Sunday, May 31, 2009

Are You?


Actually, the question is, WERE you prepared for your final exam? Friday marked my last exam of year 2 of 5 (Final is relative). And the answer....I don't know. I'm not sure if the results of the final exam are posted yet. If they aren't posted before I leave DC, there is a good chance I won't know until I return to school in August. That is just how it goes in the world of graduate education. BYU (undergrad) posted exam results on a big screen, literally seconds after you walked out of the testing center. Right there in your face, no way of avoiding that stressful instant when you find the last four of your social security # on the screen and look one column to the right for the score. Now, I fumble my way to the front of the room to turn in my exam and days go by before the email appears in my Inbox reporting the class avg, etc and prompting me to login and check my score.

That is how most exams go in med school, but when it comes to the end of the year, I just don't take the time to log on and figure out what I scored--I'm onto bigger fish. I have no idea what I scored last yearon my final exams for my summer MBA courses. I have never even looked to see what my overall grade was for each class. What difference does it make? Is any doctor going to ask me what I got in Corporate Finance? I took the exam and what is done is done. Is my knowledge of Organizational Behavior dependent on me knowing my grade in econ 403? No. It is a liberating feeling to ignore the score. Empowering. It helps me believe that I am actually in school to earn an education instead of a transcript.

My fellow Americans, don't do it! Avoid those stressful moments of finding out your grade by never finding out. Be positive and believe that you did well. This is the freedom our founding fathers and people like Bob Marley were trying to help us achieve. Do it and you will feel this new sense of power, I promise...barring no emails show up from the dean reporting that you are on academic probation.

If you aren't taking tests at this point in your life, find some kind of reporting process at work that you can avoid. If you aren't taking tests and you aren't working, identify some form of feedback you receive and ignore it!

Yeah, a policy like this probably doesn't reflect kindly on my comprehension of organizational behavior. Hmmm.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Spring Happens Outside of the Hospital

Lilac Festival, Rochester '09






The Remains of a Saturday Trip to the Market









The spinach in my bag was off the chain