Well, just completed my first ever uni exam! 1 down, 3 to go!
I had human bio today. Probably the most relaxed exam I've ever done - complete with a midway snack, starjumps and stretching - quite fitting, for the exam. So basically we were given 7 patient case studies, and we had to choose 5 and diagnose, explain the biology behind it and suggest treatments. It was helpful being open book, as well as getting a choice of cases, meaning that we could play to our strengths. The 3 hours kinda dragged on forever - haven't done a 3 hour exam since HSC! I think I did well though, it just depends on how picky the marking will be. Anyways, tomorrow I will focus on chem practice questions, and memorising linguistics and phonetics.
A mundane anecdote:
Spoiler
So the instructions for the exam reccommended clearing the browsing history on my laptop. So I did that, but now I have to login to everything again, including AN, which is kinda inconvenient. So many passwords I now have to try and remember!
Adios!
(Spanish) :)
I've been doing a whole lot of nothing the last couple of days since having wisdom teeth surgery on Friday... seems like an ideal time to update my journal. ;D
Bit of a mammoth post, so decided to section it all off!
2020, Semester 2 Update Spoiler
Got the rest of my results back in January... they kinda trickled in by email every few days, rather than all being released at once on the official release day, which was kinda nice actually. Pleased to announce that I passed my maths units, yay! No maths summer intensives for me. :)
MATH1013: 69 CR - This was my hardest subject all semester and I felt overwhelmed after each tutorial, so to get a credit in this is a surprise and relief!
MATH1014: 79 DI - Very happy, stoked to get a distinction in a maths unit! This unit was very fun, and I loved the methodical nature of working with vectors and matrixes. The final exam was shocking, so glad my marks still reflected how I was tracking throughout semester.
DATA1001: 84 DI - Also a nice surprise! The content was easy enough and I had done well in all the projects, but the final exam was definitely intense. 1 mark off a HD though aha.
CHEM1112: 81 DI - Very content. Pretty similar to last semesters' chem results, and considering I had all this maths to deal with, I think I handled this subject quite well.
BIOL1007: 88 HD - Good stuff! Wasn't sure how I'd go with the long responses, since bio marking tends to be a bit picky, but it turned out great in the end.
Can't think of any other uni-related things from last year, so let's continue onto this year.
2021, Semester 1 Spoiler
Made a minor change to my enrolment: I'm now doing a second major (rather than a minor) in Speech and Hearing Science. I'm really excited for all of my subjects this year! Only thing is, this semester it's looking like I'll have 27 hours of classes / week, which is a bit nightmarish! I blame all the pracs - esp biochem, which will be 4hrs! Enough said, here's my subjects for this semester:
BCMB2901 - Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Advanced)
PHSI2007 - Key Concepts in Physiology
BIOS2166 - Neuroscience of Hearing
OLET1504 - Health Challenges: Diabetes
OLET1510 - Health Challenges: Sleep
OLET1801 - Music Theory and Notation Essentials
This seems like too many subjects, but the last three are just 2 cps each, since they are online open learning units. This will be my first lot of OLE's, not too sure what to expect in terms of difficulty or how time I need to dedicate to them each week. The good thing about them though is that they are basically self-paced, so I guess if there are weeks where my other subjects are really demanding, I can be a bit flexible about my OLE learning.
I'm really keen for the diabetes subject, since it was created by a lecuturer I had last year in human bio that I really enjoyed. Sleep should be cool too, since it's an area of health where I really don't have any background knowledge in or know anything about. I picked the music one with the intention of it being an easy subject, since I learned music theory in piano lessons for many years in primary & highschool. I'm wondering whether it might actually be a bit harder than what I first thought, but should still be cool! Kinda fun to say that I'm studying a subject at the con this semester haha.
Feeling both thrilled and nervous to be studying biochem this year. I first fell in love with biochem when I did an option module for it in HSC chemistry, and have been keen to delve into it further ever since (only did fairly broad biochem stuff in first year bio). I've heard this subject is really intense (and perhaps not too well organised), so I'm a little worried. Last year I was adamant that I wouldn't pick any advanced / SSP units, because I wanted to make uni as cruisy as possible. I kinda picked advanced biochem on a whim, since my friend was doing it and we wanted to be in the same practical. As far as I can tell, the two different streams are fairly similar, except the pracs are more research-oriented in advanced, which could be cool! I guess I see how I go in the first couple of weeks - it it gets too much, I have until census date to drop back down to the mainstream. ;D
Physiology sounds really interesting as well! Kinda seems like human bio 2.0, since structurally it's very similar - looking at all the different body systems and doing pracs for them. The pracs will be in the Charles Perkins Centre, which is exciting! I can pretend to be a real fancy scientist now :)
Neuroscience of hearing is the unit for my Speech / Hearing major this semester. If it's anything like the hearing version of speech science from last year, it will be intense, but good! Apart from not being able to choose our prac time, I generally appreciate how the Faculty of Medicine and Health is run, and they're good a giving exam feedback and things like that. I wonder whether we will be working with cadavers again in pracs - guess I'll have to wait and see!
As for my timetable, I submitted my class preferences and am waiting to receive my timetable back in the next few days. I'll looking like I will be heading down to campus for 1 day a week, and 2 days each fortnight, which is fairly ideal actually! All of my lectures are online, (except for physiology!?) so I'll be watching those at home and just going in for pracs. Have a couple of online tutorials, but some of them are only fortnightly as well. Still waiting for all the unit outlines to come out for this semester though - will be helpful having a bit more info about each subject.
Next semester should be a breeze though, I calculated that I will only have 17 hours of classes (instead of 27!), so I'll try and keep that in mind this semester in moments when I am feeling swamped with uni! Think that's about it for uni stuff.
& Everything Else :) Spoiler
I have been working a fair bit over the break, some weeks 30+ hours. We have just changed over owners at the store which has been a little bit crazy with lots of new changes and workers, but things are starting to settle down again.
Been looking to find some more health-related casual work. Recently just applied for a perfect job - a diet aide at my local hospital. Basically working under the supervision of a dietitian to help patients select meals and then deliver them. The job description says it would suit a dietetics student, but I don't think I have much of a chance of getting it, but good application practice, I guess!
Have managed to slip away a few times for a youth camp, camping with friends and then with my family. Finally have been able to use my swag that I got for Christmas 2019! Very easy to set-up and pack-up, I'm quite happy with it! I've been to several different beaches across the last month or so, which has been nice! Good to get out of the house.
About my wisdom teeth surgery (thought I'd write a little about this so I can remember the experience when I look back on this)... was my first time having surgery / general anaesthetic, so I was feeling a bit nervous... Especially since I had to do the whole hospital experience solo due to COVID. Honestly, it was nothing to be nervous about... everything went smoothly, the whole anaesthetic experience wasn't too wacky... I remember looking at the clock in the recovery ward while I was still half-asleep, saw the time, and proceeded to try and wake myself up properly ASAP because I wanted to watch the livestream of my friends' wedding that was happening soon. Probably wasn't the smartest idea because I was feeling fairly dizzy, but I really wanted to watch the wedding! Kind of missed the first half due to the livestream lagging, but glad that I could still join for part of it!
I've been feeling alright post-surgery, tend to feel a bit funny in the head in the afternoon / evenings though. I'm meant to be back at work on Wednesday - I think I'm on track for that at this stage. My face is still a bit swollen (feel a little like a chipmunk) and I'm dosed up on pain killers, but other than that, we all think I am doing really well considering!
Leaving the most exciting thing til last, our family recently got a puppy! His name is Jaffa, and he's a 7 month old border collie cross kelpie rescue dog. He's got so so much energy and loves to lick our feet, but very cute. Definitely feels like our family is collectively trying to raise a child together, so it can be challenging at times, but a lot of fun! He's been very gentle and has been looking out for me the last couple of days as I live on the couch.