Hello everyone,

I can’t believe its already been 2 weeks since school started, this semester really seems to be going super fast!  This year is different for me because I’m working, and I’ve become more efficient overall to make up for the time I lose.  I remember wasting a lot of weekends last year, and I’m too scared to do that at this point.  I am officially in Integrated Sciences in Microbiology and Immunology and Nutritional Sciences.  I’m going to go through the process in its entirety (I’m still getting some things sorted), but I want to turn it into an honors degree.  To help my application for grad/med school, and because based on how UBC has certain courses restricted to only one semester I have to drag it till the following year, so why not make the most out of my time and pursue an honors.  I’ll see how it goes.  This semester I am taking Phyl 301, Micb 302, Stats 200, Germ 100, and Isci 300.  My first impressions after 2nd week are below:

Phyl 301

Why in the world did I buy that textbook.  Besides that, the course is a battlefield, I feel like explaining the 5 minutes before the beginning of this class requires it’s own post.  If you thought you’ve seen crazy at UBC you haven’t till you try and get a good seat in the 11am Phyl 301.  People are literally throwing bags rows away from them in the effort to get a seat, hoping over bars and multiple rows of seats, arguing over how many seats to save.  Yes I have already got told off for saving ONE seat, I let him win and keep the seat, and what happened right after, he saved the seat beside him.  The main problem with the seating issue is that there is an Anat course right before Phyl 301.  Now a lot of those kids are in Phyl 301, so they don’t move, they stay where they are, so then everyone coming in is like in a way competing for the seats that are left.  The prof doesn’t assign readings (well this one at least, there are more to come) and it makes the lectures all the more important.  Each lecture has so much information, that being in the nosebleed seats really isn’t the best.  The class has like 600 students, there are 2 overflow rooms, and they have the option to facetime the prof a question on ipad should they need one.  Thats new!  Overall, I’m understanding everything so far, I think my job has actually turned me into a really good notetaker in class, I can catch information faster, write faster, and use abbreviations I learned while working.  I will also talk about my job more, because I get a lot of questions about it.

Micb 302

Constantly a lecture behind no matter how hard I try, there is just too much information.  I feel like 2 weeks of Micb 202 is in one week of Micb 302.  The course is fine, the professor is great, there’s just a whole lot of information.  This year the changed the textbook, and I really don’t like it.  The book goes in circles, brings up a topic and seems to finalize that topic and move on to something else then bring up the other topic and adds more random stuff.  Like I wish it’d bring up a topic like inflammation, and say everything, every receptor, every protein and molecule that participates, but it comes up every chapter with different jargon, and this would be fine if this were multiple choice, but since the midterms are more short-answer I want clarity so I can be clear with my answers.   I wouldnt dare to cram this course so I’m trying to be really thorough and keep up.  I’m a lecture behind, but thats not bad, I don’t mind staying that way, because she always ends up telling us in lecture :ignore this and that in the book, I’m glad I didn’t read all the intricacies of the complement system  before she said that.  I also notice that going to lecture, getting a solid idea then reading works well for this course, for me at least, this usually isnt the case.  This year they made the change to have 2 midterms, one is in 2 weeks and worth 20% the one after is 30%.  I guess because students from last year complained about having a 50% midterm.  And I wonder if you always want what you can’t have, because now I’m thinking I’d like to go crazy studying for this one midterm and get 50% out of the way, but sometimes I’m studying and I’m relieved there are 2 midterms in case this one goes bad.  I’m never really great at short answer exams. I can understand a concept all the way, all the steps, but not give them exactly what they want and lose marks all over the place.  I hope there are practice midterms, so I can work on this.

Stats 200

I have a fear of probability, it’s just something I never got, so I was worried about Statistics.  I was initially in a 2pm section, and had a class in Buchanan right before my Stats course (in EEB) and I would always come and the class would be full and I’d have to sit on the ground.  I am a horrible horrible morning person, but I had to make the decision to have a seat every class and give my full attention, so I switched to the 9am section which is half empty ( I’m pretty sure a lot of 9am people sleep in and thats why the 2pm section is always full).  I prefer the professor who I’m with now, he goes fast sometimes but explains things in the most simple way that I can actually get all the clicker questions, and understand everything before reading the book, this was shocking for me.  So far, this course is going well.

Germ 100

Iknew while at UBC I needed to do a language, because it’s just something you can really carry with you after you graduate, and it seems like a straight forward arts elective that doesn’t include countless essays.  I was worried about this course because people warned me there will be students who slyly get into the course, and have experience with German, when it’s a beginner course.  And of course, some students have shown they know more than they should, someone actually said ‘oh yeah I took German courses…[see my expression]…yeah wasn’t that serious though yaah.’  I decided to stay because I still want to learn the language, I’m enjoying it so far.  I actually had thoughts of switching out but I’d already taken the wrapper off my book which was nearly 200 dollars so…decided to stay, I’m glad I did now.   There is memorization but once you take a course like CLST 301, memorization isn’t a real problem.  The class is straight forward, so far, the prof is very friendly and organized, I’m trying to make it through to the 200 levels and leave UBC able to carry conversations.

ISCI 300

This is a seminar for Integrated Sciences students.  It’s pass/fail, so I plan to show up, take what I can from the course, and learn some new topics.  I’ve never taken a pass/fail course so I’m still unsure how it works, but the professor seems nice so far.

My Job

Yes I am working as an ER Scribe, it’s the first time I’m working while going to school, so I’ve become more aware of how I spend my time, I’m actually using my planner now, and it’s been a very eye-opening experience.  You can google it to see the basic information, but I’m sure duties slightly differ everywhere.  It’s the only program of its kind in Canada so far, so that in itself is cool, you get to work with doctor’s and see what they do every shift, it’s really interesting seeing the things you read in a book in front of you.  I think I’ve said this before but the only thing thats ever made me cringe was the person who chainsawed their fingers off by accident, other than that nothing really grosses me out.  I saw a stomach get drained the other day, and I literally could not believe how much fluid came out, it filled up like two medium sized bags.  You’d think being the oldest of 6 I’ve seen an ultrasound done of a baby but I haven’t and the first time I saw that was really nice.  I’m still clueless about ultrasounds, a lot of time it looks like a blob, but I’ve actually spotted gall bladder stones, and things like that, and I would probably think it was blobs on a screen a few months ago, so it is a learning experience in a way.  And now I’m kind of understanding why they are adding Psychology to the MCATs.  For night shifts, you can already imagine the amount of drunk passed out/belligerent people that come in, but in the whole 4 months atleast the shifts I’ve worked, there has only been one Code White and it was cancelled.  Overall, it’s been a very rewarding experience working at the ER, I will definitely continue blogging about my experiences there.  🙂

About binta

UBC First year student. :)

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