Amanda Millatt
As a freshman I didn’t have any prior knowledge about college. I came to Colby College with an open mind and more importantly attentive listening skills. I would bombard my upperclassmen friends with questions ranging from the most interesting classes to when the best time to get lunch is. My most pressing questions were always about Jan Plan. This one-month course of study was not available at many other schools and was not discussed often on college online forums. This meant that all throughout December I asked my friends who participated in Jan Plan last year about their experiences. I continued to receive the same answers; easy, relaxed, GPA booster, etc. I was convinced that every Jan Plan class would be a breeze. That thought motivated me to select human anatomy and physiology as my number one choice. I always loved knowing facts and concepts about the human body. Then when I found out that I was placed into the class I was extremely excited because I would be learning about a topic that I find fascinating and have a break from the heavy course load that I experienced last semester. However, I found out the first day of class that I was incorrect.
The first day of class started with an explanation of the syllabus as usual. My professor informed us that his expectation for the class was not for us to learn all the information, but to try our best at each task. Then he processed to inform our class of 25 students about the layout of our short semester. We were told that we would have a quiz everyday about material learned the day before in lecture, a group project worth 25% of our grade, a lab exam every week and various activates due online. I was shocked, but the next bit of information made me speechless. The registrar had recorded that each class would only be three hours, but our professor informed us that the class was actually four hours. Within the first hour of class I was determined to drop it. I had thought that I would get to sleep in late, study for a minimal amount of time and read non-academic books. My preconceived notion about this anatomy and physiology class left me confused and upset. I was not the only person with this mindset; about five other students dropped the class. I went home after class with one question on my mind; should I drop this class or challenge myself?
I decided that my love for the human anatomy outweighed my craving for sleep. The first week was horrible, but I managed to get through it. My daily routine was a 9:00 AM hour and half of anatomy and two hours of physiology till 12:00 PM from Monday through Wednesday. After class I was very unproductive, in fact I did not begin studying until about 10 pm. I knew the lab exam was on Thursday, however I did not start studying till the night before. I did atrocious on all of the physiology quizzes and failed my first lab exam. I was ashamed and disappointed in my performance for this class. I collected my thoughts and made a game plan for success.
My second week of class was more of a success for me. Before each class I would print out the PowerPoint slides for both the lab and the lecture. This helped me take faster and clearer notes in class; I could also review the slides while eating breakfast. After class everyday, I would go straight to the lab to learn and review what we were taught in class for at least an hour. At the end of the week I felt confident because I had studied each structure more than five times. To confirm my knowledge of the anatomy I went to study for the test on the weekend before my Tuesday lab exam. I improved a tremendous amount on my second lab exam losing most of my points for spelling. Nonetheless I was still not meeting my expectations for my lecture quizzes, which meant that I needed to change my study habits.
On the third week of class, I continued to go to lab everyday after class and print out the slides before class. The only aspect I changed was how I went about studying for quizzes. I started to study the lecture slides at around 7 PM followed with a 40-minute nap. Then I woke up and studied each slide while listening to the recorded lecture. This really helped me understand the material and that week I did very well on my quizzes. I was finally proud with the amount of effort I was putting into the class.
My last week of class was one of the worst weeks because three major components of the class were due within a day of each other. We had a lab examine on Tuesday, so as usual I went to the lab twice over the weekend to review all the structures. Then all of Wednesday I had to study for the final lecture exam and prepare for my ground rounds presentation due on the same day (Thursday). That Thursday was over as soon as it arrived. I turned in my final exam and started breathing again. I immediately climbed into my bed and reflected on the past month.
I was proud of my academic growth. I had completely changed my study habits and gave the class my all. I was satisfied with my performance although I did not receive A’s on every assignment; I was just proud of myself for never giving up. I may not be the most intelligent student, but I am a hard working student. This course prepared me for my rigorous semester and medical school. I started human anatomy and physiology a motivated student and left the class a hard worker driven by the motivation to be successful. Thank you Professor Klepach for everything!