First Year!
Hey, I know there are a lot of first years out there reading this, about to start UBC. I remember counting down the days until I finally got to UBC. When you go to a new school it is always a big transition. You are probably that kid in high school who got the best grades in class, and had people asking you if they could ‘look at your homework.’ The biggest thing that changes from high school to university is expectations. I know the cutoff my year for UBC Science was a 92, I don’t know if it went down or up this year..? Regardless you may become the person asking ‘hey can I take a look at your homework.’ Because most students were top of their classes in High School. I can honestly say first semester is the hardest. I can’t really say first year is harder than second year until I experience it, if there are students who have completed 2nd year, let me know is it harder or easier than first year? You meet about 100000 people your first week at UBC. I think I remembered like 5 people I met first week, so it can get overwhelming. I remember introducing/meeting people first week in my courses and then after that no one talked to eachother unless you knew eachother ha. I have already done a tips for first year’s post, but on a side note things to try to mainatin are good, supportive people around you. UBC is a competitive school, and you will run into those few people who secretely want you to fail, or don’t like to help you anyway academically… I’m just saying!
Now as for my summer studying, I planned to study like a maniac this summer and learn the details of most of my courses this summer. Everyone told me, ‘Binta it is impossible to study that hard in the summer.’ Well for the first 2 months it was going great. I went really slow, and gave myself time to absorb everything. For Chem 233 I studied up to alkyne mechanisms, so for the first midterm I should be pretty solid. The most important thing I wanted was a headstart, and I think I accomplished that. This week I’ll be taking practice midterms myself timed, and see if I retained the information well. For Biol 200, it went slowly, I read A LOT. I’ll be taking a few practice midterms this weekend as well. I think I mentioned this, but I got a fulltime job, 40hrs/week, and let’s say the studying took a little backseat. This is the first time I have worked this many hours so I didn’t accomplish as much I wanted to academically. I also had a lot of changes in t
erms of courses so I also wanted to make sure I wasn’t preparing for courses I wouldn’t be taking. Here are the finalized courses I will be taking this semester are:
Biol 200
Biol 204
Chem 233
Chem 235
Clst 301
*Update – I am soooo sad Jackie Stewart isnt teaching chem..she consistently has the best avg’s and did i mention she allowed a GROUP midterm for the summer section -______________________________________________________________________-
From what I’ve heard and seen Biol200 and Chem 233 are the hardest of this bunch. So I’m glad those are the two I focused on this summer. I’m going to kick things into gear im hoping to finish 3 midterms for biol 200 and chem 233 this summer and see where I am at, what my weaknesses are, etc.
And I debated this, because I have a lot of last minute things to do (getting a phone, moving and unpacking) but I will be attending imagine day. Hope to pick up tons of free swag, and of course learn more about resources available to us at UBC ;]
wow. Finding a place to live, studying 2 hard courses in second year, and working full time…
This is the summer isn’t it… When do you get your OWN, FREE time? XD
I’m actually paying most of my tuition if not all so it’s worth it for me, I’ve had free time this summer not a lot, but i appreciate the time even more, and I’ve already had previous summers of nonstop laziness so it’s not bad to do something productive now. 🙂
Hey! It’s real cool how you started studying ahead in the summer, but how did you know what to study? I mean your course stuff (course schedule,readings) appear on vista near the beginning of classes… I planned to do that too but they haven’t appeared for semester 2 yet. Do u think that all that studying ahead help you prepare for the courses? I think it did since you did so many midterms… but again how did you get those practice midterms?
There are a few courses that are pretty consistent in terms of the textbook, midterms, and syllabus. Some courses would be chem 233, biol 112, math 102, math 103… You’d be surprised at how many past midterms and finals you find online. Getting my first full time job derailed most of my study plans though, so everything I studied well in the summer (which wasn’t much due to my job and other commitments -__-) i didn’t have half as much trouble with, in fact (eg.ochem) the stuff I focused on was what I did best in in the midterm (and im sure the final as well ) And I get the practice midterms trolling online, students who have taken the course, information for ubc is alll over the net. I don’t mind sending what I have on my pc still if you’d like some, I’ll actually be making a post because I get asked for midterms a lot.