Tag: Academic

Caught up but WOW!

You know how sometimes you really get caught up in life?

That was me the last while with work, exams, and extra-curriculars all at once.

With first year coming to a close I must say I feel like a really different person from last year. I would say this year I accomplished a lot, learned a lot of skills, and actually learned something from classes (particularly stuff like accounting).

Immediately, what jumps out to me this moment is how fast everything goes. I’ve been working at exams for the past while and it felt really long during the process. But now that I look back at it, it was only about two weeks worth of exams not including the preparation that came before they started (which I must say was inadequate).

I think if I could take anything from this exam experience, the tips I would give are.

1. Really find out what the best method of studying is FOR you; do not get pressured to go study in groups with friends because I would say 95% of the time it is not that useful/very distracting. If it works for you then by all means go but please give studying alone/studying with one or two people in a quiet place a shot.

2. I found that writing key words while reading textbooks (which I didn’t take notes on because I found this to detract from my actual understanding of the book while I was taking these notes) really helps you review the main points while making you able to piece the small details together after a thorough read of your resources.

3. Textbook websites are your best friends. Quick quizzes, chapter summaries, other “key notes”, and even concept maps sometimes.

4. If coffee shops are your thing, go to the same one for a few days. You might just end up getting free cups of coffee and employees that are supportive of you in your endeavour. I went to the Starbucks in Kerrisdale for 7 days in a row for the last stretch.

I would say lastly, self-discipline is probably one of the most important things I developed throughout this experience. Once you get to that point, it’s like seeing the light and taking a new view on life. It’s great 🙂

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
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!

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