Life Off-Label

Last week, we took a horrible exam in pharmacokinetics. I can’t speak for my classmates, but for me that was the worst exam of my life. It wasn’t that we blew it off. I pulled an all-nighter studying, and judging by the amount of sweatpants and hoodies at the exam I don’t think I was the only one. Most of us prepared by reworking homework problems and going over old exams, but when we got to the exam we were blindsided by something longer and more difficult. Some of the problems looked completely new, and when the teacher said we had fifteen minutes left until time was up, I could feel everyone else’s heart skip a beat. Unlike a multiple-choice exam, where you could just try to bubble in B for the answers you don’t finish, we had a short answer exam. So this was the point where we we try to BS the rest of the problems to our best ability and hope for some very generous partial credit. Nobody finished. Well, a couple people got up before he called time, but I assume they just gave up.

After the exam, many of us sat for a bit in the hall, mentally drained and in a slight state of shock. It’s as if we sat in the room and the proctor threw rocks at us for an hour and fifteen minutes straight, and all we could do was sit there and take it until it was over. Some comments included, “There’s about 30 points on that exam that I didn’t even get to.” “I’ll be happy if I get a 50.”  “I’m pretty sure one of the problems is on a homework we haven’t done yet.” And “It would have been nice for them to hand out Vaseline before that.”

After we got our grades back, we found that the average was about a 65%. I don’t have a PhD in statistics, but I assume that’s not an ideal range where the curve should be on a good test. You’d maybe want a few more passing grades, but that could just be me. Needless to say, the majority of my class is very frustrated and worried, because we pretty much only have one more test and a final to make up our grade and pass the class. Some think this exam should be curved without question.

That’s where I don’t agree with some of my classmates. I don’t think a curve is absolutely necessary right now. For starters, 75% of our grade is still up for grabs, so it’s not the end of the world. It’s just a matter of deciding to tackle as much of that 75% as you can to recover from this exam  and pass the class. Though this might be the first time some my classmates are humbled by such a low grade, this isn’t really a new situation for me. In the College of Natural Sciences at my undergrad, a place where all the smart kids who sailed through high school go to feel dumb and lost by the end of the first semester, tests with low averages are fairly common. I was able to get away with terrible study habits and still make A’s in high school, but I had to learn the hard way that it wouldn’t fly at the college level. I would initially feel frustrated, but then I would seek the help I needed, make some adjustments, recover to pass the class, and learn from my mistakes. Now I’m grateful for it, because it wasn’t such a rude awakening when I had my first round of exams in pharmacy school.

Of course, a few times when the average was still too low at the end of the semester they’d curve to our relief, but that’s after they saw us at least try first. I mean, if our teacher curved the exam now, what incentive do we have to study better on the next one if we know that it will also just get curved? You don’t fall off a bike and expect it to pick you up. You pick yourself up. By letting us continue to freak out about our grade, he’s teaching those of us who aren’t used to changing the way we study to recover on our own. Some of my classmates haven’t realized it yet, but I hope they do. I’m just as frustrated as they are, and perhaps some changes do need to be made by the professor to make a more fair exam next time, but to an extent we need to hold ourselves accountable for not meeting his expectations. After all, as pharmacists we’re going to face new challenges that we might not be prepared for, and when that happens you can’t rely on a curve to save you.