So THIS is what problem based learning is...

Well, I haven't really had a chance to sit down and write anything since I've started this semester because I am so busy. This semester is different than last semester; whether this is different good or bad I am not really sure. In some ways this semester makes last semester feel like a cakewalk, but then I think about my huge anatomy exams and life doesn't seem so bad.

This semester I was finally introduced (officially) to problem-based learning. I had learned how to teach inquiry-based learning (which is very similar... in fact without looking, I don't know what the difference[s] would even be) with my education degree, so I was interested to see how I liked it from a student perspective. It's... interesting. There are times when I really love it; I love the discussion and coming together to bounce ideas off of each other. The group that I am in has an almost perfect dynamic and word is that we are eons ahead of the other groups in terms of being able to accomplish what we are supposed to from these sessions. There are other times when I am not so sure... this is mostly when I am spending anywhere between 4-8 hours researching outside of class time and creating 10+ page word documents with tons of information. Then, after discussion, sometimes it's still a little iffy as to what I need to know vs "extra stuff" that I had found.

But, all in all, it's pretty good. We just had our first exam that correlated with our PBL sessions, lectures and labs. It was hard and easy at the same time. Mostly, I messed up on small details (like what does a T1 wave MRI show) and vocabulary that I tried to learn but got mixed up on when it came to the test. It will be interesting to see if I pass it or not. The nice thing about these tests is that if we don't pass them, we simply retake them. So, I already know from taking it what information I was supposed to know that I was iffy on, so I know what to look over if I do, in fact, need to retake it. Plus, it's just not worth having a mental breakdown over. Or that's what I'm trying to tell myself.

I am finding my clinical skills lab time easier; we are actually correlating all that boring, background information with real therapy, like modalities. That's been nice. We just started electrotherapy though, and it is intense. There is so much information. We are having 3 lectures on it and 2-3 lab sessions on it. I hope that I end up understanding it all... our professor told us we should plan to re-read our class notes/the chapter in the book at least 3 times.

Other than that, my other classes are not so bad. I am enjoying Neuroscience so far, although to be honest, we have not really covered too much of anything. Exercise physiology is really boring, but I am trying to be a really good student since I've never had an ex phys class before... The only other course I have is my 1 credit Correlative Neuro and it's almost as time consuming as PBL, even though it's not supposed to be since it's a 1 credit course.

I need to figure out how to be more efficient in my information gathering for both PBL and Correlative, because I am just spending so much time outside of school researching it's insane. I need to learn how to reel it in and try to stick to my objectives and not go "too far" into detail if I don't need to... right now it seems like I go too far when I'm not supposed to and not far enough for other things... I think as time goes on and we do more and more cases, I'll get better at balancing and figuring out what is exactly expected of me from the course.

So, with that, I am pretty much done studying for the night; I tried to work on some of my Correlative but J* is on his way home from Tampa, so I'm anxiously following him/his flights and also had to take a brain break from the 3 tests (and 1 quiz) I took this past week.

T-minus 7 days to survival of Semester 1!

Well, I'm still here. In 7 days I will be done with my first semester of PT school and it has been really wild. I still haven't decided where I want to go for my 1st clinical, and I really need to take advantage of being in the first spot for choosing... I don't really want to think that far in advance, honestly. I'm too busy worrying about my anatomy and physiology finals. I am doing well in both courses, but I am at a borderline A and so one slip up could potentially have me failing either. Although I have my struggles about being in school, I would prefer it to be my decision to quit, not that I failed a course and was unable to continue.

A question I find myself asking a lot is, how do you figure out if something/anything is "worth it"?

Sometimes when I get A's on my tests it doesn't even feel good. Only because I know how much farther I have to go in this journey to even get through school, and because usually it's immediately time to start preparing for the next batch of tests. But, it hit me for a second the other day... I got a 95% in my clinical skills class... That means that I know 95% of what I was supposed to know... That's huge. Why am I acting like it's not? I think that I get so overwhelmed with everything going on around me, that I don't even realize how far I've come in just this short amount of time.

In fact, I know for certain that I passed two of my four classes (clinical skills) and my principles of practice course, because the finals were this week, in what I like to call "Hell Week #2" Remember Hell Week the first time? Yeah, not fun.

However, this time I only cried twice, instead of every day, and I didn't have a complete mental breakdown leading to a horrible anatomy lab practical grade. So, I've improved.

I took yesterday off after my last test and came home and stayed in bed all day, and slept in today and did some Christmas shopping. Now I feel like I'm ready to do this and get it over with.

My anatomy final is cumulative, so it's going to be hard and I need to try to remember everything I've learned along the way, and that's a lot... Physiology is all about digestion which is not my favorite thing to study, so I've got to gear up and get in it.

Hopefully, soon, I'll be celebrating that I passed all my courses and can move onto semester #2.

Hell Week

Well, I just finished the week that everyone refers to as "Hell Week" and just barely survived. Hell Week consists of 5 tests in four days and is allegedly the roughest week of the entire semester.

On Monday I had my second anatomy lecture exam, which wasn't too terrible. Although, I felt like I threw up all the information I knew onto that test and felt nervous for the practical the following day. I also had my "standard patient interview" with a faculty member in which he pretended to be a patient coming to my clinic and I had to gain information about him and his injury, hitting a number of must-asks, in an appropriate manner. No problem. Passed with flying colors.

On Tuesday we had our first "check offs" in clinical skills. Check offs consist of palpations and then either gait training/transfers/etc depending on what we have learned. The first check off was palpations of the lower limb and the shoulder and then gait training. You are given 3 structures to find for the palpation part (at random; you choose when you arrive at your check off time) and then you're given a patient situation in which you need to demonstrate appropriate interactions and decision making on choosing the correct assistive device (walker, crutches, cane, etc) for the patient. My check-off was terrible; as I've been writing from time to time I'm having a rough adjustment into school and haven't been happy since I started (in fact, to be honest, I've been quite miserable 95% of the time), thus it was a train-wreck that resulted in me having to re-take the check-off on Thursday.

Also, on Tuesday I had my anatomy practical exam. After my terrible morning I was feeling even more distraught about school and honestly didn't even feel like taking the practical; I just wanted to quit school and go home. But, I'm not going to make a rash decision when emotions are high, so of course I stayed and took it. And it was hard. There were too many people in the room so I couldn't follow my thought process and when the professor called "5 minutes" I had about 10 blank answers. I didn't stay to watch him grade it and later got my grade off the internet... 74%. Ouch. :(

On Wednesday, I had a free day. Some people were still doing their patient interviews, but I had done that on Monday, so it was a quick breather for me.

On Thursday, I had my clinical skills written exam, which went pretty darn well. It's not that I don't know the information, or that it's too hard, it's just that it makes me severely unhappy and I need to decide if I'm unhappy because I am constantly stressed or I'm unhappy because this is not right for me. Also, after the written exam I had to redo my check-offs, and I, of course, passed with a 100% and celebrated with lunch with my one classmate.

So, I am now home and feeling much better because there is no stress on me, however, as soon as it is time for another round of tests I will be feeling the exact same way, so I've decided to go to counseling to see if they can help me sort through all of this so I can make an educated decision that I won't regret.

Until then, I guess I'll just try to deal with being miserable.