Block I

Block I is done and gone. The semester is essentially divided up into three blocks. At the end is a test. Combine it with a final and you have 4 tests each worth a quarter of your grade. All or nothing. The histo/cell bio exam wasn't too bad. Unofficially, I think I got an 87 which falls into the High Pass range. 2.5 more points and I would've been Honors. Oh well. Biochem was a bit more challenging. Whereas I finished the histo in ~30-35 minutes, the biochem took about an hour and 20 minutes. When I left, probably 80% of the lecture hall was still full. Lucky me, they decided to change the test format this year so it was much more involved. They wanted to make it more like the board exams which I can appreciate. But when you studied 10 years worth of previous tests that were all in an identical format, you can imagine the "oh shit" feeling when you start to read the questions and realize they don't look anything like before. Still, I did better than I hoped. An 84. One point away from High Pass. So I proved to myself that I can actually take and pass these things. I'm still struggling a bit with being 'average' but.....when you're average in a pool of students where 8,000 applied for 220ish spots, suddenly average ain't so bad. Stupid societal labels. On to Block II with slightly more confidence.