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| << January31, 2004 - Starfish (Z): When Life Was Much Simpler, Mary Ann Featherston |
February01, 2004 - Starfish (Z): Redoing Grade Nine Math >> |
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Greetings, Ripplemakers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Finally I Understand: The Series Part VI: Failing The Exam The first year of University was over and I was on my own - no more Dee to help me. I was confident though, I had done so well in the first year that I did not for see much difficulty in the second year. Furthermore, I had succeeded in transferring over from a history major to a psychology major; psychology truly being my life's passion. But much to my chagrin, the transfer over was a very rocky ride. Though I was still as intelligent as I always was my grades took a nose dive. I knew that I would have trouble with statistics. At first I figured that I would not be able to pass it at all; but I did! I managed to pull off a C; which was good for me and my math deficits but not good for graduate school. I also found out that year that the first year of psychology was in fact a weeding out process as well. The university purposely made it harder than necessary to weed out many of the 14,000 students entering the program. By the end of the program they expected that there would only be 30 students remaining who were graduate school material for the clinical psychology program. I knew my first year that I had blown it. Even though I had three years to try and bring up my average, I would never be able to obtain a 4. 00 average because of that C, and C+ in my two statistic courses, and again in my research method courses. I almost bailed out of the program; the intention of the university all along. But I stuck with the program. I was determined that I was going to make it happen. Dee was instrumental in keeping my hopes high and supporting me all the way through. So was her roommate Pat. Without both of these ladies, I may have quit university altogether thinking that I was a failure. At least my writing skills were still intact and I was able to mentor students for their writing. I brought my friend Anita, from a C average in term paper writing to an A student. Today she is a better writer than I am. I had taken a course in learning disabilities. The Learning disabilities class had opened up my eyes to the fact that I had a learning disability when it came to numbers. This learning disability is called dyscalculia. It was through this class that I found out that even the small things like copying down telephone numbers incorrectly were not due to carelessness on my part but was due to the learning disability. One half of the puzzle was solved. All those years when people had been yelling at me, "you are careless, you don't try hard enough, you are not paying attention, I am going to pull your ears Carol", and so on and so forth when it came to math was not my fault. Now I knew there was a legitimate reason for it. I also found out that many people with a learning disability reach a ceiling as to how much they can learn. They go so far and no further because they just cannot comprehend the material presented to them. Such was the case with math I could not seem to advance past the grade nine level no matter how hard I tried. It was also through the undergraduate courses in psychology that I found out that I was truly a right brain thinker. My left brain thinking processes were much weaker. Left brain functions are the mathematical functions. The left side of the brain is responsible for logic; the type of logic that is required in math, the sciences, piano playing, computers etc. Though this new found knowledge did put me at a disadvantage for studying in my chosen field it still was a relief to know that I was not entirely at fault for giving up too fast, making errors, or having to redo my work etc. Even with this new found knowledge, my university experience did not suffer too much because of it. Once I had gotten past the statistics courses, and finally settled into the program my grade scores improved tremendously. I was even on the Dean's list for top students. However, as I had predicted early on, I did not make the grade point average for the clinical psychology program. My second option was then to take the counselling degree offered at a different university in the city. I was not about to give up my dream of working in the mental health field. At least with the counselling degree I was still within the realm of psychology. There was one snag though. Part of the criteria for entering graduate school was to sit for the graduate record examinations (G. R.E). These exams basically tested general knowledge as well as math and logic capabilities. I also had to take a special G.R.E. for psychology as well. These exams took many months of preparation; over and above the regular university workload. I was up for the challenge of doing the extra work but I was worried about the math and logic portion of the graduate entrance exams. I studied my math extra hard. I went over the grade nine math book from my first year. I had forgotten everything. It was not going to be easy! Was this going to be it? I wondered if all my dreams were about to come to an end? With much trepidation, I sat the exams. The special G. R.E. for psychology did not present a problem as I felt comfortable with it. Neither did the general section of the regular G. R.E since much of it centered on vocabulary, and language comprehension; right brain thinking functions - the areas where I always excelled. However, the math and logic sections were a disaster. I could not answer most of the questions. I got lost in the logic section with questions such as; Mary is planning a dinner party for 12 people, she must pay special attention to the setting arrangements as certain guests would not be comfortable sitting next to each other. Bob is not talking to Janice; Janice is not talking to Gerry etc. This variation was done with zoo animals, farm animals, and other scenarios that I cannot even remember at this point. Each scenario became exceedingly harder to figure out. After that exam, I knew that I was a goner. When I received my scores I did fairly well in the special G.R. E., and the general section of the regular G.R.E, but out of all the students in the 148 countries that had taken the exam I scored in the bottom 5 per cent for math and the bottom 12 per cent for logic My suspicions were confirmed.. I was devastated. Would these terrible scores affect my chances of being accepted into graduate school? About me: I have a Masters in Counselling Psychology. I have written for several newsletter including this one. I run my own newsletter and I will soon be publishing my book - Picking Up the Pieces: A woman's Journey. If you would like to comment about this story feel free to contact me at: winterose @ videotron.ca ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ May you be blessed today Bob Johnston Editor / Publisher ~~~ *** ~~~ *** ~~~ *** ~~~ *** ~~~ *** ~~~ *** ~~~ *** ~~~ *** ~~~ *** If you like Starfish, please recommend it to your friends and help us grow. ~~~~~Important Information~~~~~ To subscribe to Starfish, visit our web site at www.ripplemaker.com, click on "Starfish" and then click on "Subscribe" **** **** **** To cancel your subscription, send a message to: starfish@ripplemaker.com with "Cancel Starfish" in the subject **** **** **** To contribute a story for starfish, send it to: Starfish@Ripplemaker.com **** **** **** To view archives (past issues), click on "Read Archived Stories" from the Starfish Page at www.ripplemaker.com **** **** **** If you encounter a problem, please send e-mail to me at Starfish@ Ripplemaker.com |
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| << January31, 2004 - Starfish (Z): When Life Was Much Simpler, Mary Ann Featherston |
February01, 2004 - Starfish (Z): Redoing Grade Nine Math >> |
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