I can’t believe how fast this year flew by. If I had to sum it up in one word? Crazy. But since one word doesn’t do justice to the rollercoaster that is vet school, here’s my slightly-more-than-quick recap of second year.
1st Semester
The first few months were… eventful. I was juggling partial exams, a retake (histology — my old nemesis), and the big CVA exams. Looking back now, it feels like it passed in a blur, but in the moment? My plate was overflowing. Strangely enough, I kind of thrived on that. Not stress, exactly — more like eustress.
When I was preparing for the histology retake, something clicked. For the first time, I really got into the rhythm of it. Understanding concepts, making sense of details, and actually remembering things felt good. Like rewarding-my-brain-with-a-gold-star good. And that’s when I rediscovered the power of active recall — basically tricking your brain into giving you little hits of dopamine while studying.
Here’s the thing
Most goals in life only pay off in the long run. It takes months (or years) of effort before you actually get the big reward. That’s where discipline gets you started… but discipline alone won’t carry you for the next 6 months, 2 years, or beyond. That’s where dopamine — our brain’s “feel-good, keep-going” chemical — comes in.
Now, dopamine is the same culprit that keeps us glued to our phones, endlessly scrolling for likes and comments. But it’s also the secret sauce that can make studying (or running, or training, or anything) feel sustainable. The trick? Find ways to get those immediate little rewards along the way.
For me, active recall became that immediate reward. Here’s how I use it:
- Break info down into chunks (heading → subheading → details).
- Understand the big picture first, then pick out keywords.
- Close the notes, and test myself on the chunks.
- Verbalise or scribble them down.
- The harder it is to recall, the more my brain grows.
And the best part? That mini dopamine rush when you finally nail it. Sometimes you’ll get it right, sometimes you won’t — and honestly, that unpredictability is what makes it addictive (kind of like refreshing Instagram, but way healthier).
This little system is what got me through my partials, my retake, and the CVA marathon.
CVA Exams + The Retake
CVA exam prep in December was… intense.
I realised (a little too late in October) that I had way more to study than I thought. Theory alone was 5000 slides. For practicals, I had to memorise 106 canine acupoints and 120 equine acupoints — where they are, how to find them, and how to describe them.
Practicing on real dogs and horses helped so much. There’s something about actually feeling the depressions, visualising the landmarks, and then saying it out loud:
“LI-10 — 2 cun below the elbow crease, cranial lateral of the arm, between extensor carpi radialis and common digital extensor muscles.”
Sounds like gibberish to most people, but to me it became muscle memory. It also taught me a big lesson: memorising becomes easier when you make it memorable.
My WHY was so strong that it kept me going. I’d already seen acupuncture work wonders on shelter animals, and I wanted to keep that belief alive. Passing the CVA was the goal of the year, and everything else took a backseat.
Retake
Of course, I couldn’t forget the histology retake in November. Failing again was not an option (though if I had, I promised myself it would at least be for a new reason, not the same mistake). I doubled down on sleep, food, and making sure I could actually tell slides apart — no more panic-blurting wrong answers. When I passed, it was one of those sigh-of-relief moments.
And yes, I celebrated. I gifted myself a cozy 3-day, 2-night trip to Sibiu — full of Christmas vibes and cobblestones straight out of a fairy tale.
Mid-terms/Partials & Finals
Then came the final boss level — finals in February. Honestly, the two months leading up to them felt like a game of catch-up. I’d missed a few classes (okay, more than a few) because I was off practicing acupoints on horses at the stables. Worth it? Yes. Stressful later? Also yes.
Here were my subjects:
- Anatomy 3
- Animal Breeding
- Animal Nutrition 1
- Biochem & Molecular Biology
- Hereditary Diseases & Molecular Genetics
- Histology & Embryology 2
- Microbiology 1
- Physiology 1
- Romanian Language 3
Hardest? Anatomy, physiology, histology, nutrition, biochem.
Easiest? Breeding, genetics, microbiology, Romanian (for reasons you’ll see).
Most interesting? Physiology, histology, genetics — you know it’s fun when subjects start to overlap and connect like puzzle pieces.
Now, about Romanian… let’s just say I’m not learning much Romanian in Romanian class 😅. Either our professor is too nice or too checked out, but everyone ends up with a 10/10 anyway. It’s the kind of exam you can prep for five minutes before and still ace. Equal parts hilarious and tragic.
For anatomy midterms, I was still neck-deep in CVA prep, so I had to lean heavily on my friends’ legendary concise notes (shoutout to them for saving me). Honestly, the family-like vibe in our year — 45 of us, no bell curve, sharing flashcards and notes freely — is one of the things that makes vet school bearable.
Finals
After CVA, I had about 2–3 weeks to whip up my own notes. My method? Excel sheets. Yes, Excel — my one-page flashcard system. It sounds nerdy, but it kept me sane and efficient.
Practical exams week, though… chaotic energy. Six practicals packed into a week, sometimes three or four on the same day. Whoever thought that was convenient needs to rethink their life choices. Once that week ended, things actually felt manageable because during the official exam session, we had no classes and could negotiate exam dates with professors. Perks of being a small group! Our year leaders did a phenomenal job arranging them so we could shorten the session.
My rhythm: 2–4 days between each exam → study, relax, repeat. After each exam, I’d take the afternoon off to recharge — call my parents, go for a walk, cook while listening to podcasts, or just be a human. I’d only restart light studying around 5 PM (post-tea ritual). Evenings were for kickboxing or BJJ — non-negotiable. Keeping that gym routine gave me energy, kept me sane, and honestly boosted my mood so much that I could show up fresh the next day.
Unlike first year, this time I refused to ditch martial arts during exams. 3–4 trainings a week (2–3 kickboxing, 1 BJJ) = best decision ever.
Student Association Adventures (Yaboumba)
On top of exams, I also dove headfirst into Yaboumba Junior Cluj — our student-led exotic medicine association. I joined three teams (events, sponsorship, and mental health) which, at first, was… overwhelming.
Confession: when I don’t know what to do, I procrastinate. Combine that with CVA prep, and yeah, I avoided things. Which of course led to poor communication, which then slowed progress. Oops. Thankfully, our team had an honest meeting about it, and it reminded me of something simple but crucial: just communicate. Say when you can’t do something. Assumptions create way bigger problems than honesty ever will.
Fast forward a few months, and things started clicking. We organised regular events, ran meetings, and even though some areas (like sponsorships) were lagging, the team’s energy was high.
One highlight? Leading a meditation session with the mental health team. We dimmed the lights, sat in a circle, and I introduced Anapana and Vipassana meditation. We did a 20-minute practice, then ended with sharing and Q&A. I’ll be honest — I hesitated to lead it because I’m not “officially” trained. But I went in with good intentions, hoping to inspire others to explore the 10-day Vipassana course themselves. Sometimes, that first spark is all someone needs.
Celebration 🎉
This semester taught me that celebrating the small wins is just as important as the big ones. After all, what’s the point of “enjoying the process” if you only pause for the final trophy? The small wins are the stepping stones that make the big ones possible.
Some of my favourites:
- Passing CVA exams → dinner with fellow CVA students and our instructor, followed by a solo day trip and a cozy writing session at a café (for the vibes, obviously).
- Christmas break → a solo trip to Sibiu, equal parts charming streets and much-needed reset.
- After each exam → a guilt-free day off to recharge.
- Passing all my final exams → a one-week solo cabin escape plus four days of exploring Cluj and Alba Iulia with my sister.
Keeping Sane 🧘🏻♀️🥋
Celebrating is fun, but staying grounded day-to-day is what kept me balanced this semester.
The non-negotiables:
- Martial arts → I stuck to my evening kickboxing and BJJ classes, even during the exam session. Training didn’t drain me — it refilled me. Every time I walked out of the gym sweaty and smiling, I knew tomorrow’s study session would thank me.
- Meditation → my morning anchor. On exam days without a strict timetable, that 10–20 minutes of stillness set the tone and nudged me into flow.
- Social breaks → at least once a week, I made myself meet friends — either for something fun or even just study sessions. Left unchecked, I’d hermit away during busy periods, so I learned to schedule joy. A few highlights: a watermelon picnic in the middle of exam season, movie nights, and game nights that reset my brain better than any nap.
2nd Semester
Toastmasters 🎤
The new semester called for a new challenge. Well, not entirely new — more like something I’d dabbled in before but still felt way out of my comfort zone: public speaking.
I finally joined the Timișoara English Speakers Club, after lurking in several of their online meetings. Before Romania, I was part of a Toastmasters club in Singapore for about eight months, attending physical meetings until I moved here. After a year-long break from speaking, I was ready to dive back in — prepping, practicing, and standing on stage again.
Speech #1:
To my surprise, it went better than expected. My evaluator, mentor, and the audience gave me such encouraging feedback. I went in with zero pressure, just a goal to have fun on stage — something I’d really missed. Of course, I was nervous. But my mentor helped me reframe the jitters into excitement, and it worked. That first step back felt amazing.
Speech #2: …was a flop.
Midway through, I blanked out and literally forgot my speech. Coming off the high of my first success, I had placed way too much pressure on myself to outdo it. I’d over-practiced word for word, and the tiniest slip — using a different word than planned — derailed me completely. Painful? Yes. Valuable? Absolutely. I learned the hard way that memorizing scripts isn’t my style. From now on, it’s about key points, stories, and letting flow carry me.
I had hoped to complete my third speech before the school year ended, but Yabdays prep quickly took over, and then exams swept in. So I’ve promised myself: Speech #3 will happen in October, when the new school year begins. That’s also when I plan to take part in my very first Toastmasters contest. Nervous? Definitely. Excited? Even more so.
Yaboumba & Yabdays
Yabdays is an annual three-day festival of vet student nerdom: conferences, practicals, hands-on sessions, and a jungle-themed party. As a first-year I attended the 1st edition and left wide-eyed; this year, I was on the organising team.
Timeline & responsibilities
- February: initial planning and team formation.
- March–April: outreach to sponsors, confirming venues and speakers, designing the program, marketing and registration.
- May (event weekend): final run-throughs, on-site coordination, and the thing actually happening.
I was on the sponsor team, specifically in charge of food sponsorship. That taught me some of the most useful real-world skills: cold-calling (ugh), drafting concise sponsor emails and dealing with the emotional honesty of rejection. I made less than 10 calls before the university canteen agreed to support us at a discount — not glamorous, but mission accomplished.
What I learnt about rejection:
Five years ago, a “no” would’ve felt like personal failure. Now a “no” is data — feedback that pushes me to try again with a better angle. And sometimes the “yes” comes from unexpected places (university canteen saved the day).
Events team & team spirit
Being on the events team meant communicating constantly, juggling deadlines, and doublings as a crisis-management exercise. WhatsApp chains, late-night planning calls, last-minute program edits — all of it trained my organisational skills and taught me how much high morale and small acts of kindness mean when everyone is exhausted.
The weekend itself
The event went smoothly. Tiresome? Yes. Satisfying? Not quite — fulfilled is the word. Watching attendees leave with new skills, wide smiles, and a full stomach made the months of prep worth it.
A small magical moment
We had a team dinner in our ex-president’s apartment with the visiting vet speakers: dimmed lights, candles, classical music from a vintage CD player, paintings around the table, homemade risotto, and a quiet dessert. That night’s conversation stuck with me: we talked about purpose, about making a difference without moving continents, and about how small, consistent actions can add up into something tangible. That’s the pulse of Yaboumba — clinical interest in exotics medicine wrapped in real-life reminders about living well and doing good.
Uni-related activities (basketball, REVER, and community)
Basketball became a weekly life-saver: training sessions, team camaraderie, and a few matches (including a friendly versus Alba Iulia). I looked forward to practice because it’s a break from being hunched over anatomy slides — a place to move, shout, laugh, and be human.
REVER is a three-day event between four Romanian vet schools (Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara & Iași) run by international students. Sports competitions, team games, and themed parties — it’s messy, loud, and unbelievably fun. I skipped last year because I assumed it was too French for me (my French = 0), but going this year was a great decision. The best parts were cheering friends on, muddying my shoes in the games, and the support you feel when you’re part of a team.
Easter break — Hurghada, Luxor, Cairo (travels + diving)
Two weeks of break in April and I chose to get my Open Water Diver (OWD) certification in Egypt. Hurghada was recommended by a friend who dives there regularly, so arrangements were relatively straightforward despite a few language bumps.
Hurghada — diving
- Three days of diving with a small group; excellent instructors (one of them kept saying, “Take your peace, drink some tea, and we will begin again later.” — I’ve adopted it as my unofficial motto).
- The training included skills practice, navigation exercises (compass work that still makes me laugh), and mini-tests. There was a lot of laughter — especially at my instructor’s attempt to teach us underwater navigation — and a calm, patient teaching style that made the whole experience refreshingly low-pressure.
- Final test day: my sister and I passed and became officially Open Water Divers. It felt like an earned calm — suspiciously peaceful breathing and a big sense of childlike wonder at the underwater world.
Luxor & Cairo
- We did a day tour to Luxor: Valley of the Kings, temples, and the Colossi of Memnon. Jaw-dropping and humbling.
- Cairo was full of famous landmarks and bustle — incredible architecture, but also a crash course in “how to say no with a smile.” We weren’t on a guided tour in Cairo, so we experienced more harassment and opportunistic sales pitches than in Luxor. Lessons learned: stick to crowded areas, use Uber (at the same time be vigilant on the direction your driver is taking you), separate cash, and practise a polite but firm “no, thank you.”
Safety notes (personal takeaways):
- I felt safe in Hurghada (thought I never tried going off alone) and in Luxor when on guided tours. Cairo required more vigilance — stick to main roads, use Uber, and don’t be afraid to walk away.
Exams — what I studied and how I organised myself
Exams were a blend of panic and satisfaction. The first week was dominated by practical exams (5–6 in one go) — stressful because practicals gatekept the theoretical exams (we can only take the theoretical exam if we pass the practical). After that week, the rest felt more manageable.
Subjects this semester
- Anatomy 4
- Animal Nutrition 2
- Animal Production 1
- General Pathology
- Microbiology 2
- Physiology 2
- Veterinary Hygiene & Environmental Protection
- Veterinary Mycology
How I organised my exam weeks (my exact 4-day study routine):
- Day 0: light review — organise my notes and outline the main concepts. (The goal here is calm, not panic.)
- Day 1: make my “excel flashcards” — condensed notes in a spreadsheet (question/keyword in one column, short answer in another) + active recall.
- Day 2: active recall on about half the content — self-quizzing, explaining topics out loud, and correcting weak spots.
- Day 3: active recall the rest and do a final full run-through. End with a short, restful wind-down so I didn’t burn out right before the exam.
Study tactics I leaned on:
- Active recall (self-quizzing and teaching an imaginary student).
- Condensing content into bite-sized, high-yield notes (my spreadsheet flashcards).
- Spaced review between topics rather than marathon cramming.
- Short, focused sessions (Pomodoro-style) with breaks to prevent mental fatigue.
- I reminded myself the big lesson: concepts matter more than rote numbers — we can look up exact figures when needed; understanding the why is what sticks.
Keeping sane while sick (and with an injured knee)
This semester my immune system staged a coup: two bouts of upper respiratory infection, each lasting 2–3 weeks and with only a short breather between them. I also picked up a knee injury after a mid-May basketball friendly. That meant the last 6–7 weeks of school involved scaling back my usual sports.
How I coped (practical mental & physical strategies):
- I kept moving where possible — basketball, kickboxing, and BJJ continued until symptoms or safety made it impossible. For the knee, I swapped high-impact sessions for gym work and home workouts (stationary bike/rowing, bodyweight circuits, mobility drills). These kept endorphins up and gave me routine.
- Sleep, hydration, and pacing became non-negotiables when I was coughing at night. Missing one basketball game in Iași was tough, but necessary — migraines from sleepless coughing are not cute.
- Podcasts, music, and short guided meditations helped during gym/home-workout sessions — made the running-of-reps feel like company, not punishment.
- Mentally, I leaned on friends and family. Small chats, check-in messages, and a couple of shared laughs made the grind feel lighter.
Note: I wasn’t looking for miracle fixes — more like small swaps and realistic expectations. Rehab and recovery are often slow, but consistent low-impact work and listening to your body help a lot.
What I’m looking forward to next year
- Leading VIP Cluj (Veterinary Integrative Practices Cluj) — excited to shape student-led projects and interdisciplinary events.
- Public speaking competitions (Toastmasters) — time to channel those nerves again.
- YTT certification (yoga teacher training) — because breath + balance = better me.
- AOWD advanced diving — keep exploring the underwater world.
- EU and UK travel plans — short study breaks and long coffees.
- And, fingers crossed, more basketball if my knee behaves.
Final thoughts (for anyone reading this)
If you’re a student juggling a million things: it’s okay to be messy. It’s okay to flub a speech, to lose a sponsor, to cough through an exam week, and to still find moments of extraordinary joy. The small daily decisions — sending that awkward phone call, showing up to practice, taking two hours to make a usable flashcard sheet — add up. You don’t need to move mountains to matter. Start with what’s around you, be kind to yourself in the process, and keep laughing when the compass lesson goes sideways underwater.
If anything in this post resonates — or if you have a ridiculous public-speaking freeze story, a sponsorship email that actually worked, or a favourite recovery tea recipe — drop a comment. I’d love to hear it.
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