I believe this law should be amended to allow veterinary students to gain more experience before graduation. Although students have learned enough theoretical information during the four years of schooling to become successful veterinarians, allowing them to practice learned skills over the summer (under the supervision of a degree-holding DVM) would dramatically increase their ability to perform practical skills with excellence when they are expected to be able to do so without supervision. Although book knowledge provides a good foundation for these skills, in my past experiences the difference between knowing how to do something and being able to correctly do that same task is often painfully apparent once the task is attempted. Take, for example, the common procedures of PCR and electrophoresis. Many students often have a great deal of difficulty getting the expected results from these procedures even when they have a detailed set of instructions in front of them and probably have even calculated the desired outcome. Of course I do not expect VMRCVM to be able to provide enough cases for students to practice all skills multiple times, nor would it be time-effective for a professor to watch all 120 students practice all the skills. Rather, I believe that once a student has learned any certain skill out of a book, she should be able to take that knowledge to the practice at which she works over the summer and, provided the veterinarian there is comfortable with this, she should be allowed to practice those skills under supervision. Thank you for your consideration.