Well, today was the first day of my 2nd year here at NYUCD. Sadly, the first professor we had reminded us that we should have enjoyed the month long break we had, since it would be the last. Nothing like looking forward to non stop doom and gloom on the first day of school. I have to say, classes seemed worse today than they did at any point during D1. I guess I just wasn’t ready to go back, so it might take me a while to get into that groove.
I am really nervous about starting lab. The good news is that it is only once a week in the summer, the bad news is that it is about complex restorations and we have to do removable prosthodontics, which I hear are a real **** to do. Compounding the difficulty of the material is the fact that the instructor is much tougher than Dr. Bucklan. Oh how I long for the days of D1. Haha, never thought I would say that.
The other good news, is that we no longer have weekly quizzes in D2 and no more comprehensive science midterms and finals. Every class will just have its own midterm and final. I cant help but wonder what affect this will have on my grades and studying habits. The good thing about having the weekly quizzes, is that you can gauge how you are doing before the midterm and make improvements in your studying. Now we cant do that. Studying every week for a quiz also forced us to keep up with the work. Now we have a midterm date set far away from the current date, and it seems like there is no incentive to start studying. The procrastination that I had abandoned during D1 is slowly creeping back into my system. I must resist!
The other major news is that the class is now the D2 class plus the AP’s. To be honest, while I am sure they are nice people, I have no interest and probably will not make any real effort to get to know most of them, other than my lab neighbors. The saklad lecture hall is just too big, and there are so many new faces. Hell, I have not even met or spoken to many people in my D2 class yet, let alone the extra 100 AP’s. Maybe I will have a change in heart down the road, but right now, I am too comfortable with the group of people I have known for the past year to make any real effort in terms of making new friends.
Hi, I love your blog. I was wondering if you could comment on your studying techniques. Do you memorize right from PP, watch videos, etc. What’s the most efficient way to study for you?
Also, how many hours do you spend mon-thurs, fri and then sat and sunday studying?
Thanks,
Jacob
By: Jacob on July 7, 2009
at 10:06 pm
Hey,
Thanks for reading. What I do is type pretty much every piece of information a Professor gives, unless of course he digresses or provides an anecdote etc. The I pretty much just memorize all the notes I have. Some people can just read over and absorb info, I have to memorize. It sucks, but with the amount of info, it has worked pretty well actually.
Here is the thing, I am one of the people that goes to class. Most cases I dont need to watch video of the class because I was there. If you want to stay home, like 80% of the class, you can download the video of the class and take notes when you want. Either way you get the same information. I just feel like I learn better in the classroom, so to each his own. Some Professors have all the info on the ppt, you can tell because they just read from the screen, others have outlines and you have to fill in all the info from their lectures.
In terms of time studying, that depends on you as a student. If you want A’s, you will study almost daily and for a good portion of the day. Thats me. I have a friend content on C’s and he spends very little time studying but still passes and even gets B’s. You dont have to study hard to get B’s and C’s, you need to bust *** to get A’s though. Its all about what you want to get.
By: dentulous on July 7, 2009
at 11:09 pm