Sunday, June 26, 2005

Exam-o-phobia (an extremely late post...)

15th June 2005, Wednesday, 2.00 pm local time

Just came back from pharm. science prac exam…didn’t think that it’d be that stressful. Everyone expected it to be a solution, since it was the easiest product which she could test us on EVERYTHING….only I didn’t expect to do that many calculations…Since this is the first year the school is introducing prac exams for first years, I was thinking, “Hah. How hard could it be? Probably a couple of triturates to calculate, a couple of ancillary labels, but that shouldn’t be a problem, right?” WRONG. There were so many things to do. We had to make Paracetamol Elixir, and we had to figure out all the dispensing steps…what’s the solubility of paracetamol? Is it more soluble in water or ethanol, hence in which excipient should we dilute it in? Then we had to show the calculations, both the working formulas, etc etc, not to mention all the referencing we had to make… The best was yet to come. They bombarded us with a whole load of info to CONFUSE us (deliberately, I kid you not)…You had to scan through all those fine details in the stack of papers and sieve the info…At first, I grabbed the 100mL clear flat and poured the elixir in, stuck on the main labels, ancillary labels, expiry, etc nicely…It was only 2 minutes before finishing time (when I was double-checking my work) when I realized a fine print which read: “Protect from light”. I was like, “OH MY GOD! WHAT THE ****???” and then I thought, “No no no no don’t do this to me!!!” Seriously, I broke out in cold sweat…1 minute before our products would be collected, and I find out that I’d stupidly transferred my elixir into the wrong kind of flat…We were supposed to transfer it into a 100mL DARK flat! I ran to the shelves (right at the back of the dispensing lab). Then I had to retype the labels, grab more ancillary and expiry labels, etc etc…When I was finally retyped them all, guess what? I couldn’t find my dark flat!! It turns out that one of the lab assistants thought I was done, and so he took the flat back to the shelves behind. And yeah, so I had to dash behind to grab it again (*_*)…Hell, I don’t even know if I typed the main label correctly…Virginia’s extremely strict when it comes to practicals…she minuses ½ a mark if you don’t put a full stop behind your sentences, and another 1 mark if you put ‘5’ instead of ‘five’ in your instructions (asides from measurement units)…she gives zeroes for the WHOLE PRACTICAL for errors in calculations…imagine, what will she do if I made a typo on the label? What if I mistyped the drug’s name? She’ll probably give me a NEGATIVE mark or something…Imagine if I flunk the whole exam just for a damn typo…hell…I’ll probably throw myself outta my room’s window or start banging my head against the wall…all that trouble, wasted just because of a typo…

Right now, it’s 3 down, and 2 more to go…exams, that is. The exams seem to be dragging on and on that it’s really wearing me out…imagine, the exam period starts on the 3rd of June, but mine starts only on the 10th and finishes on the 21st…a whole month of exams…it’s horrible how they cram stuff…some people either finish early, or their exams are spaced out really nicely (ie: 3 days or so between each exams, just nice to recover, relax, and study)… most of my exams are on alternate days. Granted, it could’ve been worse, but these kinda exams are really tiring…and the fact that I have to hike up these stupid hills just to get back to college doesn’t help…this is really both mentally and physically exhausting…But the torture isn’t over yet; I’ve still got chemistry (I hate organic chem!) and CSA105 (stupid subject) to study for….I repeat, I HATE organic chemistry…

I’m getting a headache; even after the exams n during the holidays I’ve got stuff to worry about…THEY WON’T EVEN LET US ENJOY OUR HOLIDAYS!! I’ve got this major essay to complete, my human bio prac reports, my major reports…on top of that, I’ve got to get all the lecture notes, slides, and past year papers in preparation for next semester…I’ve gotta squeeze all of that into the week before I head to Melbourne…

Thursday, June 23, 2005

Holiday...or cover-up torment?

I'm actually quite exhausted here...eheh actually this post is up because i'm constantly being under peer pressure, literally...

Hmm so what's interesting? Oh, yeah, exams ended, like, on Tuesday at 11, so we hopped onto the bus right after the exam (Allie, Deb, and I) , gallivanting around the city; Yena joined us a little later...it was supposed to be a shopping-movie-eating marathon!!! Sigh...sadly for me, only the movie n eating part came true...very "sui", I tell you; went around for a couple of hours but I still couldn't find anything that I liked....Movies were alright; went to watch 'Batman Begins' n 'Mr n Mrs Smith', then went to eat at some Tandoori Chicken place or something like that...ahaha...to be honest, Indian food isn't exactly in my list of top choices, but everyone seemed to like it and the food was ok, so, what the hey.

Day 2 (day after the exam) was a little better...went out shopping again, with a little bit of success...bought a shirt and a pair of khakis, THANKS TO PEOPLE WHO FORCED ME TO...(you guys know who you are *_*) It's actually quite a long story...apparently they thought that I had to change my all-jeans image, so they COERCED me into trying on the pair of khakis...heh thought that was the end of it...When I was done I actually returned it, but haiyo....these people...hahah they actually grabbed the pair back from the pile and insisted that I buy it...Wanted to get the brown shirt instead of the purple one, but my interest in the brown one quickly diminished when Allie commented that I looked like a tree bark...anticlimax, I tell you...
Oh, and did I mention? Asides from shopping we actually rented 10 dvds yesterday night, and today we're down to about 2.5 dvds...stayed up until 7 this morning, watching dvds....hell, I can hardly keep my eyes open now (though I did sleep 'till 2.30 pm...)...The only thing I do recall now throughout the entire night- and morning- of being a TV (or dvd) zombie is the fact that Allie was pigging out on the bag of chips we bought yesterday night...It was one of those jumbo-sized pack stuffed with mini-packs, and they were vanishing like one of those magician's shows where you see them performing all sorts of legerdermain...Seriously funny...and before that, I was pigging out on the pack of rice crackers while Deb was attacking the oreos...

I think I'm slowly wasting away during the holidays...it's like, only day 2 of my holiday break and already I feel so wasted...and by the way, I think we'll probably go out and rent another 10...maybe 20 dvds? On top of it, I've got 1 major essay, 1 major report, 2 reports, 2 pre-report write-ups and other uni-related stuff to do...all that, I've gotta complete before I head for Melbourne...how the hell am I supposed to juggle a life of indulgence and all my other academic stuff?? Frankly speaking, the two doesn't mix. At all. It's like oil and water, so I'm not even gonna bother. Which reminds me of something...remember the day of the last exam I had? Boy oh boy...There are, like, 55 people in my pharm. class (including yours truly), and by the end of the exam there was only 1 person left...me. It was kinda awkward, sitting surrounded by your classmates one second, and the next thing, when you actually lift your head and take a glance around the exam hall, you actually find you're the only one left from your classs. Wow. It was a boring paper, though. 2 hours long, but it took less than an hour to complete. Must've checked that stupid paper more than 5 times (don't get me wrong, this doesn't mean I'm gonna ace the paper; the paper was a strictly 'either you know your stuff, or u don't' kind of paper)...In the end I started doodling and drawing on my exam question paper...Since I was the only one left from my class, I think what I was doing was pretty obvious...one of the exam invigilators came up to me and asked me in an undertone, 'Have you finished your paper yet?'...I was like, 'ahahaha...uh...yeah....', then she just smiled and walked away...DAMN EMBARRASSING...probably should've walked outta the exam hall after checking God knows how many times, but I didn't leave, partly because it was kinda like a tradition to stay for the whole exam, and partly because even if I did, I still had to wait in uni for Deb's paper to finish...so what the heck.

I was actually supposed to put up another post before this one but I saved it on my hard drive back in my room and I'm too lazy to get it now, so that'll have to wait.

So you see? Life does get pretty boring after all...