I lived in Marine Drive Year-Round Housing from May to October 2011, so here is the dorm walk-through (I apologize in advance for the bad photo quality =[ ):
I. Photos of the 4-unit shared dorm: 4 people living in 4 bedrooms with 2 shared baths, a shared kitchen, and a shared living room. Here is the floor plan as found on the UBC housing website:
This floor plan was SIMILAR but not 100% the same as the unit I rented.
i) Entrance: All 4 residents have a key to this door. My personal pet peeve was when others forgot to lock the door, as I was on edge after the multiple thefts that occurred when I lived in Place Vanier residence. Furthermore, maintenance men can come in and out of this door with their own set of keys without warning.
ii) Closet and Washroom #1: shared by the residents of units #1 and #2. The closet contained a mop and a broken vacuum provided by Marine Drive. The vacuum was replaced once reported.
iii) Hallway #1: Washroom #1 (not shown) to Washroom #2 (the door on the right), open door of unit #4 and closed door of unit #3
iv) Washroom #2: shared by the residents of units #3 and #4
a) Vanity: not only is the rent more expensive than the Vanier/Totem residences, but there are many small expenses that the residents have to cover such as buying toilet paper, garbage bags, and cleaning supplies. In Vanier/Totem, UBC provided maid services who were responsible for these items. All the cleaning is done by the residents, so it is important to make a cleaning schedule before the unit becomes a complete mess.
b) Shower
v) Hallway #2: Kitchen to Dining Room
a) Shared Refrigerator (a 4-person unit has a 3-shelf refrigerator……..): It was not fun discovering moldy food from years ago when I moved in, so this is the newly-cleaned fridge after we cleaned it out. It’s too bad that people don’t have the common courtesy of throwing away their food after moving out, as it is hard to figure out whether it is a current or past resident’s food. It took us a few hours to go through every item of food and ascertain whose it was. It was unpleasant cleaning out black mold from the shelves. The freezer only has one shelf, so it’s annoying cramming the food of four residents into one space without any organization. I would highly recommend buying a mini-fridge of your own, or to label your food if you choose to store it in the common fridge!!!
b) Storage Cupboards: There are 4 cupboards, 1 per person.
c) Sink Area: Microwave, dishwasher, and oven are provided. My roommates didn’t use the dishwasher (as seen by the pile of dishes waiting to be done).
vi) Dining Room:
vii) Living Room: A TV stand is provided but a TV IS NOT PROVIDED by Marine Drive. Note: the covers are off of the couches because they were dirty.
viii) Dorm Room: These photos were taken right before I moved out, so all of the furniture that is seen in the photos was provided by Marine Drive. The room was about the same exact size as a Vanier/Totem room.
II. General Comments
- Although my friends and I applied to be roommates together, we were unfortunately split up into different units. The unit I got had three chemical engineering students (including me) and one arts student.
Why I left Marine Drive:
- I needed to be asleep by ~9-10pm to wake up at 6am. Unfortunately, several of my roommates had classes late in the day and would therefore stay up well into the morning. The walls are very thin, and one can hear pretty much every noise from every unit. Studying was difficult… It would be nice if the questionnaire for dorms matched people up with similar timetables and personalities.
- Roommates wouldn’t clean up after themselves. I got sick of cleaning up after others, and I am sure one of my other roommates shares this frustration!
- At one point, we were told to move out into a different building and then move back in after a week. This was during midterm week. It took HOURS to pack up all my belongings (since I brought EVERYTHING I owned to Marine Drive), it then took HOURS to haul everything to the new building, hours to unpack, hours to re-pack, hours to haul everything back, and hours to unpack again. Naturally, my study time was compromised, and I was shocked that our unit was chosen for painting during midterms!
- There was NO HOT WATER DAILY between ~midnight and ~8am. Since I had to get up at 6am to get ready for 8am classes, this became a nightmare. After 7 complaints from me and numerous complaints from other residents of Marine Drive, they never fixed the water and when I left in October there was still no hot water in the mornings.
The freezing showers, noisy roommates, and unexpected move-outs drove me out of Marine Drive and into Acadia Park and I have never looked back! Marine was not for me, but it COULD be enjoyable if one lucks out with compatible roommates, hot water, and no move-outs.
Note: The booklist for Winter Session 2011-2012 is out now: http://shop.bookstore.ubc.ca/
Purpose: I am writing this post for the benefit of new students. Although no one cares about finals now that they’ve just finished, I will forget my schedule by next year so I thought I’d just add this post to the archives for future reference.
Disclaimer: The duration, format, % worth, and date of every exam usually changes from year to year. Do not, by any means, assume that your exam will be like mine! This post is meant to provide a general idea of what to expect and to convince you to begin studying for your finals long before they approach.
Most engineering students write 5-7 final exams every year, so although the courses I list might be just for CHBE students, the timing of the exams will be similar for most engineers.
The exam schedule is posted on the SSC website during the middle of every term so you can plan out your studies well in advance. This year, classes ended for everyone on Friday, December 2nd and finals began on Monday, December 5th. It is not unknown to have more than one final on the same day, although this year we managed to escape such a thing. Furthermore, do not be surprised if a final is scheduled on a weekend- last year I had a final at 8am on a Saturday. However, I do not believe there have ever been finals on Sundays. Marks for final exams are seldom posted, but the final mark for every course is USUALLY posted after December 20th. Some course marks are posted immediately, while others might take months to mark!
Since I do not believe I have permission to disclose the exact content of final exams, I will simply state the general format for each exam.
Chemical & Biological Engineering Final Exam Schedule
1. Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Subject: APSC 201: Technical Communication
Duration: 3:30pm – 6:00pm
Format: 1) Write a memo 2) Write an expanded definition
- Dictionaries were allowed to be brought to the exam, although I don’t believe I saw a single student with one (probably because one has to pass a 1st-year English course prior to taking this class).
Worth: 30%
Note: This format was announced to every class ~1 week prior to the exam, so the questions were not a surprise. However, we were not told the exact problems that would be asked (i.e. The situation to respond to; whether to write an email or a letter, etc.). The questions change every year (e.g. I believe one year there was a mechanical description).
2. Friday, December 9, 2011
Subject: CHBE 241: Material and Energy Balances
Duration: 12:00pm – 2:30pm
Format: 4 long-answer questions with multiple parts
- A handwritten, double-sided 8.5″ x 11″ formula sheet was allowed to be brought into the exam. I didn’t find that I needed it to answer the questions, but it gave a nice sense of security.
- Programmable calculators were permitted.
Worth: 60%
3. Monday, December 12, 2011
Subject: CHEM 260: Organic Chemistry for Engineers
Duration: 8:30am – 11:00am
Format: Almost identical to the previous exams that were posted by our professor: a barrage of various problems covering everything in the course.
- It was nice knowing the type of questions to expect on the exam beforehand, but since this course is very heavy on memorization I felt that it was the most difficult course to study for due to the volume of things to remember.
Worth: 65%
4. Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Subject: BIOL 112: Unicellular Life
Duration: 12:00pm – 2:30pm
Format: Multiple Choice
- I took this course in the summer semester, but the format remained the same for the students who took it this term.
- A handwritten, double-sided 8.5″ x 11″ formula sheet was allowed to be brought into the exam. I didn’t find that I needed it to answer the questions, but it gave a nice sense of security.
- Multiple choice questions can be really pesky, as options sometimes include:
- All of the above
- None of the above
- i&ii, i&iii, ii&iv, etc. (Usually for questions such as “Which of the following are true: [list: i, ii, iii, iv, v]“)
Worth: 50% (when I took it in the summer)
5. Friday, December 16, 2011
Subject: MATH 253: Multivariable Calculus
Duration: 8:30am – 11:00am
Format: Like any other math exam- several pages of both word problems and simple numerical problems.
- I took this course in the summer semester, but the format remained the same for the students who took it this term.
Worth: 50% (when I took it in the summer)
6. Monday, December 19, 2011
Subject: CHEM 251: Physical Chemistry for Engineers
Duration: 8:30am – 11:00am
Format: Several long-answer questions with every major section of the course represented, with greater emphasis on chemical kinetics.
- A formula sheet was provided, but I did not end up using it at all.
- Only non-programmable calculators were permitted, but people still brought programmable calculators and were allowed to use them.
Worth: 60%
Conclusion: The finals were spaced 1-3 days apart, so it is impossible to “learn” an entire course in that time span. It is assumed that the student already knows ALL of the course material and the days between the finals are just meant to be spent REVIEWING NOT LEARNING. It is therefore extremely important to learn the material the same day the professor teaches it in class in order to stay on top of the work. It is very easy to get left behind, and I feel that if one is more than 2 weeks behind in a course it is almost impossible to achieve a good mark. I feel that the worst part of the year is the end of November, where new material is usually the hardest and there is simply no time to fall behind. Most finals focus on the last part of the course, so getting behind in November is a very fast path to failure. Hope this post helps satisfy curiosity to some extent!
Note: In hindsight, I shouldn’t have called these posts “Engineering Courses,” but Econ101 was the course I chose as my elective. As I am no longer in first year, the name of my blog has been changed from “Year One” to a more generic “Engineering Student.”
News: For those interested in taking Chemical Engineering, you now have to take the course Biol112 in your second year, just like those in Chemical and Biological Engineering. This means that it would be a great idea to take Biology 12 in high school for those that have never taken a biology course in their life. To add on to the removal of the “Environment Option” from Chemical Engineering, there are now no more options: the “Process Option” is now referred to as “Chemical Engineering” and the “Biological Option” is now referred to as “Chemical and Biological Engineering.”
Now on to the course review…
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ECON 101
This is an elective I chose to fulfill the Humanities elective requirement for engineers.
Summary:
About the Professor: I had Professor Lemche, and I found a Youtube video here that mirrored my exact experience of sitting in one of his lectures. I found his lectures to be dry and boring, and I learned nothing from going to class. Instead, I sat at home and read the matching dry and boring textbook and tried to remember the material within. In the end, I don’t remember anything from this course (as opposed to Gateman’s 102 class where I remember everything due to his enthusiastic teaching approach). I have heard, however, that Prof. Lemche has retired- but I don’t know whether this is true. Although the material in this course could be interesting on its own, the textbook and the professor made it a thoroughly unenjoyable experience.
About the Course: In Econ101, you learn about microeconomics- “The study of individual choice under scarcity and its implications for the behaviour of prices and quantities in individual markets.” It mostly involved studying graphs and memorizing vocabulary, and I personally found it far from interesting (as opposed to Econ102). Each professor teaches this course differently and makes the use of different textbooks, and since every year there are many different professors who teach this course, it is purely by chance that you will run into a good professor. Regardless, as long as you make sure to read the textbook thoroughly, you should do okay in this course. However, your memory will be tested and you will also have to put your knowledge to the test by analyzing articles from present newspapers. The graphs are simple and so are the calculations, but there are many different graphs to remember and many different vocabulary words to memorize- both ECON101 and ECON102 are very knowledge-intensive and are definitely not the “easy” courses that they might come off to be in the beginning. This course is different from other engineering courses because it involves very few calculations (all of which involve extremely basic math). Furthermore, exams consist not of four questions but of many pages of questions ranging from testing vocabulary knowledge to analyzing articles and responding to both short and long answer questions. Those who aren’t fluent in English probably should stay away from this course…
Textbook:
Every professor uses different textbooks, and our class used “Principles of Microeconomics: Third Canadian Edition” that was packaged with a mandatory online access code that we used to do an online lab that we submitted once a week. Since Prof. Lemche has retired however, I won’t go into detail about the labs nor the textbook (which was horrid to read as it would never fail to bore me to sleep). Below, I include the names of the chapters that we went through so as to show what topics Microeconomics covers- most ECON101 courses will cover similar topics.
Chapters:
- Thinking Like an Economist
- Comparative Advantage: The Basis for Exchange
- Supply and Demand: An Introduction
- Demand: The Benefit Side of the Market
- Production and Cost: The Supply Side in the Short Run
- Production, Cost, and the Quest for Profit: The Supply Side in the Long Run
- Efficiency and Exchange
- Monopoly and Other Forms of Imperfect Competition
- Thinking Strategically
- Externalities and Property Rights
- The Economics of Information
Final Remarks:
This post is short because I feel it would be a waste of time to outline the way the course was run due to the retirement of the professor.
- The moment your textbook comes out on the booklist- start reading it! There is a big chance that you will have to read most- or all- of it by the end of the term.
- Remember to UNDERSTAND what you are reading instead of blindly memorizing the information- your memory will be tested, but so will your analysis-skills.
- I found it hard to devote time to reading during the hectic first year of engineering, and would therefore suggest that this course be taken in the summer if possible.
- I found this course to be quite boring and would only recommend it be taken if it is required- otherwise, may I yet again suggest Econ102?
- There is no sure-fire way of “acing” this course, because one cannot predict how well one will be able to analyze an article or how well one has memorized all the definitions in the textbook. Don’t be surprised if you study for many nights and still not get that 100%.
- Since each professor does his “own thing,” including choosing his own textbook and choosing the online material (if any), I wish this course would be more standardized so that students didn’t have to worry about the professor they got!
- A blurry example of some common graphs in Econ101 (you will study how to draw the different curves, their names, and how and why they move):
This concludes the courses I took in my first term at UBC!!! Next up: Year 1 Term 2 Engineering Courses, starting with APSC 160.
How to get your booklist
1) So this year, the way you get your booklist is different. You must first go to http://shop.bookstore.ubc.ca/ and type in your 6-digit student number and click “Personalize your book list”:
2) Next, you will see a page with each of your Term 1 courses and the required textbooks under their name:
3) That’s it- that’s your booklist. You can print it out and go to the bookstore with it, or you can order your books online on the bookstore’s website and pay $10 for shipping in the lower mainland. HOWEVER, note that it is not yet completed! Some professors take a while to choose their textbooks for their courses, so you might not know all of your textbooks until the beginning of classes. Sadly, my booklist has only one out of four textbooks, so I’ll have to wait a while to see the rest. Furthermore, you might notice that not all of your courses are written in the list (my list has only four courses, but I am taking six courses that term). The courses listed are the ones you will need to buy materials for- you don’t have to worry about the rest.
Notes on buying textbooks
- If you’re not buying your books at the UBC Bookstore, ****make sure you are buying the correct edition of the textbook****!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’ve already seen students buying the WRONG editions of textbooks on facebook, with kind upper-year students assuring them that it doesn’t matter.
- Most of the time it DOES matter. In fact, in my first year, almost all of my profs assigned homework questions from the textbooks that were SPECIFIC to the current edition. People who had bought the 6th edition of the Calculus Transcendentals had to go out and buy the 7th edition, because not only were the homework questions completely different, but some chapters were in a different order as well! (I mention the Calculus book specifically because that is the one that I see most people buying at the moment).
- When professors change, so do the textbooks. Last year, Professor Wang became the new teacher of CHEM 154 and with him the entire textbook changed.
- Sometimes, UBC sells textbooks in packages, and it’s noted on your list “PKG: ….”. If the package includes an online code (Mastering Physics, MasteringEngineering, MyEconLab, etc.), it’s a good idea to buy the package because you will save more money than buying the components individually. Not all packages are worthwhile, however. The Math100 package that UBC provided last year included material that I never used- a solutions manual to only the odd-numbered questions, an algebra guide, and a review sheet- I used only the textbook. HOWEVER, the CUSTOM UBC Calculus textbook was 3 textbooks in one- so I was able to use it for Math 100, Math 101, and Math 253! The people that bought their Calculus book online or from other people had only the Math 100 textbook and therefore had to go out and buy TWO more textbooks! So the conclusion is: look through the material in the package and decided for yourself if you need it. The textbook and the online codes are usually required, but anything else is usually extra.
- Finally, the editions are updated frequently (sometimes it’s to fix an error, but most of the time it’s to make more money), and it is stupid to blindly trust an upper-year student when they say the edition doesn’t matter.. because how would they know?
- Wait until all of your textbooks are published on the list- don’t buy them as they come up: lines in the bookstore are freakishly long this time of year, and you could spend well over an hour in the lineup, so try to make as few trips to the bookstore as possible.
- If you wait until the first or second week of classes to buy your books, you might be setting yourself up for failure:
- The bookstore frequently runs out of textbooks, and may not get another shipment for weeks. But your prof won’t care- he’ll continue teaching and assigning homework and giving quizzes, so make sure you’re prepared by the first day of class.
- Some professors assign homework on the first day of class. Furthermore, each lecture covers quite a lot of material.
- Don’t rent the Calculus textbook: like I said, you will need it for 3 courses, so just buy it. Don’t rent the PHYS 153 textbooks because it spans for two terms.
Final remarks
- Calculators: Two of my professors (Gateman for ECON102 and Wang for CHEM154) followed the UBC guidelines in terms of calculators permitted on tests, and thus only allowed non-programmable calculators during exam time. A good investment would therefore be a SHARP EL-510R which is sold at the bookstore, since it is allowed on all UBC exams. You can keep your high school calculator (my precious TI-83 Plus) for other courses, but it will never be necessary, since you aren’t allowed a calculator on Math exams anyway. For first year, I only used my calculator for quick, easy calculations (addition/subtraction/multiplication/division) and not much more.
- Binders or Notebooks? I bought both in first year, but since we only got 0-2 handouts per course (other than ENGL112), I found that notebooks were lighter and the better option for me. I would suggest buying one binder and a few notebooks to start: it would be a waste of money to buy a binder for every subject. I found that some subjects didn’t need any materials (i.e. CHEM 154- all the notes were posted online).
- Pencils or Pens? Buy both: make sure you have plenty of #2 pencils (for scantrons), some black pens, and some blue pens. My ENGL112 prof only accepted writing in pen, and it is sometimes useful to write your information in pen on other exams. Also buy some white-out.
- Colouring Supplies? Don’t bother, we didn’t draw anything.
- Buy loose-leaf paper- always comes in handy.
That’s all I can think of. Remember to start studying the moment you buy your textbooks to save yourself some panic 
For the Winter Session (2010-2011) at UBC, I lived in Place Vanier and for the Summer Session (2011) I lived at Marine Drive (4-bed shared unit). Here are the fees I had to pay along with the dates that they were due:
Place Vanier:
Total Paid for Rent: $3600
Deposit and Application Fee: $850
Total Paid for Winter Session at Place Vanier (Single Room): $4450
The fees for 2011 have now increased to $4532:
Marine Drive:
Total Paid for Rent: $1503.23
Deposits and Application Fee: $1650 (I applied for different housing, so neglect the last application fee); Marine Drive contracts end in August, so you have to pay a deposit to renew the contract.
Total Paid for Summer Session at Marine Drive Year-Round Housing (Shared 4 Person Unit): $3153.23
Here are the fees for the 2011-2012 Session:
Final Remarks:
- When living at Place Vanier or Totem, you will also spend thousands more on a non-optional Meal Plan (and I hated the cafeteria food, so changing to Marine Drive where you get your own kitchen and don’t have to sign up for a meal plan was a great option for me).
- The Winter Session is 8 months long, so $4450/8 = $556.25 per month for rent. (Vanier) As you can see, however, payments for Place Vanier|Totem are payed PER TERM.
- The Summer Session is 4 months long, and I am currently paying $760 per month for rent. (Marine) As you can see, payments for Marine Drive are payed PER MONTH.
- For the website that has all of the residence fee overviews (and where I got these screenshots from), go to: http://www.housing.ubc.ca/residence-fees.
- For a virtual tour of each of the residences, go to: http://www.housing.ubc.ca/student-residences-van/virtual-tour.
- For places to eat on campus, go to: http://www.food.ubc.ca/locations-and-hours. There are also many places to eat in the UBC Village, located near the Bus Loop.
Since I finally have an updated financial summary, I thought this would be a good time to give an update about the money I paid for tuition for first year (Winter Session 2010), the summer semester (Summer Session 2011), and my upcoming tuition fees for this year (Winter Session 2011).
Tuition Details for 2010 Winter
Tuition Breakdown:
Payment Schedule:
Tuition Details for 2011 Summer
Tuition Breakdown:
Payment Schedule:
Tuition Details for 2011 Winter
Tuition Breakdown:
Payment Schedule:
Remarks:
- As you can see, the tuition fluctuated from session to session. For a 3-credit course: in 2010W it was $451.80, in 2011S it was $460.83, and in 2011W it is $491.91! THUS, it used to cost $150.60 PER CREDIT and now it costs $163.97 PER CREDIT.
- The “Athletics and Recreation Fee” increased from $189.66 to $193.46.
- The “Undergrad Society Fee” increased from $72.00 to $92.00.
- The “Sexual Assault Fund” increased from $3.00 to $3.25.
- The “Sub Renewal Fee” increased from $40.00 to $50.00.
- The “UPass” increased from $95.00 to $120.00.
- The “Ubyssey” publication fee increased from $5.00 to $6.00.
- Etc.
- A bunch of brand new fees were added this year, so the difference in fees WITHOUT counting courses is $994.83 (This year) – $901.11 (Last year) = $93.72.
Note: This is a continuation of my Phys 153 course review- Part 1 can be found here.
Update about blog: I’m finally done with my summer courses… so I’ve finally concluded my 10-month study-intensive first year engineering period and am now free for the month of August :]! Interpretation: time to post more posts!
Now on to the course review…
Tutorials: Once a week every week we had to go to a different classroom for a PHYS153 tutorial. These 50 minute sessions involved a teaching assistant (usually a grad student from the physics department) testing you (for participation marks) through clicker questions. Afterwards, they would explain the correct answers and assign homework due at the next tutorial (yet again for marks). The majority of the homework was from the textbook (aka many students had all the answers in the solutions manual… found through illegal means online) and the rest were questions that we had no idea how to do and would spend hours trying to figure them out (since they were nothing like what we’ve seen before, so we didn’t know how to approach them). On some days it would take only an hour to complete, but when you’re stuck you can be stuck for a looooong time… so be sure to start on the problems early because you have no idea how long they’ll take. Since the TAs are on a 50-minute time limit, they were usually rushing through the clicker questions and would not thoroughly go through the explanations to each question (most of the time they’d just give the numerical answer and move on).
Note: Each session has a different TA, and your TA will switch when you move on to Term 2. My Term 2 TA was great because he was able to see when the class didn’t understand something so he would spend a long time going through the explanation to make sure that everyone would understand. My TA from Term 1 was horrid: he barely spoke english (“dar T” = delta T, wouldn’t understand ANY question asked of him), and his “explanations” of questions usually involved writing one formula on the board (then promptly erasing it) and sometimes he would invoke concepts that we had never studied in 153: he had no idea what we knew/were expected to know and occasionally used complex calculus to derive his formula (not taught in first year) and was unable to rephrase his explanations to make use of 1st-year exclusive concepts.
Pros:
- If you get a good TA, you will benefit from learning how to approach different problems and how to go about solving them. You may also get a chance to ask some questions about concepts that you don’t understand.
- Forces you to solve the textbook problems (for those of us too lazy to do them without outside motivation).
- The clicker marks are participation marks, not marks for the correct answer as done in the lecture.
Cons:
- Waste of class time if your TA doesn’t speak English or doesn’t give explanations to answers.
- aka bad TA = bad tutorial.
- Doesn’t prepare you for how to solve homework questions (but you can ask for help after you hand it in).
Homework: This consists of homework assigned for tutorials (once a week), pre-reading online quizzes (twice a week), and MasteringPhysics questions (randomly).
Tutorial Homework: Like I said in the “Tutorials” section, most of these questions are found in the questions portion of the textbook, but students who don’t manage to obtain a solutions manual have a disadvantage and the questions that aren’t in the textbook are usually difficult since you don’t know how to approach them. I found that the homework for Term 1 was quite easy, while in Term 2 it got progressively harder (although perhaps it seemed harder for me because a lot of the material was unfamiliar to me…). The number of questions per assignment also ranged between 3 and 10.
An example of a homework assignment (Term 1, Week 2):
Pre-Reading Quizzes: These were online quizzes that were found on Vista and were due an hour before a lecture. The primary focus of these quizzes is to make sure that you’ve read the assigned chapters and if you did, these will be a piece of cake. Each question is multiple choice and varies from reading comprehension to calculations and a correct answer earns 10 marks and an incorrect answer earns 0. My main problem with these quizzes is that sometimes they were posted on the same day that they were due, which is sometimes horrible if you’ve got class during that day (or were unlucky enough to be asleep when they were posted)! They were technically supposed to be posted two days prior to their due date (According to my professor), but whoever posted them clearly disregarded that rule and posted them whenever he wanted to. Furthermore, they were sometimes posted immediately after a midterm which meant that after a long day of studying and writing an exam, you had to come home and read a brand new chapter of physics and answer questions about it.
A list of Term 1 Pre-Reading Quizzes on Vista:
A few examples of questions:
MasteringPhysics: One of the requirements for this course is to purchase on online access code to MasteringPhysics.com (this was included in the package I bought in the bookstore with my textbooks). Randomly throughout the year the professor would post tests on that website that you would have to complete for marks. These tests would usually be severally pages long and would consist of both multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, and calculation type questions. I didn’t find them to be useful practice at all… but I guess they were supposed to “help” us practice our physics concepts. Practicing questions from the textbook was much more useful both for understanding concepts and for studying for the midterms. I feel like this was yet another way to force students to pay money for an unneeded service. I guess it’s a few easy marks… too bad you have to pay for them!
List of all our assignments:
You can receive over 100% on each page if you don’t use any hints and get all of the answers correct:
What a typical page looks like:
Labs: Labs commence in Term 2 and once a week every week you will have to perform an experiment in a time limit of 3 hours and you will be working with a partner (you can choose who you work with). Each lab will be posted online (you should bring a printout to the lab session) and it will have the general steps you have to follow. However, you will have to figure out how to operate the ancient equipment yourself (and occasionally it might happen to be broken) and you will have to figure out what calculations are necessary to perform and how to do them. In addition to these calculations, you will have to write down your observations (and perhaps even the steps you performed) as well as error calculations. Unfortunately, high schools don’t usually teach students how to perform error calculations and your wonderful professor won’t either, and yet they are worth marks in each lab! An online document will be posted “teaching” you how to derive them, but I found it long, dry, and hard to understand. These calculations will require calculus and even some second-year calculus (surprise, surprise). However, our teaching assistants were happy to help most of the time and would guide us through whatever we had difficulty with. However, the poor TAs were not told anything about any experiment, so sometimes they were just as clueless as us when it came to performing the lab! Some of them even helpfully offered the wrong answers… so use the TAs wisely. At the end of the year, you will have to write a Formal Report (the format will be posted beforehand and you have to MEMORIZE it beforehand).
Formal Report: This is basically a final exam for the lab section, and it is treated like one (no talking, work on your own, time limit). You will be given a random lab number and using only your lab notebook and your memorized format, you will have to write a report. You will be writing out the steps (so make sure you write these out in your lab notebook for every experiment), your observations, your calculations, and a conclusion. This means that for every lab you do, make sure you understand why you are doing it and keep your lab notebook neat and your calculations correct (so if you get something marked wrong, make sure you figure out the correct answer and mark it down).
Experiments: There were a total of 7 experiments, but the entire section did not work on the same one at any one time. You and your partner will be assigned a random number and you will start with that lab and work on the other labs consecutively until you complete all of them (i.e. you and your partner start with #2 and so will complete 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and then another group will get #3 and will complete 3, 4 , 5, 6, 7, 2 in that order). However, everyone works on the first experiment together. They are slightly related to the course material, but by doing them I did not learn anything at all! All it taught me was how absolutely outdated and useless the equipment was (half was broken and the other half inaccurate), but perhaps that was so that we could have more fun calculating error calculations. Some of the experiments were obscenely mundane: like sticking a thermometre in a pot of water and writing down the temperature for every 3 seconds for half an hour and then plotting them on a graph. Others involved twisting different knobs on machines to make different wave patterns and then drawing those waves in the notebook (exciting, I know). Other than calculus, there was no other knowledge needed to perform the experiments.
Grades Distribution: There is no UBC PAIR grades distribution for this course (not all professors agree to it), but the class average was a 68% (but there was scaling, so I’m not sure what the original mark was).
Conclusion: This course lacked an actual teacher who would lecture on the subject to promote interest and learning among students. It consisted of testing, testing, testing but never really taught how to approach problems. The labs were pointless as they did not teach anything, and it would have been nice if the teaching assistants were actually told something about the experiments before we performed them. The organization of this course was poor: pre-reading quizzes were posted randomly instead of two days before the due date | answers to the homework were occasionally illegible and were rarely posted | the teaching assistants had no communication with the professor who had no communication with the people quizzing us | we were expected to know calculus in term 1 as well as second-year calculus | answers to clicker questions and group activities were rarely, if ever, posted | marks to clicker questions were rarely posted | a lot of physics knowledge was assumed to have been learned in high school, yet my Vancouver high school did not go over a lot of that assumed knowledge. I’ve already forgotten most of what we learned, and I am so glad that this course is over. On the plus side, it made me appreciate kind, caring, organized professors such as Ed Knorr who genuinely cared about giving students their money’s worth.
The good news is, they spent the entire year gathering feedback from students and we were told that they would take our considerations and integrate them into next year’s curriculum, so hopefully it changes for the better!
Next up: Econ 101 and Econ 102
Update: My final exam is scheduled for Saturday, July 30, so I won’t be updating this blog until then. You wouldn’t want to be reading a blog written by a bad student, would you? 
Meanwhile, you can take a look at The Ubyssey’s website for some info about the new U-pass system.
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PHYS 153
Summary: Phys153 is a 6-credit, 2-term course that features a lab component in its second term.
This was my least favourite course, mainly because of the disorganized and inefficient way it was run. It was expected that you taught yourself the material and that you solved problems based solely on theory (and the examples in the textbook). In my opinion, students should be taught the method of thinking of how to solve physics problems first, then be given an ample amount of UNIQUE examples that would demonstrate the correct approaches to solving those problems, and only THEN be tested. But this was not done in 153: instead, students had to read chapters of a textbook on their own, then they were quizzed (for marks) in online pre-reading quizzes which tested the material that was read, then students would attend a lecture where they would be tested with i>clicker questions and solve problems in groups (all for marks). Never were we taught how to solve physics questions, nor did the professor ever “lecture:” he was basically an exam administrator and nothing more! This was basically a course of testing.
Furthermore, even though we got tested a lot- seldom did we get to see our marks! Test, test, test, yet you cannot see your results. How were we supposed to learn from our mistakes? Since i-clickr questions were for marks, many people resorted to cheating instead of giving honest answers- due to this, the professor was under a constant impression that we understood the material perfectly (in the meantime, many were clueless). I found that in other courses (such as Bio112 and Math253), the i>clicker system was much better, because we got marks for participation and rather than for the correct answer, thus ensuring that the professor knew our honest feedback.
In addition to the complete lack of teaching in this course, it was also expected that we learned most of the material in HIGH SCHOOL (mainly magnet- and circuit-related material, although the professor never specifically mentioned what concepts we were supposedly taught; although my Physics 12 course covered both magnets and circuits briefly, I did not find it adequate knowledge to solve 153 problems). When I went to office hours, I was simply told that I should “figure it out on [my] own.” Very helpful!!!
Since the way this course is run changes DRASTICALLY every year, things may improve in the future, but sadly it was the absolute worst course I’ve ever taken (although, ironically, it was one of my highest marks!).
Furthermore, those without any calculus knowledge will struggle through this course, as it uses integrals in many explanations (even though integrals only appear on the university math curriculum in Math 101 in Term 2- how thoughtful of them!).
Course Materials:
Textbook: University Physics 12th Edition by Young and Freedman
The textbooks for this course seem to change occasionally, so check on phas.ubc.ca > course outline to see what textbook you need.
(1) Go to phas.ubc.ca ….. (2) Select “Courses” on the left-hand navigation bar ….. (3) Select “Undergraduate Physics” ….. (4) Select “Phys 153″ ….. (5) Select your section
> 
> 
> 
(6) You will now be on a somewhat useless website that, when you go to “Course Outline,” will tell you what books you need:
You should purchase the textbook package at the bookstore, because it will include a MasteringPhysics code that you will use to do online assignments. However, it would be to your advantage to borrow a friend’s textbook or borrow the textbook from the library, so that you can start reading the material ahead of time. The full textbook looks like this, but the bookstore will sell a custom edition that includes only the relevant pages split into two volumes- one for each term:
Custom UBC edition textbooks
Another shot of … Custom UBC edition textbooks
Lab Note book: We were required to buy two yellow lab notebooks- one for in-class groupwork and one for physics labs. They are sold cheap in the bookstore: they’re thin notebooks whose pages have on lined side and one gridded side- that’s it!
Lab Note Book
i>clicker: They sell these at the bookstore- each one has a unique ID so you will have to register your clicker so that the professor can match up your answers with your name. They are used in class for answering multiple choice questions.
It’s against the rules for someone else to click in for you.
How to register your clicker
The professor lied in this slide: you get points for getting the CORRECT answer.
To repeat…:
This was the slide they showed us in the first day of class: (the lab notebooks were bought later on)
Course Outline:
1) Chapters covered: (taken from http://www.physics.ubc.ca/courses/2007/html/PHYS_153.phtml) For my year, the Doppler effect was skipped.
2) How the course was taught:
3) Prerequisites: (by calculus it means derivatives and basic integrals)
Marks Distribution:
Term 1:
Term 2: I didn’t save the marking scheme but it is the same as Term 1, but it adds on a lab mark.
Final mark: You must pass the finals from both terms, and the mark is calculated by adding your mark from term 1 ( ___/100) to your mark from term 2 ( ___/140 …I believe it was 140 but I could be wrong), to make a total of ___/240.
Midterms and Finals:
Midterms: There are two midterms per term and each has only THREE QUESTIONS!!! Here is the sample exam they showed to us with the solutions (click on the picture to enlarge it):
Finals: Each final is MUCH harder than the midterms and has ~8 questions. Luckily, they only test the material that was covered in that PARTICULAR term- not the two terms combined.
I will continue this post in “[10] Year One Engineering Courses: Part 2 | PHYS 153 (cont’d).” It will cover tutorials, homework, labs, UBC PAIR grades distribution, and an overall conclusion.
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First and foremost…
An Update About This Blog:
The extreme volume of email messages, comments, and inbox messages sent to me this past month alone made me realize that I needed to post a set of rules, so I have added an entirely new page to this blog: Guidelines+FAQ (includes information you should read before you comment/inbox/email me). I also have completely updated my About Me page.
Regarding future posts, I am planning to finish ALL my course reviews (I will gradually update the About Me page‘s “Courses Taken” section with the link to the appropriate course review post). Here’s an example of how an updated course looks (notice that it has a link under the word “here”):
By the end of August, I intend to have most of the course reviews done, as well as a 1) post about what materials to buy for UBC courses and 2) post about what to buy for dorm-life. Later on, I will follow up with a new “Dorm Walk-through” with regards to Marine Drive.
Now on to CHEM154…
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CHEM 154
This is a Term 1 Engineering Course that is included in your standard timetable.
Summary:
I had Professor Alex Wang, and he was a joke. This is a course that relies upon teaching yourself the textbook, and going to lectures will be a waste of your time. You absolutely must have knowledge of Grade 11 chemistry, as it is assumed that you are able to casually use its concepts whenever necessary. This course also has a lab section, which solely tests your knowledge of those high school concepts! Thus, as long as you read the textbook and know your high school chemistry- you will do fine! However, make sure that you do not lag behind on your readings, as you may never catch up! For complete lecture notes, course info, and lab info, go to Prof. Wang’s page: http://www.chem.ubc.ca/faculty/wang/154/C154.html!!!
Course Materials:
Textbook: “Chemistry for Engineering Students” by L. S. Brown & T. A. Holme (Brooks/Cole, 2006)
This was a pretty good textbook, but you need to make sure that you are not only reading the textbook, but that you are also doing the exercises. We went through 10 out of the 13 chapters!
Note: THE TEXTBOOK CHANGES FROM YEAR TO YEAR, so only buy the textbook when your booklist comes out!
Textbook
Lab Manual: “Chem 154 Laboratory Manual, 2010/2011” by Nussbaum et al.
Obviously, those who take this course after me will have to purchase a different edition of the lab manual (Available only at the UBC bookstore, since this was created custom for CHEM154). Inside the manual are the experiments- their marking scheme, information about the experiment, and forms for you to fill out (prior to the lab and during the lab) and hand in to your teaching assistant once your lab time has run out. Included with the Lab Manual was a thin book called “Bridging to the Lab” which had a CD (works only on Windows!) that featured tutorials similar to the experiments you would perform and question forms that you would fill in prior to the lab and hand in to the teaching assistant on the day of your lab.
Bridging to the Lab 
Lab Manual
Lab Coat and Safety Glasses: (Taken from http://www.chem.ubc.ca/faculty/wang/154/C154.html)
Lab: Although our lab manual contained seven labs, I only had to do three that were unique to my lab section and one that everyone in the course had to do at home:
1) For each scheduled lab day, you must read over the lab beforehand and fill out a few pages of forms that are given in your lab manual. Occasionally, you may have to hand in Bridging to the Lab questions as well.
2) On the day of the lab, you must come in with all those forms, lab coat, safety glasses, your lab manual, pencil/pen, and a calculator. Girls will have to tie back their hair.
3) You now have 3 hours to perform the lab. Although not all the steps are usually provided, the teaching assistants will go over the entire lab at the beginning of class and generally guide you through the lab. Time is against you, so you have to work fast (and therefore, you must know what you are doing beforehand), but if you do not know what to do next, the TA will help you. The only time the teaching assistants will not provide any help is when doing calculations. While you do the experiment, you must record your steps and your observations. Afterward, you will have to answer a few questions that will test your understanding of the lab, and they will frequently have calculations. These questions take some time, so you must finish your experiment early if you want to pass.
4) Hand everything in
Course Outline: (Taken from http://www.chem.ubc.ca/faculty/wang/154/C154.html)
Marks Distribution: (Taken from http://www.chem.ubc.ca/faculty/wang/154/C154.html)
UBC PAIR Grades Distribution:
Since there were only two sections for this course, I thought I’d put up both of them. As you can see, a total of 632 students passed and 89 students failed. Both class averages were pretty low (62.32 and 65.28); there was no scaling for this course.
Overall: As long as you keep up with the readings, do most of the questions (Prof. Wang actually recommended pretty much EVERY.SINGLE.QUESTION. in the textbook 
), and prepare sufficiently for your lab- you will ace this course. However, since this course is reading-intensive (the professor doesn’t do anything during the lectures except making jokes and putting up useless powerpoint slides that contain pictures directly out of the textbook and pictures of movie trailers and cute animals….), make sure you skip his lecture and spend that time reading! If you don’t keep up with the readings regularly you will do miserably on both the midterm and the final, and I believe this was the root cause of the low class average and multiple failures (or at least that was the case for most people I knew :\ ).
A sample slide (all of his lecture slides are posted on his website):
Since it’s the time of year when people are choosing their courses for the Winter Session at UBC, I decided to add on a few notes to my previous post [10].
1) UBC offers summer courses!
This means that you don’t necessarily have to cram all of your first year courses into the Winter Term! However, if you are not planning to live in or near Vancouver during the summer session, disregard this section.
Personal Experience: I took ALL of my courses (electives and timetable courses) during the Winter Session… and I regretted it! In order to reduce my workload for second year, I opted to take 3 summer courses this summer. I have now completed two of them ( Bio112 and Math253 ) and I am currently taking Econ102… and I am glad I made the decision to take summer courses! (In case you’re wondering, Bio112 and Math253 are required courses for Chemical Engineering Bio. Option, and I chose to minor in Econ). When I took Econ 101 during the Winter Session, it put a lot of stress on top of my standard timetable, and it was a thoroughly unenjoyable experience. Many of my classmates chose to take Econ101 in the first Summer term and are now taking Econ102 with me in the second Summer term, and I believe that this is a much smarter way to go about it.
My Suggestion: Take your electives courses in the summer. DO NOT take any of your standard timetable courses or Engl112 in the summer (as they might not be available during the summer session and you will risk not getting into second year!)- so take ONLY ELECTIVE COURSES (e.g. Econ, Psyc, etc.).
Reason: You should spend your first year focusing on your Engineering courses, as they are required for your second year placement. Your electives offer a good opportunity to boost your GPA, but by taking them during the year you not only risk losing a GPA boost, but you risk lowering the average of your other courses (and adding unneeded stress). Also, the elective’s final might be scheduled ON THE SAME DAY as one of your Engineering finals (as some poor students last year experienced), and this is a thoroughly unpleasant scenario!
Note: Yearround housing seems to be a lot easier to get into compared to Winter Session Housing. First years will get guaranteed Winter Session housing, so I would recommend going into Yearround housing after the Winter Session ends. Summer courses still provide a summer vacation: you get the month of August off instead of May-August. The prospect of one month of vacation and a reduced Winter Session workload was extremely appealing to me :].
2) Choosing An Appropriate Elective:
First, be sure to look at http://www.calendar.ubc.ca/vancouver/index.cfm?tree=12,195,272,30; here is a screenshot of the Complementary Studies Courses:
My recommendation is to go on a path that will fulfill all of the Complementary Studies Courses, rather than taking random, unrelated courses just to earn credits. That is why I chose to Minor in Commerce, which covers (4) and (5). Take Engl112 to cover part of (2), and worry about (1) and (3) in later years.
You should also choose electives that you find interesting. The more interested you are, the better you will study and the better your mark will be! I find that the best option would be to choose something that is both RELEVANT to your field (or potential career) and also interesting enough that you won’t suffer TOO much.
Summary: Make sure that you take Engl112 during the year (as discussed in my previous post), and choose an elective from (5) that will preferably lead to a course in later years that fulfills (4) (and take that elective in the summer).
3) Choosing Econ?
The two professors who usually teach Econ 101/102 are Professors Lemche and Gateman. I’ve heard people say that Lemche is “boring but easy” while Gateman is “interesting but hard.” After my experience with the two of them however, I found that Gateman is the better choice by far!
Personal Experience: I had Lemche for Econ101 and Gateman for Econ102.
Lemche’s Teaching Style:
We had one required textbook and a required online access code for Lyryx. During lectures he would read STRAIGHT OUT OF THE TEXTBOOK, and although he was a nice guy he was unfortunately cursed with a very soft voice, which made it very easy to tune out after a few minutes of droning. In the end, it was obvious that it would be wiser to stay home and read the textbook rather than come to class.
We were assigned one Lyryx Lab to do per week, which was basically testing information straight out of the textbook.
The midterm and final tested textbook knowledge and had one or two questions dealing with the articles that were posted on Lemche’s website.
Overall: This course was dry/boring, and you basically had to teach yourself straight out of the textbook. Although people said this course was easy, the class average of 65.57% combined with 42 people who failed this course say otherwise. Perhaps when people said this course was easy, they meant that they were not pushed to go to class and work hard… and that is NOT a good thing!
Gateman’s Teaching Style:
Gateman has an enthusiastic and entertaining personality, making it easy to pay attention during lectures. Furthermore, his strolling up and down the aisles and throwing questions at random students causes everyone to pay attention- even the slackers. He provides ALL of his notes in a book that comes packaged with a required textbook, so students can spend class time listening to the lecture rather than frantically copying down notes (it would be nice if other teachers followed this path). He frequently connects the material we learn to the outside world, thus emphasizing the relevance of the course and arousing interest in the units.
On the downside, he is extremely strict towards those who are late to class, so people [like me] who have sensitive feelings should avoid being late at all costs. His outgoing personality may hurt some feelings (he is not afraid to call someone out for asking stupid questions or not paying attention), but as long as you pay attention, come to class on time, don’t text/bring your laptop, and don’t ask stupid questions you’ll be fine.
Overall: Gateman is the best professor, by far (I would even venture to say that in my university experience, Ed Knorr and Gateman were my two favourite professors). I feel that I learn a lot in class and I am hardly ever bored- he is the absolute antithesis of Lemche.
Update: As you can see below, Gateman’s class average was 2 percent higher than Lemche’s, and 29 FEWER people failed!!! However, Lemche’s class had 73 A’s while Gateman’s class had 38 A’s. Thus it seems that it is easier to fail Lemche’s class and pass Gateman’s, but it is also easier to achieve an A in Lemche’s and harder in Gateman’s. So both have their pros and cons. However, I still maintain my opinion that it is much more important to understand what you are learning than getting a 100%.
Final Note: Of course, other people may have had completely opposite experiences with these professors, but this blog is meant to share my own experiences. However, feel free to let me know your own experiences with these professors!
sophiac