So you know what advisors in high school always say, that you don’t have to know what you want to do right away in college, that people switch a lot.  Well they don’t tell you that you waste credits, lose credits, or spend MORE time because of this.  My mind is spinning because I know I have to get out of my program and I’m just frustrated that I had to go through a semester before figuring out the program is not for me (Biology).  I thought it’d be simple, ease me into any other program should I ever decide to switch.  I’m thinking of Combined or Integrated Major; either way I’d be mixing Microbio and Computer Science.  I like Microbio, because I liked Bio 112 and I looked up some midterms and lectures, it seems antithesis to Biol 121 and Biol 204 and more like Bio 112 and Biol 200… Pretty much I am interested by all the evolutionary biology, but that interest doesn’t translate to midterm and final grades -___-

I don’t want to make the same mistake twice!  So if there is ANYONE out there, I want advice from those with friends who have done computer science classes at UBC or better yet, have taken them.  I kind of know what to expect with Microbio courses, I don’t expect them to be easy, but I know they are more doable for me.  I just don’t want to end up in a hole, I am actually applying to a few “easier” school JUST to have a little BACKUP plan in case this year doesn’t end so well.  Med school is still a goal for me, and lets just say having experienced undergraduate education elsewhere, I promise you, UBC is something else when it comes to grades.  I know people working half as much doing 10000x better, and I myself worked half as much and did 10000x better at UCLA, and while some schools in the States (key word some, there are still a lot that dont) pay attention to (an A at X may not be the same as an A at Y), apparently all Canadian schools don’t care that an A at UBC is quite different from an A at Langara (no offense to Langara, I’ve thought about taking summer courses there, its a good school).  The reason I’m so pessimistic, grade-wise, is Biol 204.  That course seriously destroyed my morale, the good outcome out of this situation is that I now know to stay far away from Biology program specific courses, and those bio courses that include writing essays are not for me, it’s really TA dependent…and I don’t want to go here…but I must!  Some TA’s were great in Biol 204, but my TA clearly hardly came prepared, I’d ask a question, she’d go to the book, and then forget to answer me, or she’d ask a question for us, and forget the answer… and these were the same TA’s grading harshly on the midterms (haven’t seen grading this harsh since ochem mt 1)  *sigh* this course was a mess!  I’m sure everyone at UBC has that one course they wish they never took, this was mine!  I’ve talked so much about this course, that when I do the semester ‘wrapup’ i won’t have much to say, or maybe I will when I see my actual final grade haha.

But as I was saying, if you know how the CS classes at UBC are let me know!  The midterms I looked at look like rocket science, but I can tell it’s something you do well in if you prepare well and keep up with… but I’d like advice before I completely drop and add classes, I want this done before the 30th so any advice is great.  And I am interested in Computer Science, my job this summer had some computer science integration, it’s pretty much useful for any career future wise, because lets face it, technology is the future, IPADs and all these apps will look like phones with antennas: antient.  It also sets me up with a backup plan, a backup plan to a backup plan to a backup plan.  Haha my backup plans for med school are 1. schools I really want 2. schools i’d like and only look at MCAT not GPA  3. Australia 4. Nigeria (born there) lol  >>> Then computer science backup is to pursue Masters in CS and go from there.

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First Year Midterms/Finals

On a side note!  I have recieved many emails from students asking how I find midterms/lectures ->>  Look online they are everywhere,  I literally spent a day listening to music and racking up all these resources into folders.  I also get emails saying if I could send, I replied to most, and others I said I’d get to it.  Instead of going through my email looking, just comment below with your email and I’ll send it.  I have a lot more useful stuff for semester 2 for UBC Science.  If your realllyy uncomfortable putting your email on here, then email bintamustapha13@hotmail.com, and I will try to reply to each one 🙂  Happy Holidays!

Worst semester of my life.  I will now go into the details.

Rewind to October of 2011.

Now I was getting ready for midterms, which were at this point right around the corner.  I felt good about Chem, great about Biol 204, weary for Biol 200, and good about Clst 301.  Now All I know is my clst midterm could have went 1000x better had I not had a Biol 200 post test right before..and in Biol 200, for some reason the post tests always go past the time the class should end.  It should end at the :50 mark so if you have a class after you have time.  Not the case for Biol 200, its usual for the class to take up the full hour, and knowing I had a midterm afterwards I didn’t like the idea.  I like to BREATHE and cool down and review before a midterm, not take a test and run to the midterm.  My big regret is not leaving the post test and taking it the next day (with -10%) and actually having time to breathe and review before my midterm.  I have a 30minute break for all my clst quizzes and thats why my tutorial grade for clst was so high.  My grade on the clst midterm was good, i was pretty much the average, but I KNOW it should have been much higher, and thats whats disappointing.  That week was just *shudders* horrible.  Biol 200 Post Test, Clst Midterm, Biol 200 Midterm, and Biol 204 Midterm, and of course two labs back to back and two midterms back to back, as in night to morning (sigh).  By the end of that week I slept for like 18hrs catching up.  Getting midterms back… was not fun.  Clst was ok, it was the average. Biol 200 on the other hand!  I clearly didnt know what was going on with the experiments, if I had TIME to do the practice midterms I had, I would have had atleast 10% more, why?? because one of my midterms had the same problem VERBATUM, and I mean exact same question!  Too bad I didn’t have time, because I was too busy reading.

Biol 204….this course deserves its own blog post, so I’ll save that for later.  Chem 233….. the TA’s are on something else.  Deductions for the most trivial things ever…and I had an issue that I’ll discuss later as well concerning 233 grading! So much drama this semester wish I blogged more capturing those moments! 🙁

Grades haven’t completely come out, just Clst 301, and Chem 235.  235 is semi-surprisingly bad.  Use to all my chem lab grades being mid to high A’s…and this was the funnest(if that’s a word) chem lab and by far…my lowest.  It’s only 1 credit so I’m not spazzing out, but still…Ive noticed at UBC that the most fun/interesting course always ends up being my lowest.  Note to self: try not to enjoy courses or find them interesting -_____-  Biol 204 for sure was the most interesting course (we dissected sharks, pigeons, rats, and cute mudpuppies) yet I am 100% sure that will be my lowest grade to date, ever, in my life.  The lab portion of the course is 40% (I know! Thats a lot!)  The final for the course is only 35%.  The midterm is 15%.  I walked out of that final thinking…”easily 90+”  First of all, one of the questions was on a practice midterm I found, and I kept up with this class soooo well.  So thoroughly (I said I wouldnt discuss this course..but oh well) and by thoroughly I mean, notes on the book, notes on the slides.  Typed up objectives. In short, I put in more effort for this class than probably all the other courses added together..which is not good.  Now after I got the midterm back, and it was far from my expectations, I was so disappointed that I kind of “fell off.”  This wasn’t great, but at the same time, the way they graded the midterms was so horrible.  This is how I KNOW.  I had a question off the midterm, I pretty much wrote what I remembered and didn’t get points for it.  The TA’s didn’t even turn the page to see all my writing/work.  I could tell because they had red marks on the page strangely(if I showed you you’d know) and didn’t check the back.  The professor acknowledged that the TA’s did a bad job and gave everyone 5%…which is fair..but not necessarily fair to people who weren’t screwed over by the TA’s.  Anyways he said, if you check the answer key and you deserve more than 5% come to me..so lets say you deserve 7% youd get 2 more percent% -____-  The course in total, was just messy.  The book was sooo complicated that it took me hours to get through, only to find out (when I was studying for the final) that the book isn’t needed…*sigh* The lab exam for this course, which was 22% of your grade in THE COURSE.  I was not healthy that week, and was definitely disoriented and sick during that lab exam.  If I could go back in time I wouldn’t have went and gave a doctors note (oh yeah, I did have a doctors note, just didn’t use it) There goes 22% of my grade.  204, 204, 2o4.  Nothing seemed to want to go right this semester.  I don’t even know what to say, because I did work hard, and I did study nearly everyday, so what can you do?  People in Biol 234(genetics) have told me horrible things, and these are people that do very well in other more difficult courses…this has led me to believe that all “biology program” courses are just not for people who want great grades.  Like Chem 233, I can see how people get 90+ on midterms and finals, I felt really good about the final.  But Biol 204..Biol 234, those courses…  This has led me to my decision on GETTING OUT of the Biology program before I completely destroy my average.  Im greatful I didn’t take Biol 234 or 23o this semester, now that I think about it Biol 121(my other worst grade) was very similar to Biol 204, so this is a wakeup call.  I plan to switch to Combined Major: Microbiology&Immunology & Computer Science, since I planned on doing the CS minor to begin with, and I’m better at Bio112/Microbio kind of Bio, and not Bio121/Biol204 kind of Bio.  Rearranging my schedule to match my new major now.  Will post my new schedule soon!  🙂

Happy Holidays everyone.