Some sage advice

This past week I had a conversation with the professor who has been most helpful to me in my pursuit of my Masters degree, Joana Sabadell-Nieto. She is from Spain, particularly from Barcelona (Spaniards tend to identify themselves more by the city or region they are from than by calling themselves Spaniards. And Spain is not unique in this. Conversely, we from the U.S. tend to identify ourselves by the nation we come from rather, or at least much more often, than by saying, for instance, I'm a New Yorker.) At any rate, our conversation entailed a semi-lengthy discussion of the upcoming exam. Joana has been my advisor for the past two years, and the responsibility of advisement for graduate students has recently changed to another professor in the department, which is a customary occurrence there every couple years give or take. However, being the dedicated person she is, Joana thought it best to tell me a few things, which were instrumental in my making the decision to postpone taking the exam yet another semester. First of all, the two individuals that took the exam last Fall must retake the exam in April since neither of them passed the exam. Yikes! For them, it is the second of 2 chances you get according to departmental policy. Joana felt this was due to a lack of proper preparation, though. I told her that that frightened me and she said it ought to and proceeded to tell me that if I have not dedicated myself to a minimum of 4 months solid study for this April exam, practically to the exclusion to everything else, then I should seriously consider postponing it. She said she is certain I will do well, IF I am well prepared.

In the two years I have known her, we discussed Myrtle being sick and she knew I felt close to her. She was also aware of Myrtle's passing, as I missed the last 2-3 weeks of her class last semester. So, I strongly believe she had taken this into consideration when advising me to consider postponing the exam once more (knowing I probably hadn't been able to concentrate much), so that I would have the majority of the summer to study without also having to be concerned with coursework and with the event of Myrtle's death becoming slowly but surely less painful with time. She also told me that she thinks I am too hard on myself, since I was dismayed at the thought of postponing it even longer. She said there is nothing wrong with that, especially if it will enable me to do a GOOD exam as opposed to a mediocre one the first time around.

She had previously advised me on other very important academic requirement matters in the past and has helped me correct some serious detriments in my transcript by way of facilitating my changing two E (failing) grades that were on it to W (withdrawals), negating the detrimental influence they would have on my ability to graduate with the masters and possibly proceed with the PhD. The first semester was the Fall of 2005 and things weren't exactly going smoothly between Jon and I after the divorce that March, so I had taken 2 Incompletes that semester and then the professor (I had the same guy for both classes that semester) left the university the following semester to go onto bigger and better things, so I couldn't make up the Incompletes and they automatically converted to E's

Truly she has gotten to know me well. And I find it very thoughtful of her to advise me of the most recent matters pertaining to the exam, despite the fact that she is no longer officially my advisor. She also alluded to me that despite the policy of 2 opportunities to take the exam, it is MUCH MORE favorable to take a good exam the first time around. Consideration for admittance in the PhD component truly rests with this point.

So, this summer, as she suggests, will be dedicated to an "obsessive" (a word she could not emphasize enough!) round of study for the exam, save 9 days vacation in England at the end of May and my 40 hr/wk at work. Whoo hoo sounds like I will be having a exciting summer, huh? :)