The Patient

Things have been a little crazy lately, especially last week. I noticed last weekend that my cat was acting a littl funny and seemed to be a little protective of his back end. When I looked at it Sunday night I noticed an area that looked as if he has licked the hair off. It looked a little sore but not too bad. When I got home Monday night I looked again and this time I saw puss everywhere. Great, off to the vet we go. He had what looked like a huge abscess on the left side of his butt under his tail.  It was pretty bad.  The vet decided to put him under to clean up the wound and really see what was going on.  She called when she was done and explained what she did and said that it was possible his anal gland ruptured. So I brought him home the next morning doped up with a nice new shiny clinic collar on his head. :o)  It was kinda funny to watch him walk around with it on for the first time.  I felt bad for laughing, but I was glad he was home and he was ok.  He is doing much better and is just about healed up.  The stitches come out this weekend along with the cone of shame.  he he he.  I'm sure he'll be so happy when that day comes.  

Bubbs waiting for the vet.

 Cone baby

MCAT Practice

Well I took the practice test last saturday and ... I scored higher than what I was scoring last year! Yay! I took practice test 10, which is supposed to be the hardest one according to the majority. I like the practice tests because you can review all the questions and mark why you got a question wrong. For example, I missed a few of the physics questions dealing with frequency because I forgot the simple equation and haven't reviewed it yet, so I marked that question as "not familiar with material" or something like that. It then totals up all the reasons for getting a question wrong so you have an idea of where your weaknesses are. I had quite a few material stuff, again mainly with physics (surprise, surprise) and some questions were just bad test taking. I like knowing where I stand and what I'm doing wrong. I also like knowing I am scoring better. :o). I have two moew tests
expiring next month, so I will be taking another test next sat and the sat after that. Let's hope this upward trend continues! I have more to talk about, but my computers down at the moment and posting from my phone is cool, but a pain to type on. :o)

More MCAT talk and a new practice test.

So I've been doing a lot of practice problems using The Berkeley Review (TBR) books for everything except bio, for which I use ExamKrackers. I find myself doing really well on most of the passages, but there are always one or two that I do bad on.  It seems like no matter what I do I can't break the 60-75% range.  It's rather frustrating, but  I was looking over some forums and found one that kinda made me feel a little better. I have heard that TBR passages are harder compared to the real thing, which is good I suppose, but I am still hoping that even if I can't get over the 60-75% TBR hump, I can at least get a 28-30 like BerkReview Teach says is typical.  I am taking my first full-length practice test next weekend, so I guess I'll see what sort of progress I've made since last year. And yes, it is early to take a full-length, but it expires the 23rd and I don't want to pay for it again.   

I also purchased the new full-length exam #11.  I haven't done any research on it to see what the difficulty is like.  I hear most people think that #10 is the hardest and #3, the free one, is the easiest.  If any of you have heard anything about it, let me know!

This past month flew by!

Sorry about not posting sooner, but  I can't believe how fast February went!  I remember getting flowers from Brad on Valentine's day and thinking I need to post pics of them, and the next thing I know it is March already!  It's been a pretty hectic month.  Brad has been home for the past month trying to figure out what is wrong with his shoulder, and finally had surgery on Monday.  They scoped him and found that he had a bad case of bursitis, so they cleaned up the inflammation and shaved a 1/2 inch off the end of his clavicle - everything else looked good. They sent him home the same day and is doing well, but pretty sore. Poor guy.

I have been slacking a bit in my studies this week, so I will really need to kick it up this weekend.  Last Sunday we came over to Wichita to watch a baseball game up in the sky box.  It was really foggy and the longer we were there, the closer and thicker it got.  Two innings in it started pouring rain and hailing!  We watched it for a bit, and another person I work with asked if we wanted to go watch the women's basketball game.  She had two free ticket vouchers, so we said why not. We went over and watched the Lady Shocks beat Drake, and Bo even caught a mini-basketball the cheerleaders threw into the crowd.  After the basketball game, we drove by the baseball field and they finally resumed the game, so went back up to the sky box and finished watching.  :o)  It was a pretty fun day - and it was all free!

I wanted to post some pictures of the really pretty flowers my honey got me for Valentine's day.  The pictures really don't do them justice, but here they are anyway.

More MCAT Stuff

I was perusing through the 30+ MCAT Study Habits thread looking for some study tips/advice/anything I could find to help, and came across this post that was just what I was looking for.
 I liked this post for many reasons:
- This person’s score wasn't something ridiculously high, it was something realistically obtainable – for me.  Most of the posters have a high scores, 35+ - that’s why it’s called “30+”, but I know it is not possible for me to score that high.  I don’t have that kind of time to put towards studying.
- I think the strategy is a good one for me.  “ … a mistake I made the first time around, I focused way too much on studying content than doing practice problems.”  I think I made this same mistake.  I spent all my time reading and trying to understand the concepts, but not “practicing”. It’s kind of like I was reading a book on how to swim, but not getting in the water…so I drowned.
- I really like the idea of using the Tip Books.  I think I am going to use them along with note cards.  I’ll put the concepts I am having trouble with on the cards so I know what I need to read up on, and then the Tip Books for review.
- I also like the idea of waking up and doing a full-length verbal in the morning, followed by physical/biological review.  I just have to figure out a way to fit it in since I work 8-5.
I’m going to give these ideas a try and see where it gets me.   

Snow days

I'm sure that everyone knows about the bad weather we had the past week, considering the almost the whole country was affected. We didn't get much snow, but we got some really low temps (at least for this area).  My sister said they were down to -58F! I'll take our -20F any day!    Well, because of the weather they closed the office for a couple of days and this is what I did to keep myself preoccupied (and to avoid studying for the MCAT).  I crocheted.  and crocheted. and crocheted.  I made a few more flowers for the afghan I'm working on -  I think I only have three left to make, plus the border then I'm done!.  I also made a hat, a cat toy and two wine bottle carriers.  I had some left over yarn and I saw these patterns and just had to try them out.  They were quick and real easy.  (I found the patterns on the Lion Brand website.)  I also found so many cute afghan patterns that I would love to try out.  I think when I'm done with the two I am working on I will make one from all the left over yarn I have.  It should be pretty colorful.  :o)

Physics...

Will be the death of me yet again.  Last night was night one of my MCAT studies part deux.  The first book to read is physics and of course this happens to be my worst subject.  I read the first chapter and tried to get through the questions, but it was already 10 pm and I was tired.  I also picked the wrong answer to the first two questions, and I decided that I better quit while I was ahead.  My biggest problem is remembering the equations and figuring out which equation to use for each problem.  Math is really not my best subject so I am really slow to figure it all out - and it sucks.  Big time.  I have heard a few people talk about the Khan Academy and WikiPremed MCAT Course websites, so I might give them a try. I'm not going to devote too much time to physics, but I figure a little extra won't hurt.  I know I am not alone in this battle with physics, and if anyone has any great tips/pointers/websites, feel free to pass along.  :o)