This blog started 35 entries ago, wow.

See End of Term Wrap Up for my first semester courses.

Commerce 293 (Financial Accounting)
Rob Jackes
Monday/Wednesday/Friday
10:00am – 11:00am

I had never seen anyone more excited about accounting than Rob Jackes. He has a booming voice and could sometimes be seen jumping up and down to emphasize a point. He’s a firm prof, but quite fair and nice during office hour chats. As for the subject itself, duh, it’s accounting ,you either hated it or could tolerate it (kidding!). My two years of high school accounting and career prep work experience really paid off because the first month or so turned out to be a breeze. Instruction components: the textbook was not overly useful but good for previews and additional practice, the online Lyryx labs were kind of … frustrating and fun(?!), and the note pkg you had to buy were life-saving. One midterm and one non-cumulative final. Grade: I’m happy (I’ll let you work out the code haha).

Commerce 299 (Business Communication – Writing Component)
Philippe Desrochers
Monday
5:00pm – 7:00pm

The interview tips, resume and cover letter guides, and bits and pieces inter-personal interaction tips taught in this course were BEYOND helpful. They are so essential for surviving in the business world. It was like being enlightened after living in Plato’s cave for 18 years. The rest of the course could be scrapped. Yes – I tend to praise hard and criticize harder. Seriously, this class could be condensed into a 5 hour intensive seminar. I had 2 hours of Comm 299 every Monday night… not fun, but I still enjoyed it a little because class times are so insanely chill. Mandatory laptops was a plus. Philippe was a very dedicated prof who also wrote for the 24hr, which is kind of neat. Oddly enough, for a class worth only .5 credits, we were emailed! long emails! so darn often! ASKDFLASFD. Grade: last posted (again, it’s only half of the 1 credit course, no exams, assignment marks out a long time ago, jeez), made me very happy 😀

Computer Science 121 (Models of Computation)
Bob Woodham
Monday/Wednesday/Friday
2:00pm – 3:00pm

Half the time this semester, I was thinking, “Ooo compsci is so fun and awesome!” and the other half I had the thought “WHY?! WHY?! WHY AM I IMPOSING THIS TORTURE UPON MYSELF?!” going through my head. Needless to say, my love-hate relationship with compsci goes on. Instruction components: easy but useless textbook, fun and/or ridiculously challenging assignments, labs that ranged from slightly confusing to “uh… when did we learn this?”, and lecture powerpoints posted online. There was a lot of math involved, like logic, induction, proofs, and functions. I really appreciated the profs trying to give us a bigger picture in computer programming and being so patient and helpful on the VISTA discussion boards. I felt some of the materials taught were too estoric and had nothing remotely to do with the exams. Oh yes let me tell you about the exams. There was a 40 point difference between my midterm and my final exam. I have never headed into a final wich such pure, paralyzing fear. They scared me into acing the course. Grade: could’ve been better, but I’m just so, so relieved.

Economics 102 (Introduction to Macroeconomics)
Robert Gateman and TA Linh Hoang
Monday/Wednesday/Friday
3:00pm – 4:00pm

The rumours are true, Gateman is a very engaging lecturers and a hell of a hard test giver. It took me a few classes to get used to his lecture style. After that initial stage, we all realized just how immensely clear his lectures are. His technique of playing loud music or funny foreign videos before class is actually quite effective in making people pay attention a bit more in the huge lecture hall. The exams made me feel like I didn’t actually know anything and I think this happened to a lot of people. Instruction components: textbook, online quizzes, weekly tutorial with mandatory attendance, G-book (typed lecture notes), two midterms and one final. I was quite fond of the international trade and labour economics chapters. Fascinating stuff. Grade: obviously econ is not my strong suit.

History 237 (Major Themes in American History)
Eric Nellis and TA Patrick Slaney
Monday/Wednesday/Friday
1:00pm – 2:00pm

Continuing from last term, HIST237 in term 2 talks about the Reconstruction period after the American Civil war all the way to the 1970s during the Nixon era (Bush Sr. and the Iraq war are also mentioned very briefly). This was a very enjoyable class in terms of the lecture – you can just let the historical knowledge and interpretation seep in. Dr. Nellis has an incredible passion and enthusiasm for the subject and it really shows when he breaks into songs or begins gesticulating the importance of a SCOTUS trial ruling. Not a single one of my papers were seen by either of the profs (Dr. Van Riemsdijk in term one). My TA marked everything. A change of perspective would have been welcoming but Patrick was quite a helpful and knowledgeable TA. Grade: I’m going to go drown my sorrows with an episode of Gossip girl now *sigh*.

Overall average: A. Not particularly ecstatic considering the dip from Term 1, but satisfied overall. I will definitely be trying harder next year and avoiding arts courses, even though they do quench a certain thirst for knowledge. I better stop before this gets too cliche.

QOTW: How was your term 2?