Updates, Updates!

I'm getting out of practice, updating this blog!

By and large, the last couple of weeks have been pretty ordinary to be honest. Lectures, coursework, and testing participants. I'm almost done with one of the studies I'm running now, just two more weeks of testing and I'll have all my data. It's always good getting to the end of testing (something that takes a heck of a lot longer in patient studies, hence the ongoing saga of my clinical trial), and I'll be interested to see what the results are.

This week, I finally finished my clinical psychology essay. This is the last short essay I'll write at Kent, so it's a bit of a milestone. Now all I have left are the second half of my dissertation and an extended essay for neuroscience, then all of my coursework will be done! Four exams, and then graduation. I have to admit, things have gone very, very quickly since I got my master's place. I suppose that's what a happier outlook does to you!

I started preparing for my exams yesterday. Revision is an awful time of the year if you do it properly. Usually between 8 and 12 hours each day of poring over notes, condensed notes, textbooks and lists of names and dates. It's not fun or easy for anyone, good student or not. But, it's definitely worth it once you see the grades on the paper! In fact, it's two months today and I'll be done with my degree. That is a scary thought!

Tuesday this week saw the last of my French classes. I'll be very sad to see the end of them to be honest, although when I go to UCL I expect I will take the next class up to build upon what I've already learned. In two weeks, I'll also be on my way to Paris! It'll be a nice break before I start the hell of revision, plus I'll have the chance to practice what I've learned in my classes. Hopefully I won't make too much of a fool of myself. In any case, I'm sure it will be a great trip and I'm really, really looking forward to it.

The other piece of good news I had this week was getting over the £1,000 mark on my MSc fundraiser! Thank you so much to those of you who shared and donated! It's officially less than 6 months until I start now, and I'm getting more and more excited about everything.

Finally, I've been tutoring over the last week or so. It's been a new experience, and I'm glad that I can help people out with their work. I enjoy cognitive and biological psychology very much, and I hope that I make the topic interesting for my student.

While I was teaching the other day, my student asked how I got into psychology, and I remembered what a strange story that one makes. I can't remember who I've told about this before, so I figured it would be an interesting thing to write on here. Here goes.

When I was younger, I was really into a band called Travis (still am, of course!). You'll probably recognise most of their songs, even if you don't know the band (Why Does It Always Rain On Me, Sing, etc.). I saw them live a couple of times, and met a few of the band members (they remembered me too, by the way, and the lead singer wrote to me regarding a show review I'd written on their site!). Anyway, their second album is called 'The Man Who'. It's a bit of a strange title, admittedly. The man who, what? I looked up the origins of the name once, and discovered the album was named after a book by Dr Oliver Sacks: The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat. Of course, it looked extremely interesting, so I went ahead and bought the book. The book itself describes conditions such as hemispatial neglect and agnosia, and talks about the people behind the conditions. From then on, I've been completely hooked on learning more about these problems, and what can be done to help the people who are affected by them. Dr Sacks is a complete hero of mine, and last year I was privileged enough to meet him. He talks a lot about the human element to cognitive and neurological disorders, and how often in science and medicine it's easy to forget about the people behind them. The talk that I saw him give spoke of how we should be mindful of patients, and ultimately do things not for the sake of knowledge, but to truly improve people's lives. This is something I will take with me as I (hopefully) advance through my career, and every time I've worked with a patient I make sure to be careful that I'm helping the person, rather than investigating a treatment.

So, there you have it. From music to neuroscience. It's a random story, but hopefully a good one.