"You should take a credit remediation".

 This term was truly a RIDE. While there were many wins, there were also many losses as well. I did not do well on the first 3 exams for this term. I was advised to take a credit remediation to repeat Term 2 in April. I didn't even give it a 2nd thought. At that point in time my grade was above passing but barely. However, I knew that I was more than capable and it was a matter of me getting out of my own way. I met with a learning strategist regularly, someone who had recently graduated so they had been in my shoes once before. They advised me to do a MCQ session with them where I would answer questions that were relevant to the current material and they could try to figure out what my problem was as to why I wasn't scoring as well as I would have liked. Based on that meeting, I was told "Your problem is not knowledge gaps. It's clear that you are studying the right way and know what you are supposed to. Your problem is lack of confidence. You answered every single question correctly but then you would take it back/be hesistant. Why do you do that?" I couldn't really answer her why I did that. I think I was just so use to "failing" things that I was starting to believe that I was a failure. I felt so stupid this whole term. I questioned it all but having said that I was determined to fight until the end. I was in no way willing to walk away especially after scoring highly on the 4th exam. My grades only continued to increase from that point. I ended up finishing the term with way more than the minimum required after being told it was a risk and that it is impossible to improve by an advisor. I literally needed to be told that my problem all along was me. That lit a fire under me.  In order to alleviate the issues with doubt, I started working with a friend and we did questions every day together for like 3 hours. Sometimes we would only finish 10 questions in that time. One thing that my learning strategist stressed was that it is more about quality over quantity. She was right. I was able to answer really complicated questions on the exams because we took the time to fully understand what was happening and how to approach the material. I debated on whether or not I was even going to share this to this level of detail but after seeing one of my classmates open up about her experience I decided to bite the bullet too.  I believe in being as transparent as possible because someone out there needs to hear it.

Nobody prepares you for the amount of endurance and stamina that is necessary to overcome what is being thrown at you. The pancake analogy and the fire hydrant analogy couldn't be more true. You have to have a schedule and you have to make multiple passes at the material. Everyone has their own way. For me, I use whiteboarding and practice questions to solidify the material. An outside resource that I really like is USMLE RX. It helped clarify confusing topics. At the beginning of term 2 I said I was coming for term 2 but it was term 2 that came for me. However, this just goes to show you that when you trust God to see you through and he sees you doing your part he will make it right. Don't let anyone count you out. With God ALL things are possible no matter how shaky it may look like. I remember being on my knees so much this term. Term 3 here I come!