understand how it
works or treat it like, Oh my gosh, I've thrown everything
that I can think of and researched at them.
So I'm probably hopefully prolonging their life a little
bit. It definitely changed my view on
Vetmed being able to understand these kind of conversations now.
Yeah, it's hard to go in. Like, similar to you.
We both had a crazy year with animals.
And one of my dogs said, like this crazy massive mystery
mineralized tumor from his eyebrow to the back of his ear.
And it was like, what is that? I still don't know.
I don't even want to know, to be honest.
I was like, I don't, I'll learn about it later.
I've asked vets about it and they're like, I've never seen
that. And I was like, then I don't
need to know. You know what, keep it out of my
head. I don't need that anyway.
It is definitely interesting. It made me think about, you
know, well, what if I did? I genuinely considered it for a
minute. I was like, I think oncology as
a specialty is really interesting.
I could possibly do it, but I mean, I cry when I see it like
Internet dogs die. And I was like, I can't, I
probably shouldn't do that. Like I'm not like tough enough
in front of the patients. I'll just cry because when
somebody else starts crying, then I start crying.
So I was like I can't. And then I did not know that
holiday season with was peak euthanasia season.
And so going into a externship, 2 externships during the break,
both small animal GPS and just doing euthanasia after
euthanasia after euthanasia. I had no idea I put two of my
dogs down unrelated. I'm not, I'm killing my dogs.
It was just bizarre. Anyway, putting that out there
because that sounds kind of crazy, you know?
Anyway, I had to put two of my dogs down on the week of
Christmas, on Christmas Eve and the day after.
And I did not realize that so many families go through that.
And then I started seeing on social media a couple vet
influencers that I followed were like, oh, it's peak euthanasia
season, you know, give your vet a hug.
And I was like, what? So I tried to look it up and I
thought it was very interesting. Getting off topic here, but I
don't know, it's something to look into if you want to be a
vet. I didn't really find any
definite answer on why, but basically a lot of reasons,
something to be aware of because I was not aware of that and not
prepared for that going into my little externships and putting
down like 7 dogs, 10 dogs a day. I was like, OK, that's fine.
But as far as my courses going back to school, I think my least
favorite course, I don't know, I'm going to say fundamentals of
diagnostics and surgery because it was pretty much just
radiology all semester and we had to learn like how an X-ray
is formed and learn about photons again.
And that just like triggered me and I just couldn't, I didn't
want to hear that. So I, I got through it, I
actually did fine in the class and it was very, very helpful to
go into an extranship after that and look at all the X-rays and
say, I can actually understand what I'm looking at now, other
than looking at like ATV show and being like, no, that looks
bad. Now I can say like, OK, here's
what that structure is, here's what opacity that might be and
what might be going on. And then also my favorite class,
opposite of you, I would probably say anatomy as a
lecturer or clinical skills lab was always really fun because
personally I'm severely lacking in like basic tech skills.
They teach you from day one. They're like, OK, we're going to
assume you have absolutely no knowledge and we're going to
train you tech jobs. Instead of just as dismissing as
a vet saying, oh, that's a tech job, I'll learn that later.
They're saying, OK, I want to teach you from a text
perspective how to train your texts in the future.
You know what I mean? I thought that was really
helpful for me as somebody who had never teched personally to
go in and say, OK, here's how you do a blood draw.
Here's how you take an X-ray, not interpret it.
Here's how you do basic, you know, restraints.
Cool, that was very helpful to me.
So I really like that class. It's interesting to hear like I
have friends at three other veterinary schools or three or
four and comparing with them like the order of things that
are taught because we are all taught the same exact things
just at completely different times for some people.
So that is really interesting to hear about because we did a
little bit on radiology and a little bit how it works, but it
was like a couple slides. It wasn't something huge.
Speaking of like things being different, Mizzou, we constantly
are tested. We have like 2 to 3 quizzes a
week and then we have let's say it'll like skip a week, but I
normally have one or two exams per week.
Once we move further into the, we call it IP.
That's like our version of like an 8 week semester.
So for me, it was constantly like you're in a state of I need
to be on, like my brain needs to be working to keep up in order
to like prepare because there's so many coming at you.
And I think that was the hardest adjustment because I used to be
a procrastinator, but I can't do that anymore because you're
constantly on. So it was kind of like my brain
had to work like a muscle. Like when you go back into the
gym and you're exhausted the first day because you haven't
used it in a while. Like, I felt my brain being so,
so tired, and then you just got used to it.
And then I'd be able to take shorter breaks.
Like I couldn't do long breaks because I could feel myself like
needing to go back to the work. I don't know, Michaela, how did
you feel? I kind of so different than
yours our there's pros and cons to both.
I'm not going to sit here and say that I hate mine or I hate
yours because really they're very different and you can't
really compare them. It's comparing apples and
oranges truly because you like you said you're tested more
often but in theory on less lectures.
I have the opposite problem where I'm tested less often but
it'll be on like 81214 lectures. So you have to pull information
from however long ago that first lecture was and relearn it to
the fullest. You know?
I don't know. It's very interesting comparing
the two. I've thought about it a lot.
I still can't choose a favorite. I think I like this one just
because I don't really try. I don't personally struggle too
much with exam anxiety. I struggle with Oh my God, I'm
not studying right now and I have an exam next week Anxiety.
Does that make sense? It's like not the exam itself,
but the studying for the exam is what makes me anxious because
I'm like, I'm not studying hard enough.
I'm not studying good enough. Once I get into the exam I'm
over. I don't even study the day of
exams. I'm like whatever I know now is
what I'm going to know in an hour.
I'm not learning anything new between now and 2:00 PM
whatever. So that's usually how I go into
it. But did you deal?
I know you test way often. Does that kind of just negate
pre exam anxiety or is that something you still have to deal
with? I think you get used to it, at
least for me. I don't sit down and exam and
freak out because I know that will not help me.
Like by the time I get to it, like I know I've already put in
the effort to do like as well as I can.
Like I'll go over a Quizlet that's like 405 hundred terms at
least once or twice. I've read all the PowerPoints.
I've gone through everything that I possibly can and for me
that has to be enough. So if I get above, you know,
let's see, let's just say like my goal is to pass every single
exam and by the time I move through like a 400 to 500 term
Quizlet, take practice exams, look at all the PowerPoints.
I know I can get that. So after learning that, even
though it takes hours, I cannot explain hours in order to
prepare for even one exam that's supposed to not be that hard.
That's not true. It is always hard.
Like don't listen to others, like prepare like it's a hard
exam always like it will be fine.
So I'm just like, I know what I need to do in order to do fine,
but if I don't manage my time well and I can't prepare in the
way that I know I need to prepare, that's when I have
anxiety and stress, not the test itself.
Exactly I always get stressed in like the week of but not the
actual exam. Actual exam.
Like I said, I know what I'm going to know, but I adopted
that habit in like high school. Like I never studied in high
school, but when I got to college, I would study and I
would go and sit in the exam other than Okem, Okem is the
exception. I would always get anxious
during those exams. Anything else, I never really
struggled with that because I was like, genuinely in my mind,
I'm if I'm screwed, I'm screwed. If I'm good, I'm good.
Like I'm not changing that in the next 30 minutes that I'm
going to take to take this test. And I got a lot of like, I don't
want to say hate, but you know, teased got teased a little
because I'm always. One of the first people done
with my tests and I always tell people I'm like, that does not
mean I did well. That just means I read fast and
maybe I didn't know anything. I guessed like to be clear, but
I always thought that was funny when people came up to me and
they're like, Dang, like, do you feel good about that test?
You left after like 10 minutes and I'm like, no, I read fast.
I did awful. I bet I failed that test, but
that's always interesting to me. People think I'm so smart
because I finished fast. I'm like, no, it's quite the
opposite. I probably didn't read half of
those, bad habit. But that is another thing that
helps me with my test anxiety. And I developed that in like
junior high or high school when I used to get really bad test
anxiety. And it's not for everybody, but
the method that my teacher and I came up with over the couple
years that I was with her small town schools, You have the same
English teacher for eight years. Anyway, I was like, OK,
basically I was going back and second guessing myself on all
these answers. And you can see the eraser where
I'd gone back, everybody's done that.
You know, you put the right answer, you erase it, you put a
different answer. That's essentially what I was
doing for my whole life because I got so anxious.
I was like, Oh no, no, no, no, it's wrong.
I put A, I'm actually going to change that to B.
And then I went back. It's actually A.
So to negate that, I don't review my tests.
I take my test, turn it in and leave and not forget about it
because that's the only way that me personally not recommending
that for everybody because some people misread questions a lot.
A lot happens here and there for me, but for the most part I just
am intentional when I read the question the first time and try
not to miss anything. Also in vet school, not always
true, but a lot of times they try to be cognizant of the fact
that the Navali is multiple choice.
Straightforward. There is no, or you know, it's
advertised to us as there should not be a lot of questions that
say all of these are true, except there's no true or false
questions. There's no, I don't believe
there's any fill in the blank question, things like that.
So they try to cut those sorts of questions out where you could
miss read something that said all of these are true, but or
all of these are false except they try to cut those out and
it's just straightforward multiple choice.
And then a couple fill in the blank and we do something called
hotspot questions where it's like a picture and you drop a
pin on whatever the answer might be.
So I think it's very interesting.
I like our style of exams. Wish I liked her style of exams.
We do have the all but true and false six options.
Pick what's the most right and also some questions.
It depends on your professor but I swear they were them.
Exactly. If you didn't have an in depth
understanding you could not get that question right.
It's not just the pick information out from your
memory. It's like a 2 full understand
it. That's more for Physiology.
For the other ones, it's like can you recognize the
information? I would say I agree with
Michaela and something I never did an undergrad that I do
constantly know as like I take the test, I star the ones I
didn't know. And I never ever go back to the
ones that I didn't star. Because your brain, you will
remember stuff that you don't think you did because there's so
much information. You're not going to be able to
recall it all. But if you can recognize terms
that go together and you don't know why, but you just hit it,
move on, move on. Like only go back to the ones
that you truly, truly don't know.
And that's my strategy. And I am doing way better than
the start because if you doubt yourself, you're going to change
it and think long, think wrong. That's what our associate Dean
always says. That's true.
People will sit there. I used to be one of those people
until like, I don't know, whenever I found out this method
that I've made-up or maybe other people do it.
Still not recommended. I'm not telling you to finish
your test in 10 minutes and then walk out and be like, I didn't
need to review that. That's not what I'm saying.
I do, I forgot to mention, I do star the ones that I don't have
any idea or I need to go back on for sure.
And then at the end of the test, I go through those and if I
don't know them, I don't sit on them.
If I don't know it right now, I'm not going to know it in a
minute. I'm not going to know it in 30
seconds. I'm just going to guess and move
on. That's what we were taught in
high school. And that's just what I live by.
I'm like, if I don't know it, I don't know it.
I'm not going to just pull an answer out of like thin air.
So I just guessed and I move on and hey, it worked for me.
Find your own method. That's important because that
doesn't work for everybody. Some people need full assurance.
They'll walk out of the test and they'll say, you know what?
I reviewed every single question and I got 2 wrong and I'm like,
OK, I don't know why you know that, but sure, go ahead.
Anyway, Speaking of exam methods, what are your favorite
study methods? You mentioned association.
I don't know how to put into words what I want to say, but
association is key. And your professors will teach
you that. If it's like, it depends on the
curriculum, but if you're learning all of the bones,
they're usually, I say usually they are named after the muscles
that insert on them and vice versa.
So if you're learning the bones, it's good to start associating
those terms with muscle names, if that makes sense.
The deltoid tuberosity, the deltoid muscle, it all kind of
fits together. So using association that
applies through all of my my personal classes, because then
you go to radiology or something and it's, it's all the same
repeated, but you have to connect those dots, apply them.
But I don't know if that's a study method so much as a
mindset. I think it is because you have
to think of it as like a system. If you try to memorize it like a
list of 1000 words, your brain just can't help.
My brain just can't do that. So trying to make sense of it, I
think I have to get the only way to make sense of it is to like
get out of the panic. And that was the hardest part
for me is because I would be stuck in the panic mode of Oh my
God, I have to know all this and all these itty bitty details.
But like trying to make sense of it.
What helped me a lot to make sense of things is looking at
other people's study materials. So like at Mizzou we have
password protected quizlets that we share that are approved by
the school. So I would look at my friends
Quizlets and seeing how they decipher the PowerPoints is
incredible in comparison to me because they pick up on
information that I didn't pick up on.
And they also spend an insane amount of time like doing
Quizlets all the time and I cannot form a Quizlet as amazing
as these people. I have tried and failed.
So me doing their 400 term Quizlet helps me so much and
I've spoken to them about it. I'm like, I did like 10% better
on an exam after I started using their Quizlets and I told them
I'm like, you read and I cannot read like that.
I don't know how you're so perceptive because they will
describe an image on a PowerPoint and my brain doesn't
really look at that. It just looks at the words and
they'll like form questions about that image.
And somehow they like have a better gauge of what the
professor is going to ask, like in the depths that they will ask
because my brain will only go to the words.
So I love using their material, which I know Michaela and you
guys don't do as much of that. As much quizlets.
Or as much your school doesn't like share as much mine does.
Right, so I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum.
You're right. We don't do like school
protected Quizlets. As far as I'm aware, We're not
as long as you're not sharing privileged information or
advantage information as in the professor or somebody you're
cheating is here. If you're not cheating, you're
fine is basically the rule. That being said, they don't
provide us with passwords or you know, protect us in that sense.
But I was, I'm actually the person who made the Quizlets,
and I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum as you.
I could study somebody else's Quizlet and I'd be like, I don't
know. I'm not paying attention.
I don't know what you're looking for, if that makes sense.
But whenever I make them, it takes so much time.
Yes, but it's like I'm going through those PowerPoints and
looking for what is the professor going to ask me on
here and thinking of a question they would ask me.
And you're thinking to that higher level.
That's how I do it when I make them.
I don't do that when I'm just filling out somebody else's
Quizlet. But again, I know my Quizlets so
I send out to people help people so much.
I have no problem sharing all of my study sources or resources
cuz I made it. It's not like I'm cheating.
I'm not doing anything wrong. I made it from the PowerPoint
that we all have access to. But I really benefit from making
them. It does take time, but that
being said, usually depending on the class, don't go back and
review them like just making it is my studying.
It's a method, especially if you're short on time.
It's more not active recall, but certainly a higher level of
thinking to say what question are they going to ask me on this
instead of just copy, paste, copy, paste, fill in the blank.
You know what I mean? So that's my method that yeah.
And as far as bad study methods, I tried a lot because like
Gradel said, it takes a minute to get in your flow.
Also, my study methods has changed every single class that
I've ever taken. I I need a different study
method. I used to use like solely my
iPad for all of my classes. Now I keep everything in Google
Docs, all of my notes unless it's like a drawing heavy class,
which is rare for anatomy, all of my notes are stored in Google
Docs separated by class and exam.
So I'll have Foreman function one exam, one massive Google doc
with all of my notes highlighted.
I've gone through it four times and edited that and added
questions, added review questions, you know what I mean?
I do everything off of these Google Docs and then if I really
need help with that subject, I will make that into a Quizlet
like immunology, which is just rote memorization.
Anatomy I don't really make Quizlets for because that
doesn't help me. It's more thinking and I don't
know, it's just not one of those things that I have had an easy
time translating into a Quizlet. I think there are different
approaches for different classes.
Like one thing doesn't work for all of them.
And I swear like preparing for anatomy, Histology and embryo
are a little bit more similar because it's like memorization
like crazy. But anatomy, I have to spend a
lot of time and then anatomy lab, like I have figured out
that some people in my class can just like draw it out on a
sheet, take a look at it. My brain can't translate it from
images on the Internet to the actual cadavers.
So like I have to go into the lab and see it and find it, not
just watch like the videos. Like some people can watch like
Quiet Night. Uh, that's one of them.
Or the Minnesota videos like Carnivore canine or something
like that that is not as helpful.
It's helpful when I am physically there and watching
the videos. So I'd like, it's a lot of
figuring out. I remember panicking and trying
like 6,000,000 methods, which is not the way to do it, but what
else you're going to do? You're just trying to survive.
So I recommend asking other people what works for them and
try that. Don't just like panic and try
6,000,000 things at once. But not just talking about
academics. Why don't we talk about some of
our favorite memories? Should say some things that come
to mind are we had something like the smoker, the toaster.
We have like 3 different events over time so we had our first
one and that was like a cute BBQ with the vet students.
We also the dog dog which is like money for charity and
people run with their dogs in costumes and it was so cold that
day but that was really fun. And then Savma Elections and
like working on this team and like seeing what difference we
can make in the future with training has been really, really
cool. What about you Michaela?
What are your favorite moments? I had a lot.
It was really fun. Will never regret coming to bed
school. It's been one of the best
decisions. At first I doubted it for a
while because I think I've talked about it, but I didn't
think I was going to get in this year.
I applied because my dad said you can't win the Lotto if you
don't buy a ticket. And I said OK, I'll try it out.
So then when I got in I was like, oh, oh, I have to, I have
to go anyway. So it's definitely like I don't
want to say it threw me for a loop.
I was hoping I got in, of course, but I thought I wasn't
really prepared. Of course, you'll never be fully
prepared. There's nothing you can do to
make yourself 100 prepared, 100% prepared before you're like 50.
You know, you have to really work at that.
You just got to go in and do it. So my favorite memories, I would
say finally, like finding a good group of friends that I feel
comfortable with. For me, I struggled socially and
I don't know if you can tell, but I'm a talker.
So that's really weird for me. I was like, why can't I make any
friends? And I think the main reason is
because if you're only going to class and you're focusing in
class and not talking and made it really hard for me personally
to make friends. So I, it took me a while, but I
got there. That was something that was
frustrating to me. But now that it's there, I love
everybody that I know. Just love hanging out with
people and I'm a people person. Obviously my other favorite
memories, I don't know, I mean like there's just so many.
I genuinely couldn't tell you. I would say probably like first
day doing clinical skills. That was so fun.
Like being like I'm doing something, I'm putting my hands
on something, you know, and then I know you did Savna.
I got not elected, but I was chosen to be our hills primary
representative. That was important to me.
That was exciting. So accomplishing goals and doing
extracurriculars while you're in bed school is possible.
It's interesting. I'm also an officer for two
other clubs, but they're very, it's different than undergrad in
high school. They're very low commitment
level. Like not Savma, I don't think,
but you know, they're like smaller clubs, the more niche
clubs. They're very low commitment
level. It's up to the school and up to
the place, but I would say most LSU clubs do a lot of lunch and
learns. They're very lunch and learn
heavy and then actual meetings and fundraisers and all of that
is, you know, minimal. They know we're all vet
students. Like we're all busy and I rarely
have meetings for much, but I think it was very doable.
That was one thing I was worried about as somebody who was very
involved. I was like, am I going to be
able to do extracurriculars? Like it's important to me and
I've had no issue truly. Yeah, extracurriculars have been
really fun. I would say I was really
overwhelmed in the first couple months of school.
So I didn't do as many like of the individual clubs, like I'm a
part of them, but I maybe went to like one or two meetings,
which is unfortunate. But also like we have some wet
labs, but our upperclassmen get chosen first, so we also have
lunch and learns. I went to a couple of them.
That is something I do regret, but I think because I was trying
to survive and like figure it out, it's like what I needed to
do that I have like a handle on things like I am determined like
2026 is the year of the horse. That is my favorite animal
effort. It's supposed to be like a year
of resiliency and I do feel that.
So that's my goal. I'm going to go to more
meanings. I'm going to be more involved.
SAPMA is not a small undertaking.
And so I kind of like it because on APV MA, like Michaela and I
were be, we could be involved with everything.
Like we had small commitments into all these, like tons of
organizations. And that's what I love.
I love being able to like witness it all.
So I do love my other clubs because I love horses.
I love equine time. But at the same time, I love
being like a little bit involved in everything.
And I get to do that through Sava.
So I'm really excited for that. And the friends that I've made
have been incredible. They are so like, emotionally
intelligent. They're just intelligent in
general. They're funny.
They're there for me. And I feel like it's easier to
relate to them than a lot of people, like throughout my life,
because we all have the same common goal and we all work
really, really hard and we've all been like deliriously tired
and stressed and hungry and crazy together.
So it really does bond to you. I'm excited for anyone who gets
to go to veterinary school, even though it's it's a lot, but we
can do it. Yeah, I would say overall this
semester, even though it was tough in my personal life, it
was just so many high points, not a lot of low points.
My low points were still midline.
You know what I mean? There was a lot of them, but it
was like there's so many high points that evened out your your
average is still a see you girl. Like you made it through the
semester, You had fun, you made friends.
I joined clubs, I got positions. And that's another thing.
I I know grandma and Braden are both Savma president-elect.
That's so exciting. I didn't try out for our
president-elect position, but I tried out for other unrelated
positions and it's OK to not get something.
Don't feel like a failure. Like it took me like 2, maybe
three tries of trying out for stuff that I was interested in.
And I don't want to say I'm glad I didn't get chosen, but if I
wasn't the right fit, then that wasn't the right fit.
You know, they chose that for a reason.
So if I didn't get something, I was like, OK, that's OK, let me
move on to the next thing and try something else.
And then eventually I landed on, you know, the Hill student Rep
and it finally, like I clicked with the team, everything was
great and it just worked out. And I was like, I didn't, I
don't know, by the end of it, I think I'm done signing up for
positions with stuff, but all of our positions and elections were
at the same time. So I was like, OK, I have to try
out for like these three things that I'm really interested in
and whatever, you know, six of the wall sticks.
And I ended out with like 2 very small officer positions as like
wet lab coordinator and then the hills position, which was
important to me. So I was like, OK, I'm happy.
Like I'm involved enough. I'm checking out, not committing
myself, and I did join a lot of clubs because I didn't know what
I was going to do yet, but I never went to a single lunch and
learn. I don't know why.
I just didn't really have a lot of friends for the first few
months. So I was like, I don't want to
go sit by myself. Like I would rather go hang out
with my friends or my boyfriend outside of that school.
And so I did that. Yeah, Overall it was crazy, but
it was a good semester. So looking ahead, what are our
main goals for this semester? Mine are to pass.
I don't care about using these, pass all of my classes, not have
to remediate, hopefully apply a lot of the clinical skills that
I've been learning to my externship.
In the middle of this semester. We get this two week externship
and I'm going to rural Louisiana as it was advertised to me.
I don't care. All I want to do is take what
I've learned in class and apply it in a clinical setting.
And when I did externships over the break, I didn't have goals
in minds when I went in, but I didn't have goals in mind.
So I was just like, I don't know, teach me something.
But now I know ahead of time to go in and say I want to do this
and that's what I'm going to do. What about you?
I do have a lot of goals this semester.
I am trying to like challenge myself to have more of a life.
And I know that sounds awful, but I truly like only did school
and not a ton else. And that was not the healthiest
thing because you put so much effort in and then if like one
thing goes wrong, you're like you're just distraught because
you put in so much work. I knew I had to do that to like
survive and figure it out. So it's OK.
But like on Friday evenings, go and take a break.
And I actually found when I took breaks I performed better.
So definitely that. Let's see not to get myself over
involved, which I already feel like I'm doing, but it's fine.
So biggest takeaways from the year of 2025 and then maybe also
the vet semester because we did talk about this semester this
episode, but from the year I would say I've been living by
this. You can't win the Lotto if you
don't buy a ticket. I say all the time, but it's
true. It applies to so many things.
You don't even know. It's just like Gretel's, you
know, you're of yes, same thing. You can't buy, you can't win a
Lotto if you don't buy a ticket. You can't do something, you
can't win something, you can't accomplish something if you
don't try. So I would say the same thing
for my semester. That's my take away.
You know, you can't make friends if you don't try.
You can't get a position in a club that you want if you don't
try. Can't get into bed school if you
don't try. I'm not saying it's guaranteed,
but throw your hat in the ring and if it works out, it works
out, you know? What about you?
Oh, definitely. I think just because you're
struggling, that doesn't mean it's going to be forever and
that you can figure it out over time and like understanding,
like gauging what success means. It doesn't have to mean like
being perfect. I will never be like that in vet
school. It is way too hard to be
perfect. Just like doing enough and like
giving yourself time to breathe is exactly what you need to be
doing. And also just it's OK to not be
doing super well and then figure it out later.
Like that I think is the biggest theme in vet Med.
It's like even we're told in when we're done with school, the
first five years are incredibly hard.
So it's OK because you have to be comfortable with the
uncomfortable. That's my biggest take away.
Exactly. And I say it all the time that,
you know, failure is never the end.
I failed so many things you wouldn't even know I failed.
Oh, come to, I never passed it. Didn't need it.
Hey, I'm here. You know what else I failed?
I failed. I don't know.
But enough things that I know what I'm talking about.
And it's OK to not get something.
It's OK to get CSD's. Whatever grade doesn't define
you, GPA doesn't define you. All the cheesy sayings they
aren't are true. Sun always rises tomorrow.
What other cliches should I say anyway?
But they're all true. They're all cliches for a
reason, because they happen, because they're true.
So maybe listen to them here and there.
But finally, one word or phrase you're carrying into the next
semester. This is a good one.
I have to think about it. Oh, it's year of the horse.
It's my year. That's just, it's what I'm going
with. I asked you that and I didn't
even have an answer for myself. I'm just going to say
positivity. I always try to live by that,
but I'm going to continue that trend.
One thing I never do is try to intentionally be negative.
Sometimes you get down. Everybody has bad days.
But All in all, you know if you've ever seen those blankets
where they chart like the weather throughout the year and
it's like pixels, mine should be all green.
I want all positivity this year. So that's my word for the
semester. All right.
Thanks guys for listening and we'll see you next time.