some of my recent views and a quick review for the first 7 days of july!
I ran my first ever 5k (43:38 minutes!!) and i'm very proud regardless of pace :)
this also marks 5 weeks since starting running!!!
completed a historical background and two paragraphs of intro for my thesis (up to 700 words!)
went on a 3 hour hike with a friend to see ladybugs and go bird watching
since it was a holiday weekend, I took a break from studying to spend time with family and friends, so I get to jump back into it!
also submitted a poem for a poetry magazine!
also it came to my attention that Forest, the app I use to track study time, no longer has a referral code feature. I'm gonna work it out, but if anyone is interested in studying in real time with me, or having a study group to do some parallel play, I've been looking into Flora! That way we can have a study group, track study time, and keep one another focused and accountable :)
anyway, gentle reminder that accomplishing something, no matter the time taken, will always be an achievement worth celebrating.
Alright everyone, it's officially time for the.... Drumroll please...
Also known as me being real about studying time, goals, and performance from when I started tracking (June 17) :P
Accounting for eating and sleeping, the average time left over from June 17 through June 30 is 195 hours. Let's see how that shook out:
It's looking like most of my time was free! Sweet! But for the time that wasn't, let's look at some of our top contenders:
Part-Time Job (41 hours total)
a girl's gotta work! 41 hours, mostly consisting of 9-10hour shifts during the weekends.
Summer Class (Physics II / 26 hours total)
This period included two tests among other homework and 18 hours of lecture + lab. Test scores were a nice middle of the road, averaging an 81%.
MCAT Studying (12 hours total)
Anki
Average Time Spent: 3minutes/day
Days Missed: 5
Longest time spent: 22.61 minutes on June 29 with 251 total flashcards reviewed.
2. Jack Westin
This was the first month of doing daily passages. Let's see how we did:
The TOTAL % Correct trendline came out to be y= 0.015x + 0.521 ! This means that overall, we saw a 1.5% improvement in performance doing Jack Westin daily MCAT passages each day.
Some key points:
The PSYCH/SOC % category had relatively low passage frequency, indicate by the breaks and dots in the hot pink line.
There were three 100s! Two for CARS and one in CHEM. Woohoo! 🎉🎉
The average performance over all counting all data points was approximately 61% correct. Plenty of room to improve!
How about Hobbies?
everything that was funky, fun, and most importantly, not academic!
Reading (26 hours total)
Books finished:
Mistborn: Book 1 of the Mistborn Trilogy ✅
The Well of Ascension: Book 2 of the Mistborn Trilogy ✅
Time with Friends (16 hours total)
played some DnD, some video games, or just simply hung out :)
Clinical Volunteering (7.5 hours total)
Went to volunteer orientation!
Began work at a sleep disorder lab to get my first clinical hours!
Lab Work (6 hours total)
Drafted, edited, finished, and submitted a final report for an independent, grant-funded research project I completed in May! (word count: 1053, figures: 3)
Running (3.5 hours total)
Starting a brand new hobby is always hard. But it's important to make time for progress!
total distance: 15.5 mi (25 km) 💨
Thank you guys for reading and joining me in studying, testing, and making a work-life balance possible in June! Look forward to the July Review too!
As always, make time for yourself to rest. Hang out with those you love every once in a while. Progress is progress no matter how small.
I have an extraordinarily hard time taking a break. I'm always in a preparative state, needing to be productive rather than letting myself breathe. Today, on a rare day with no class, no work, and not even homework or a test to study for, I read ~100 pages of Well of Ascension, made a hot matcha latte, and went on a walk outside to feel the sun.
To be fair, I also sent off a couple cold emails to PIs I've never met for grad school (eeeeek!) and I'm going shopping for a new planner to get organized with deadlines and responsibilities BUT I took time for myself.
When you have the opportunity for rest, you have to take it. Rest your mind, stretch your body, go on a walk, do something you love.
Rest takes just as much discipline as work sometimes, but the hard things are always worth it!!
Made it to 1.2k words on my thesis! Started thinking through how I'll present! ✅
Read ~400 pages of Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson :O
Yet to do this week:
10.5 hours of my part-time job
3.5 hours of clinical volunteering
Also planning on going to a local festival after work!
If you'd like to study with me, you can find me on the Flora study app @saltycitations !! You'll be able to keep up with me studying and I think there'll be a real time study room update soon! Otherwise my DMs and/or asks are always open :)
today I officially checked a box stating I graduate with my bachelor's in cellular and molecular biology this fall!! it feels so surreal (and way too real at the same time)
one step closer to becoming grace in project hail mary lol
