Cathryn ’14 RSS feed

About Me:

Hey everyone, I am Cathryn. I am going into my 5th year of pharmacy at Butler University. I am also working toward a minor in Science, Technology & Society! In my spare time, I enjoy hanging out with friends and writing. I've been working on NaNoWriMo and am hoping to be published at some point in the near future as well. Most of the time you can catch me studying in the library or browsing the Internet. Oh, and did I mention that I got married last summer?

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Posts Tagged “exams”

EEEEK!

Posted on December 7, 2012 by Cathryn

Rewind to last Thursday. I was in the home stretch of cluster exams and I was absolutely ready to curl up in a ball and cry finish strong with my therapeutics exam.

I got home from my philosophy class around 8PM, made dinner, looked over notes for meningitis and blood/heart infections for two hours and then at 10:30 went: YOU KNOW WHAT?

And went to bed.

I then woke up at 3:30 AM and continued studying because my exam was at 8:00 AM on campus.

That was … really weird. People on my Facebook on the west coast were still up from the day before doing normal people stuff like watching Netflix and playing on the Internet and I was up at an ungodly hour cramming my brain with empiric regimens for late-onset hospital acquired pneumonia.

Then at 9:00 AM when I was done, it felt like 2PM and it was SO ODD. But I got McDonald’s breakfast and went back to bed so everything was okay. :) All I can say is: NEVER AGAIN. You hear that, finals?

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The Late Night Routine

Posted on November 29, 2012 by Cathryn

….soooo.

Normally when I have exams, I plan out my study schedule so I can be in bed with a reasonable 6+ hours of sleep. This set of exams kind of creeped up me in that the more I studied, the less prepared I felt, so the more I had to study. So that cut into my sleep time. I’ve also been spending lots of time holing up on campus in various rooms I never knew existed, and some rooms that have changed drastically since I last had classes in them.

Yeah the last time I checked there weren’t skeletons and a row of butts in the lab on the 3rd floor. SURPRISE!

There’s something weird about being on campus past 10PM too. During clusters week, you’re not alone. In fact it’s completely normal. Walking down the halls, you can hear people in rooms giggling (at notes? hardly), and there’s a feeling of camaraderie. Or at least resignation to the fact that we all procrastinated this hard that we have to hole up together on campus at odd hours of the night.

My sleep schedule is so weird right now, it feels like it’s supposed to be 8PM but it’s… not. And last night at midnight it felt like 8PM. I need to just push a reset button this weekend!

(PS there’s a lot of BUPD around campus late at night too! We should all pool our money and order like 50 pizzas, gosh.)

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The Testing

Posted on November 29, 2012 by Cathryn

It’s clusters week.

I’ve averaged 8 hours of sleep in the past two days.

I am cramming for therapeutics tomorrow which got scheduled at EIGHT IN THE FREAKIN’ MORNING. Then I have to write my philosophy paper in a week.

I’ve gotten through two out of three tests though–PDA (which is our pharmacology and medicinal chemistry class) and kinetics (which is math and sadness).

So it’s aaalmost the weekend! I have to go to my philosophy class tonight which means reading about social constructivism and trying to look alive and not like I’ve been living off of Mountain Dew and fast food (which I have). Yesterday I got a Snickers bar and a Mountain Dew out of a vending machine without really thinking about it (I never eat like this!) and I was like “oh my. this is how type 2 diabetes happens. It’s going on RIGHT NOW.”

But I need the caffeine and sugar for my brain. :( I should really go home and eat some vegetables, shouldn’t I?

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What time is it?!

Posted on November 27, 2012 by Cathryn

One… in the morning. Okay.

So it’s Monday Tuesday. It was Monday until an hour ago. Monday after break is just rough. My first class this morning was at 8AM, which meant leaving by 7AM to beat the traffic (spoiler alert: no one went to work this morning so there was NO TRAFFIC). I had to watch this on an endless loop just to feign happiness.

JUST LOOK AT THAT KITTEN.

So I have cluster exams starting Wednesday. And a 2,000 word paper due next Friday. THEN FINALS. These 3 weeks are full of doom. I have done no such things related to “Black Friday” or “Cyber Monday” or “Christmas shopping.” Instead I have been studying and I’m about at this point right here.

…which is bad because I have 7 tests and a paper before I can call it quits for the semester.

I need to get back to studying flashcards! NO SLEEP TIL BROOKLYN I LEARN ALL THE ALKYLATING AGENTS.

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We’re taking out all the stops!

Posted on October 23, 2012 by Cathryn

This is me. Because it’s CLUSTERS WEEEEK!

It’s been clusters MONTH, I swear. I feel like I haven’t left my house since early October. Well, that’s not true.

We studied at McDonald’s after our therapeutics test yesterday. It seems strange, but Starbucks just doesn’t have burgers and fries to eat and giant tables like the Broad Ripple McDonald’s does.

SO HAPPY to be working on kinetics problems at McDonald’s! :D not. Kind of. I ate pumpkin pies and they were fantastic.

But seriously, this clusters week has been killing us! Homecoming, apparently, was this past Saturday. I only knew because they blocked off commuter parking on Friday. This is my reality at Butler right now–finding out about events based on commuter parking.

Right, so, I need to get back to my current venture, which is cramming for Principles of Drug Action. Viruses, mycobacteria, antimalarials, and cancer are going to be my only thoughts from now until tomorrow at noon.

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Exams are heeere

Posted on September 20, 2012 by Cathryn

And they’re back with a vengeance.

Miraculously, we only have three tests this week, which I’m eternally grateful for. One of our classes (biostatistics, actually) decided not to give tests this year, so we only have 3 tests every round of clusters.

Which, if you’re just tuning in, cluster exams are how Butler Pharmacy does tests in the program: all of our tests are scheduled over three days three times a semester. During those three days we don’t have any pharmacy classes. We just come in for tests. If you’re me and you’re taking a non-pharmacy class, you still have to go to it. Which I will be doing tomorrow in the evening when I have an 8am the following day. Woe is me, right?

Soooo I am glued to my computer and going through the natural phases of “I can’t find a comfortable spot to sit in my entire apartment.” But it’ll aaaall be over soon. I’m just hoping these last two will go smoothly! Then it can be the WEEKEND. And I won’t have to look at Hogwarts-themed drug tables.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I GOT SLYTHERIN.

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7 Days to Go!

Posted on December 8, 2010 by Cathryn

Curtis: “I can never draw Santa. He always looks like a hobo.”

Oh, Curt.

All right, folks, here’s what’s been happening.

My Thanksgiving break was fabulous. The burn mark on my index finger that was sustained during the Great Roll Tragedy ’10 has scabbed and peeled off. There is no word yet on if I will have a cool scar or not. I will keep you updated.

I haven’t unpacked from Thanksgiving break yet. Clusters week was like being at Wal-Mart on Black Friday at 2 AM, only prolonged and with more jabs at my self-esteem. Luckily, I made out like a bandit with one of my grades. It was like buy one get one free iPhones on Blackboard.

After clusters, I met up with my friend Mark to play more Halo: Reach. We almost saved Reach from total annihilation from the alien Covenant army. Then I had to leave.

(Spoiler alert, again: Everybody dies anyway.)

The rest of the weekend was spent lazing around and watching the snow. Saturday night, my roommate Kass invited us to go with her parents and her 2 and a half year old niece to see Christmas at the Indianapolis Zoo! There weren’t that many animals out, of course (in fact, it’s really insane that people were out in the cold!), but we saw a few troopers. The best part was when we walked up to an empty enclosure, and suddenly a grizzly bear sauntered out from behind a rock and stared at us. He was all “You kids get offa’ my lawn!”

THEN. THEEEN. They had a dolphin holiday show!!! I’ve never seen dolphins in real life before (except for off in the distance while at the beach), so I was unnecessarily excited about this.

Basically, the zoo is awesome with Christmas lights, but don’t forget those chemical hand warmer pouches. They are essential.

This is a Pudgy Kitty. This will be me in a week.

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I’m baaaack!

Posted on September 21, 2010 by Cathryn

And you thought you could get rid of me! Ha! Fools!

For those of you who have been following me, hi again! New readers, welcome!!

In case you were wondering, I’m Cathryn. I am a senior at Butler. But, really, since I’m in the pharmacy program and everything is tremendously more difficult, I’m a P2 student. With 3 years before graduation, I’m essentially a sophomore. C’est la vie.

On top of being a pharmacy student, I’m also a writer. I’m currently working on two things: a scifi novel and a series of short stories centered around the Vietnam War. If I actually had time to write these things, I’m sure they would be lovely!

I’m engaged (as of this past January!) and I have two ca-raaazy roommates, all of whom you will be hearing about frequently. :)

I also like Harry Potter (A LOT) and I think I’ve convinced the entire blog staff to start a Quidditch team here at Butler. I’ve reached a new nerdy low.

Back to the tremendously difficult-ness of being a pharmacy student, I have something called “clusters” this week. If you don’t know what “clusters” are, go find a thesaurus. I can tell you that if you look it up, you will find that it has several meanings: 4 tests in 3 days, sleep deprivation, candy over-consumption, and a few tears. Maybe. Basically, the pharmacy program here schedules all tests for 3 days, 3 times a semester in an effort to … alter our stress levels. I think the original idea was to help lower our stress, but sometimes I wonder…

Welcome to pharmacy school. Here's an 8-pound pharmacotherapy book.

Long story short, I have a lot to learn about stomach upset, anemias, and antihistamines. Chances are, you will not here from me until I crawl out of my study burrow late Friday afternoon. Once I change out of my study PJs and see the light of day, I will have more interesting things to share with you all.

Until then, toodles!

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