Wow! Well it's certainly been a whirlwind of a semester, and I haven't had any time to blog about it. It's far more intense than I could have imagined, even overwhelming at times. Thank goodness I had two 10 week classes that ended as the second set of 7 1/2 week classes got going. There would have been no way I would have been able to keep up if I had class every night of the week for the entire semester.
Let me explain - Exercise Testing & Prescription is a very hands on, practical class. Note, I said it's a 7 1/2 week class. We had 7 labs that were due, with one week of vacation in there for the holiday. These labs ranged from 30 to 50 pages each, so each week I had to write at least 30 pages. There were 2 weeks that we had TWO labs due. As if that wasn't enough, that wasn't my only class - I still had Principles of Strength Training, and had to write 4 strength training lesson plans for the first four weeks, one for a mid term practical, a risk management paper, and create/teach a bootcamp class. We must have killed at least a small forest this semester in lab write-ups and lesson plans, and I've had to buy ink for my printer twice.
Thankfully, I have a very supportive and understanding husband who tolerates my late nights of studying and writing, and has been picking up the slack with the household chores. I also work two jobs, and fortunately have a boss who understands that my education is my first priority, and has been very generous in working around my school and homework schedule.
It has all paid off - I have learned so much this semester such as how to calculate body composition, take skin folds, conduct a submax oxygen uptake test, and interpretting paperwork. Probably the most important thing I learned was to make friends and create a good "study group" to bounce things off of. I'm not talking about a traditional study group of meeting and quizzing each other on the study guide, as I don't learn that way and most of us work various schedules in addition to going to school, so getting together is next to impossible. Technology makes it a lot easier to do - this weekend, I talked to 6 of my 9 classmates on Facebook chat, phone instant messaging, email, and phone calls. We discussed why we got the answers we did, where we found them in the books, and how we interpretted the information.
I'm curious how the class did as a whole on our final exam, as we've been told that we should expect 2 grades below our regular grade range. On our last test, one person got a B, several (maybe 3?) got Cs, and the rest Ds and Fs. Our instructor says this is normal, and inline with what she expects. Well, we studied our butts off for the final, and all worked together. I know of at least one A, because I got it, and 2 other friends got very high Bs which puts us higher than expected. Now I should note that it's not that we don't know the material, because we do. And if my instructor reads this she'll laugh at me, but they are trick questions! It's a joke among us students as to how poorly we can do on the tests in the program. People study like crazy, then completely bomb, so the next test they won't study at all and do just as "well". It's insane - I've never done poorly on tests - ever - much less as routinely as I do on tests in this program. We can walk out of the class thinking, "Oh, that was easy, I did fine on it." and get them back to have Cs if we're lucky. Friends and family will ask how I did walking out, and they don't understand when I say "I have no idea - won't know until the grade reports come out" but we seriously have no clue, and those in the program know what I'm talking about. Like I said, I've come out thinking I've done well, and come out wondering if I answered any question correctly, and gotten the same score on both tests. We joke that we should get those fortune telling 8 balls with the die in it labeled A through E, and we could just shake it and mark our scantron based on what it tells us and do just as well/poorly as we do on our own.
Imagine my surprise when I got my grade report and it showed I actually got an A on the final! I had no sooner done a double take at the email when a classmate texted me asking if I had seen the report yet because she, too, was in shock and awe of the scores. I genuinely believe we did well because we worked together, and not just to memorize answers from our practice test, but because we discuss the whys and hows we arrived at our answers so we really do know the material and were able to answer the new questions we were presented with. To anyone going to school, get good study partners who have the same goals and drive that you do, and work together. It's amazing what you don't see that someone else does, or how much it helps you remember and understand the information when you explain it to someone.
At any rate, I'm glad the semester is over. These 5 weeks of break will go by quickly, and I really need it. I haven't had a real break since starting school last January as I went straight into the May-mester then to summer session, and only had a week and a half between summer and fall session. My poor brain is tired :)
Until next time, hope you have a safe and happy holiday season.
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