The semester ended over a week ago, and just as soon as I was beginning to forget the names of the classes I took this semester, my email inbox is filling up with eerie reminders to check online to see that a grade has been posted.
Of course, by the end of the semester I had a pretty decent idea about what my final grades were going to be. I generally fared better in classes that had three or more exams/quizzes throughout the semester, whereas classes that relied solely on a fifty-question multiple-choice exam tended to go…not as well as I would have hoped.
I know I’m not alone in saying that sometimes no matter how hard you might study or try to prepare for an exam, there are simply some tests that throw you for a loop. If you have ever left an exam saying “how could they have asked THAT question?” then you probably understand where I am coming from.
Perhaps in undergrad I was a little more “laissez-faire” when it came to preparing for exams, but in veterinary school I find myself quite disgruntled when exams do not go the way I would like. I put a lot of effort (nearly all my effort) into doing well in school, and when it does not meet my expectations I am justifiably upset.
Yet today, after meeting up with one of my mentors for the past few years, I am reminded that in a few years these grades will not matter at all. I will be judged, at least in the fairest sense, based on my clinical competency and ability to practice veterinary medicine with actual patients.
When I have clients come to my practice when I am a veterinarian, it will not be because of my grade point average, but how well I give their pet the quality of care it deserves. And that, to me, is what it is all about!
