Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, I happened to get super sick, so I’ve been sleeping a lot and studying for my L test (I know I am late!  I’ll have that done before the break ends, and should have my N by the time I graduate)

So I’ve gotten most of my grades back (MICB 306 still hasn’t come..their notoriously late in terms of handing things back for this course, same with MICB 302).  I am glad I didn’t have one standout bad grade, like usually one course throws things off, but I did well on everything, I discovered a lot of things I was doing wrong in terms of studying, and I am so glad I changed them.

FNH 350

This course is pretty much a biochemistry course, and I actually found it more difficult than Bioc 302, because there were a lot of details to memorize, there was too much to memorize, and atleast Bioc 302 final is not cumulative of the entire semester.  So its an 8 am course and you have to be there for every lecture mwf, because the prof deletes parts of the slides, so you must show up to fill them in.  Now I missed 2 classes this semester due to being either ill, or having way too much to do with other courses.  I realized how bad that was for me studying for finals, cause I could only imagine what I missed on the slides, another thing, is I have no friends in this class lol.  The class is half full every class so I know people trade off lectures, and dont care to show up knowing their friends there will give them the notes.  I’m a little hesitant asking strangers for the last lectures notes (I wouldn’t be 1st year at UBC, I am now, once you’ve been here long enough, you understand how some people are! ;))  Regardless of that, the midterm was 30%, quizzes 10%, and that component I had a really high A, close to an A+.  Now the variables for me were the group project, I overestimated how well my group did (not really i assumed we got 75) so didn’t devote as much time to the final exam as I should have.  I did well but definitely got lower than I expected 🙁  I wish I knew my group project grade before studying for the final, would have made a difference.  Regardless I did well, and it was definitely an interesting course, I learned a lot.  And this course would be torture if you had never taken Bioc 302, I don’t recommend taking this without taking Bioc 302 beforehand.

MICB 306

So I had heard this was one of the more lightweight Microbio courses, in terms of 3rd year level, so I wasn’t too worried.  But the course changed a lot this year, and Kion was the prof for the first 2 midterms.  The first midterm was 30% and I did really well, the class had an average of 81% which is great for a MICB course 3rd year level.  The second midterm also 30% was too long, and it seemed methodically done, because I only knew a few people who finished.  I didn’t finish, and I wish I knew beforehand it’d be obscenely long, I’d go through the exam and do the problems I knew I could get full marks on right away.  There were a lot of questions at the end I wish were in the beginning.  Regardless the class average for the second midterm was 64, and I was around there 🙁  She said there was a possibility of scaling, so honestly I wouldn’t mind a 5% scale up, that’d be perfect lol.  I dont know if they will scale, because the final was pretty easy.  Pretty straight forward, and to the point, nearly half the class left the exam early, and I know the average has to be in the high 80s (im guessing) for the final, so we will see.  It’d be a shame if the second midterm is what prevents me from getting an A, hoping I did well enough on the final.

GERM 200

So I love studying for German opposed to my other science courses, its more relaxing, not just memorize, memorize, memorize.  However, things have changed from 100 level to 200 level.  They don’t give practice midterms anymore, and honestly that was the best part.  I knew if I did the practice midterm/final 2 times I’d guarantee an A on the exam.  I got an A in the course, but nothing close to my Germ 100 grade, because there were less resources, and obviously because its more difficult, its intermediate.  I really wanted to finish Germ all the way to 210 level, but I think I’m going to stop now.  It’s not necessary for my degree, and Germ 210 is apparently a lot of speaking, which is my weakest point.  Times like this you have to choose grades over interest.  I figure I can continue learning one summer on my own.

ECON 310

This class, I took it because I wanted to take at least one Econ class before leaving UBC, my friend recommended it, and was taking it, so I took it.  MICB 306 exam was at 7pm, and this exam was at 12 pm the next day, so I already knew sacrifices had to be made.  Definitely hope it was worth it because I am still waiting for my MICB grade to come out.  This class is pretty straight forward, read the book, do the Aplia, do the problems, and it should be fine.

——

Overall biggest change I made this semester was for the science courses.  The change was to completely ignore the textbook, why didn’t someone tell me this earlier? I wish someone told me this earlier..honestly!  My average would be atleast 5-10% higher if I knew this earlier.  So for MICB courses especially I find, ignore the textbook, and focus on the slides.  I used to focus on the textbook and use the slides for review, and its way more work, way more to memorize, and less time to review.  I think I had high school mentality which is, if you see assigned readings, I read, and thats my main focus.  I don’t know why it took me so long to figure it out, and the time of studying for midterms decreased substantially.  Way more time to re-read, and review when your focusing on one thing, not two.  I still have MICB 407,408, and 308 to go so luckily I wont make the same mistakes!  Still makes me sick that I figured it out this late though.  So essentially unless they say reading is mandatory, its not.  Regardless my GPA so far is looking better than before, and this is putting in less work, looking back I wish I did this for classes like Biol 200, and Biol 204!  Better late than never!

Hope everyone is enjoying their break! 🙂

Hello everyone,

Hope everyone’s midterms have been going well, I actually just completed my second German one, and only have 1 to go next week, until I can relax a bit before finals.  This has actually been my best semester to date at UBC so far! Hope I’m not jinxing myself.  Because I’m doing 5 years at UBC, its really important I have a high A average this semester and next semester, I thought I was reaching, but it seems doable so far.

Micb 306

I was dreading this course, I dread anything MICB related but I did really well, definitely the highest in any MICB course I have taken.  The course is quite different from last year though, because I had a practice midterm and the topics didnt completely match up.  In terms of MICB courses, I definitely recommend MICB 306.  302 was a nightmare.

FNH 350

I am integrating nutrition, so this is a mandatory course, and I really enjoy it.  Thats saying a lot considering its at 8am in the morning mwf, and there are parts missing in the slide that you only get if you come to class so its not the kind of class to skip.  I look crazy and exhausted every class but I’m glad I have only missed one lecture so far this semester.  There is definitely a lot of memorization in this course, and its pretty much feels like a biochemistry course.  We’ve done digestion/absorption, lipids, and now proteins.  I had this midterm the day before MICB, and got the exact same grade on the midterm than I did on MICB.  I am shocked at myself that no all nighter has been pulled this year, this is a first for me, smh!

Germ 200

So I loved Germ 100, it was my first A+ at UBC, and I did great in it, still did good in Germ 110.  Germ 200 is great, but I get the feeling that theres a lot of people who have a “more than intermediate” background in German.  I definitely feel like the worst speaker in class, but putting myself at a lower level makes me work harder, so i’m still glad I took it.  Studying for German is way more chill than studying for a Science course.  Theres instant gratification when you can understand passages and write out 200 words in German, where as with Science I feel like gratification comes after you’ve graduated and entered this workforce/grad school

Econ 310

I feel like this course is 40% common sense and 60% keeping up.  The material makes sense, its not something you gotta read a bunch of times to understand, its pretty straight forward.  Shockingly though so far in terms of midterms its been hardest one, just because I felt like I was being rushed.  The midterm is 30% and in class and 50minutes.  I just felt like as a more conceptual/mathematical less memorization course there wasnt enough time.  I will see how it goes!

So its been a pretty chill semester for me, my finals schedule is out and I finish on the very last day!  I have no complaints!  I’d rather a short break than a crammed finals schedule.  Happy Halloween Everybody!

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.  🙂

I am not posting a whole bunch of tips, just tips that actually worked for me.  So for my second semester my average went up by 7% by making some big changes.  Some changes were probably too much for me, and I didn’t follow through, but some I did, and they definitely helped me.

1.  Check out your classes before hand!  If it’s one of those courses with a lot of sections, try and choose the professor who’s grading scheme fits you best.  Eg.  When I was chosing a Math 103 prof, i checked every prof’s grading scheme, and when I saw one professor doing some weird online thing for grades, and the other doing clickers, I chose the clickers!  And checking ratemyprof is helpful but not COMPLETELY reliable.  It does help you get the gist of the professor.  I really liked my Math professor’s grading scheme, some quizzes to keep me on my toes, labs were 10% :D, etc.

2.  GO to OTHER lectures.  I actually said this during christmas break on a post.  I said it’s something I wanted to do, and thought would help..and it did.  I did this for math 103, only because I couldn’t do it for chem or bio(timetable conflicts).  But even though most people do worse in math 103, i went up 15% from first semester math to second semester math.  So a big jump.  I can honestly say that the extra lectures contributed, especially because I set it up in a way that I was having math every single day.  It also helped to reaffirm things, and most of all, each professor has their strengths, and if one professor was weak on a certain subject, the other professor seemed to be strong.  My professor was Rolfsen, and my extra class was taught by Christoph Hauert.

3.  Go to Office Hours.  Going to office hours helps.  It’s amazing how so many students are in a lecture, and how few of them come to office hours.  Even if you know your stuff, in office hours I was able to find out about things to come before others, and also got a lot of things cleared up.

4. Take practice tests.  I am the queen of practice tests.  I have about 5 billion for each first year course.  So if your a first year in science, and want something that WILL help you, contact me, and I will happily send them your way.  For my first chem midterm I did the pratice test posted online + about 7 others that I had found.  Result:  My highest midterm grade EVER.

5.  Dont get caught up with your great midterm grades…and start slacking off.  After chem I was too confident, and Biol140 started distracting me and getting in the way (I regret putting so much time into this horrible course) and I for some reason put Bio 140 in higher priority and fell off the Bio 112, Math  103 and Chem 123 trains.  Thus my downfall…I did well my second semester, I am very proud of how much I improved.  But I do wish I wasn’t in Bio 140, I have a feeling my average would be atleast 4% higher.

6.  Take some time for yourself.  Sometimes constant focus on work will suck up all the energy you have…and then finals hit.  You want to have gotten the fun out of the way when you have to study for finals.  So don’t be the person in the library from 9am to 1am monday through sunday.

EDIT: NOTE TO EVERYONE..just remembered this, the average for Chem 233 in the summer was 70! 70!!!  First years out there, if you can take chem 233 in the summer with Jackie Stewart.  *sighh*

University is an experience you remember for life.  You learn in the classroom, and out.  You study hard with hopes of reaching your dream career.  And sometimes your dream career, like mine, requires stellar grades.  These stellar grades are easier to get at different schools.  UBC is definitely not one of those inflation crazy schools.  Stanford for example, is known for having a lot of grade inflation.  UBC doesn’t necessary have too much grade deflation, and it’s not difficult to do well at UBC, it is however hard to do great.  And those people doing great, I applaud, and I think a lot of future entrepeneurs, surgeons, and top lawyers are going to come out of UBC.  Now sometimes if you want your GPA to be a little better, people like to throw in some easy electives in there, and hope that it bumps their GPA.  This does backfire sometimes, your so comfortable with your easy elective, that you forget about it, and it ends up screwing up your GPA.  Chem 123 was this for me.  After my amazing first midterm, I thought it’d be my GPA bump course, but it ended up being my lowest grade 🙁

What is the first thing I usually get from people when I say I want a couple easy electives?  University is for learning, and taking courses that interest you, and enjoying them.  I completely agree, studying at a world class university is a great opportunity, but I personally think, if I enjoy the class AND it’s a gpa bumper then its perfect.  Bio121 was one of my favorite courses last year, the teacher was funny, and I was genuinely interested by all the things I learned.  I learned so much, that I never knew before, but it was my lowest grade.  The whole, ‘you do well in what interests you’ doesnt always work.  Bio 112 on the other hand, far less interesting, but I did far better in the course.

I want to go to med school.  And many people have asked me why I chose UBC if I wanted this.  Apparently, medical schools don’t consider the difficulty of your school when considering grades.  Hypothetically a A at Langara and an A at UBC are of equal value.  Langara is a good school, but UBC is more competitive.  So sometimes I wonder if I chose UBC based on pride like, ‘yeah I go to UBC :)’ But I also chose UBC because it’s a beautiful school, lots of resources, and it’s in a great city.  When I hear that I’m hurting my chances by going to a more difficult school, it annoys me.  So why not HELP myself and take some GPA bumping courses??

University is about the experience, but everyone has different life goals.  I want to be a doctor.  And I chose a difficult school to do great in.  After attending UCLA, I can honestly say I worked 10 times harder at UBC, and my grades were worse.  Whether that’s fair or not is not the point.  The fact is to get into med school, you need to be amazing.  So why not take courses you enjoy and also try and make them easy electives?  Especially when you have the core science courses already dragging you down.

What does it take to do well in a course?  Specifically a science course.  These are a few tips that I’ve heard from some students:

1.  Do Problem Sets [chemistry]

2. Don’t skip class

3. Preread!

Those are just a few, and those extremists,yeah the ones who get 90+ on all their courses, dont practice till they get it right, they practice till they CANT get it wrong.  Thats the mentality I want going foward.  Now that I’m going into 2nd year, there truly are no excuses not to get a fantastic average next year, that can compete with my high school average.  You see people get 97 in a course that the average was 60.  You immediately think those people are superhuman, but their not, their human.  They’re just more focused, and probably absorb material faster than you.  So why settle for a average-above average grade when you can get those superhuman grades too.  That’s exactly what I was thinking on the plane when I awoke from a dream, or should I say nightmare where I was a high school biology teacher *shudders*.  I thought realistically, that though I can be focused, and thats what I did second semester, sometimes you just dont have time!  You want to do all those problem sets twice, and all those practice midterms, but sometimes you only have time to do some and not all.  My best midterm to date was Chem 123 second midterm, but that midterm was AFTER reading week.  With time, you can accomplish anything.  Rushing, cramming, will get you to above average at best, atleast for me.  But thoroughly learning the material, key word ‘thoroughly’ will definitely let you reach those Superhuman Grades.  Thus I have found a solution!  Why don’t I teach myself the course, before the course?!  It seems bullet proof, the difficult part is finding the resources.

One thing I learned from my second semester course was that my learning was about 85% myself and 10% Professor and 5% High school knowledge.  Pretty much if you dont do readings, or problems, or anything,  just go to lectures then chill, in a science course, I cant imagine you getting like 94+ in the class, I cant imagine you passing! (Though there are the lucky few) .  When you go to Irving and its packed, people are learning from themselves, with lectures acting as somewhat of a supplement.

I will be taking Chem 233, Biol200, Phys102, among many others next year -__- , and I want to prepare for these courses thoroughly before diving in.  That way when the course comes around, I’ll keep up, but it’ll be like a review, itll be less fresh, and those difficult concepts (which I know theres a lot in chem233!) wont be as difficult because it wont be new material.  Now due to the fact that I am highly resourceful if I say so myself, I have lecture slides from 2 different professors per course, tons of sample midterms, problem sets with solutions, the textbooks, and even have some ochem for dummies and physics for dummies as supplement.  The hardest part of this whole process will likely be staying focused and serious, its easy to slack when what your doing is by choice and not actually graded.  So I will give weekly updates with how this whole plan goes.

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

Deuces!

Binta

After my first semester of UBC, I’m trying to think of a checklist of what I need to do next semester in order to substantially raise my average. I want to make realistic goals, but also high goals.  I’ve done it before, with SAT’s and in high school when I was months behind, but UBC is certainly on another scale.  Here are my goals so far.

– I think I spent the first 2-3 weeks thinking I was working hard, but I know what working hard is, thats what I did before my physics final, thats what I need to do from beginning to end.  So work harder! Duh!

–  Always pre-read.  I did this in the beginning for physics and bio, but had like periods where I’d stop(usually midterm season or when work piles) so I’d skip it.  Not knowing the readings before going to class is not fun, also leads to last minute cramming.

– Don’t force yourself into the position where you must cram!  When I give myself enough time to study not cram, I do so much better.

–  This one is a big one and may only work for me:  FORGET THE CHEAT SHEET:  I’m not use to having a cheat sheet available, this never really happened in high school, so when I found out, lets just say especially for physics, I didn’t stress too hard on learning everything because well, I had my cheat sheet!  Same with bio, how much do I need to know when I have a cheat sheet!  Big mistake, completely screwed me.  For the physics final, I left my cheat sheet till the last minute for the first time, and had the least on it, and did substantially better!  It was my best exam, same for my biology exam.  Why did I realize this so late?  So people, treat each test with cheat sheet’s allowed, like it doesn’t have a cheat sheet.

– Use some free time between classes that you know you’ll waste, and go to another sections lecture.  In Chem, I didn’t understand a couple concepts later on, and going to another professors lecture reaffirmed and helped so much!  Not a lot of other people do it, so give yourself a little advantage!

– Try, try, to get 5 hours of sleep before each midterm/final.  This number is different for everyone, but I only need 5 hours and a coffee to be very alert through the day.

– do the Practice Midterms!  I don’t know what I was kidding, they are definitely the best ways to study in my opinion.  After going through the subject matter, taking the practice midterms is the best way to know if you can actually do the problems.  I wish I did this for Math, Physics, and Biology.  When I did this, my grades went up, easy as that.

These are just the few I have so far, but I really wish I did all these things from the beginning, but now there’s no excuse not to do great next semester after being aware of all the mistakes I made first semester.  Well maybe that 8am math class 2nd semester is an excuse.  Ha, still trying to fix that.  Note to all math 103 students, please drop so I can get out of the 8am lecture! 🙂

Happy Holidays!