Yesterday I sent off a volley of emails to my instructors, past and present. One to congratulate on his acceptance to medical school. One to ask about an exam question that had confused me. And a third to ask about an exam question that I couldn't find evidence that we had covered in class.
Such is the power of email that I had answers from all within several hours.
One said thanks. One said he had received several emails from students about the same thing and would address it in class. One sent a long, long and somewhat defensive missive--this is the one who always tells the personal stories in class--that was half explanation, half defensiveness, half something else I'm not sure what. It was three halves of something or another, that's for sure.
Anyway, the piece of news that interested me the most was the instructor's comment that I showed "almost flawless" mastery of the material.
(I got the test back tonight and with it the two case studies I handed in. The instructor's comment: "This is the highest grade I have ever given out on this first exam, ever.")
Another sacrifice to the demons of external validation yields results. (They always do. It's very predictable.)
Yesterday was a long day. I spent most of the day studying, then I made some vegan chili for dinner, then I went to class.
Class was interesting. As promised, the instructor addressed the exam question--one about heparin--and then there was a quiz (another extra credit point) and a bit of lecture. During the lecture, the instructor often writes on the white board and, if I'm not looking up when he writes (if I'm focused on writing my own notes based on what he's saying), I look up to see things like this:
Sorry about the fuzzy photo. Not that it would matter if the photo were perfectly in focus. I mean, clearly he was talking about varying amounts of calcium (Ca++) and potassium (K+), but beyond that, your guess is as good as mine. One of the lines seems to read "stain the actor." The middle one I know says "arrhythmia" because someone asked him. The last one? "Iuali"? "Jual"? Who knows. That is his way. Me? I'm, like, why bother writing on the board if that is going to be the result? But I'm old and crotchety and expect things out of my instructors.
I came home after class, had dinner, and went almost immediately to bed.
Same thing tonight. I just got back from class, actually. It was a whirlwind lecture, covering the entire immune system, cells and all, in just over two hours. (Luckily, I took immunology a million years ago and we just covered white blood cell types (however perfunctorily) in anatomy and physiology, so nothing is entirely unfamiliar.) It's a lot of material to cover though and The Brain needs a rest after all the excitement.
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