Hell Week - Day Four

Couldn't fall asleep last night. Geh. I laid in bed, going over the EMT test in my head, wondering if I should have chosen different answers and so forth. It was after 1:00 a.m. before I fell asleep, then I woke up at 3:00 and 5:00 long enough to look at the clock. All in all, not a good night.

Needless to say, Microbiology lecture this morning was kind of a blur, but I managed to tape the lecture (well, digitize it on a portable digital voice recorder) so I'll go over it later and double check my notes.

One piece of good news did manage to filter through my hazy, coffee-deprived brain though: the Micro exam that was scheduled for Monday has been postponed to (probably) Friday of next week. That's great to hear, but it also means the instructor isn't finished lecturing for another two or three sessions. Oh well, it certainly helps my weekend.

This means I only have to get through the A&P exam tomorrow, then I can study all week for Micro. Looks like Hell Week is going to be Hell Five-Day-Workweek Week. :)

Hell Week - Day Three (addendum)

The written State EMT exam went well enough. It was a 100 question multiple choice test, with a required 70% to pass. As I took the test, I kept tally marks (on scratch paper) for each question I was sure of, and wrote down question numbers I was iffy on. But the end of the test, I had 78 tally marks (78%), so I'm sure I passed. Out of the remaining 22, I went over them a second time but only changed two answers. Many of them I'm pretty sure of; on a couple I just narrowed it down and guessed. Best estimate, I probably hit around 80% or so, which is fine by me.

Tonight I'm feeling awfully beat up from the last few days. I'll spend most of tomorrow studying for the A&P exam on Saturday morning, then study through the rest of the weekend for the Micro exam on Monday.

I'll sleep on Tuesday.

No, really.

Hell Week - Day Three

You know, there's something about mornings that I'm starting to kind of enjoy. I guess it's the only time of day I'm not stressed and tired, and there's a sort of blank-slate nature about the whole day around this time. Today's a little different, though, since I'm still vacillating about what I really should be studying.

The State EMT written is tonight; I'm pretty confident I can breeze through the test without too much trouble, but there's a nagging part of me that wants to be overprepared. Still, the A&P test on Saturday is really my main concern at the moment. I'll probably lug all my books to the college today (they weigh about 400 lbs. each) and try to squeeze in some study time if I'm not too busy tutoring this afternoon. (Did I mention I tutor math and biology about 12 hours a week?)

Anyway, depending on how the test goes tonight and how tired I am, I might try to post an update. I won't know the actual results of the test for a few weeks, but I can probably give an estimate or a gut feeling when I'm done. Hope it's a good one.

Hell Week - Day Two

Today's Microbiology lab exam went well, I think. There weren't any questions that I didn't have an answer for - whether my answers are right or not remains to be seen!

My big problem now is trying to decide what to study next. My EMT written test is tomorrow, but I know that material pretty well, I think. I'm less confident of my A&P info (for Saturday's test) and for the Micro exam on Monday, so I really should be studying one of those. I dunno, maybe it's time to just glance at each of them for a few minutes, and then call it a night. I can always do a little last-minute reviewing tomorrow after school.

On a sort of unrelated note: My Microbiology instructor told me my drawings of microbes looked like his granddaughter's drawings. Hrmph! (Eh, who am I kidding; he's probably right).

Hell Week - Day One (addendum)

I passed both the medical and trauma practical assessments of the State EMT exam tonight.

I'm celebrating inside, considering I'm just too stinkin' tired to celebrate for real. :)

Hell Week - Day One

The first of my EMT tests is tonight (in about an hour and a half). It's the practical portion of the testing, which requires me to partner up with a randomly selected classmate and go through patient assessment, intervention, and transport for both trauma and medical situations. It's like Live-Action RolePlaying an emergency scenario, so hopefully 25 years of gaming will be to my benefit. Hope I get a good partner. I'll have the results tonight, and try to post them ASAP.

Tomorrow (Hell Week - Day Two) is my Microbiology lab exam; Thursday is the written portion of the State EMT exam (assuming I pass tonight's practical exams). Saturday is my first A&P exam and Monday is the Microbiology lecture exam.

Five tests. Seven days. No surrender.

(I'll sleep on Tuesday).

The Lukewarm Zone

Played with Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus in the lab yesterday. Now, the E. coli wasn't H157:O7 - the really nasty kind - but the Staph was, indeed, pathogenic. Nothing like culturing disease-causing organisms to make a guy wash his hands obsessively.

Fistful o' Miscellany

1. I caught a cold, feel like crap. I kept saying I could handle this workload so long as I didn't get sick. Now I get to test my theory.

2. I botched my last EMT test (Pediatrics - bah, kids!) and scored only a 78% (see also #1 above for more explanation). This leaves me with a 91% average and one more test to go. I only need an 80% to pass the class, but since it's 8 credits I'd really like to pull an A out of it for my GPA's sake. Next test (Ambulance Operation, Extrication and Rescue, Special Operation) is Thursday. State exams are in two weeks.

3. Looks like Godlike: Operation Torch may see print after all. Heard from Shane Ivey last week and it looks like the project - long shelved - is now moving again. More as I know more.

4. Might be doing some fiction for Goldleaf Games. This is still very preliminary, but in talking to them recently, it seems I'm one of three writers they're considering for the slot. Again, more later as I find out more.

School Update

I should have posted this a week ago, but it's been hectic getting through the transition from Winter to Spring term. The long and the short of it looks good, but Spring promises to be busy as usual.

I finished up Winter term (21 credits worth) with a 4.0, and am pulling a 94% average in my EMT class (which doesn't finish for another four weeks). Of course, I only slept about twenty minutes a night. :)

For Spring term I managed to get into both Microbiology and Anatomy/Physiology, though I had to enroll at two colleges to do it. So I'll be carrying 12 credits locally, 5 credits at another college about an hour away, and 8 more for the remainder of the EMT class. Also slated to tutor about 10 hours a week at the college (Biology, Math, and Writing).

Piece of cake . . .