Disconnect

Only a few weeks into the school year and already I've experienced my first discouraging moment: a less than satisfactory quiz score.

I am discouraged because I had put a lot of time and effort into preparing for this first quiz. I pre-read for every class, I attended all but one lecture (8 a.m. came early that day), and I reviewed all of the lectures as well as my notes. It's a blow to my confidence that all of that work went unrewarded.

So what went wrong? Where was the disconnect? Well, I think the problem was twofold.

Lesson #1: Do not believe professors when they say that they are not going to ask a question about "X" enzyme or gene or chromosome; you need to know the details! We were told by the faculty to focus our attention on the concepts rather than the details. I don't know why I believed them because professors love to ask questions about the details.

Lesson #2: Stick with the method of studying that works best for you. Because I didn't think I had to know the details, I didn't write anything out by hand. I did not follow my own advice, the same advice I had just given to my mentee! Usually my preparation would have consisted of drawing flow charts on my white board and writing notes and charts by hand. There is just something about putting pen to paper that really makes the details stick.

The quiz is not worth much of my overall grade for this section, so I'm just going to brush myself off and keep it moving. Besides, I have two exams in the next week that are worth a significant portion of my overall grade for this section. This time I'll be prepared for whatever Dr.A & Co. decide to throw my way.