Only a Month

I am taking Anatomy and Physiology as a summer class during the month of June. Although this is the general ed class that I have been dreading the most, I am finding that I have a lot to be thankful for:

1. It will be over in only a month.

2. The professor says we don't have to bring our textbook to class with us (Praise God!). It is so heavy!

3. The professor has a reputation of being "only the best professor at Western," and he's proving it. I have not heard one single bad thing about him. I've only heard things like, "I learned more under him than I did under any other prof." He is more approachable and helpful and congenial than any other prof I've had. For example, he sat down with me and a couple other girls until 8:15 p.m. one night last week and helped us review the tissues for our test today (which I survived--nervous, nervous). There aren't many profs who will do that.

4. The professor has a sense of humor and is of the "laid back" type. He's African American. When he was teaching us "basic chemistry," he admitted that he really dislikes chemistry. "I used to be caucasian," he said, "until I took my first chemistry class. Then something happened!" Of course, we all got a kick out of that.

5. I've got my little "network" of buddies started, and I think they're a great set of people.

6. We have nice big, comfortable office-like chairs in a newly-renovated room.

7. OH...AND... he doesn't make us read ahead in our book like so many profs do. He actually teaches us what we are to know, and we are to use the book as a reference if we don't understand something. Phenomenal!


There are also some drawbacks, however:

1. You have to work your tail off--study ALL the time--just to stay on top of things.

2. We have two tests every week--one lab test and one lecture test. I had the choice of taking the class in an intense setting with Prof M. this month or to take it with Prof S. this fall in a much less intense schedule situation. I think I made the right choice.

I was really nervous about the test today. I cannot seem to overcome the "shakes" when I am nervous. It went amazingly well, however, but only because I had put in so much time studying for it...probably a total of no less than sixteen hours. What is so alarming is that there are quite a few students who are re-taking the class, mainly to improve their GPA's so that they can be admitted into a healthcare program. They tell me that the next two tests in the labs will be killers. They said that for the test, you have to know every bone in the body as well as the names of the ENDS of the bones. You walk into the room and the bones are all spread out at different locations. They're not in the skeleton at all. I think I shall follow another student's suggestion to take my digital camera into the lab and take pictures of the bones/muscles, then turn the pics into a slide show for study purposes. Just how clever is that??