16 April 2012
moving along quickly
Wow, where is April going?! Over half way through already. I swear, this year is going to pass in a snap of the fingers.
I'm underway with my next pair of pre-req courses - OChem and Anatomy & Physiology (A&P). I'm definitely a nerd because I'm actually really excited to be in both. OChem has always been this towering academic obstacle to me, and now I'm in the throngs of it - can I master the material? Stay tuned! And I've always wanted to take an A&P course - it should really be required in high school. Knowing what your own organs are called, where muscles are in the body... imagine if we all had a basic level of understanding about human anatomy and physiology... how much more intelligent we would be in understanding ourselves and the improvements in conversations with medical professionals. Its like a layer of mystery pulled away.
OChem is online, through University of New England. I received textbooks in the mail, and each chapter is a weekly module. I read the chapter and do the in-chapter problems, watch a lecture of PowerPoint slides with audio from the professor, do the homework problems, check the answers against the Solutions manual, and take the quiz. There is also a Virtual Lab component which I start in Module 4. I'm on Module 2, and its the first true Organic Chem chapter - intense stuff. Right now we're on alkanes. But the nice thing is, its logical. You have to carefully read and process the information, but its not that tricky if you're methodical in doing problems. It will require a lot of time each week to stay on top of completing one module a week. (While its self-paced and you can take up to 8 months, I want to finish it in the standard 4 month semester, as the class is written that way.)
A&P is an in-person class through UCLA Extension, the continuing education arm of UCLA. The content is fascinating - I am so in awe of how amazing our bodies are. There is no lab, just lecture (I'll be taking a straight Physiology course with lab after this one, for UCLA's summer quarter). The prof is very smart and engaging, and understands how to teach a three-hour class effectively (e.g. short breaks every hour). I studied really hard for the first quiz, and scored very well. We are quizzed each week, and the midterm and final contribute a hefty portion of our overall grade. It's certainly more interesting material than OChem, and its really nice to be in an actual class. After completing one online course while also taking a live one (GenChem at UNE and Microbiology at PCC in Jan/Feb) I learned that I do prefer having classmates, a classroom, and meeting times. It makes the experience much more real. I can email my OChem professor and ask him questions, and I hear his thick NY accent in the lectures, but I don't have anyone to connect and commiserate with about the quizzes, or compare answers on the homework. UNE classes are definitely challenging - they've designed them so you cannot pass the course without serious work - and the format is only appropriate for students who are self-motivated and self-directed. Its like an independent study project: teach yourself Organic Chemistry in four months, with these materials... go! I'm happy to have at least one live course from now until September, when both my courses will be online: Biochemistry and Introduction to Nutrition. The scary thing is, September really isn't that far away! Yikes. By then I'll have taken the GRE!
One big change is that I think I'm going to NOT take Spanish right now. I'm due to start my 8-week condensed semester class at Pasadena City College soon, and last week I was seriously feeling the pressure of not having enough time to do everything I do (work, go to class, study, volunteer) plus the Daily Living Activities that add up, like grocery shopping, cooking, sweeping the cat hair tumbleweeds that accumulate against the walls... plus taking an hour once in a while and just breathing for a moment. Let's do some math: they say for every hour of a science class, you should be studying 3 hours outside of class. Between A&P and OChem, that works out to 32 hours of learning/studying each week. That's 4 work days alone! My volunteer activities are another 6-10 hours a week (I enjoy this time a lot, and its preparation for my future too!), and 20 hours at my job so I can pay my bills. I hadn't even started Spanish yet and my week felt jam packed. I actually bought a day planner with hourly timeslots, because I had to make sure I wasn't double booking myself. I've never owned that detailed of a planner; I have a good memory and have never been this busy before in my life. So, after acknowledging that the two courses I'm in now are more than enough for my plate and checking the summer course schedule at PCC and realizing they're not offering Spanish 3 - the class I wanted to take over summer - so I'd be suffering through a crazy intensive class for two months only to have to wait another two to take the next class in the sequence - I made the decision to postpone my re-introduction to Spanish. I have the textbook for the class and have been reviewing the first half in preparation; I hope to continue with it when I need to switch my brain off from science for a while. Realistically, I won't have the time to devote to studying another language until January when I'm mostly done with pre-reqs. And that's okay. You can't always have it all - at the same time. Right now my priority is getting As in my pre-req science courses, so I can get into a top graduate program, because I am a badass science student. (That is the gist of one of my regular affirmations). So far, they're working!