Midterm: Organic Chem I

So I'm midway done. Well, not exactly. I'm through about half the tests (2 out of 4 midterms + 1 final), but in reality we only have about two weeks left in the class. I've been successful in keeping my grades up so far, but a really terrible cold hit me this weekend leaving me unable to move, let alone study. I'm struggling at work to balance both my studies and my obligations here, but I have to admit, when I pick a priority, it's school, and so I am often dodging deadlines. I have my third exam tomorrow, and I'm quite nervous about it since my study time has been cut drastically short. Plus, the professor claims that the third exam will be much harder than the first two.

I am also planning out my schedule. I have a large number of courses I want to take, plus I know I want to study for the MCATs in January so I can take them in April. Thus, I have to think of the most efficient way to pull everything together. So far, I am registered for Anatomy & Physiology I, and I requested a schedule change to accommodate biochemistry. My toss up class is statistics--it's online, but there's only a single spot left, and I'm getting registration issues. Clearly, I have to sort that out tonight. This may seem like a huge time commitment, going from one class to three, but it really isn't. A&P is partially online, with a required in-class lab component, and statistics is online as well. That means I can keep a somewhat normal exercise routine by listening to lectures and doing my readings at the gym when I come home for two out of three classes. The only reservation I have is that when I did online coursework in the past, they were more time consuming or the lecturer was less clear. I think I can compensate for that now that I'm older, though. Anyway, this would mean I'd schedule Immunology for spring, along with A&P II and either sociology or orgo II (probably orgo II in the spring, since I could take sociology in the summer if I really felt I needed it) or stats if I don't get in this fall. That would mean a pretty heavy courseload during my MCAT prep time, so I'm going to try starting the studying earlier, like starting in October. My final "optional" class is Physics II: if I don't feel burned out, I would be willing to retake it. Otherwise, I'm prepped to apply May 2016.

First Day of Organic Chem I

Today will be the first day of my organic chemistry class. I'm a little afraid, as I am so completely exhausted right now that I can barely stay awake as I type this. But this first day is a lab day, and I doubt we're going to do much more than familiarize ourselves with the laboratory safety procedures. This is worrisome though: I haven't been able to sleep properly in weeks; I really need sleep or my headaches become a lot worse. Exercise is supposed to help my headaches, but I have to wake up early for the gym now that I can't go after work anymore. I planned on going early this morning, but I was so exhausted.

I am so tired I cannot think right now. More later.

Pre-Preparing For My Organic Chemistry I Class

Of all the pre-requisite classes for medical school, Organic Chemistry has the reputation for being the hardest: it is known as the Dream Killer, and for good reason. It's a "weed out" class, where averages can be in the 40-50% range, which means people either end up dropping the class and/or abandoning their pre-med pursuits. It certainly happened to me: try as I might to memorize the pathways, nothing stuck, and while I passed the course, a B-/C+ in the course series is not impressive. I have had people tell me horror stories of their interviews at schools, where the interviewer had highlighted their orgo scores in their files or had demanded to know why the candidate had such a poor score in that class.

That is why I chose orgo as the first class I want to retake in my DIY post-bacc. Not only will this be extremely helpful in improving my sGPA/BCPM grades if I do well, but it will also be a strong refresher for the physical sciences portion of the MCAT: while I know physics is a weakness and can practice the math for it to do decently, whenever my practice exams or real exams had a bulk of organic chemistry problems, I was never able to score high. I always felt a bit ashamed of my inability to grasp orgo because my dad is a polymer chemist who works with these kinds of reactions all the time. Going to him for help was a fruitless endeavor, however, because when you have someone working in the field doing complicated stuff all the time, they forget how to teach someone the basics. I would spend hours with my dad, and we would only get through a single problem in a set, reducing me to tears.

It is a little insane that I am signing up for a summer course, as the pace will be intense, and as someone with a full time job, I won't have that much time to study as the class meets 4 days a week for about 3 hours at a time. I'll be learning what most people learn in 15 weeks in less than half that (seven weeks), but I would like to point out that Drexel's terms were 10 weeks, and we covered the same amount, so I know what it is like to have a brutal pace. And to help alleviate some of my anxiety, I'm starting to learn the concepts before the class even starts so that I will have a basic understanding before I even sit down for the first lecture.

Normally, I pre-read for classes by reading the textbook (which I will be doing before each lecture, just not before class even starts, as the book is an intimidating size). This time I researched tools for learning Organic Chemistry, and the book that kept popping up over and over in these searches was Organic Chemistry as a Second Language by David Klein. The summer class I am taking is actually using David Klein's full textbook, so I thought it would be prudent to buy the Second Language book as a companion. I'm on chapter two, and I have to say, it has been an invaluable resource. The book is not intended to replace the textbook; rather, it is a supplemental workbook/study guide of the major concepts you need to master as you go through the class. And when I say companion book, I mean it: I read the first few textbook chapters and they give a lot more information than was in the SL book.

I've made a lot of mistakes, but what I'm doing is every time I make a mistake, I mark it and write out why my original answer was incorrect. This helps me identify which concepts I need to solidify as I go on. Then I can redo the problem until I get it correct, or I can use the textbook or other resource to find new, similar questions. I'll try to blog about any resources I use while taking the course.

The New D.O. Application

Yesterday the new Liason International D.O. application website was launched. Naturally, I started populating the application with my information. A few thoughts come to mind:

• The new layout is so pretty! The previous website was an ugly eyesore; it was very dated looking. The blues and greens make this a very modern-looking page, and the simple graphics add a very nice touch.
• It isn't just pretty, it is also WAY more functional and easy to use than the previous version. Now, it isn't perfect, but there are several things that I have noticed that are improved:
• The transcript entry utility is a lot simpler to use. You can organize things by quarter/semester, meaning you can select a semester, add the classes, and choose another quarter, instead of having to re-enter the semester information each time you add a class. This saves a TON of time--last cycle I spent HOURS inputting the information, and I still messed it up.
• It also has a bar on the bottom that lists if the schools you are applying to have certain pre-requisite courses. If you hover over the "i" icon, it tells you if the course is mandatory, how many credits they require, and the minimum grade they will accept. This last piece of information quite helpful for non-trads who already have a science degree--it tells you if the "pass" grade you earned would be accepted. For example, for Rowan, they want a 2.5 minimum grade in the biology pre-requisite. This would mean you would need somewhere above a C+ for consideration, and that it might be worth your while to retake the course.
• One unanswered question about the transcript tool: I went to Drexel University, and it is on the quarter system. The old application asked us to translate the quarter hours into semester hours using a chart in a PDF that wasn't even prominently displayed on the site or the webpage (this is part of why it took hours for me to complete this step in the past). The new website has no mention of whether or not I need to recalculate all of my credit hours. I assume that during the verification process, they will tell me if I need to do so.
• The "Evaluations" section. I wish they had a more clear description for what this is. Who are these evaluations coming from? I don't know if this is supposed to be for Letter of Recommendation (LOR) writers such as a science professor, pre-medical committee, D.O. physician, or workplace supervisor, or all four of those things. And if it's from a pre-medical committee, I have no idea how they would have a SINGLE email address to give.
• And thought that I'd put this out there: as a non-trad, it is effing HARD to find professors willing to write these LORs, especially if you're more than a year out of school. I wish med schools would take supervisor letters more seriously, especially for those of us who are working in a science- or medically-related field.
• I'm guessing the section is for LORs though, as on their previous emails they mentioned that the new website would have a utility to replace Interfolio, and that this way your LORs would come bundled with your application itself, allowing for faster processing times.
• In the personal information spot, I'm surprised they eliminated information about siblings. They do, however, have a more detailed information spot for people to list physicians in the family. Unfortunately for me, that spot will remain woefully blank. It makes me vaguely uncomfortable to see a spot dedicated for nepotism on an application that is supposed to evaluate the student holistically, rather than the student's family.
• The language entry spot. They ask you to pick a primary language. For those of us who were raised bilingual (this is a case for so many of us who were born in America to immigrant parents who could speak at least a minimum of English), there is no "primary" language. It feels weird to call my home language level "advanced" because I cannot understand the news/literary grammar, but I'm fully able to converse and live a normal life using my home language.

Initial Planning Hurdles

Much of my time in the last few weeks has been involved in planning out my next year. The two biggest things to tackle are my retakes of classes and my MCAT prep for the new 2015 MCAT.

I've talked to adcom members at the local schools I'm targeting, and though I have a B.S. in biology, they suggested a do an informal post-bacc to replace a few courses, and maybe take a few extra courses for MCAT prep and overall GPA increase. Thus, I'm definitely retaking my orgo course, and possibly physics II and biochem as well. Supplemental courses I'm considering are sociology and psychology to help with the new MCAT (I took one psych course in undergrad, and although I aced the exams, I retained nothing), and possibly pharmacology or anatomy and physiology to give myself a leg up (no pun intended) on the first year courses.

I work full-time, and despite my blog name, I'm no longer in pharmacy. My pharmacy job in the past was very flexible; as long as I provided my hours ahead of time, I could set the schedule I wanted. My current job, however, isn't medically related (though it is involved in science/engineering), and is an inflexible 8:30-5 (or 8-6, if you count summer hours). This presents a problem: I have to work full-time in order to keep my health insurance and benefits (and those extras, like food and shelter), so I can't quit my job to take courses or complete an SMP.

My solution is to take these courses at my local CC. My local CC, Borough of Manhattan Community College, offers several evening courses, including the ones I need to take, with the possible exception of biochemistry (none of the CCs in my area offer it). As a bonus, the CC courses are a fraction of the price that the same courses would be in the nearby 4 year institution (the financial aspect is very important to me as I have existing school and medical loans). I'm starting this summer with a single class, organic chemistry I. And while the science department has been supportive and helpful, I find that the other administration completely unhelpful.

Since I will be taking a single course during the summer, the admissions department told me I'd have to submit paperwork to be a non-degree visitor student. The admissions department wants all paperwork submitted in person at their office in Chambers Street. This main campus is a 10-20 minute subway ride from my office--not to shabby, though tough to manage if I want to make it in and out during my 45-minute lunch period. I called ahead and asked about the paperwork I needed to bring, printed it out (plus some residency forms that I found on the website that they didn't mention), and went to the Admissions Office.

There, they only looked at my transcript and the information form listing my name and previous education. I asked about the immunization forms, but the admin told me that those weren't required until after I received an email from the school to set up my online school account. I asked about the residency forms, but the admin brushed me aside and I waited for the email. The day I received my email, I set up my account and went to the Health Office to submit my immunization records, and I returned to the Admissions Office with my residency paperwork, plus my most recent paystub listing city taxes as my proof of residency. The admin at the Admissions Office told me that the stub was not acceptable, and that I needed a stub from either December of last year or January, or a copy of my taxes, despite me asking them before I got there if my documents were acceptable.

I also was told on another phone call that I would need an evaluation of my past credits to see if I fulfilled the requirements of general chemistry before I took organic chemistry. This is really common and not a big deal; I just went to the science office and had a very confused professor sign off on a paper. The professor told me that it wasn't necessary, though I had the actual professor for the night course tell me that I would have problems registering without this paperwork.

I went to the Registrar's Office, where they told me that not only was this pre-requisite evaluation unnecessary, but that I might not get a chance to register as my registration date was not April 26th as they told me originally, but May 26th, two days before the class actually begins. It took me four tries to get them to input the paper I had signed, and I am not entirely sure that they weren't just pretending to type on the computer while I was there. I made photocopies of the signed forms, so in the (highly likely, imo) chance that they lose the form just as I am about to register, I can go in with my other copies.

The professor told me he would try and work me in if they over-register. Right now, that doesn't seem to be an issue (fingers crossed). For now, I'm just focusing on getting prepared for the course by purchasing the textbooks and finding other classes that would fit my schedule.

My Birthday and a New Start

I turned 27 today.

I guess I'm officially in my late 20s now. A decade back, 17 year old me would not have pictured myself living the life I am. I'd probably imagine myself a failure. And to be honest, sometimes current Me falls into this trap of believing it. But now that I am older, I also have the wisdom to forgive myself, and the experiences I've had since college I believe have made me into a kinder, better person.

This will be a blog dedicated to my efforts as a non-traditional student, making the transition from the pharmacy (and currently, technical writing) world to achieve my goal of acceptance into medical school.

I'm a bit apprehensive; I'm charting out my plans for the next year, and I'm worried about how I will juggle my full time job with courses, and I am hoping to use this blog to keep myself accountable. And I hope that some day this blog will chronicle my travails as a medical student, and eventually, as a practicing physician.

I eagerly await the challenges that lie ahead.