Schedule and Study Time!

The countdown for school continues!  This has felt like an incredibly long summer, and for good reason; it’s more than a month longer than my summers usually last.  It is definitely weird starting school so late in the year.  I’ve always started classes somewhere around mid-August, and gotten out for summer around the beginning or middle of May.  This year is different, though, because Oregon State runs on a “quarter” system, rather than a “semester” system.  There are four quarters in a year, corresponding with the seasons:  fall, winter, spring, and summer.  Each quarter lasts for about 12 weeks.  Some classes do roll over into the next quarter (I’ll be taking Gross Anatomy and Physiology for my entire first year), but most only last a quarter or two.  I’m actually looking forward to the change somewhat; hopefully it will keep me more engrossed in the material since each class runs for a shorter length of time.  Since I’m talking about it, I’ll go ahead and share my schedule for the first year of school:

Fall – First Quarter – 9/24 through 12/7

Class	Credit Hours (lecture - lab):
Professional Orientation	1 (1 – 0)
Gross Anatomy	4 (1 – 9)
Microscopic Anatomy	4 (3 – 3)
Physiology	5 (4 – 3)
Intro to Animal Care	3 (1 – 6)
Veterinary Integrated Problem Solving	1 (0 – 2)
Total Credits:	18 (10 – 23)

Math wizards will take note that the amount of lecture and lab hours don’t add up to the 18 hours I’m credited for, but instead they add up to 33 hours!  I never understood why labs are often worth less credits than the hours they actually take up.  This happened in undergrad as well, for example, a class would count for 4 hours when I was really in it for 5 or 6 hours a week.  Never as crazy as this though; Gross Anatomy only counts for 4 hours when it really should be 10!  I’m not complaining, I’m just saying that there is some fishy math going on in the registrar’s office.  Anyway, continuing on:

Winter – Second Quarter – 1/7 through 3/22

Class	Credit Hours (lecture - lab):
Gross Anatomy	4 (1 – 9)
Microscopic Anatomy	3 (2 – 3)
Neuroscience	4 (3 – 3)
Physiology	5 (4 – 3)
Veterinary Integrated Problem Solving	1 (0 – 2)
Total Credits:	17 (10 – 20)

Spring – Third Quarter – 4/1 through 6/14

Class	Credit Hours (lecture - lab):
Gross Anatomy	4 (1 – 9)
Physiology	4 (3 – 3)
Immunology	5 (4 – 2)
Pathology	5 (4 – 3)
Veterinary Integrated Problem Solving	1 (0 – 2)
Total Credits:	19 (12 – 19)

The classes that I’m most excited for are Gross Anatomy, mostly because I love dissecting things, and Introduction to Animal Care, because I’m looking forward to learning the practical side of being a veterinarian in addition to the science-side, which I feel like I’ve already been working on for years.  Neuroscience sounds daunting, mostly because I remember trying to memorize only a small amount of nerves and whatnot in the nervous system when I took physiology last spring, and I’m sure this class is going to be much more in-depth. 

On another note:  Derek, the sweetest, best boyfriend in the world, put his programming skills to use and preemptively made me a study program called “Study Time.”  Some of you may remember using a very similar program (that he also made) to study structures in Mammalogy – this one is basically an updated, more reliable version of that one.  This is what it looks like:

It’ll be incredibly useful for studying structures like bones and muscles while I’m taking anatomy.  It’s super nice because, while I already have a favorite flash-card program that I love to study with (www.studyblue.com) they don’t really fill this niche of studying.  All I have to do is take a picture of whatever muscle group I’m studying, load it into the program, edit it however I want, and then study to my heart’s desire.  Derek even made his own file-type (.stf) for the program – most of you may not understand that much, but he’s really excited about it!  I also made the icon for the program:

Guess who I based it off of?  :)

If you are interested in using Derek's program, too, you can download by going here:  http://code.google.com/p/study-time/ and clicking the "Downloads" tab up top!