My challenged identity....

[DarkJester]

I'm a sophomore at the local school. I'm a biology major and I want to head to medical school. Up to this point I have never been challenged in school: college or highschool. I've been breezing along. Sure, I've had to study, but hardwork is not something I mind.

This quarter is my first quarter of Organic Chemistry. The lecture is hard, but I like the challenge.

Today was my first meeting of Organic Lab. I've never been fully comfortable in a lab setting but I've managed to make it through my previous labs with A's. Organic Chem lab is a nightmare for me.

The tools are tiny, the beakers and flasks are tiny, the amounts of substances are tiny, and my hands are huge and jumpy. I lost over half of my product for crystalization due to jumpy hands and trying to get it from an evaporating dish to a sample vial using a double sided spatula. I messed up my melting point measurement because I was to distracted worrying about the product I lost earlier, and I managed to get barely any crystals from a Craig tube crystalization.

<sigh> I'm not use to this. School has always been everything I am and I don't know how to cope with it. I've always been "the smart guy". This class is important to me, and to me going to medical school. If today is any precursor of things to come I don't know how I'm going to manage to get through this and it terrifies me. I don't know what I would be without school - no..I don't know who I am outside of school. Yeah, it sounds weird but that is the way I feel. I feel like if I do poorly in this class I'm not living up to my own standards. My own practically untainable standards. I hardly have any friends, pretty of aquaitances, even people I could hang out with, but no one I feel like I connect with. I've always put all my energy into my school work. I wonder what would happen if I failed the class. Would I change my plans for my future? To what? I've always said I want to be a doctor.

I feel horrible.

I just had to put that in the air, and couldn't think of anywhere else to say it. Sorry if it isn't very coherent. I feel anything but coherent at the moment.

 

[mojo1701]

Well, it's meant to be tough. It's also a test of character. I'm in second year as well.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

I don't know what to say except good luck. Maybe you can find a pair of second-hand waldos

 

[GlassJaw]

I don't know what I would be without school - no..I don't know who I am outside of school.

Ok, this sent a huge red flag for me. School is important, sure, but one class is NOT the end-all-be-all of your existence, or at least it shouldn't be.

I have an engineering degree and knew a lot of people who were 3.5+ students and would still be the ones up all worrying about their exams while I put the books away for the night and dranks some beers instead. In hindsight, I'm glad I did. A few percentage points in the GPA doesn't really matter.

First off, if you are having problems with the equipment, tell the prof. That's your first priority. You sound like a very good student. Just relax. I'm a big advocate of doing just enough to get by. Don't kill yourself over one class because I'm willing to bet that after you become a doctor and look back on this class, the difference between an A or B or even a C will be negligible.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Today was my first meeting of Organic Lab. I've never been fully comfortable in a lab setting but I've managed to make it through my previous labs with A's. Organic Chem lab is a nightmare for me.

Hey buddy, how's it goin'?

Orgo kicked my ass. Orgo was one of the reasons I switched to Comp Sci. I got a B in Orgo (both semesters) but that's not the point. I knew I couldn't hack PChem after Orgo.

I'm sorry, but you're going to have to re-learn your study techniques.

I do not say this lightly. I managed to get through high school and college. I have a job that pays close to the six figures. But I strongly suspect I'm dyslexic. I only realized this when I started reading out loud to my baby girl. Dr. Seuss books are a horrific challenge. My wife has noticed me transpositioning letters when I encounter "hard" words. Why do I mention this? Because you're going to have to go through the same thing I am.

What you've been doing is not enough. It's just enough. It's enough to not draw criticism which is not the same thing as excelling.

What I reccomend is flash cards. Raw memorization. Put a question on one side and the ansswer on the other. Shuffle. Flip over. Quiz yourself constantly.

This is a differnet symptom with the same root cause. You can not physically articulate what your brain wants you to do. You're going to have to make up for that. It will not be easy, but you can do it if you apply yourself.

I understand you were just venting and were not really looking for a call to arms. Nonetheless, I wish you the best of luck. Take care, man.

 

[der_kluge]

True story:

I'm a system's analyst, and make (by most comparisons) a huge amount of money.
Before that, I was a programmer. I graduated in '95, and was a programmer doing Visual Basic and "C" programming til about 2003. So, for 8 years, I made a living writing "C" code.

In college, I got mostly B's, and and equal number of A's and C's. I graduated with a 2.97 GPA - pretty solid low "B" average. I got two D's in college. Biology Lab, which was just hard, because there was no curve, and... wait for it, "Programming in C".

Yes, that's right, I got a D in "C".


So, I wouldn't sweat it.

 

[Dagger75]

Slow down, take your time in lab class. Its not race. You don't have to be the first one done. Maybe your just nervous cause its harder than your used to and that makes you nervous, hence the shaky hands. Also don't sweat if your are not the smartest guy in class.
Do you have a lab partner? Let him/her do some of the finer details. Worked for me in chem lab. My lab partner wasn't very precise, I was. I did all the measurements, and set up the stuff he wrote up all reports, we passed.

 

[GlassJaw]

So, I wouldn't sweat it.

I second that. I did ok in college; my GPA was 3.14 I think. I'd wager that I'm doing just as well, if not better (my J.O.B. rocks) than most of the bookworms from college.

 

[Shemeska]

Orgo is also one of those classes that changes the minds of a ton of prospective pre-med folks. It's intended to be a weedout course for people wanting to go into medschool, and also for people wanting to be chemistry majors. I wanted to be a doctor my first year in college as well, it seems most bio majors are the same way at most schools.

For what it's worth I had difficulty with my first semester of organic. I got a C in it. The professor told me that he hated me and wanted me to drop his class (but that's a different story altogether). Take that performance and keep in mind I still graduated with Chem and Biology degrees, though I think I only had a 3 GPA or something like that as an undergrad.

Initial struggling is expected, you're not the only person by any means.

And Orgo is all about memorization for the most part beyond the basic stuff. The parts of Orgo I've actually used since that class weren't the memorization material actually, because that stuff if I needed it I'd look it up to be honest. Though I say this having long since gotten away from straight chem.

 

[jezter6]

I wouldn't sweat organic chem. Most of my friends in college (all pharmacy majors) actually failed or dropped it first time around. It's not an easy course by any means. One of my friends actually had to take it 3 times to pass it with a B.