Prioritization helps keep workload tolerable
The other day while studying, I did something very uncharacteristic. I was carefully reading my notes when I came across some information that there was a chance of being tested on, but seemed clinically irrelevant to me as a practitioner in less than three years. So I did what my undergrad never really allowed me to do: I skipped it — glanced at, scrolled over, straight out ignored.
While this simple action is by no means earth-shattering to the average person, it felt revolutionary for me as an over-analyzing, uncompromising individual whose dream career depends on unrealistically high grades. Indeed, admission to professional programs such as the Ontario Veterinary College’s (OVC) Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program is based heavily on academic performance. The expectation of consistently high marks takes its toll often before vet school even starts, and is not an easy pressure to shake over the course of the program’s four long years.
A lot of the things I’ve found myself needing to learn since starting vet school have little to do with curricular material. Study habits, scholastic goals, and the concept of work-life balance must all be redefined to survive this program with a semblance of sanity. There is absolutely no regret about my choice of profession or reduction in my drive to be successful, but a change in perspective is essentially required to achieve success.
As an intended mixed-animal practitioner, I think I have my work cut out for me. The species I desire to work with include (but are not limited to) equines, cows, pigs, sheep and goats, cats and dogs, pocket pets, and hopefully a little bit of wildlife. It’s great that in some capacity or another the OVC curriculum touches on these animals (some more than others, of course). Yet the reality remains that in a world where specialization is increasingly common, my hopeful career path involves the challenge of fitting a significant amount of information into my significantly finite brain.
So, what is a James Herriot-hopeful to do? (Note: For non-vets, Herriot is basically the J. K. Rowling of the vet world.) Well for starters, I’ve been working hard at reminding myself that the information in our weekly Monday morning tests and the information I need to be a competent veterinarian are not necessarily the same thing (yes, a test every Monday — sometimes two!). More than a criticism of OVC’s programming, this thought process is an active effort to avoid falling into the “I should be studying at all times” trap in which so many students tend to find themselves. After all, the deepest learning in my life so far has seldom occurred within the confines of a lecture hall.
Typing this final paragraph, I grumble about setting the morning’s early alarm. Yet in three short years, I could be waking up for an emergency call, and that frightens (and motivates) me more than tomorrow’s virology test ever could. Rather than cram some last-minute studying in, I think I might just shower and go to bed.
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