Is that a light I see?

Well, the semester is almost half way over, and I can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I've had exams in all but 2 classes now (2 dental classes that have very few tests) and I'm sitting in a very good spot in all of them. I'm in the high B or low A range in all my basic sciences, and in the A range in all my dental classes. Odds are that is how it will end up in December when this craziness is over. One of the best decisions I made was to study study study like crazy the first month of school. It was a grind every day but I put myself in such a good position that I am feeling very little stress in any of my classes. I have significant cushion so that if anything crazy happens, I'll be just fine. I truly feel like the hardest part of the semester is over, because now I have a feel for all my classes and luckily I did well at the beginning and should be able to improve or stay the same if necessary.

As for the Air Force, nothing has changed since my last post. I haven't sent in any reimbursements or anything so nothing new there.

Here are a few tips I have for the first part of dental school that might be helpful for anyone applying right now and wondering what it's like:

- You will be taking an insane amount of classes. Keep in mind that none of the material is any harder than it was in undergrad, it's just much more. You must prioritize. Waiting until the day before to study for a test worked in undergrad, but here, you'll need to study well in advance. Not because it's hard, but because you have 1000 other things to study for.

- Study HARD right out of the gate. Even if you don't think you want to specialize, making good grades early will only make your life easier. It's much better getting an A on a test and having room to fall later on than getting a C and knowing you've got to keep fighting just to stay where you are.

- Have a plan for every day. When I go to bed every night, I've already looked at my schedule for the next day and I know exactly what I will be doing. Now I don't micromanage every second, but I know that "I'm going to skip physiology and study for this quiz, then go to biochemistry... etc., and once I get home at 5:30 I'm going to watch TV for a while until 6:30 and study until 11". If I give myself structure, then I'm not flying by the seat of my pants every day trying to remember what needs to get done. It makes days less stressful because I know I'm not forgetting something.

- BE A TEAM PLAYER. This is the biggest thing by far. It is critical that you get with a good group of people that you can study with and you need to be willing to share what you know in exchange for what other people know. We have systems where people will make notes for a certain class, someone will set up online flashcards for it, another person will type up questions for this or that. It's a huge burden lifted when you feel like part of a team rather than just 1 out of 56 students trying to survive.

- Have fun! You need to do fun things that bring you joy and not get so focused on school. Keep everything in perspective and remember that everything will turn out just fine. Take time to play basketball, go to concerts, go our to eat, and normal stuff. Yes, you will be much busier with school, but staying sane is just as valuable as anything.

That's all for now... probably headed off to bed and then a big day of studying tomorrow!