 Hello all my home doggies out there. So I'm recording this little video clip because I really want to tell my face-to-face students to never, ever, ever give up in anatomy. You guys just got an exam back. I figured I'd publish this thing to YouTube because there's probably some of y'all out there who could use a little pep talk as well. We're about halfway through the semester. And no, we're exactly halfway plus one lecture through the semester. And this is the time of the semester that things can get discouraging. And I get that. I totally understand. But what I'm concerned about is that you... There's a couple of things you need to know. First of all, exam two is harder than exam one. Okay? So right there, if you didn't make the kind of improvements that you were hoping to make between exam one and exam two, what I can tell you is that exam two is harder. So if you maintained similar scores, that actually means you're doing better. I know that you guys have really high standards for yourselves and you have really high expectations for your grades. And I wish, oh my gosh, I wish that we could just be about learning and not about grades, but I understand, I get it. I totally understand where we are. Our next exam on the nervous system is different than the bones and muscles. If you found the bones and muscles particularly challenging, then nervous system is not easy. There's nothing about the nervous system that's easy, but it's different. It's a different kind of processing and it's a different kind of content. It has a little bit more functional conversation inside the concept. And so I'm just saying, don't give up. I'm saying don't give up. I'm saying look at the positive. I'm saying if you're still not happy with your grade, if you want to change, I have ideas for things that you can do to study. Group study sessions are really important. Spending time in the lab with the specimens is really important. Talking about the material is really important. Effectively flipping the content is really important. If you flip well, if you watch the video lectures and you go through the lab handout and you identify all those structures and you flip well, then class becomes review. Class becomes this big study session. Lab becomes review. You get to focus just on transferring your knowledge to the specimens, to the cadavers, to the brains and to the models. And that is a more doable task. And I know that time is a good Lord. Do I ever know that time is the limiting factor for all of us? And so then there has to be another part of you that says, okay, really, what more can I do here and what is realistic to expect? The timing is a class that requires just a lot of time. Physio is a class that requires a lot of time. These big science courses combine a whole new pile of vocabulary. It's a language plus this whole conceptual thing about how these processes work. It's not for the weak at heart. And I guess that's the part where, gosh, dang it, I want to give you all hugs right now because I know this time of the semester is hard. This time of the semester is hard for me too. It's the time where you just kind of want to sit down and breathe and like sleep in a little bit. But no, it's five o'clock in the morning and you're up studying and you're taking care of yourself and continuing on with this good battle. Now, these classes are big prerequisites. So if you are concerned about your grade because you know the requirements for the program that you're applying for, the CR nursing program, you got to have a 2.5 GPA in anatomy, physio, and micro combined, which means you get one C. And I'm happy to have that conversation with you about how we're going to, what the best choice is. The CR, we're not at the drop date yet. I think it's the beginning of November that is the last day to drop a class and still get a W. And let's have that conversation as well. Don't disappear on me, going through the course, taking all the exams, taking the quizzes, sticking around to the very end, even if you decide it's better to drop. I'm in, I understand, but don't go away. I'm under pressure on and I know that this is hard and I am confident that you can do it. The skills that you're gaining in this class are valuable beyond just the class. So don't get discouraged. And some of you, you know, here I am doing a pep talk and some of you totally made improvements and totally are looking good at it. Those of you who maintained, if you got worse, that's a bad sign, but those of you who maintained, I'm not giving up on you yet. I'm not concerned yet. We still have the final exam that's going to replace an entire midterm score. And I know that you're learning a ton, so it's not the time to give up. Okay, however boast was I, is that like a five hour long pep talk? Don't you want to do a cheer now that you have chocolate and maybe go home and sleep? Okay, I really love you guys. Okay, bye-bye.