Categories
Uncategorized

The Trend of Repetition

After a long day of studying hard all around UBC (mostly at IK Barber), I walked hastily from Rose Garden, after I picked up my gear for badminton at UBC’s Badminton Club, all the way to Osborne Gym near Thunderbird Stadium. Let’s just say I had what a friend of mine called “Bad Karma” today.

I went on the court to hit my first bird and my strings snapped after the first hit.
After waiting the whole day for my long awaited exercise, I only got about 2 games (which average at about 10 minutes each) in the hour and 15 minutes I was there (badminton didn’t start until 5:30 pm and I had my first class at 9 am).
On what was suppose to be my third game, I picked up the wrong racket and on the first hit I swung with my racket with no strings and hit my left wrist hard. I walked off the court to grab my other racket but my spot had been taken.

So the whole purpose of all that was building up to what happened next. I sat down and realized that almost everytime I miss a hit, I repeat the stroke. Some people say it’s just something people who play badminton a lot do. It’s become a habit and I think it’s partly because repeating the stroke helps build muscle memory to improve it for next time. And then I sat and thought.

I do that for just about everything in my life.

Whenever I miss a three pointer during basketball, I repeat the motion to make sure I have the proper technique/follow through.
Back when I was still taking Math, whenever I got a question wrong, I’d do a similar one (if time permitted) to repeat the process even if I thought I knew how to work the problem out just so I could build onto my knowledge base of whatever I was doing.
If I can’t pronounce a word, I keep repeating it and sounding it out until it “sounds better”.

Many teachers/profs tell students not to just memorize the concepts and try to understand it. I’m sure that’s the case for almost every course, but can’t a method used to understand these concepts mean sometimes going over many problems to see more examples of it? Sometimes, taking a second look, or just giving yourself a reminder makes that big of a difference.

If i’ve learned anything from school all these years, it’s that repeating a certain studying technique or reviewing things taught with another friend or two really makes that big of a difference. I know teachers often tell us this, but I know many people don’t believe it. And sure it doesn’t work for everyone, but do yourself a favour and give it a shot and your university experience/rest of your life may be that much more successful and pleasing (if marks tingle your taste buds!)

It’s never too late to reflect!

Recapping 2008 (both generally and 2008WTerm 1)

  • I lost about 10 pounds total (healthy weight loss Lindsay/Eastwood!)
  • I came out of Term1 with exactly as they’ve told us in orientation/recruitment, an average that is almost 20% lower than what you got in high school. A bit of disappointment but only motivation to push even harder.
  • I met people, not a lot but I did meet people in University (it’s easier than it seems).
  • I found out which studying spots in UBC work for me and which don’t (Barber is a great one; but it’s often way too crowded. TIP: Try Woodward if you don’t mind where it is; I hear it’s awesome).
  • I found that Sociology was more interesting/I felt like I knew more about it than I thought I would. That’s part of the problem in my course grade so far (it’s a 6 credit course)
  • For the first time, I felt fear that I was going to fail a course/not stay in my faculty (the first mark I received was much lower than I expected and also my lowest mark).
  • I didn’t do as many extra-curricular activities as I did in high school, but I did get into Sauder Squad 🙂
  • I submitted a Business Plan for Enterprize, an entrepreneurial competition/conference hosted by the Commerce Undergraduate Society at the Sauder School of Business @ UBC, with some friends. If you want to go to the conference, it’s in Feburary and tickets are still for sale!
  • I didn’t make the best use of my time, but overall I did have a lot of fun sometimes with friends and such.

I was going to do a class review, but Phoebe and I (SURPRISINGLY!) have similar classes so she went over most of them/what I was going to say. I will add tidbits, so do look at Phoebe’s blog!

COMM 292 – Organzational Behaviour
Angela Kelleher

Her credentials were impressive. She has worked at McKinsley and done a bunch of other things. She knew her stuff well and kept trying to get us involved in what would make her class work better. My overall mark was a disappointment because I expected to do much better in this course (the highest exam marks I got from all my courses) but the group project probably brought me down. Otherwise, this course made me feel like I was actually learning something more related to what I’m going into/considering (consulting/mentoring).

MATH 104 – Calculus with Commerce Application
Weiyong He

He was probably close to, if not, my favourite teacher all term. He was helpful and really funny. I could have/should have done way better in his class. I think we got scaled down because our midterm marks were super duper high but I have no way of proving that. He really does know his material but sometimes does make mistakes. But everyone does once in awhile basically!

PSYC 100 – Intro to Psychology
Peter Graf

I was brutally honest in my prof evaluation. I did not learn that much in this class. The prof was passionate about the subject/seemed very knowledgeable but I didn’t find that I could engage in his class very well. There was one class where I commented thoroughly on his topic of the day and that’s the only class I felt fairly productive in (other classes I would make notes on the class to make up for the lack of learning I was feeling in that class). PSYC is an applicable course nonetheless and I learned a lot about my sleeping habits/my friends and what we should do in order to change it for the better 🙂

SOCI 100 – Intro to Sociology
Guppy, Corrigall-Brown, Lang

3 profs. 3 different but at the same time, the same, perspectives. They rotated lectures. This class was really interesting in that the focus was how most things in our lives are socially constructed and how sometimes we forget the origin of how things are created etc. At the beginning of the term I didn’t feel like I would enjoy this course but the content is actually not too bad. It was also the first university paper I wrote while I was in university and did decently well on it. If you get a chance to be taught by these profs and have an interest in sociology, i’d highly recommend this course.

ECON 101- Principles of Microeconomics
Lemche

He comes to class “prepared” because all his material has been kept from his past classes (thus I was able to get resources from some older students I know). I liked economics and felt that I could understand it pretty well, but he was not particularly helpful in causing this reaction from me. I learned mostly from self-study and felt that his exams were just testing to see if I had done my self-study.

COMM 299 – Public Speaking
CJ Liu

It was really fun listening to speeches. Preparing speeches wasn’t too bad either. He gave a lot of positive feedback and showed great interest in our class/the content of our speeches. Overall a very enjoyable class if you want one that doesn’t require too much of your time and really tests a skill you would want to develop in the “real world”

2009 Resolutions to come! Happy New Year everyone!

Categories
Uncategorized

Last Day of Classes!

I feel like the kraziest keener in the world right now. I’m one hour early for my second last class of this semester and just sitting outside it waiting for it to end.

The whole school term just passed by so fast. I can hardly believe that the first term is over (yeah cliche I know) but we have about two weeks of finals and then it’s winter break. For anyone in residence or are in Vancouver for the first time (and happen to be staying here for the holidays), here are some things I consider my almost annual Vancouver experiences (during the winter).

1. Take pictures of the snow when you get a chance to (especially right after you’ve built a snowman). Vancouver has a good habit of snowing hard one day then raining hard the next.

2. Decorate your rooms/houses! My most memorable… memories have to be taking about two hours decorating a Christmas Tree with my dad (which this year he wants me to do on my own because apparently i’m old enough to do it by myself when really it’s all about that experience)

3. Spend quality Christmas time with family AND friends. However in order to do this…

–> Always schedule your dates around Christmas. It’s still about a month before and I’ve been writing in dates for parties and work and gatherings and all that jazz. Stay organized so you don’t disappoint by double booking and having to ditch out on one.

But with this last day of classes, I must emphasize.

I would really suggest taking the night off (from hardcore studying) and just relaxing. Everyone’s been through a long term and deserves a good break. Tonight’s Pizza Night with the UBC Badminton Club and i’m just going to take it easy and enjoy it.

Congratulations to everyone on a good first term of the year!

The Journey To Ninja-Hood

University is expensive.

School takes up a lot of time.

But nonetheless, I must continue my journey on becoming a ninja with the purpose of serving the world.

Very cliche, but a picture is worth 1000 words.

Barista Ninja Journey
Barista Ninja Journey

So I was on the Bus…

I’m one of those commuters who drive a lot and thus get asked often for rides back out of campus. No big deal for me, if it’s on the way I usually enjoy the company, if it’s not, at least I know they when they get home.

But recently i’ve been bussing a lot more. I noticed a lot of people don’t like to talk on the busses (don’t get me wrong, I don’t lash out at everyone to get a conversation started with every stranger I meet). Then again, i’m a person who doesn’t mind the occasional conversation with a random person on the bus. It actually makes my day that much more interesting.

But as I was commuting home once the other day, a man sat down on the seat beside where I was standing and put his bag on the seat beside him. I wasn’t planning on sitting because my stop was soon and well, I was so pumped to get home I didn’t want to sit anyways. So our conversation went something like this (he initiated it literally out of nowhere).

Person A: Why aren’t you sitting? Is it because i’m not the same colour as you?
Me: Sorry what was that?
Person A: Cause i’m not the same colour as you?
Me: Oh no I’m not sitting because my stop is soon.
Person A sticks hand out: I just had a baby girl
Me *shakes hand*: Congratulations

From there on, we had a talk about his family and the economy and how he wants to sustain himself and not depend on his father and stuff. But at the point of the conversation that I described, I was stunned. Did students like me (or apparently, colours like me) give off the impression often that we were rude and discriminating racists?

You meet many kinds of people on the bus. I wasn’t mad or anything from it (he was basically calling me a racist). I really hope these generalizations aren’t common amongst many commuters. Just be aware and respectful to everyone is all I ask!

On another complete note, if you’re ever hungry and want to go off campus/live off campus AND have nothing to do on Sundays, Flying Wedge has an All You Can Eat Pizza and All You Can Drink Pop for 10.95.  I went for the first time with some fellow classmates for a during midterm-season break and it was great. For a student, keeping fed is an expensive task. Take advantage of the good deals you can get and save as much as you can!

All You Can Eat Pizza, Dish #1
All You Can Eat Pizza, Dish #1
Categories
Uncategorized

An Addiction to School?

The last while, i’ve noticed that my typical school schedule goes something like this.

7 am – Wake up
8 am – Head to school with a friend
8:20 am – Coffee + Crossword
10 am – 2 pm – Class
2 pm – 3:30 pm – Badminton at UBC Rec
3:30 pm – 9/10/11 pm – Studying at School

In all honesty, midterms have been alright. I’ve been averaging one a week and marks are dropping steadily from the first one. But that seems to be a part of university at least for the majority. And they warned us about it so I try not to set my expectations so high.

So some of you will probably wonder, what can you do staying at school so long? Don’t you have to eat and all that jazz? My mom frankly does not support me staying at school for so long when I have to drive/bus home and by the time I do that i’m exhausted on the ride home and I basically stay up because I feel “refreshed” after my shower.

Here’s my review on some of the things that have kept me going.

Ike’s Cafe in Irving K. Barber Library – The line up’s usually short. If you want a quick snack, this is an alright place to go (not particularly filling though). The stuff can be a bit expensive but hey it might be more convenient for you to just grab something from here to continue your studying. Plus if I go here, I don’t have to walk over to the Sub to get my grapefruit juice since they sell it at this cafe! (I usually study in Barber)

Starbuck’s in the Sub – I went there twice yesterday, once in the morning and once at about 8:30 pm. A great place to grab some last minute drinks at night (huge lineups throughout the day otherwise). I think they close at 9 pm (which is pretty good for the campus life since a lot of stuff closes really early).

This Chinese Food Place in the Village Food Court – After 8 pm. $5 for 3 items and you can get rice or noodle! It’s filling, it tastes alright. They even give you free water!!! Apparently my friend said you can get more rice/noodles if you want more too.

Last but not least…

Irving K Barber Itself – I’m sure everyone has different learning/studying styles and preferences, but Barber is my favourite place to study. Koerner makes me sleepy (lots of space to study). Scarfe has a lot of rooms but its far away from most of my classes. David Lam Library is too loud. David Lam Foyer has massive promotions so not the quiest place ever. CG Lounge is a great hang out spot or good to study in for awhile but not all day.

So in the spirit of midterms, good luck to everyone and loosen up for Halloween! And the thing i’ve been saying most often to people recently is

“If you say your brain isn’t working then don’t go to class it’s just better if you rest up and make better use of your time later”

Then again don’t let yourself get into the state where your brain is always “not working”:P And Eastwood’s blog addresses this well by making sure you acknowledge how you can make the best use of your time SOMETIMES when it comes to lectures and such so check that out! Be back soon!

Categories
Uncategorized

“How To Speech”

Midterms and school has made me (and mostly everyone else) really busy! I wanted to write about something but i’m going to format my computer first so i’ll write about that something later. In the mean time, i’ll share a speech I wrote for my public speaking class and the topic is basically you have to write about something you know how to do. I present to you my how to speech! This took me about 5-6 minutes to write. 🙂 BY THE WAY, i’m in no way encouraging this (unless you’re really constrainned on time maybe, but even then probably not) and not guaranteeing any effort that will come with taking any of the suggested tips (the speech was merely for fun).

How to write a position paper assigned one month before in one day and 15 minutes.

So I’m sure most of us have experienced times in our educational lives where we struggle to get everything done, including studying, writing papers, and just generally getting your assignments done. Writing essays generally require doing research before hand so you can actually get some good content into the body of your paper. However, when things pile up, you just have to deal with whatever takes priority, usually in the form of deadlines. This usually ends up having us leaving essays until the last minute where all the good books are gone and you just lack the energy to do a lot of extra research.

Today, I will tell you how to write an essay, specifically a position paper, assigned one month before in one day and 15 minutes.

First of all, take 15 minutes to write a skimpy outline about what you’re going to do in the essay and send it off to your TA or someone you consider has good editorial skills. Include keywords used in class and in the topic question and redundancy if necessary to give some meat to your outline. Bold stuff to make it seem like you have some important points and type it up so it formats itself and seems more thought out.

This serves a variety of purposes.

  1. You actually get your brain to start thinking about the topic for the cramming session to come.
  2. Your TA or friend can read and give you constructive feedback. This is usually in the form of “that’s a good start”, or “you really need to get to work” or “this is a joke”
  3. You mislead yourself thinking that you actually got some work done but it only amplifies the panic you will feel when you look at the outline later when you actually start to write the essay.

Now for the actual writing of the essay. Start off by sounding very philosophical regardless of the topic or subject. This puts you into a state of deep thoughts. Use generalizations in the introduction (when you have no clue about your topic) so you can clarify and back them up in your body. Identify key people in history, hopefully they’re involved with your topic such as Charles Darwin in your essays about evolution but nonetheless, key people. This makes you feel credible and confidence is the key to finishing this assignment. Then state your position and stick to it. If you had time you could write a long-winded thesis that you could edit but at this point you got to fight for what you believe in with what time you have.

Put in a counter claim to your position/argument and spend about 3 sentences talking about it. This safeguards your essay, gives the marker a sense that you’ve really thought everything through, and basically gives you something to be wordy if you need it.

Throughout the body, define stuff. Regardless of the essay, you will almost always have to clarify and define stuff. This makes the marker realize you are looking at it critically and technically, while still analyzing the question from the bigger picture.

When in doubt, talk about development of our society. The future is all we care about. Talk about how your topic builds onto our society. You’re almost guaranteed to add some meat onto your essay with this, and hopefully some good content.

When you’re really stuck, appeal to emotions and use personal examples. Every marker that you will likely encounter for essays are humans. Basically every human has emotions. Appeal to them. People like to get emotional when reading. That’s what sells the work.

Last but not least, conclude with something that summarizes all the junk you’ve written and make it sound like you’ve made some profound discovery or development towards moving us further to a better future. Leave the technicalities for later, by this point you need a break from all that writing. And that’s how you write an essay in one day.

CHEERS!

Categories
Residence Life Spirituality

“Oh my god who keeps calling me at 4 am”

Currently: Sitting in my house using my laptop at 4:30 am

I planned to sleep early last night cause midterm season has just been brutal with everyone (me included) trying to catch up with notes to prepare for midterms. I finally know what it feels like, and it feels good. So after a good night’s work, I decided I needed a good night’s rest.

I don’t usually have to get up until at least 10 o clock on Thursdays usually because I start late (and I do some promotions for Sauder Squad starting around noon today) and this is actually one of those days where I catch up on some sleep.

But then, I received a call at 4 am.

There was no area code.
There weren’t even 8 digits from what I remember.

I was in bed going crazy thinking who would be calling me at such a time. So I hung up the first time. Then they called back!

I started to panic. Thoughts were running through my head. I heard weird noises before I slept (when I turned my laptop off there was still weird sound coming from outside). I didn’t know if someone was trying to send me a message.

I decided to pick up and it was a voice I hadn’t heard in along time. It was my sister whose been all the way in Hong Kong for about 6 weeks doing her training to become a flight attendant. It’s moments like these when you realize how much you miss family when they’re far away.

Don’t get me wrong; i’m not on res or living on my own or anything. But for the moment of that phone call (lying in the dark with my brightly lit iPhone), I felt like I was far away from my family like I was studying elsewhere. And I really cherish those who can live away from their family for so long/study on res far away.

Because it feels strange. Mad props guys.

Sigh,

Andrew @ 4 am
PS. I jumped out of bed realizing I couldn’t fall back asleep and had to remember this moment. This connection I have with the internet world is so remarkable it even surprises me.
PPS. Family sticks with you even through academic season, no matter how busy it is. Too important in my life. Education wouldn’t be heading where it is without them.

Categories
Faculty

It Feels Like its JUST as Competitive!

Currently: In IBLC finishing off my fibre chocolate bar from the Sauder Advising Session and purposefully coming to school early on a Friday to type a long awaited blog (waited for by myself)

I came from a high school (well particularly a group within my school known as the International Baccalaureate Program) where high school just didn’t seem like it was a place to relax and take it easy doing the things you wanted to do.

It was competitive.

Everyone was fighting to get involved to (as I would like to put it) “buff” their resumes up for university applications. Its in our human nature to be competitive and do activities/things that we believe are necessary to make us feel competitive and ensure others know we are taking things “seriously”.

I came to University hoping I would find a different environment; where everyone is doing their own thing because they’re interested in it, not that they just want to dominate to get to the top. And I did, to a certain extent (because you’re not obliged to get involve even though its encouraged; it’s not like you need to “buff” your resume persay to get your bachelors degree at least not to my knowledge).

But after my Sauder Advising Session yesterday, it just reminded me how competitive university, and especially this university, is. Here’s some stats for everyone (it’s a self reminder for the future and just an eye-opener). And sorry these stats are mostly related to students at the Sauder School of Business (but i’m sure other faculties are competitive in their own prospects as well).

In my year for admission the Sauder School of Business for the Winter Term of 2008.

1. Aproximately 6200 applications. 450 admitted.  Mathematically speaking, that’s about 7% of students who applied making it into the program.

2. Not everyone gets the double specialization they want (eg. Finance and Marketing), let alone even your preference in which SINGLE specialization you might want in the future. For example, they said that specializations such as Finance and Accounting were completely full this year. If your overall GPA isn’t competitive, you don’t even get the courses you might want for your specialization, thus not getting the specialization you want. The specialization might even be a lot of the reason why you chose to go into business. Imagine if you didn’t get it; it might even feel like that you wasted two years (even though in reality you didn’t but you might just be that disappointed).

3. Co-Op is competitive to get into. Many opportunities, but still difficult nonetheless.

All in all, university is competitive. Everyone wants to do everything but there’s only so much time in the world. Life is competitive. Humans are competitive. We were designed to have a competitive nature (sort of). University is a good example of the “survival of the fittest” concept. The non-fit drop out and have to try to get back in and the fit live a good life, at least from what i’m percieving as of now.

But on a lighter note (speaking of competition), last weekend I did something on my list of “Must Do’s at UBC”.

I competed on not just one, but two longboat teams at UBC Rec’s Day of the Longboat!

I have to say it was really inspiring. For most of my life i’ve done sports at a fairly competitive level but to see so many teams come out who just wanted to bond and experience another aspect of university life was so inspiring. It’s great spirit and events like these that make me feel that UBC was really a good choice. And it’s even better when people are trying things new and giving it their all to just have a good time (GOOD JOB BLOG SQUAD STEERS!).

School calls so be back later!

Categories
Uncategorized

Morning Blues

Currently: In IBLC taking a minute to realize how long Fridays are becoming. NOT in class this time!

As one of many commuters that come to UBC, I took the bus to school today. I take the bus maybe twice or three times a week. Most of the other time i’m driving (i’ll save my driving talk for another day).

I woke up this morning after a long, active, and fustrating night. School ended at 5 pm, I went home, packed my stuff up to go swimming and to play badminton (which by the way I was really off last night). Then I went to Starbucks to pick up my friend from work and we ended up going to another Starbucks to study for another good hour of the night. After we got kicked out of Starbucks (they close so early, 11 pm), we headed to Mc Donalds (which has no WiFi by the way, at least the one in Kerrisdale) and continued our trek towards keeping up with school.

I don’t know if this habit has developed from studying really hard for my exams in grade 12, but I am liking studying out more and more. Here’s my little tidbit about going out to study (with friends or not)

1. It really helps to have someone with you just to be a motivator. Whenever i’m alone I can distract myself much more easily. But seeing a buddy/friend working hard at getting stuff done is really inspiring. We were literally silent for 50 minutes of the hour we were at Starbucks (occasional questions for help but nothing much more than that)

2. You can get away from the distractions at home. My family doesn’t seem to understand that they are actually really distracting. I mean I love them and all, that’s why at times I feel like there needs to be more interaction with them at home. But when I need to study, I need to study. (The reason why I titled this post Morning Blues is because a situation like this happened last night when they kept pushing me to come home when I was already out studying and then they decided to stay up just to see how late I would come home. Considerate, but I would appreciate some trust that i’m actually getting work done)

3. You treat yourself to… well nice treats. Little fattening oat fudge bars/REDUCED fat banana chocolate chip coffee cake/coffee and more!

4. It brings you to study harder just because you have set a purpose for your trip (go somewhere to study/get some work done)

5. Bring headphones. Last night there was a constant beeping at Mc Donalds and it drove us nuts.

6. Bring one or two textbooks at most. Unless you plan on staying somewhere the whole day, you really hardly finish dealing with even one textbook.

7. Wear warm and comfortable clothing. For me this means sweats and glasses. Studying with contacts (for me) puts more strain on my eyes than anything, especially when i’m reading.

Anyways, so I totally forgot about talking about my bus ride. This isn’t as applicable for me when i’m driving, but when you bus, PACK LIGHT and essentials only! I can’t stress how stressful it can get to have a bunch of big backpacks on the bus taking up extra space that could be potential people standing space (and then you have the occasion people who like to put their backpack on the seats to make them diriter than they already are).

And with that being said, it’s time to pack it up and head to class. CHEERS and be back later!

PS. My friday’s becoming long because they suddenly went from waking up at 8 to go to class at 10 until 2 to waking up at 7:30 to stay at school until 10 pm (UBC Badminton Club runs 6:30 pm – 11 pm)

Spam prevention powered by Akismet