Vet school wisdom from a vet student on a study break.

With Vet School...

Just give it your best effort.

Best Effort is NOT the same as:

1) Covering ALL the material that they COULD test you on.

2) Feeling confident that you looked over everything enough times (or even once).

3) Feeling confident that you understand everything you DID look at.

4) Talking to every person you know for input or notes or study guides or old tests, etc.

5) Exporing EVERY option of prep or study material and choosing the "correct" one to use.

4) Meeting your expectations.

5) Succeeding

Best Effort IS:

1) Literally doing WHAT YOU CAN (Nothing more, Nothing less) and giving yourself permission to NOT DO EVERYTHING you would prefer to do.

2) Accepting that you will NOT cover every note (or even page) you were given in class.

3) BEING OK with having looked at this, but not really that.

4) Being willing to adjust and adapt to your circumstances (whether it's one test in particular or vet school in general). You may not be able to prep the way you would prefer, but hey, what else can you do?

5) Stopping for a moment. Thinking about what you need to do. And picking 1 or 2 possible ways to get it done. And ending it with that. Make use of God's grace if you happen choose the 2 wrong ways to do it.

6) Be ready to be flexible when things come to your attention, but DONT be "tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by everywind of teaching" (Eph 4:14). - yeah, i know this wasnt used in the right context, but it sounded right so I went with it.

7) God know's youre not perfect like He is, and He doesnt want you to even try to be. He just want's you to DO WHAT YOU CAN. And leave the rest to Him.

PS: Remember, YOUR level of "SUCCESS" is not always going to be an accurate reflexion of YOUR BEST EFFORTS. In most cases, I think they are. But in the vet school setting, I would say that there is room for exceptions.

In vet school, it's ok for YOUR BEST to simply be YOUR BEST and not necessarilly your PICTURE PERFECT VERSION OF "SUCCESS". Learn to let yourself NOT BE PERFECT ALL THE TIME. Because we really aren't.