5th year Winter Semester exam period

This exam period started as they all do, with a million credit tests in week 13, and me feeling far too unprepared. I had more oral exams than I've had previously (4), which was a bit nervewracking. 

I didn't track all the time I studied this exam period, but this is the majority of it. I sort of fell off the wagon using the Forest app this term, but I will be more diligent with it next term.

For some reason, I decided it would be a good idea to try for my andrology exam on the saturday at the end of term, before going home for a couple of weeks. Luckily, my study/sleep alternation worked, and I walked out of the room with an 'A'.

My first exam back after my short break was diseases of exotics. I was a bit apprehensive, as I'd heard some things about the teachers asking difficult questions. I try to disregard that sort of talk as much as possible, and there's only really been 1 unpleasant teacher interaction. My method for this exam was rereading a bunch, talking out loud, writing abbreviated notes that I could memorise to write down in the exam - this worked really well for the andrology exam, and it worked pretty well for this one too - I got a 'B'. I was let down by not remembering the treatments for specific parasites in exotic birds.

Two of my exams were online this time, Pathological Anatomy and Obstetrics & Reproduction. Both of these were fine, a 'B' and an 'A' respectively. There was also the exam for diagnostics of metabolic disorders but it wasn't really an exam, he graded us based on our performance in class and the end of term presentations. I probably could have retaken the pathanat exam, but the next one on my radar was Epizootology. 

Last year, parasites was the big one; this year, epizoo was the big one. Frankly, the more I studied epizoo, the more I missed parasites, because at least we knew exactly what was wanted in each question (side note, I am beyond relieved I kept all my parasitology notes and ankis, because it's all needed for my contagious diseases state). I spent hours and hours rereading, writing out, shortening, talking out and listening to recordings of myself talking about all 42 diseases. I kept saying, "it'll be okay, as long as I don't get the question about poxviruses". Guess which question I pulled in the exam? Shockingly, the professor said my answer was "very, very nice", but I missed a few points in the written part of the exam and left with a 'B'. I'd woken up convinced I was going to fail, so I was completely over the moon with that result.

I considered pushing my flight back to do breeding and diseases of fish early, and honestly I wish I had done. I didn't leave myself enough time to focus on it at the end, and unfortunately it ended with me mixing up monogeneans and trematodes. The other question went ok, but sadly I got a 'D', my lowest grade in an exam yet. I had been working towards the Red Book (an award at the end of graduation, if I kept my GPA under 1.25, and didn't get anything lower than a 'C'). So, with that out the window, all I can do now is try my hardest to do well in everything else. 

Overall, I think I did well, but I definitely could have structured my revision better, and been a little more disciplined with my studying. I definitely needed a break after a very intense semester, but I think I should have tried to stay in the student mindset for longer. Going home and then coming back disrupted my study a lot, and I could have done a lot more studying at home. 

My study resolutions for the coming term are;

1. Maintain the strain week to week. Try not to let anything pile up. 
2. Finish assignments as soon as possible, don't let anything get up to the deadline. 
3. Sleep and eat more. 
4. Get out of the house more often. I found studying at the cafe to be pretty effective, and should definitely take advantage of that during term time, instead of just exam periods.