I’m going to start with the fact that I absolutely should be studying right now. But I’m consciously choosing not to. I’ll get into why in a moment.

So it’s been an interesting week. Tougher in a few areas than expected, perhaps easier in some than expected. And note, this post will be a long one.

When I got down here, my housing situation was still in flux. I was torn between two places and had basically settled on a place in downtown Wilmington, but still needed to figure out the paperwork. That took until Thursday before I could move in. So for three nights I slept in hotels. Not great, but doable. Thursday I was finally able to move in and unpack the car.

First the good:

• It’s a beautiful building. Marble floors downstairs, etc.
• It has a great gym, though I haven’t gotten there yet.
• It has a great balcony on the 12th floor for cooking out and the like.
• It’s small, but perhaps better described as cozy.
• I was able to get a great deal on it given the location and quality.
• The commute isn’t nearly as bad as one might expect.
• For a small fee, it has a great co-working space in the building with free beer on tap!
• It has a concierge service and wonderful package receiving room.

Now the issues

• I had looked at a 1 bedroom at this place on a previous trip and that’s what made me interested in the place. But I couldn’t afford it. Then I realized they had some studios. I decided, given the other facilities in the building, that would be workable. So, I agreed to take one, without actually actually seeing it until I started to move in. A bit of a mistake. Turns out the studios overlook the central area, not the streets, so I’m looking out at a wall. Granted, it’s probably 50′ away, but well, to a country boy used to seeing the sky all the time, it’s quite depressing. But I could probably get over that in time.
• I mentioned I’m a country boy at heart. I’m definitely not a city person. I got thinking perhaps being in a walkable neighborhood and all would be great. But I’ve realized, I’m probably NOT going to have the time! This will be a reoccurring theme.
• Bicycling: simply the logistics of hopping on my bike and going for a ride is far more complicated than I expected it to be. And takes more time (between getting the elevator, etc.)
• Time: given the workload I have, I realize, I’m probably not going to have the time to make use of the facilities, including the co-working space
• Socialization: I may be a country boy at heart, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like having folks over. Between this place being a bit smaller than I expected and the logistics of parking and all for guests and letting folks in, I can’t see myself organizing successful study group meetings here. That’s grating on me. It’s definitely not an issue I thought would be a problem until after I thought about it this weekend.
• So, overall, I’ve come to the conclusion that I should have taken the other space. I’m currently exploring options to see what I can do. Worst case, I suck it up, bike less, and make this work. I mean in many ways, it really is a nice place and if it was a different situation, I’d probably love the space.
• But if you know anyone looking for a great studio space in downtown Wilmington, reach out to me.

The other issues

Simply settling in. I mean this would be true anywhere. But I’m lacking some basic necessities. Amazon for the most part is taking care of this. But the thing that nearly sent me over the edge today was that UPS failed to deliver my bed from Amazon! I’ve been sleeping on hotel beds and now a leaking air mattress for a week. Between that and stressing about my apartment choices, I have NOT been getting good sleep! All weekend I was looking forward to my bed being delivered so tonight I could sleep well. Alas, UPS failed and claimed “no one available to receive package”. Did I mention the building has a concierge service? Not only that, but if that person stepped away from the desk, there’s two glass-walled offices right next to the doors that overlook the concierge desk. I received packages over the weekend, including Sunday. I have NO idea how UPS could mess this up. Two calls and numerous attempts to contact them resulted in “A regional manager will reach out to you within the hour.” That was 3 hours ago. So much for that.

So, as a result, I’m completely off my game. I’m in no mood to study. So right now I’m writing to get my brain back where it needs to be.

Speaking of studying

That is the main reason I’m here. I mentioned last week I have 16 credits. This is spread across 6 classes right now.

• Professional Practice I – 1 credit – This will be an “easy” course. No real tests, just a few projects. I think some of my classmates may think it’s a “trivial” class and it probably is in terms of getting a good grade, but honestly, in some ways it’s one of our most important.
• Medical Interview Counseling Skills – 2 credits – We had our first lecture in this today, partly covering billing and coding.
• Human Gross Anatomy – 5 credits – Both an easy class and a hard class. I’m finding some of it simply review from my prereqs. But it’s vitally important and we’re still covering what I consider the basics. It’ll get harder as the semester goes on. A lot of stress though and where I’ll be spending a lot of my study time in the coming weeks.
• Biomedical Science – 3 credits – We have not had this yet
• Mechanisms of Disease – 6 credits – Due to two different professors being sick two lectures got moved from last week t o tomorrow. So we didn’t even have a full week last week! Tomorrow will be a busy day. Right now this is causing the most stress among our cohort because next week we have a “must pass” exam on medical terminology. I say “must pass” because if you fail, you have to sign up for an online course and take the test again by the end of the semester and if you fail that, you’re out of the program totally. I’m not overly stressing, in part because of the studying I’ve done so far reinforces what I picked up over the years and working as a tech and my background in Latin has given me a leg-up. I’m still working on learning more though. Just to be sure.
• Pharmacology & Therapeutics I – 1 credit – We haven’t had a lecture here yet.

Today the Director of Didactic Studies met with our cohort to give advice on how to study and what to study. He also went in depth on how they grade and validate the tests. It’s far more complex than simply “ok, you got these questions wrong”. They look into how many students got them right versus wrong, and when they got them wrong, which wrong answers did they pick. This gives them some insight into if they’re teaching the right things or perhaps something got missed in a lecture.

After every test, the system eventually generates a Strengths and Opportunities report. Strengths are things you did well on. Opportunities are areas you need to work on. For example, if it’s a test in Anatomy and you get most of the questions on the skeleton correct, but got most of the ones on the nervous system wrong, you’d be advised not only to study more on the nervous system, but possibly what areas specifically (perhaps you understand where they go, but not what they do.) I really like this because I think it’s a key part of what will help me do well.

He also emphasized they’ll do different types of questions:

1st Order – basic and absolute knowledge. For example it might be a diagram with “identify this muscle?” Or a multiple choice for “what is the definition of hypoglycemia?”

2nd order – a question about something related to what is shown. So the diagram might point to a muscle but instead of identifying it, it could be more like “what type of motion does this muscle help with?” Or a multiple choice for “Which of the following numbers might be indicative of hypoglycemia?” So you have to know the definition of hypoglycemia and what numbers are associated with it.

3rd order – to be honest, I’m still trying to come up with a good example.

But the point here is to NOT just remember facts, but causes and effects, and to have a deeper understanding of the subject matter.

80%

One thing they keep stressing is, 80%. If you’re getting over that, don’t worry about it. Their own reporting shows that as long as you’re doing that, you’re very likely to pass the PANCE on the first try. Of course I hope to do better, but it also means I won’t stress to much either. As they point out, at this point, the competition is over. We’re in. As long as we all pass, we’ll graduate. We’re not really competing for spots for anything. This is reassuring.

That said, let’s say I got a 70% or below. That simply triggers a meeting to go over what concepts I missed and perhaps learn why and how to do better the next time. 75% or below you can ask for one, but it’s not mandatory.

He also went into Bloom’s Taxonomy a bit which was useful in understanding how to learn and achieve that 80% or better.

One thing I’m really like about this program is that they feel compelled to go beyond simply “we’re teaching you stuff” to ensure we’re actually learning stuff and able to pass the PANCE. I think it’s one reason their PANCE pass rates are consistently well above the national standard. (for example in 2024, the Christiana Campus had 95% of their students pass the PANCE on their 1st try, compared to 93% nationally. The Glenside Campus had 98% pass on their first try. 100% eventually passed.)

I had one classmate rejected from a program much closer to home for her, but she didn’t feel bad because their PANCE pass rates were in the 60%-80% range.

So in Closing

The bed situation will resolve.

The apartment situation I can live with.

But most importantly, the school situation will be VERY difficult, but I have a school that I feel like is really backing me. I actually feel very confident that no matter how hard I find the academics at times, I’ll make it. That’s reassuring.