The Demon of External Validation

Final grades are in: An A in clinicals, B's in the lecture courses.

I live to fight another day.

Today I managed to meet up for coffee with someone who started the program at the same time I did. She failed a course in level two and had to repeat it, which put her behind the cohort we both began in. While we chatted, she told me that she had been amazed at how well some of the students had done in the course she failed. They were getting high A's on their exams while she was struggling for C's. Finally, at the end of the term, one of them broke down and admitted that there was an online test bank that they were using which had most of the exam questions. They weren't bothering to read or study the material, they just memorizing questions from the old exams. So there's that.

There is a fair amount of cheating that goes on in this program, as I've seen. People are desperate for the high of external gratification that comes with straight A's, so they're willing to cheat. I don't care about that stuff anymore. What I earn is what I earn, grade-wise. (I did my first degree and killed myself for A's--graduated summa cum laude with a perfect 4.0--so I'm over perfectionism in that particular area anyway.)

Anyway, it's all over for the moment (over until I have to return in early January).

As for me,  I have a list longer than Santa's for things I want to get done during the break. That means, of course, that I came home, got out of my scrubs, and went straight to bed and did nothing but watch youtube videos all afternoon.