Rather than the short lived threads that are typical of the Study Hall, I thought it'd be interesting to see if we can get a perpetual thread going.

What did you study in class today? What kind of homework do you have today?

Did you pay attention in class? Were you bored, sick, hungry, really engaged? Were many student absent? Does the prof re-wear the same clothes a lot? How well did the prof do teaching today? Was it all lecture? Was it more interactive? Was there group work involved?

8/17/2010 2:48:31 AM

starts tomorrow

8/17/2010 8:59:17 PM

First class was nice and short. Went over the syllabus and that is about it. The prof seemed nice, has a very positive attitude, but has a lot of work in store for us this semester. He made a lot of jokes, including making fun of his weight (although he's not that large), I've experienced a lot of profs make self deprecating jokes about their age, but not so much with weight. He reminds me a little of Andy Richter in appearance and attitude.

I'm not sure about his speaking style yet, but he didn't really get into any real lecturing yet so its hard to judge. Only 16 ppl in the class.. I haven't had a class this small in a while so that should be fun.

8/18/2010 10:15:52 PM

Syllabus-y.

8/19/2010 12:09:42 AM

^you're still in school?

yesterday sucked went for no reason

I'm AstralAdvent and i approved this message.

8/19/2010 9:14:50 AM

first day of actual work in MA425. Nothing over my head yet, but it did tell me I need to practice on my proof writing more.

8/19/2010 11:48:44 AM

Yesterday I had Genetics in Medicine and Intro to Genetic Counseling... I LOVEEEDDDDD them both

In Gen in Med, we talked about dysmorphology and different genetic disorders. Also went over basic things like major and minor anomalies. And we got out assignments for the clinics we have our projects in - I have the dental clinic which I think will be really interesting. If for some reason they don't have enough patients (since I think it's the first clinic like this) I'll be moving to the Marfan's Syndrome clinic.

Intro to GC was basically what the name says - but it's very discussion based and I loved that aspect. Plus, our director is awesome

Today I have Advanced Medical Genetics (had that on Tuesday as well) and Journal Club... Adv Med Gen is kind of intimidating, and I don't know what to expect from Journal Club.


But so far, I love grad school

8/19/2010 1:03:09 PM

today...

toxicology: continued to learn about different methods to treat toxin exposures.

special species medicine: learned about how to appropriately restrain/dart large animals.

small animal medicine: discussed a rather interesting case of heart failure due to (presumably) HCM that caused rupture of the thoracic duct. followed 8months after initial presentation with a saddle thrombus due to his hypercoaguable state.

equine medicine: gastric ulcer causes/treatment and causes/treatment of choke

health, maintenance and animal production: how chickens get processed. quite disturbing honestly.

all classes thus far this semester (which has been a week) have been pretty interesting. finally getting to case based stuff instead of all the background physiology/pathophysiology. i feel much more doctorly.

8/19/2010 7:51:28 PM

My most recent class just felt like 3 hours of filler. I hope that was just a 1 time thing.

8/20/2010 9:19:00 PM

Quote :

"first day of actual work in MA425. Nothing over my head yet, but it did tell me I need to practice on my proof writing more. "

Who do you have?

8/21/2010 8:10:50 AM

My P Chem prof is in Australia so the TA is teaching the class right now. I got there a little early cuz i had just had a class in the same building(Dabney). The TA tells the 5 or so of us to act natural when class starts. So the class gets in and the TA starts the lecture....

with some high level electrochemical stuff that looked kind of familiar(it was based on Maxwell's equations) but was far beyond anything I had ever seen. Then he asks what we should do next....

and some guy genius who came in after the TA told us what was going on raises his hand and answers the question. So by now roughly 90% of the class is mortified, lost, and looking around nervously when the TA explains whats going on. There was an audible sigh of relief.

[Edited on August 21, 2010 at 11:35 AM. Reason : ]

[Edited on August 21, 2010 at 11:37 AM. Reason : n]

8/21/2010 11:33:54 AM

I really loved class today In Genetics in Medicine we went over genetic skin disorders.. I never realized how much they interested me until this presentation. (We also went over the neurofibromatoses and tuberous sclerosis complex but I liked the skin part better )

Then in Intro to GC we went over eugenics, as well as over the NCAA controversy about testing for the sickle cell trait... very interesting stuff.

On Friday I have my first clinic experience, in the dental clinic

8/25/2010 7:36:29 PM

Damn samwise that sounds cool as hell

I'm jealous.

8/26/2010 1:03:31 AM

Apply!! UAB has a great program... of course I'm biased, but it's similar to USC, UNCG... Try it out

8/26/2010 1:43:13 AM

Maybe in a few years...I'm not quite ready for that yet.

8/26/2010 11:32:27 AM

Class let out a little early yesterday... I was happily surprised to have that happen not during the first week even if its the last time that will happen for a while.

8/26/2010 3:59:43 PM

My 3 hour wednesday night class got out early by almost 2 hours, but a lwayer is teaching it so I don't think he cares about teaching much.

8/26/2010 11:12:59 PM

No class today... But I will be in dental clinic I'm excited because genetic dental disorders aren't typically thought of in GC

8/27/2010 9:34:55 AM

dicked off all week, had to stay up till 5am finishing homework, now working 8 hours.

i'll TELL you how class was today....

not bad if i get an a on the homework

8/27/2010 1:13:47 PM

I finished analyzing my first crazy pedigree



61 individuals in it... blah

8/31/2010 1:23:30 PM

sex-limited autosomal dominant...sounds kinky

8/31/2010 1:54:49 PM

unless you consider, for example, precious puberty to be kinky, not really

8/31/2010 11:01:29 PM

wtf is this?

9/1/2010 8:28:06 AM

Yesterday was pretty good. Its probably my favorite class this semester. The subject material is really interesting.

But we have group projects and everyone in class was tasked with coming up with their own project. And then the class voted to pick which projects to do. My project idea made it to the last round of voting but not to the end so I was a little disappointed in that since it took a few hours of leg work to set this up and since it was an interesting choice. My second favorite choice survived though.

9/1/2010 5:56:29 PM

https://www.blogger.com/start

9/1/2010 6:09:02 PM

stresses and strains

9/1/2010 10:17:30 PM

same as yesterday.

9/2/2010 8:54:17 AM

For my last class the prof (a new prof here I might add) decided to review the homework she had assigned for the last week in class, and then go over this weeks material, not realizing the amount of homework she had assigned would take more time than the entire 3 hour class period.

Near the end of class she threatened to stand in front of the door and not let anyone out until we were done. Some students were saying they had jobs in the morning and they were leaving regardless. Its the most conflict I've seen between students & a teacher since high school (& this is a graduate course mind you). By skipping over some parts of questions we ended up basically covering most of the homework by the end and covered no new material.

9/5/2010 12:02:18 AM

Close to 4 hours of class today and I just spent almost 4 hours on a take home exam... that I'm not even done with. Now I get to take a break to read two articles for tomorrow. Please shoot me.

9/9/2010 12:14:19 AM

I have to present tomorrow. I prefer to present at the beginning, get it out of the way. But I've had this prof before, and I know it'll be the very end of class. That way I can focus on what I'm planning to say the whole time and entirely ignore the days lecture.

9/28/2010 1:25:22 AM

Feelin' sick. It's 67 F in my apartment and yet I feel pretty hot. I didn't go to Ethics and I missed the GOD DAMNED QUIZ! There goes 5% of my grade. Now I get to plead with the teacher about excusing it, which I doubt he will, as he's a bit of a hard ass.

9/28/2010 3:45:06 PM

For my most recent class the professor seems to change the syllabus after every 2 to 3 classes in terms of when assignments are due, what kinds of assignments we are doing, and when we are holding class. I can barely keep up with what is do when, and I no longer have any idea how my grade will be calculated... assuming we still even have grades & don't switch over to a slimy faces & check marks system by the end.

10/3/2010 6:59:13 PM

I'm torn. My prof is going to Egypt for a while, and having some TA or someone administer his midterm, so any midterm related questions have to be asked over a week before the exam... and the only way to have insightful questions is to actually do some in depth studying by that point. But I can't bring myself to study for an exam that early.

Oh well, I'll probably just roll the dice on this one, and change up for the final if I don't do so well on the midterm.

10/6/2010 3:37:00 PM

first class was funny today...

10/10/2010 10:07:19 AM

Got back my midterm today. This prof has a teaching style different than many others, and the grading criteria for the test beforehand was somewhat unclear. I had been considering taking another class with this professor, but I wanted some kind of grade feedback before making that decision. Now, I think I will take that next class w/ the same prof.

[Edited on October 27, 2010 at 11:48 PM. Reason : .]

10/27/2010 11:47:23 PM

First class we went over speech and language, then hearing disorders and how genetics play a role. Second class, we had an assignment where we had to write out how we would explain a bunch of different genetic concepts to a patient. Some were easier than other, like autosomal dominant/recessive and x-linked recessive... but I guess I never realized how hard it would be to put all these genetic terms and concepts into a way someone with a basic high school level of genetics could understand. And we have to think of words that we use on a day to day basis that might piss of patients or make them feel bad (i.e., using the term "gene change" instead of "genetic mutation").

Anyway, if anyone who only has a basic background in genetics (like you had some genetics in high school biology or a basic college bio class) and want to read my explanations to tell me they make sense, it would be insightful. (I already turned it in by the way, so it's really just for my benefit.)

11/3/2010 6:22:56 PM

Class felt so long last time. First we had a review for comprehensive exams. The only one that we're going to have, and I was pretty sick (& unable to sleep the night before) so I could barely stay awake, let alone concentrate on the material. Then going to a 3 hour class right after that 3 hour review session sucked.

And my graduate plan of work (basically you can to copy and paste your graduate transcript from one section inside mypackportal to another section inside mypackportal to prove you've taken classes) was rejected. Well first, I was unable to submit it and had to talk to 6 or 7 different people to straighten the bugs out. Then I submitted it and it was rejected saying I had never taken a class in undergrad that was a pre-req to entering the program, despite the fact that I have taken said class, and that it is on my transcript.

The bureaucracy involved was infuriating. They just want you to look at your transcript and slowly use that to rebuild your transcript one class a time. Its so completely pointless. They have access to your transcript already, so they can easily check to see if you've done the required classes.

I had not planned this thing taking so many hours, and I was unable to complete some class assignments that I had planned because of this redundant and broken system. I finally made them look at my transcript to see that I've taken the needed pre-req course. And they asked me to resubmit my previously rejected plan of work exactly as is, and that they'd approve it this time.

The date they originally said they wanted the plans of work approved by is Nov 7th. As of this time it is still pending because they haven't approved it yet like they said they would, and I don't expect them to do their part in time.

11/6/2010 10:11:14 PM

^ That sucks and it sucks you guys have comps... I've heard those are a bitch

11/7/2010 6:21:52 PM

About to take my last final of the semester in less than an hour. I feel much less prepared for this one than the other ones I've already taken, and not for a lack of studying. I think I did alright on the other 2 finals though, and I have both of those professors for courses again next semester.

Not getting much of a break though. My summer internship for this program called me in tomorrow. I told them if there ever really need that I'm still nearby and glad to help. Turns out they believed me. Then comes Comprehensive Exam review sessions on the 3rd and 4th, and Comps a few days later, and the start of the next semester a few days later.

12/16/2010 5:22:26 PM

All my classes this semester are one day a week, 3 hours each... I'm still not sure how I feel about this.

Anyway, it is way hard to concentrate today

1/4/2011 4:02:49 PM