Thursday, February 28, 2002

Black Mondays -- Exam Day in the Basic Sciences

My Black Monday was a disaster this time. Our neuro test was hard. The class average was 54% (and here, 70% is passing). I got the 4th highest in the class: 64% which is not a passing grade. I can't tell you how dejected I am about that. I could make excuses about the test but I won't. The professor is going to add an 18% curve because he thinks that if practically the whole class fails, then something must be wrong. That will bring my grade to 83%. The highest (uncurved grade) was 80% -- Tim Duke, who has had 6 months of neuro in a doctoral program before coming here. In Epi, things did not go very well. I got 89%. In Genetics, things were good as usual: 97% -- one question wrong and I don't think anyone got it right.
Although I am unhappy with my results, I won't stop to do an autopsy, which often turns into a round of self-excusing justifications. Instead, I resolve to work harder. We have a long weekend coming up and I am going to invest my time henceforth more wisely and try to keep ahead of the group. I am sorry that my performance this exams were disappointing.