Heyy guys!  My summer so far has been about getting a job, and working out.  This is what bothers me:  not having a cellphone in Ontario, quite frankly i HATE rogers, my expected 55/month is always over 100, and they never want to help me when I call with questions..so much for customer service?  Pretty much I gave up on them, got frustrated and threw my phone somewhere in a pile of junk about a month ago..I have now retrieved it, and realized that I’m going to have to pay for the month of no use, and the coming up month.  I hope to cancel my contract or severely reduce my plan by the end of this week. sigh.

NOW back to School stuff.  As I posted earlier, I am going to be self-teaching Chem 233, Biol200, Phys102, and I’m thinking of throwing another course in there, I’ll see after this week.

Chem 233

This is the dreaded course that I’ve heard many horror stories about.  Because Chem 123 ended quite sadly, in that the organic portion wasn’t my specialty, I know that I must pre-learn in the summer.  The problem with me is that I love to learn things thoroughly, I don’t like jumping topics, or looking only at key points, and this is my downfall.  When I’m so nitpicky I run out of time, and end up having to cram.  This is what happened for ochem final, that combined with my own procastination led to many sleepless nights before the final.  The whole time I was studying I felt like I had no time and that learning concepts this fast is useless.  From what I’ve heard, chem 233 is a crammed course, most schools teach it for a year not a semester, and a difficult one to do well in.  Mostly because it requires many hours of studying, on a routine basis.  And this is all heresay from what i’ve read and heard, I havent taken the course.  So far this summer, I have focused mainly on Chem 233.  I have lectures from 2 professors so I was able to follow each lecture along with the book, and supplementary books as well containing more practice problems, specifically more difficult practice problems.  The first thing I covered was Chem123 Ochem stuff, because thats what is covered first couple weeks of Chem233.  So I did Nomenclature/Acids&Bases/Stereochem/Sn1Sn2 etc.  That stuff.  Then I went on vista, thankfully all the courses from last semester are still there so i saved the pdf files of the problem sets, and did them all to make sure I had Chem123 stuff down.  I wouldnt try a final though, I still hate that course lol.  After that I covered resonance with arrow mechanisms which was in the lecture slides and the supplementary books I used definitely helped me master that.  It is trick sometimes knowing which way to go with the arrows.  Now after doing that, my supplementary books and the lecture notes showed that I was about to begin mechanism/reactions starting with alkenes.  So I did the cis/trans, E/Z stuff, and now I am about to go into the real meat of Chem 233. Sounds weird, if chem 233 were a sandwich I’m guessing the mechanisms/reactions stuff would be the meat and nomenclature and chem 123 stuff would be the bread right? lol. ANYWAYS, I stopped there because I got tired and wanted a fresh mind going into it.  So far Chem 233 is looking pretty good, I’m hoping to complete the first Problem Set for the course by ~June 14th.

Resources

Organic Chemistry Bruice 4th edition

Organic Chemistry for Dummies Workbook

Organic Chemistry II for Dummies

Instant Notes Organic Chemistry

…so far the textbook and the workbook have been the most useful, but that was before mechanisms so I’ll see.

Biol 200

I have been lazy for this course.  I have minimal resources, but it’s probably because I didn’t seek that many resources, or look harder.  I have lectures, the textbook, and the objectives of the course.  I don’t know how else to prepare than to read the book and try the midterms/finals.  It’s just that reading for the sake of reading can get so boring, especially in the summer!  So I must try harder to focus, it’s hard for me to sit in one place focused on just reading for a long time without music, or tv, thats my weakness.  I remember in high school getting my homework done in my room in front of a tv, well that wont work anymore I realize.  It’s strange because I read so many books, last summer over 120 books, and I read fast, but thats entertainment.  Reading about cells and plants…isn’t very entertaining.  The Biol200 material seems like Biol112 more indept.  I looked through the objectives and readings and theres a section on microscopy…and it just looked boring.  *sighh* I wish I was more motivated with subjects like these that just require reading upon reading.  I think the reason I liked Chem/Math through last semester was that I can listen to music while studying for those subjects/doing homework.

Resources

The textbook for the course..forgot the name (probably shows how many times I’ve read that -__-)

Lecture slides – I don’t have all though just a few, so when I’m done Ill have to go on the hunt

Phys 102

I hate physics, I just needed to get that out of the way.  This is a course I nearly pulled my hair out for in high school.  Taking AP Physics in Grade 11 was a horrible experience, though I came out with an A (oh high school..) it was a huge struggle getting there.  I stayed up late nights with my dad, and read Physics for Dummies during christmas break.  That was definitely what saved me.  However, I still hate physics.  So When I heard I had to take it at UBC I was not thrilled.  Phys101 was pretty bad, even though I look back and realize how easy it was.  I didn’t do well in the beginning because I didn’t know how to study for the course point blank.  I learned the course pretty much a few days before the final, and felt like an idiot for knowing nothing the whole semester.  Now I thought that would be my last experience with Physics, nope! Due to some restriction, and also not wanting to screw myself over for MCAT Physics, I’m taking Phys 102.  So far it’s really easy, plug and chug stuff, my favorite.  I’m doing radioactivity right now, and it’s still just simple concepts and plug and chug, I know that will change soon, but for now I’m taking it easy.  I actually found a old UBC Phys 102 site that has all the lectures, tutorials, etc.  So I downloaded everything for backup in case it gets taken off, but I use the site.  If anyone wants it its: http://www.zoology.ubc.ca/~rikblok/phys102/lecture/index.html

I’m using the current Phys textbook which is the same as the Phys101 textbook.  And then following the lectures, and tutorials.  It’s pretty good so far!  But that website is for a summer session, and you can clearly see how fast summer sessions go!  I’ll talk about that another day.

Resources

http://www.zoology.ubc.ca/~rikblok/phys102/lecture/index.html amazing so far.  The lectures are great and clear, and the tutorials allow you to confirm what you know.

I was thinking of adding another course, but I think this is enough, I’m at a good pace, and I have all summer to learn everything.  I plan to only add a course if I find out I’ll be taking an extremely difficult low average course…hope I won’t though but who knows, depends on my specialization/plans.  Bye!