Hello everyone!

 

It has been too long since I’ve blogged, and a lot has happened since Jan 8 2011, wow it’s actually exactly a month since I’ve last blogged.  Ok first of all I changed my schedule around, I am no longer pursuing computer science.  It was around 2 weeks into the course, and I just felt so lost.  The thing that irked me the most is when someone would ask a question using terminology (not taught yet) and discussing things that went far beyond the realm of the course.  I feel bad enough that I can’t get everything as fast as I’d like to, and I think I got over the fact that so many people in that class had programming experience, but I think the professor tended to them more than he did those that had no experience whatsoever.  It didn’t feel like a beginner course for me, and after spending DAYS studying, and still not getting WEEK1/2 stuff, I already knew it was…my time to head on to ssc, click that tab that says registration, click that tab that says Add/Drop courses, and GET OUT OF CPSC110.  My dad is a computer scientist/programmer and I got him to help me but it wasnt enough, to get through this class Id need him daily.  And I thought it’d be teaching intro Java with a textbook, but its changed completely now they’re not really teaching a specific language, but …I won’t even go into it, its too messy for me.

NOW..

Onto classes I’m actually taking.   I decided to stick with the Combined Major in Science, but switch from cpsc to eosc, and i’d only need to take 3 eosc courses to satisfy that portion of my major.  I feel like im constantly switching, but this is safe, and it’s about the most flexible major at UBC, well after Integrated Sciences I think.  I think having more control, and choice with my courses is what I need.  I’ve had two midterms back to back, and one on Sunday(online course) and I can honestly say I’ve slept a lot this week, and I felt good/decent about both, and this doesnt happen to me ever, so this major is probably what I should have done to begin with, Biol 204 will be my biggest regret at UBC i’m sure.  I will give a quick update about each course

Eosc 326

This is one of the eosc courses I must take as part of my combined major, I actually had a wide selection, I only take 3 courses, and this is 1/3 of them.  It’s an online course, I came in about 2 weeks late and had a midterm & lab the following week (together 25%), so I definitely buckled down, and while I gave it a lot of time, I can tell this isn’t a class that can get to be too much to handle.  I’ve done really well on everything so far, my midterm was my highest midterm ever at UBC tied with Chem 123, and my lab was great as well.  Hope to continue, didn’t expect this class to be a GPA booster..but it just might be 🙂

Ihhs 200

I’ve been very sick, so I missed some classes, but so far the professor is still great!  I actually just signed up for UBC Trek Reading Week Program, the orientation is Saturday, but it will be my volunteering that I’m doing for this course.  You can replace a midterm and report with volunteering, so I can’t be mad at that!  The final should be straight forward, and I have to start focusing more in this course!

Chem 205

OMG why didn’t I make a separate post about this course!  I feel like this is about to be a longggg paragraph.  So i’m about to go in on pretty much the whole department thats in Chem 205.  FIRST OF ALL:  Why were you guys unable to send a MASS email that SIMPLY STATED what was on the midterm, what the cutoff was, and what we weren’t responsible for.  Though it’s a section wide midterm, people were being told different things.  We were assigned problem sets, but there were apparent questions that we weren’t responsible for.  The discussion board was MASS confusion, every time I went on it, it was something new.  “OK …umm my prof said we are responsible for Clapeyron”…oh really “my prof said not to worry about it too much”…ok.. “my prof said we arent responsible for some problem set 2 questions” SO THE DISCUSSION BOARD WAS PRETTY MUCH A GIANT HEADACHE.  It’s crunch time, and these kind of trivial matters are just annoying.  When I was studying for the midterm I looked and looked for practice/old midterms, but there were NONE.  If I had JUST ONE I know for sure, I would have done way better because I’d know the format, and get all the little tricky things.. especially in a course like chem 205, once you know the tricks, and your good with equations, your solid.  Nonetheless, I can’t say that I’ve ever been as ‘nonchalant’ about a midterm as I was for this.  Like I didn’t read the webtext..ever..because all those derivatives were too intimidating, so I spent the week prior to the midterm reading/taking notes, but it wasn’t like I was going hardcore.  Fact of the matter is…I know how I am, finals schedules came out, and I will have time for this final.  Its 70%, and 15% are quizzes with TWO attempts 😀  Meaning you can pretty much get perfect every time.  In the grand scheme of things getting an 80 or a 90, or getting a 70 or a 80 is not too big of a deal in the grand scheme.  If I could learn half of Chem 233 in 3 days and beast my final…4 days for Chem 205 should be fine, that 15% on quizzes doesn’t hurt either.

Biol 201

Okay, so this course has taken a “backseat” this week(and last week) because I have other courses with midterms, but I think my prof Bingle has so much swag for a prof! Haha he’s not my favorite prof at UBC, but he has this chill vibe, where it’s like hes very comfortable with the material, so it makes YOU feel comfortable with the material, he teaches so well without even trying!  I’ve went to other sections, and they may have more clickers, or whatnot, but he is just so chill, and explains complicated things in the BEST ways.  I missed a few classes last couple weeks (X_X).  I will NEVER miss a class again, this is a promise to myself.  I also have this eery feeling like this could be my worst grade this semester, so I have to catch up!! ARGHH.

Micb 202

Just had my midterm today, and it was a whopping 34%.  Okay (watch me change my opinion when grades come out lol) I reallly really really really really love the material for this course.  This course is divided into 3 sections: Immunology, Bacterial Diseases, and Virology.  And Immunology was just so interesting!  I think it’s because for once I’m learning about actual people not animals (*cough* Biol 204 *cough*).  And I was at the pace of the class at the beginning, but then started going at my own pace later on, really making sure I knew everything before I moved on.  And I would find myself like saying “damn..” or “wow…” or just Shaking My Head as I read the different topics in Immunology section.  Like how you get bacterial infections, how the innate, and adaptive immune responses rise to action.  It started off being so complicated at the beginning but then it just all seemed simple at the end.  And you learn so much about infections, like HIV.  Do you know that you can have a HIV protein just chilling in one of your cells for years and years…just waiting to attack!  That’s just one of the things.  How a guy with cancer AND HIV got cured by getting a bone marrow transplant from some with a defective CCR5 gene.  How crazy is that, and I always get ideas, like what about this, or what about that.  It just seems like a really important subject, that could do so many things for mankind.  We are moving on to bacterial diseases now, so I don’t know if the interest will continue, but I hope so.
AS FOR THE MIDTERMS.  I have a question for UBC Science Faculty.  What are you guys so AFRAID OF?  Why is the very thought at a B average for a midterm horrifying for you guys?  Why?  Why can’t the average be a B+?  I always thought that too many Science students at UBC are mentally psychotic when it comes to helping their peers, its too competitive, and now that I think about it, what do you expect when the professors or whoever is their boss, cringes at the very thought of students doing well. I undertand first year, fine weed out the med school keeners, but can this end?  That midterm was I would say good, I think I did very well…but when a prof says something like “I really hate x type of questions, but we have to do them or else too many people will do well”….AND? Whats wrong with that? I REALLY hope that this mentality changes 3rd year+ (SOMEONE TELL ME IT DOES)

Okay thats all for today, good bye folks

and btw how ILL is this video!

Ok So the classes I am taking this semester are

Chem 205, Micb 202, Biol 201, Ihhs 200, and Cpsc 110

I’ll go over my thoughts on each course, so far, first week is typically “syllabus week” but didn’t see too much of that this time around.

Chem 205

So I actually just switched out of my mwf section to a tth section due to schedule conflicts bleh.  So the professor I’m going to tuesday will be different.  The prof I had on Monday was… Lets just say I notice that those sections MWF 10-11 tend to be where all the super smart kids are and where the best profs are as well.  [flashback to chem 233 mwf section with Dake class average was 10% higher than my section, and people told me his quizzes paralleled really well to the midterm, makes sense since he wrote most of the midterm/final I hear..smh].  So I made sure to get into that 10-11 section.  Approximately 6 minutes in to the class I was on my phone looking for other sections to switch into!  The guy seemed a bit random and misdirected.  I usually have a gut feeling about profs, like I knew Spiegelman would be my favorite prof ever for Bio 112, and I still felt that way at the end of the course.  He’s not horrible..I just know his teaching isn’t preferable for me.  Regardless I planned to stay in the course because at the end of the day this is a self taught course, all courses at UBC feel like self taught, but this class is definitely self taught and I have lecture slides from previous years (lol) and the slides he presented were virtually the same…  People say this class is easy, and if its anything like the first portion of Chem 123 then it should be my best grade, but you lose once you thought you’ve won, so I’ll still go apecrazy on this course.  Hoping the t/th prof is a bit better..

Micb 202 mwf 1pm

Microbio!  This course is as far as I know my only reading intensive course.  I like to read, reread, and take notes, and this seems like the only course I’ll be going through all of that for.  I had a whole book dilemna, I try and stay away from the bookstore at ALL COSTS.  And due to copyright yada yada we had to buy an associated textbook with the course package making it almost 90 bucks.  You couldn’t buy it separately, well now I hear the profs are selling the course package separate in 2 weeks time – HECK NO I’m not waiting 2 weeks to start reading…So I sucked up and bought it.  Its frustrating because the profs said themselves the midterm is based on the course notes, and the textbook is for “figures” cause of the whole copyright dilemna.  I posted on the UBC textbooks for sale facebook page saying I wanted to buy it, and noone replied, seem like everyone was buying on that page.  I randomnly creeped craigslist and luckily found a girl selling last years for 15 bucks!!  So I met up with her at a Safeway parking lot and got it!  It’s so much better because the Immunology/Bacteria/Virology books are separate and bound unlike the ones at the bookstore.  So I am returning the one I bought Monday morning, glad I never opened it.  I didn’t understand the first two lectures, because I didn’t read.  Nothing I hate more than not reading before lecture, because it feels like a waste of time.  So I’ve been reading this weekend and WOW.  The terminology is pretty intense for first week reading, they are not easing you into it.  I also noticed the first lecture wasn’t very syllabus based, the prof jumped into it, and clearly no one had a clue because its the first class.  Second lecture, same deal, by next lecture I should know whats going on.  Though the terminology is already so detailed, it is really interesting, and I feel like I’m finally learning something really relevant.  I mean all courses at UBC (give or take a few *cough* bio 204 *cough*) are relevant, but this seems relevant for what I want to do in my future.  It’s filled with Microbio students who at this point have shown they have strong averages, hope I can keep up!  First midterm is early Feb I believe, I already found out Chem and Micb are back to back midterms (joy) so I can’t wait to see how that goes!

Biol 201 mwf 3-4

My prof’s notes are the truth.  This is all I ask for, for a prof to explain a topic, WRITE IT OUT (i hate slides) and provide examples.  I could hear a church choir during that first lecture.  Never ever missing a lecture, came 10 minutes late to the second lecture (i get distracted during my breaks..) but I still got the notes and understood everything.  His notes seem familiar too..I found some notes when I was studying for Chem 123 that were 50x better than my profs, and they helped me  a lot.  So far the material seems like a mixture between physical chemistry and organic chemistry.  Exactly why I think Biochem is just a fancier way of saying Chemistry!  I got the course package for the book, and it seems straight forward for the most part..but I wont underestimate it.

Ihhs 200 t/th

It was a gift getting into this course.  It’s my elective this year, and after my tumultuous first semester I needed a good elective.  The prof seems like a jolly sweetheart!  He kept playing with his beard the whole lecture, talking about his dog(he showed us pictures) and he told us he had a 17% average in University… that definitely gives everyone some hope.  There’s only 50 kids in the class, and its mostly 4th years (probably because they have earliest registration and got it first).  He told us the midterm was straight forward, fill in the blank, that it wasn’t gonna be mind games or tricky( *cough* Faculty of Science *cough*).  Besides, you can replace the midterm and paper with community service and a 2page report on how your community service went,etc.  That report is due in April, and a lot of kids in the class are doing community service so they are already set.  He said you can even do a week of it during reading week.  Sounds good to be!  The average last year was in the 90’s, lowest grade 86, I wouldn’t mind being the worst kid in that class…I’ll leave it at that.

Cpsc 110 t/th 

I’m doing a Combined Major so I chose to integrate computer science.  In fact I was thinking of Integrated Science, it’s going to be one of them, regardless I’m doing computer science.  Med school is my dream, and it’s an ambitious goal, but lets say I apply to 30 schools, get into 0, then taking 2 years off to do a Masters in CS can be an option.  I could reapply to med school after that or pursue a CS profession.  It’s good to have a backup plan, a lot of people aiming for med school don’t.  The class was hard to find, I swear as a science student you get use to circling Wesbrook, Hebb, and Chem building.  The room looks cool, the prof seems cool, but I worry.  So many students seem to know more than they should.  It’s an introduction class, yet many kids in there know Java, C++…  I was walking behind some guys after class laughing about how they’ve been doing this since grade 7 (what school did they go to!)  I wish I took AP Computer Science instead of AP Physics in high school now.  I’m just going to work hard to understand the material, practice every day, my dad told me that’s what it’s all about with computer science.  I just love the idea of making programs, designing websites, and all of that nerdy stuff, and by the end of my time at UBC I’m excited to have those skills along with my Science degree.

 

 

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.

————

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.

Hey everyone, it has been a while since I blogged.  A lot has happened, and as usual classes have kept me really busy.  Last week was pretty much hell week.  I had 3 midterms, a test, 2 labs, and of course keeping up with classes on top of that.  The way the midterms fell on eachother was just disgusting.  Long story short by Friday I had gone 3 days straight without sleep, and no sleep Sunday night either -__-.  I dont advise this for ANYBODY.  This is really bad, and Tuesday night I planned to sleep, knowing I wouldnt get the chance wednesday and thursday night.  Somehow that didn’t happen.  My first midterm was classical studies that was on Monday. This class is a memorization class, and I absolutely LOVE it.  Literally I memorize, memorize, and memorize some more before each quiz and get great grades. Not only that but the terms we learn are useful for everything, I find hard words in every class that I can break apart because of clst.  The midterm was good, its just that I didn’t really review the history portion, I’m sure I still did well, but our professor has a serious problem with putting the slides on Vista.  She even threatened that if anyone took pictures of the slides she would “walk out.”  This is messed up right?  First of all, she goes so fast, and always seems agitated when people ask to go back, sometimes she wont even go back, she’ll just retalk about the slide… but its like, if your not going to give us access to the slides, then give us time to copy them?!  I actually noticed that I didnt have one of the history questions in my notes, so i probably missed it.  I am going to talk to her next class, because this can’t be right, right?  But besides that, I literally had a Bio Unit Post Test 4-4:50 and my Clst 301 Midterm 5-5:50.  For some reason our Biol tutorials NEVER end at 4:50, she took up the answers when me and my friend left for the midterm.  And my oh my guess what question showed up on our midterm… the solutions were never posted online. *sighhhhhh*

 

Besides that, my OChem midterm grades came out, and lets just say that I am ecstatic that there is another midterm.  I hate it when you do a midterm, feel like you aced it and then find out you didn’t.  If theres one thing I took from this midterm its that the ochem ta’s grade too harsh.  Most of the marks I lost were trivial mistakes like drawing a huge molecule missing one lone pair and getting 0 X__X, and I can’t complain too much because everyone got graded to the same extent.  People actually got marks off for a wrong answer on a question.  Not like you get it, you get points, no, you get it wrong, they deduct!  Like SAT’s, eew.  This didnt happen to me, I got that question, or atleast part of that question luckily but still.  I am going to go slow as a snail for the next midterm so I can make sure I give the TA’s no excuse to completely screw me over with the grading.

 

For my hell week, the Biol 200 midterm was fair I think, I don’t know why they stick the midterm with so much experiements, like clearly this course is more related to the tutorials than the lectures.  The midterm was late, ended at 8:15 ish, and my Biol 204 was the next morning in class after my Chem Lab.  -__-  By the time I finish a midterm I like to decompress but I didn’t really have time for that with Chem lab and Biol 204 the next morning.  So I just studied Biol 204 that whole night.  Biol 204 is a conceptual course, but loaded with terminology, there is literally so much to memorize, right when you think youve memorized a massive chunk, theres another chunk within that chunk.  If you’ve taken the course you will understand that.  Luckily, I actually enjoy the course, the labs are pretty fun, we started dissections, and compared to chem labs, wheew, Bio labs are a dream, slicing up sharks and salamanders is far more appealing than anything chem lab has to offer.  Well right after my chem lab, I reviewed Biol 204, had a shot of espresso and tried to relax.  The midterm ended up going surprisingly well.  I think my best the whole “midterm season”  I got extremely lucky in that the random stuff I drilled into my head the most showed up, note that there are only 5 questions, 10pts each on the midterm.  People tell me that I am obsessive, but there you go obsessive questions showed up, like knowing Chondrichthyes splits into Elasmobranchii and Holoencephalii.  Besides clst 301, Im certain it’ll be my best midterm, strange as thats the test i got the LEAST amount of sleep, this was my last midterm (friday) 3 days of no sleep.  Chem, I had a good 8 hrs, and made dumbb mistakes (smh i will never forget a lone pair again).  So I dont know, its messed up logic, but I think drilling the stuff 9hrs nonstop before the mt works better FOR ME than sleep… I mean my Physics Final, no sleep, and probably my best grade since Ive been at UBC.  I don’t know, I wish I could find Binta clones and test out different study methods to see the best.

 

Gonna get back to work,  bye for now 🙂

 

Binta

Hey guys! So almost two weeks of school have already passed and it’s been interesting getting settled into fresh courses, new professors, and being a commuter. Living off campus opposed to on campus has probably been the biggest change for me this year. I live around 35 minutes away from the campus, and I’m glad that at this point I am well accustomed to the transportation so there’s no way I’m going to be late to a midterm or something. The first week I felt very secluded living on campus, especially by myself not at home, but now I really like it. I am naturally very independent so I feel like I can really focus living by myself. And atleast I am not getting ripped off with UPASS! Last year I hardly left the campus, hardly used the C20, so the UPASS was really a waste, I am definitely putting it to use this year 😉

Now onto Academics. I think it’s been clear that I really wanted to make big changes academically. First of all, I know my ultimate goal, and I know my grades from first year don’t cut it. So I really wanted to work vigorously to change that. First of all Chem 233, a premed course, also known as a weeder course (but there seem to be a few changes that happened last summer to change that..the average for the summer session was 70!) was going to be my biggest obstacle I felt. I am thorough learner, I like to go into the details, practice, practice, and go into the details some more. I wanted time to ease into the topics because Ochem just didn’t sink in when I was in Chem 123. I think I did like 100 resonance problems over the summer and like 1000 mechanisms (overexaggerating that one, but resonance sounds right haha). And even now, some resonance problems still stump me! All I can do is practice and do my best at this point. I CAN say that my Ochem professor teaches at the speed of light, and if I didn’t learn as much as I did this summer I’d be discouraged and clueless..and a lot of people appeared to be when I was in class. Did I do as much academic wise this summer as I wanted? No, not really, but the amount I did has really helped me get accustomed to difficult concepts in a less stressful setting(my own time at home without stress about grades). I really advise people to do this. The courses that I am actually taking this semester are

Biol 200
Biol 204
Chem 233
Clst 301
Chem 235

This is probably the BEST workload I have ever had at UBC, and I don’t want to waste it! I swear, I better beast this workload because if I can’t then I don’t know how second semester will go with Micb201(eew). I actually structured it this way on purpose, yeah hard work matters to do well, but sometimes timing and trivial things like that contribute as well. I wanted to ease into the school year, so I have one elective and one lab course, overall I’m still taking 32 credits this year but I’m really happy that I’m starting off easier. After I’m done all my first midterms which will be late October I’ll blog about how I feel about each course.. because feelings always tend to change after midterms, here is how I feel about them right now.

Biol 200
Nice notes, WISH the professor would put up the slides the night before or even the like early morning before. I just bought printer ink and printer paper, and its annoying to go to copy right and have to pay for printouts… The course however so far feels like Biol 112 2.0 ..maybe even 0.5 haha. The textbook seems alot more simplified than the Biol 112 textbook did. Then again, I might be saying that because its all review right now. I have a paranoid way of studying where I read the textbook, re-read it a few more times, then take notes on the textbook, and then objectives….yada yada its a process! Well I could not for the life of me take notes because everything I read felt too much like review. I hope this doesn’t hurt me later -__- I’m sure we will stop with the review material soon, but now we are going into nucleic acids, proteins, so I don’t know when it’ll end. What a weird thing to complain about. There has also been a few problems with some of the clicker questions/answers where they seem to completely go against what I learned in Biol 112. I have to just shutup and accept what this new professor says. I got a clicker question wrong, asked her about it, didn’t understand it but chose to accept it, and someone brought it up in class the next day, and she pretty much changed her answer. I don’t really like those kind of things, Biology can be so ambiguous sometimes.

Chem 233
So far review of stuff I did this summer, so I am just reviewing the book and doing massive amounts of problems to keep up. The professor goes too fast though, I notice this happens with new/younger professors a lot. It’s like their so excited to teach or something, which is GOOD, but I need to finish writing! 😉 I have a feeling..just a small one that this will be my best grade, then again I thought that last year too after the midterm and it was my worst.

Biol 204
There is only one section for this class. The professor is german and has a thick accent, but that is not the problem, half my family has a thick accent I’m use to it. The course just seems to lack structure, and direction. He told us the book is difficult, and there didn’t seem to be objectives, a student asked him and he said he was unsure… lol. And I read the book and literally was more confused about the course than ever. The first lecture I literally didn’t understand a THING the entire lecture! The book didn’t help because its filled with so much non-important stuff you have to read this book to understand what I mean. The weekend following I looked up the course, and saw somewhere that lecture slides were important. *what a bright idea* lol, but I don’t know why I ignored the lecture notes, they are soo detailed they might as well be the book. It’s filled with so much terminology not in the book, that I sought other resources to understand the lecture slides..SMH. By the end of it though, I actually understood the next lecture, and the course so that’s good! He added references to the book to the lecture slides because there aren’t actual readings for this course, so that will definitely save me some time.

Chem 235
I am pretty horrible at chem labs. I don’t know why things always go wrong for me. I will prepare, know every step, but I lack confidence in my skills, and when it comes to chem labs I am as awkward as they come, it should literally be a show to watch me in a chem lab, its a mess, I always leave with a good grade, don’t know how. But now theres a “technique” mark so I’m worried, my first lab was today (noticed everyone from last year, I think WE ALL choose Thurs/Friday for reason…) and though I was so prepared, things were still chaotic. My tap was on too high and my tube came off my West Condenser and water went everywhere. And my hot gravity filtration was a mess, i poured the solution into the funnel and it literally froze before it could even filter, my TA told me that was the first time he has ever seen that happen. -__________-

Clst 301
So far its suppose to be my GPA boosting course, no textbook, pretty much a memorization course which is my specialty. I want to lie to myself that its difficult though because when you start forgetting a course, you start failing it.

Ok mini rant time. Yes I’m going on a mini rant. WHYY do people come to class 20 minutes early? WHy? Why? Why? Why? The place is full when I am there 10 minutes early, and I once walked past my Biol 204 class when heading to the Bookstore for a snack to see a huge crowd at the front..I cut that bookstore trip short so I could get a decent seat. I expected it for the first couple days, but even today it continues. That is UBC Science for you. 😉

And on a last note, I loved this analogy in my chem 233 class. You may not get this if you haven’t taken chem college level. But our professor showed a picture of Michael Cera as a resonance contributor, and a picture of Andy Samberg as a resonance contributor. And then a picture of “who’s real, or that actual structure” of Jesse Eisenberg. SMH it was funny in class, not so funny writing it, but probably the highlight this week for me.

  <—-Resonance Contributors–>

actual structure:

 

Deuces.

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 ;]

I have not blogged in forever, so here is a quick update

Summer is almost over! My summer has certainly been a whirlwind. I took online courses, but ended up dropping them when I saw that I just didn’t have the time to do well, so I will tackle them as electives at UBC. I worked at an internet marketing firm, and it was a great, learning experience, and now school is just around the corner.

Everything happened last minute for certain reasons, so I JUST started looking for a place to live less than a week ago. This was so nerveracking because if I don’t find a place, then I’d have no way to go to UBC. Luckily I found a good enough place, thats close enough the school (<40min bus/train) so I sent the deposit so I could breathe haha. Now I'm just trying to figure out how I'm getting all my stuff over there without help. *Just a side note when I came to Toronto on my birthday I was 25min away from the gate but thats "late" for Air Canada and I bought another ticket -__- So I really want to make sure things go smooth 🙂 Now on to courses, I've been getting emails from first years, and I accidentally deleted a bulk of my email, my inbox is like 4000+ and i haven't gotten around to cleaning it up, I'm like an email hoarder. So I'm not ignoring you! Just resend it and I'll respond asap 🙂 I don't know when first years move into their residences (Place Vanier/Totem) but I will definitely put up a post about all that and more first year info tomorrow, as well as all my pre-second year details! Hope everyone has enjoyed their summer 🙂

So on July 31, 2011, I had the privilege of attending Drake’s annual OVO Fest in Toronto. Now this show has been sold out for 2 months, and I didn’t have any tickets. On ticketmaster it showed that there were a few seats, but nothing less than $300 for mediocre seats, but they were only selling pairs. I am Drake’s biggest fan, and I was determined to atleast be at the venue and see him. I went to venue like 5 hours before the show, and was told by the lady at the box office that site I was on was a scalpers website, and that tickets had been sold out for 2 months. So be careful when going on ticketmaster that your pop blocker is on, or else you may be redirected to a scalper website.

Anyways she told me that there MAY be releases, and if I wanted a chance I would have to stay at the box office, and that there was a guy ahead of me waiting. So 1.5 hours later there was a release and the guy ahead of me got two tickets. All I could think was ‘why couldnt he get one!’ Well 2.5 hours later there was another release and I got tickets! The ladies at the box office said they fought for me to get the best seats in the house, and they really were! It’s at the Molson Ampitheatre(which is an unbelievable venue), and I got the front row right above the pit, right at the center! It’s the best view I could have possibly got. The people in the pit were closer but had to look up the whole time, and the stage was straight ahead of me, with no heads in the way. I still can’t get over how lucky I was to get those seats.

Well the show opened up with The Weeknd who is an upcoming Toronto artist. He actually performed really well live, he has an amazing voice. After he did the set, Rick Ross came out, and the whole crowd got a bit more in to it, because he has a lot of recognizable songs. Everyone was singing along, it was great! And of course the next act was Drake! I nearly lost my voice screaming when Drake came out. He performed a lot of songs, and I sang along to everyone, and was surprised how everyone sang along to his really obscure songs, Toronto really loves Drake like no other city! Well last year Drake brought out Jay Z and Eminem to the OVO Fest, so even though the show was Drake with Rick Ross and The Weeknd, everyone kind of expected that he would bring out someone. And he sure did.

While Drake was performing he brought out Jcole, and they performed ‘In the Morning’ together. Everyone went crazy when JCole came out, including me, because I’ve met him but never seen a performance. While JCole and Drake were still on stage, Drake then brought out Nas who started with ‘Made You Look.’ I love that everyone knew the lyrics, I love Toronto! Nas performed again, and Drake and JCole were playfully bowing to him, and they all kind of embraced at the end, it was really cute. How many times are you going to see JCole, Nas, and Drake on one stage? I’m guessing that’ll be the last time with all 3.

Drake then continued with a few of his hits, he did Marvin’s Room of course, and also Trust Issues with The Weeknd. After that, I don’t think anyone could have guessed the next performer. He brought out Stevie Wonder! I saw a piano brought on stage, and thought ‘oh Alicia Keys, they have a song together,’ but what a pleasant surprise to see a legend perform for you. It was great and Drake kind of let Stevie shine, which was really nice.

I must add that Drake’s mother sat in front of me, and was bopping her head hella hard to Drake’s ‘Over’! 🙂

Anyways Stevie ended his set, and Drake started singing, and then doing shoutouts! He first went to the right side and gave a few shoutouts to some people in the crowd, then the left…then finally the center. All I know is when that light hit me, I held my hand up, and Drake pointed right at me and said “I see you girl right there with the cute braids and i think stripes on” ALl I know is that I was smiling so hard my teeth hurt, and it was the best moment ever. Honestly I blame my amazing seats, I knew before the show I was getting a shoutout with those seats. When Drake performed Fancy, the light shone on me again, and he pointed at me, and I pointed at him and sang along, best moment ever.

Drake continued his set, and near the end, like last 20 minutes, Lil Wayne like a ninja appeared on stage, and this must have been the loudest I ever heard the crowd react, including me! Even at the end of the concert, Lil Wayne riled up the crowd, and everyone was jumping and singing along. Epic performance, Lil Wayne is an amazing performer, even wearing the most funky pants ever! He performed 6’7 and Rick Ross came out, and they all performed ‘I’m On One,’ and during I’m On One, me and Drake had another moment like the one before, and my face briefly appeared on the huge screen. Amazing! If I ever go back to Molson for a show, I am getting those exact same seats.

The tickets were 95, and EVERY PERFORMANCE WAS LIVE. (I don’t get going to concerts where the artist lip synchs the whole time, might as well listen to the cd). I am so glad I waited for tickets patiently. Stevie Wonder, Nas, Jcole, Rick Ross, The Weeknd, Lil Wayne, and Drake! What a night.

Hey guys, so I have gotten a lot of feedback about my topics on getting super grades.  It’s awesome to see that there are people amped for first year at UBC, and maintaining high school grades like I was :).  First of all, I’m going to answer some q’s i’ve been asked, and some people may want to know!

1.  How do you find all your resources?

I hunt!  The internet is a beautiful thing!

2.  How much did your GPA drop?

Why make assumptions that it dropped from high school?  Haha joking, for my yearround average, it dropped like 15-20% from high school :\  I can say that it went up between 1st and 2nd semester tremendously..:)

3.  Why are you interested in online courses?

Because they require you not leaving your room 🙂  And it still counts for credits, why not1

4.  What would you choose if you didn’t choose science?

Computer science 10000%!!  And a minor in theatre.  These are things I’m interested in, but wouldn’t want to focus on 100% independently.  If it was possible to pull of a Honors in Cell and Developmental Biology, and Minor in CS, that’d be awesome. But that would also involve having no life aside work.

5. How was living in residence first year?

I lived in Vanier, in Mawdsley House.  It was definitely fun!  Being 10 minutes away from classes certainly had its benefits.  But don’t count yourself out if you are a commuter, I found that those commuter students at the library between breaks and not in their rooms sleeping or being random(me) accomplished so much more, and definitely made up for that commuting time.

6.  What was your favorite class this year?

Math 103.  Seems random, and I suffered through it, but it felt better because EVERYONE suffered through it, and I suffered less than the majority of the class haha.  My best grade tied with English.  But mostly because I could listen to music while studying/doing homework, which makes it so much better 🙂

7.  What was your least favorite class this year?

Biol 121 and Biol 140.  Hated these with a passion.  Bio 121 with Greg Bole was just ridiculous.  I actually thought I was solid with the material, did well on all the quizzes, did the reading, but bombed the midterms.  The fact that my family came to visit the weekend before the midterm affected me, but that’s not good enough as an excuse.  I think the stingy TA’s contributed as well.  You could write a page of work, and get like 3/10, and its just frustrating when you word it differently and they don’t give you credit for it.  Long story short, I just hate this course.  Bio 112 is harder but more organized and straight forward.  Others think differently, it is what it is.

8.  Favorite place to study at UBC?

Irving!  Why oh why did I only discover this place around finals..?

9.  What are your thoughts on 8am classes?

Just because you could handle it in high school means nothing.  Trust me when i say you will feel the effects of 8am classes ESPECIALLY around midterms, but that’s just me.

10.  Am I taking the right courses for first year?

I love UBC but they really need to be more informative to first year students.  Many students in first year don’t even know about the online UBC calendar, that you can explore different specializations within your faculty.  So if you see a specialization you feel you want to apply for at the end of 1st year then check out that calendar to make sure that you are taking the right courses first year.  Everyone generally follows the same specialization.

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Besides from that, this has been really horrible week in the news.  RIP To all the victims of the Norway attack, and Amy Winehouse, an unbelievably talented singer.  Just one of my favorite songs.