Wednesday 18 December 2013

Notes and space

Today's task was to go through the mountain of notes I have from the last term, sort out which ones I have written up and file them, and try to organise the pile of notes that I still have to write up, I am old fashioned in that I print out the lectures and then add notes around key points before writing them all up on lined paper with diagrams if needed at a later date. I know this seems old fashioned compared to the rest of my tech life but for some reason it seems to be the best way for me to learn, although this may change due to a suggestion from a friend about using OneNote.

However the logic behind my note pile is not the point of this blog, rather it is the fact that although I have a lot more notes to write up than I thought (and I would like) it is that I am not as bothered about the number I have left to write up. Whereas last year I made an effort to write up most of my notes due to having a pre Christmas multiple choice question exam, this year I have only had practicals and you can't revise too much for them from a set of notes. Part of it is that I have been busier with clinics, OPSOC business and the like, but part of it is that I haven't felt the need to do so. I don't mean that I understand everything completely straight away but rather that the amount I do understand is enough that I don't feel completely confused by the subject and have to write it up and read around the subject just to get through the next lecture. I think this is partly because the topics are more directly applicable to the following clinic and partly because after the last year there aren't any major gaps in my knowledge. Coming into first year optometry not having done biology since GCSE level over 15 years ago made some modules a little tricky.

I think the point I am getting at, in a long winded way, is that people learn in different ways and different speeds and everyone will eventually find the best way for them.

There are two reasons why I didn't do this yesterday; one, Christmas shopping (the bane of my existence) and two because I was going to see Commander Chris Hadfield at a book signing. If you don't know who Chris Hadfield is, you must have been living under a rock for the last year. He was commander of the International Space Station and spent over 3 months in space, taking lots of beautiful photos and doing lots of experiments including some on his eyes. He also recorded this video at the end of his time there.

I look forward to reading his book on how he got to where he is in life and must say he is a truly nice person.

Monday 16 December 2013

So it begins....

After umm-ing and ahh-ing about writing a blog for some time I have finally decided to write one about my life and times as an optometry student. A bit about me to start with; I am a mature student (32) on my second degree, after studying maths and statistics at Warwick from 1999 to 2003. I changed to optometry after deciding the job I was in, selling mobile phones, wasn't a long term career choice.

I am currently in my second year studying at Cardiff university and am the current treasurer for the optometry based society - OPSOC so this keeps me busy when I am not studying or trying to keep up with all the youngsters on nights out.

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