The Final Countdown

It's been a wild ride, packed with drug names, coffee, and late nights with new friends. I'm looking forward to a nice break, but I'll definitely be missing NoLa. I hope everyone has a happy holiday season!

Community Service Hours:

Habitat for Humanity - 8 hours

KIPP's Leadership Primary - 8 hours

MCAT Tutoring for Jaime White (per Dr. Beckman's request) - 15 hours

Total: 31 hours

Lab Techniques 101

I have always struggled to understand laboratory procedures. Throughout my undergraduate career as a biology major, I dreaded attending lab. I felt as though the relevant background information was never provided. I would blindly trudge along following a list of steps without any idea as to what I was doing. As a person obsessed with understanding the why behind everything I do, it was a frustrating and disheartening experience.

Admittedly, I was not excited to begin the Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology class. I figured that it would be overly dry and resemble what I had come to expect from lab courses in college. However, I was pleasantly surprised. All of the techniques that I had heard of such as Western blotting, Southern blotting, and SDS-PAGE were explained in depth. When I taught MCAT for Kaplan, explaining organic chemistry and biology laboratory techniques was a struggle. I often found that my students were more knowledgeable in this area than I was. I am considering teaching following this pharmacology program before attending medical school. I am enthusiastic to incorporate my newfound expertise into my teaching.

It was especially helpful to learn about the practical applications of these laboratory techniques. My students would frequently question me and I typically could only provide satisfactory responses. Without clear context, it was a challenge to motivate my students to study this MCAT material. In addition, I can explain why a particular technique is preferential to another, which was problematic in the past. All in all, I've come to appreciate and enjoy the Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology class and am looking forward to the electives for next semester.

Improved Study Techniques

For the last few months, I've been struggling to determine the perfect study method. My initial strategy was to read and reread texts, drug names and their descriptions to memorize them. That quickly proved inefficient. I adopted a new approach which included discussing content with peers. Although I enjoyed the social interaction and definitely felt like the material became more ingrained in mind, I ran into a few challenges. Studying with others was frequently ineffective unless my peers were equally in the zone and at the same point in their test preparation. In addition, I noticed that I would review material and find that my memory still failed me a few days later. I incorporated mnemonic devices, but realized that keeping my mnemonics straight was more frustrating than memorizing the drugs as they are. Mnemonics also added an additional step to the recollection process, which produced a lag time when I was asked questions. Fortunately, I have finally landed on a study strategy that works, both during class sessions and on my own. I write down every question that the professor asks and every question that I can think of during the lessons and when I watch the recordings. The question writing process is ongoing. For review, I ask myself each question from the growing list and answer it out loud. In this way, I am able to memorize nearly everything and feel well-prepared for both the exams and any offhanded question that I am presented with. Anyone who is considering a new approach to studying should give this a shot!

MCAT Tutoring Take Two

When I arrived in New Orleans, I had no idea what to expect. I had been living in MCAT world for about two years as a full-time Kaplan instructor and was enthusiastic to further my education. Admittedly, I was a little upset to be leaving my teaching career behind as I've always loved to teach. I had hoped that after settling in, I could incorporate teaching into my life in a lesser capacity. Fortunately, in early September, I was confronted with a wonderful opportunity. A prospective medical student was introduced to me by Dr. Beckman to tutor for the MCAT. It was a challenging case as the student only had two weeks to prepare for her exam. We worked together to create an aggressive study schedule, addressing all of the core sciences and implementing a comprehensive verbal reasoning program. The process was exciting! I found myself integrating my newfound knowledge of pharmacology with my MCAT background. Besides the satisfaction of teaching, I found the process infinitely more enjoyable because of my student's outgoing and amiable personality. She took me out to lunch and introduced me to pho, which I'm now convinced is a panacea. I had been fighting a cold for weeks and I could have sworn that the soup cured me. We spent hours together taking turns teaching, joking about life, and discussing New Orleans. It was my first encounter with a person who truly knows New Orleans and I cannot wait for many more.