Sunday, March 7, 2010

That Time I Fell Off the Wagon...Into a Puddle...

Remember way back in August when I swore I was getting serious about studying for my license exam? Well, yeah, that went well for about 3 weeks. And then the students came back in full force and I got really busy at work and quickly distracted by other fun projects at home (like my renovation, new carpet, and DIY projects).

But now I'm back at it, pretty seriously for the last 2 weeks or so. I guess near-daily updates from your boss about how much business he is turning away in his private practice will act as an effective motivator. I suppose thoughts of a pay increase at work also helps.

I know it's probably boring for all of you to read about, but I think I need some extra accountability and motivation to keep up with my studying. So, I'm going to try to post a weekly update here, to track my progress. So here goes...

I spent a LOT of time studying this weekend. I was really having a tough time on my developmental/lifespan section and finally managed to get some consistently high quiz scores. Finally. I've moved on to diagnoses, which I worked on a little before. I'm trying to hit the diagnostic areas I know are more difficult for me. So far, so good.

The funny thing about studying for this exam is that it's such a daunting task. I mean, everything in psychology is fair game. Even stuff I never took a class on, like Industrial/Organizational Psych. I'm also trying to use study strategies that I'm not very good at, like making up mnemonic devices. I have never been good at creating them. I really am NOT good at making acrostics (first letter of each word in a sentence to remember ideas) up and it usually takes me so long I just give up and move on. But I'm trying, darn it. I am embarrassed to admit it, but I have been messing up the order of Freud's psychosexual stages lately (specifically the genital and phallic stages), probably because I'm also trying to remember which of Erickson's stages coincide. So here's a little mnemonic I made up this weekend for Freud: Only Awesome People Like Guns: oral, anal, phallic, latent, genital. It's not like I'm a gun-toting, NRA member or anything, but it's the first thing that came to mind and it stuck. I guess that's the point, they're supposed to stick.

Woohoo! Here's to mnemonics!

3 comments:

mom said...

Proud of you. Keep on truckin. It is the same with knitting. The closer you get to the end, the more you want to quit now and see the whole thing. So keep on. I'm with you all the way. Love you.

Kim said...

Glad you're back at it. I just bought a book for the kiddos with tons of fun ways to remember things. Like the rainbow, the days of the year, etc. Good luck.

Tales of Our Journey said...

Good luck!!!! You can do it!

I work for Psychologists mostly in the I/O field so if you have any questions please feel free to ask. :o)

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Revised Influential Books List

1. And the Band Played On- Randy Shilts
2. Listening to Prozac- Peter D. Kramer
3. Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism- Temple Grandin
4. Nickel and Dimed-Barbara Ehrenreich Eh, it was OK. Reminded me a little of Dirty Jobs.
5. Into Thin Air- Jon Krakauer
6. The Satanic Verses- Salman Rushdie
7. Middlesex- Jeffery Eugenides Read it. Loved it. Recommend it.
8. A Perfect Spy- John le Carre
9. What is the What- Dave Eggers LOVE this book! Very inspiring!
10. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle- Haruki Murakami Done.
11. The Known World- Edward P. Jones
12. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone- J.K. Rowling Read it twice!!
13. The Bonfire of the Vanities- Tom Wolfe Hmm, the jury is still out on this one (pun intended).
14. Infinite Jest- David Foster Wallace
15. The Unbearable Lightness of Being- Milan Kundera
16. Beloved- Toni Morrison - Abandoned.
17. The Handmaid's Tale- Margaret Atwood
18. Freakonomics- Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner A really interesting & thought-provoking read!