Cancer wouldn't be considered my worst exam at kcl, that would have to be first year physiology in which i got a tragic 43%!! (ok lets hope this doesn't jinx things.. a 42% in cancer would not be the nicest of things to a 3rd year student!), but it was no where even close to being a "good one". I went in half confident, and when i sat down and turned the "do not turn over until instructed to do so" page, and my confidence went on a rollercoaster ride... from seeing my favourite growth factor signalling pathway: the TGF-beta signalling, the lecture for which ive been mulling 2 days over last week as the second essay question... and then my confidence stooped to an all time low as i sat deciding which of the remaining horrible essay titles i should choose to babble on about... i chose the p53 pathway.
Had i spent a lot of time on it, the p53 pathway is not difficult, in fact now thinking back on it, the pathway is very clear in my head, theres the whole situation with p21 transcription and g1 arrest, and then theres expression of Bax, Bad, Bak and Bid which are pro-apototic.. i even remeber the whole "Lane et al., Nature, 1992" reference i was going to chuck in.... oh and some things on li-fraumeni syndrome...........
.....now why wasn't it so clear cut when i was sitting in the exam room ... i went on to make a mess of my p53 essay and mentioned pretty inaccurate things, such as p53 being 105kd (DOH! the 53 in p53 should have given the kDa away)..yet in the whole panic-y situation i managed to chuck in facts on Rb.... so yes...
i feel one essay went very well...the other went er... not so well ... so lets just wait and see how things go... in a way i sort of regret taking cancer now, as the alternative option would have been a buisness module with 50% coursework, and my friend whos taking it reckons she only needs 1 day to revise a few case studies and good sleep in order to babble on.... so yes... i wish i picked the latter option!
Biology of ageing exam on tuesday and protein on thursday... both of which are a bit worrying, though protein is perhaps a bit higher in terms of fear factor!
Biology of ageing is a bit of a weird one, the course is incredibly easy..but covers ageing from DNA to Bones, to how bad teeth may lead to a bad immune ( well ok its more the nutritional side of things) and a bit about how if u were underweight at birth you are doomed (ok .. not doomed just more likely) to develop a load of diseases!
Though im not sure on my exact percentage, i know i have at least 70% in the coursework already, which is a mediocre 14/20 ... so not really all that useful in terms of working out what i need to get a first.. as well if i only managed to get 70% in the coursework.. i still need to get 70% in the exam.... ~.~
Protein is slightly better, i have 27.5/30 % which is definatly a lot better that for my other courses...but then again protein is a lot harder than ageing.. (not as hard as free radical module though!)...but it means i need to achieve 63% in the exam to get a first... which is ok ...if i manage to remember everything... and there is a LOT to remember for protein..so again im not too confident on this one (actually im not confident on any of these!). The best scenario would be to get a highish mark in protein exam and hopefully that would balance out the astrocity that was my attempt at doing well in cancer...
Anyways..before my dream of even getting a 2.1 (i decided a first is just too difficult..as getting 70% right now in every module has been made impossible with cancer...sigh.. and i have signed up for the race for life in order to raise money for cancer research uk on july the 19th... so i will be horrible reminded of this at least until the end of summer!) is abolished i ought to revise and make the most of what (little) time i have remaining.....
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