Neuroscience

All right ladies, this story is one for the books.

So this morning we had our second neuroscience test. After not performing so well on the first one, I made sure to go to as many classes as humanly possible and to not skip, despite class being at 8 AM. The only times I didn't go to class was when I was going to catch my flight to Chicago. Anyways, so this exam was on the PCML, ALS, Auditory, Taste, Olfaction, Visual, Vestibular, and Visual Motor stuff of the brain. Essentially what the sensory neurons are, what part of the brain it goes to, how does it get there, what are all the different cell types involved, what artery supplies that area, and some clinical concerns. Alhamdulillah as I've been going to class more or less everything makes sense - not like some of the other classes where you need to just memorize different languages.

Anyways, last week my plan was to finish all studying by Friday so that all day Saturday and Sunday I could review the material with other people. The best way to learn something difficult is when you grab the notes and someone else has a copy and you two just take turns firing questions back and forth. I wanted to do that all weekend. Needless to say, it didn't happen. As a matter of fact, I didn't finish going through all the material for the first time around until last night around 6 or 7 ish. And a huge population of my classmates were in the same boat, if not worse.

The problem was, just as it always is, the sheer volume of information that you need to fit into your brain in an organized way with the short short short time that you have. Your ability to succeed in higher levels of schooling is directly proportional to one's ability to slowly and steadily keep on filing away information in your brain by managing your time to the minute.

To make a long story short, it was imperative that I find a study buddy to reinforce as much material as possible, considering that it took me about a week to finish all material once, and now its 12 hours before the exam; we need some synergy action to maximize our time at this point.

So I find this kid, Asim. He's from Chicago too, we actually went to the same undergrad. Masha Allah very smart kid, very well-disciplined, and a hard worker. When I say disciplined, I mean that I've seen students sit down to study and not get up. Ever. For me, I go 30-35 minutes strong, then I take a 10 minute break. If I try to change that strategy, then I will waste time. But anyways, the main idea is I found someone to study with and who was willing to grind it out throughout most of the night.

We study, we study, we study. At first the plan was to sleep by 2 or 3 am. Then it was to sleep for 2 hours after fajr. I told him by the time we are done with fajr it will be 5 am and the test is at 7. And he says no its at 7:30. This is where I say "Are you SURE?" and he goes yea. Then I say, aiight cool. But we get tired by 3, 3:30 then we decide to pray witr and sleep for an hour, then get up pray fajr and study again then.

The thing was we were at this kid's apartment named Akber who was in Chicago during the time. He lives alone so he only had 1 bed, to which this other kid (Waseem) from Detroit was sleeping in because Waseem was babysitting Akber's apartment. So there was a couch, and nothing else. No pillows, no blankets, no nothing. And this dude is a bachelor he doesn't have too many things in his apartment. Going home to sleep was too risky for either of us. So we decide to tough it out. He takes the couch. I take the floor. And I take a bag of basmati rice (you know those brown burlap bags) to use as a pillow.

I laid there, high on No Fear energy drinks, a few hours before a massive exam, still epically behind in reviewing, laying on the floor trying to get an hour of sleep with my head on a bag of basmati rice as a pillow. My dad used to tell me stories of the sacrifices they had to make back in Bangladesh to be students. Though I don't think I could compete with them, that moment was so broke, so ghetto, and so desperate (but Alhamdulillah these are good times), that maybe I could earn my place in the pages of the pain one has to go through to survive in this journey.

We wake up after an hour and a half, pray fajr, study, and then we go. I should also mention that Alhamdulillah I've gotten into the practice of reciting a handful of dhikrs every morning after fajr and every evening before maghrib. These dhikrs are so comprehensive in nature that it is very difficult to become worried and stressed throughout the day, knowing you took 15 minutes out of your day to remember Allah (S) and ask him for a ton of things. I also got into the practice of praying salatul hajjah every night before I pray my witr. On this day I prayed hajjah as usual, and then again right before I left for the exam. So after covering these bases, its difficult to become stressed or excessively worried.

We get in the car, we go, we walk, and we wonder where the heck is everyone. As we walk from the parkinglot, we start to joke that maybe the exam started at 7. Then the laughter becomes a nervous smile. Then we walk faster. And faster. Then we get to the hall and they are on question # 13 of the practical.

The exam has a written portion and a practical. The practical is X number of questions shown on the projector with 1 minute for each question. In previous quarters they would go back and show each slide one last time for 30 seconds. I was hoping they would do that, but after the last question the teacher said to take a minute and look over your answers - implying that this was the end and they wouldn't reshow the questions one last time.

Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah to make a long story short I quickly filled in A's for all the ones I missed and I turned it in, then I took the written portion and I left. The attitude I had towards the whole thing was that of a detached third person - and that is, this was very very funny. People trickled out, people asked me what the hell was I thinking, me and Asim spoke to the professors afterwards asking one last time if there was any way we could make up those questions (the answer was no), and there was nothing more we could do. But I didn't overly stress. Unfortunately Asim was freaking freaking freaking out, and I believe that undermined his performance on the written portion as well. But he is a smart kid, hardworker, so I'm sure his written portion was good.

Anyways, I just got the results back, and Alhamdulillah I passed the test. This story was for the books.