Bahahaha, I don’t really know how I feel about this. I feel prepared but unprepared at the same time. We’ll just have to see how everything goes =S

GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE ELSE!!!

Last night I might have written one of the worst exams in my life. I thought my Computer Science and Math midterms went terribly, but really yesterday was no comparison. By the time the exam was over I was so depressed that gave up on eating dinner and went to bed at 11:00.

Perhaps my expectations were too high, usually I go into a midterm thinking that I am going to fail it, but I prepared myself for Chemistry (or so I thought 0_o). I memorized, memorized and memorized some more. I thought, “hey Chem 121 is kind of evil, they make you memorize the most useless type of things, but I will just go with it and do as they tell me to, whatever”.  I could draw all the orbitals, and all the graphs, I had memorized close to every single chemical reaction that popped up in Chapter 6 and made cue cards for pretty much everything. I had done practice midterms with relative ease and every question in the book. I was certain that I wasn’t going to fail and might have even had my mind set on getting over 90% this time around. Going into I felt semi- relaxed and fairly confident. I was kind of excited to finish my first round of midterm and pretty certain I would finish them on a high. However…

As soon as I got into the room I started to feel a little anxious. For one thing there were no left handed seats. Usually they fix this by putting a couple of left-handed chairs up at the front… but there were NO LEFT HANDED SEATS and they weren’t prepared to do anything about it. This made me feel fairly unsettled. The fact that the prof was having to shout at the top of her lungs to organize everybody started making me feel even worse. She was like a drill sergeant and scary. I started to feel like we were cattle in a herd. I started to feel stupid. I could feel my heart starting to beat a little quicker. Actually I was getting upset, I was losing focus. Then it was time to rip open our exams. I flipped through the pages and was feeling ok until I got to the last two 16 marks… and I wasn’t entirely sure how to deal with either of them. Xenon… a Xenon reaction??? I knew XePtF6 had been synthesized but didn’t have anything much else about Xenon memorized. That completely threw me off. I knew that I would lose 8 marks right there on the spot, I don’t think I even got part marks. So I decided to start with the stuff I knew for sure and started drawing orbitals, my hand was kind of jerky, I was so nervous. Scribble, scribble, scriblle. Melting points and boiling points. I get those confused too. Suddenly there were 20 minutes left had time to work on the last two questions. Sadly I don’t think I got either of them right and with that I am in severe danger of failing my first university exam. My mood went from an n=10 -> n=1 … or you know what, make that n=-1000. Like half the people I talked to I was so depressed after the midterm that I didn’t eat dinner. It was disappointing.

So just a tip for any Chem 121ers next year. Memorize the entire book inside out. There is one sentence in the last section of Chapter 6 that I didn’t memorize which cost me those 8 marks. If you want an A it might be useful to be able to recite the books of by heart, word by word, letter by letter. Seriously eat every single word and be prepared to regurgitate it at any time. Do NOT just memorize the concepts, the important reactions and think that you will do well, memorize every single word in the textbook no matter how useless it seems.  =/ Lesson learnt.

This is me after the midterm.

However on a positive note, Chemistry labs, while stressful are really fun. The actual course content is pretty interesting and most of the profs are great. + You get really cool demos in class.  Just don’t expect the midterms to go well, they are insanely hard.

For the last few weeks I have been sick stressed out, feeling awful e.t.c., but fortunately this week things have been the complete opposite. My Physics assignment was surprisingly short, and I had a Psych midterm which I think went all right. Other than that I got some good marks back and I finally had time to go running, dancing and socializing. I have been to Yoga, went out to see a ballet with my friends and… a lot of things. School kind of went on the back burner which I think was a good thing because I feel ready to start this week (well first I have to finish my math assignment that is due tomorrow). With my first set of midterms behind me I have one week off  and then they all start once again. Blech…

Anyways even though it is my first week without a midterm I still have a busy schedule as the CLASS conference is going on (!!!!!), I have a bunch of meetings, and I have assignments/ quizzes due every single day of this week! Some how when I decided to go to University I didn’t think it I would get this much homework (actually I didn’t think I would get any). And I certainly didn’t expect quizzes! I thought we would just have quizzes, midterms, finals and papers. Surprise, surprise, the homework never ends!!!

Anyways food for thought, there are about 15 girls in my 80 student Physics class… that is 18.75% (Engineering courses are also at  20% females 80% guys). Us girls are completely outnumbered in this class! This seems really wrong to me.

That said, last time I checked I think slightly more girls go to UBC than guys. Why are girls who are so prevalent in other faculties so underrepresented in these types of courses??

Right now I am not in my Computer Science lab. I feel a little guilty. I should be there, but I’m not.

This morning I woke up after 3 hours of sleep. I was coughing all night and intermittently having nightmares about Lewis dot diagrams. For the past two weeks I have been sick and steadily getting worse and worse. At 8:00 this morning I decided to phone the student health centre to make an appointment with a doctor (which is why I am not in my CSPC lab right this moment). The doctor gave me some medicine and sent me on my way… I really hope that this cough disappears soon!

As much as I was looking forward to it, Thanksgiving weekend was kind of awful. I couldn’t speak, couldn’t hear (very well) and couldn’t taste anything, so much for family fun = (. Over the weekend light headedness and sleep took over half the time that I had set aside to study/ do assignments which was irritating. Now I have an insane week ahead of me (and I thought last week was challenging).

That brings me on to my next point: Chemistry. Tomorrow we have the Chem. 121 midterm. A.k.a the midterm of death. It seems like everywhere I go people have their Chirps (Chemistry Integrated Resource Packages) out and are staring at them, trying to make some sense out of the information at hand. Ah, Chemistry, the bane of my current existence. I was feeling good about the midterm until I took the practice midterm yesterday. I legitimately scored 31/60 on that… oh dear… must study more, it seems like a lot of the material on the practice midterm was never covered in class (hmmm… I forgot, this is university). I also have a chemistry lab to do this week, a Physics assessment, a scary looking Physics assignment (I mean scaaarrry looking), I am tutoring someone for math 12, I have my own math homework, and I need to complete the computer science lab that I missed. That lab in itself is supposed to take about 24 hours!! When oh, when in my schedule am I ever going to find time to go to the Demco Learning Centre?

Errr, learning, right. I have also (writing this feeling incredibly grown up) scheduled myself to go to a couple of conferences this year! I have never ever been to a conference before and am already signed up for ICE (Interuniversity Conference on Education) on Saturday (Oct 5^th, more info and sign up here) and CLASS (Conference for Learning and Academic Student Success)(Oct 25^th-28^th registration is now open more info and sign up here) and well as one later in the year. As a student and math tutor I am really interested in the way math is taught/ how people learn/ the use of technology in education (good and bad) so I think that the conferences will be quite interesting.

Ok, back to my own learning again… Chemistry, why do I have to understand you?<3

p.s. good luck to everyone else out there taking the Chem 121 midterm tomorrow

p.p.s If during the midterm, you happen to be sitting beside a girl with a terrible, loud and distracting cough, chances are that it is me. Sorry in advance!

After my last class today a friend and I were wandering around the ICCS after hearing that our CPSC 110 exams had been marked and that we could pick them up in room #????. Neither of us remembered the room number so we spent some time walking around, and finally gave up on getting our exams. Just as we were about to head back I saw one of those “really cool rooms” at the end of a hallway that I immediately wanted to show my friend. I dragged my friend down the hallway to look at it. While we were staring down through the large glass window, two people came out and asked us if we wanted to take a look at the lab. It was awesome! Inside there were quite a lot of people working on computers and about the same amount of large robots. We got to meet a couple of graduate students who told us about their research as well as a couple of robots named “Betty, Roger, PR2” and possibly Daisy (I really can’t remember the names properly…tough week). According to the researchers one of the robots can catch balls which I think is amazing! I want a robot that can play catch! Also they introduced us to the PR2. It had arrived a little while ago and they had just started having fun with it (teaching it how to dance e.t.c.). This robot can play pool, and can even bring you beer! .

Soooo, if anyone wants a really cool tour I’d recommend that you hang out in the ICCS, just past the DEMCO learning centre. Also, if you are interested you can sign up to become a research participant for a Human-Robot interaction study by emailing calisgan@interchange.ubc.ca , more information is posted on their door.

Better ways to study:

After this first bout of midterms I realized that my study habits might not cut it for university courses. I do study a lot, but here are some tips for those of you who still have midterms, err learn from my mistakes!:

-pay attention to when your midterms are coming up (possibly write them out somewhere visible so that you do not have that… oh… I have three midterms next week conendrum)

– stay on top of all the assignments that are due (do them during the weekend if the are due during the week e.t.c.)

– use cue cards (I never used them in high school, but now they are a life saver)

– find practice midterms/ exams online and do as many practice problems as you can (especially for computer science where everything we have been doing is in a programming environment, making the switch to writing things out is not all that easy, doing the practice midterms on paper was definitely useful)

– go get help if you need it… I am one of those people who likes to do things all by myself which can lead to a lot of precious time being wasted when I am stuck on a problem that I just don’t want to let go of =P

Note: Most departments have resource or learning centres where you can get help for free!!! This is amazing!!!

– talk about the material with a friend, chances are it will stick better

– do some simple practice problems right before the test, nothing too hard as that might get you freaked out, but just get your brain into math mode e.t.c.

– take short breaks if you start making small mistakes, go for a quick walk, run, stretch to destress

– do NOT open facebook!!!

– Also a really good one from a friend: She reviews all of her notes that she has taken during the day at night and condenses them… I will start doing this as of tomorrow (today I didn’t have class!)

Day One: Luck

I cannot get over how lucky I am at the moment. Right now I am sitting in my brand new room in my brand new building in Totem Park. Today was whirlwind of a day, running around trying to buy all of those last extra things, hauling everything out into the car and driving out to UBC with my sister eager to find my new home. Finding it, and bringing three large suitcases, five boxes, three bags and a bike up into my room. Unpacking all of the carefully folded clothes and trying to devise a way of fitting them into the drawers provided. Meeting suitemates, floormates, housemates, and other undergraduates all at once. Walking around with new friends. Going to the cafeteria and waiting in the line for dinner. Floor meeting. And finally going out to a toga frat party wearing pillowcases… First official undergraduate must that has been checked off of my list! I am lucky for so many reasons and although I am often unlucky too, right now I can only think of the lucky things. The whole year seems to be stretching out in front of me, so much to do and so many possibilities.

Day Two: Not quite so lucky!

Second day of Totem: This morning I woke up after four hours sleep and pulled myself out of bed. Wearily I dragged myself into the bathroom only to find out 15 minutes later that our shower does not work. Another thing to add to my small list of “room issues”.  Topping the list right now is the lack of internet in my room… You just do not realize how dependent you are on internet until it is gone!!! With the the IT department in my room for what felt like close to an hour, it still is not fixed. So I am having to hijack other people’s ports while waiting until Tuesday before anyone is working again. Also unlike our other floor mates our room upon arrival was missing a variety of essential things such as garbage cans and toilet paper. Fortunately my roommate and I figured things out!

Anyways other than that I had a fabulous day, breakfast in the cafeteria is delicious (they have excellent oatmeal), and walking/ riding around campus with new friends to get the rest of the essentials (large mirror, lab coats & goggles, e.t.c.) was fun. Everyone here is really nice, friendly and very, very international!  Tomorrow morning I am going to walk around campus and find out exactly where my classes will be held before going to Wreck Beach!

Some things to bring to residence:
– Clothes, but not too many. space is very limited so try to keep it to one suitcase
*remember to bring a swimsuit, there is a beach and a couple of pool parties
– hangers
– over the door coat hook
– extra shelving if possible
– laundry basket and detergent
– plastic bags for garbage
– bathroom necessities including toilet paper and cleaning supplies
– chargers for computers, cameras and phones
– pictures of friends and family
– anything to personalize your room
– ethernet cable
– printer (not really necessary), can be purchased at Future Shop for as little as $30, but make sure that you bring paper and ink if it is not included
– umbrella and rain boots
– bike (if you can bring one)
– bath mat if you are in a shared residence
– possibly a mirror to keep in your room

There is also more detailed residence checklist available here: http://www.housing.ubc.ca/files/van/pdf/resident_section/what_to_bring.pdf

Places to get things on campus (that I have found so far):
-The Dollar Store in the village has garbage cans, mirrors, plastic storage containers e.t.c. for reasonable prices
–Shoppers Drugmart (close to the Dentistry building)
-There is also a Staples in the Village
-During move in day Home Hardware was selling items in the commonsblock
-The UBC Bookstore sells nearly everything you can imagine.
–Save-On Foods is also nearby

Tomorrow is Imagine Day and classes fully start on Tuesday! <3

p.s. This is also my first official post as a member of the blogsquad! I am really excited to continue writing throughout the year and looking forward to meeting everyone else soon!

My two bags a three boxes have morphed into, 3 suitcases, 4 boxes and a bike. My boxes are elegantly held together with duct tape (which is useless on cardboard), and I am trying to figure out how to label my suitcases with my room number (paper and more duct tape?). Somehow I have managed to come down with a last minute cold, cannot stop sneezing for the life of me and although I am really excited to get going half of me is questioning things. I’ve already received emails from 3 of my professors with mini assignments… Well not really: reading 50 pages for PHYS (which I have done along with the exercises), setting up accounts for CPSC (total disaster), and reading the PSYC syllabus. Not actually bad at all, but I was surprised that we were being contacted before classes even started! The internet is a dangerous thing! Anyways along with being excited I am also nervous hence the newest ramble:

Tomorrow I move into residence, tomorrow I start with university life, tomorrow I meet the people that I will be living with for a year, and I am shaking. The last time I felt like this was before I jumped off a cliff.

Climbing up the cliff was fine, I had no concerns until I was about to jump. Looking down into the water 13m below me I analyzed how I was to hit the water….I could do this… Minimize the area of impact … stay perpendicular… g=9.8 m/s^2… My legs suddenly felt weak and I wasn’t entirely sure if I could jump out far enough not to hit the rocks. After a couple of false starts I went, and half way through the air I started to scramble. Suddenly my mind decided that the water did not look all that inviting. My legs flew up as if they were trying to escape but gravity persisted, I crashed into the surface. Under the icy water I realized that I had made a big mistake. I could not move my legs, they were completely numb and locked from the hit. As I floated upwards I could already feel the bruising… face hot from humiliation I was helped up onto the boat. I could barely sit down on a hard surface for a week…

I am suddenly apprehensive about going to university full-time. My bags are packed. Plans all laid out. Everything looks perfect, fully financed, fully organized. After my first university exam this summer my prof remarked that she did not think that I would have a problem in school. In pencil I read 95% and “I see a successful future for you”, but felt the exact opposite way. It can’t get much better than that, “downhill slope here I come”. After leaving the examination room I should have felt happy but I was shaky. Putting a bar up high and expecting to jump over it is just like climbing off a cliff and expecting to land well. The future is unpredictable. No matter how far high you climb, how well you plan, how strong your mindset, there is always random chance. And although random chance can be minimized it is always there. Chance is no stranger, yet it always seems to take me by surprise. I am sure this year there will be many ups and downs, but please, Chance, let me land on my feet. <3

Finally my mark popped up on my SSC today and I am was really surprised to receive an A+.  Anyways for any other first years who are required to take the course but are not too sure about what it is like, here is some information for studying e.t.c. Please take it with a grain of salt:

What is ASTU?

ASTU stands for Arts Studies in Writing, from my interpretation it is basically an English course where you are taught the more practical aspects of “scholarly writing” by looking at research papers rather than novels e.t.c.

What was ASTU like?

My course was really nice (I know, ambiguous). Let me explain: It was tiny, we started off with about 14 people in the course and for some reason each week less and less people showed up, so the class size dwindled to 9. Normally I think the class size is 30 but this is still small for a University course…Most of my courses next year have about 300 people in them. We also only met once a week for three hours of which we did not really need the whole time. The course material was fairly simple and I often felt like we had more than enough time to cover everything. So even though I was a little sad that we only met once a week (everyone in the course was really interesting and friendly) I could not imagine meeting three times a week for the same course.

In the course we learnt how to write in a “scholarly” fashion. We learnt how to write a summary, lit. review, research proposal, and research paper. We also learnt how to analyze other academic writing and understand the functions of academic writing. One of the best things I though about the course was that we were encouraged to read research papers. As a high school student I literally never came across this type of thing…. and if I did I probably skimmed over it or scanned it for useful information. However, by being forced to read research papers I actually started understanding them a little better. I also think that this helped me a lot when I finally wrote my own.

What books did we use?

We read Academic Writing an Introduction by Janet Giltrow and the Broadview Pocketbook for Writers. Although the text book was easy to read and understand some of the terms such as “the Knowledge Making I” seemed like they were pulled from thin air as I could not find any more information on them anywhere. Also the idea of “making nonsense to make sense” really does not make any sense to me at all, c’est la vie, does anything make sense?

What did I learn?

I (and most of the others in the class) felt like our instructor was really good at marking our assignments. She often did this by asking questions about unclear things e.t.c. and stating the good and the bad. This helped me figure out where my academic writing was weak. I learnt that my writing is often quite vague and that I need to sandwich a lot more examples into my essays instead of expecting the reader to follow along. Other people found out that their writing was far to detailed e.t.c. so it was really nice to have all that individual attention in a Uni course. As I stated before I found the exposure to the research genre also quite eye opening. One day I went down into the journal section of Koerner library and just browsed through journal articles for a while. As a naive first year I been through all 12 years of mandatory schooling without actually reading a proper journal article before… I really wonder how some of the journals can survive as I cannot imagine that they attract a large audience.

Review Sheet

 This is not a substitute for going to class, actually it probably will not make sense if you have not attended class, but I made this while I was reviewing for my final (basically a compressed version of my notes). Please use it as you like… if any information is wrong just tell me and if you would like to add to it please do so below!

Genre Theory = Situation + Form

– different situations require different forms -> different genres

Primary research: your own research

Secondary research: the research of others

How to Write an Effective Summary:

Use gist, higher level abstractions, lower level details, reported speech, citations

Key Aspects of a Summary: RMFFSK (not necessarily in this order just a mnenomic for the key aspects)

Research site

Methods

Focus

Findings

State of Knowledge

Knowledge Gap

Differences between citation, reported speech and reporting expressions

Citation: blah, blah, blah, blah (Soandso 197)

Direct Reported Speech- uses a quote: Soandso said “blah, blah, blah” (197)

Indirect Reported Speech- Summarizes what someone has said on a topic while still indicating the speaker: Sonandso effectively said nothing (197)

Reporting Expressions -He said “blah, blah, blah” (Soandso 197)

Anything that indicates that someone has said something, underlined above

Use a tree diagram to figure out your argument! Go from higher to lower levels. *I hate tree diagrams! Highest and lowest levels seem ambiguous to me, in the end everything is usually intertwined somehow.. right, but for the purpose of this course*

The world

|

The people

|

Their thoughts

/           \

Yes          No

/                \

Mr. Yes           Mr. No

Remember to report reporting!

Definitions:

-Create or reinforce common knowledge

– Sometimes used to box in a complicated term (or one that has many meanings) “For the purpose of this study we define students as human beings that go to an elementary, secondary or post-secondary school for more than 5 hours per week)

Types of Definition:

Apposition: putting an equivalent expression beside the term being defined often using: i.e , – ; “” ( ) :

Formal definition: sounds like a dictionary… narrows view

Sustained definition: places term by locating it amongst other phenomena… expands view (adds context)

Nominal Style: lots of long noun phrases!

– can create ambiguity

– leaves the rest of the sentence free

– increases the “density” of the sentence

– creates failed then revised hypothesis sequences

-> purpose: stabilization

Tenses:

Past: I was

Present: I am

Present Perfect: has ___________ed

Present Progressive: is ________ing

I hope this helps, obviously it does not cover anything in detail and I think that different classes might have slightly different slants on everything. Good luck in ASTU 150!