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5 Reasons Why You Should Consider Signing Up For CAP

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The Coordinated Arts Program (CAP) is a multidisciplinary program designed to help first-year Arts students have a smooth transition to university. Being a CAP student in my first year, I can honestly say that the program was an enormous help in finding my community at UBC. If you are in the Faculty of Arts and are still undecided about what courses you want to register for, here are five reasons why you should definitely consider signing up for CAP:

1. Cohort Program

CAP is a cohort-based program. That means your CAP stream-mates are also your classmates in all your CAP courses. This makes making and meeting friends a lot easier. It’s always helpful to have a group of people who can answer your questions about class assignments, whom you can rant to about your professors, and who would be willing to form study groups with you.

2. Stream Choices

If you have an area of interest in mind, but are still not sure whether you should pursue an academic career in that area or not, CAP offers different stream choices (Media Studies, Philosophy, Political Science, and Economics (PPE), Law & Society, Individual & Society, and Global Citizens) that can help you figure out what you really want.

Being in the PPE stream definitely strengthened my interest to pursue a career in Economics.

3. Coordinated

Professors consult each other so that they can “coordinate” your assignments. They try to avoid giving out quizzes/midterms/final exams on the same day to give CAP students sufficient time to study for each course. Most importantly, professors try to make the content of each course related to one another. For instance, since I was in the PPE stream,  our ASTU research paper required us to use what we had learned from ECON 101 and POLI 100 to write a research paper on a topic given to us by our ASTU professor. Additionally, each term, CAP professors conduct an inspiring joint lecture to demonstrate how to interconnect different courses or interests to study an issue or concept.

4. CAP-only events

Signing up for CAP gives you access to CAP-only events like pizza parties, seminars, Meet Your Professors Day, and CAP conference.

5. Gateway Space

gatewayIf you are going to spend a lot of time on campus to study and do some work, you are going to need a good study spot. Gateway Space is a study space in the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre exclusive to ArtsOne and CAP students. Gateway Space was my favourite study spot in my first year because a) there were always seats available b) it’s a quiet study space and c) students can bring food inside, so whenever I was hungry, I would always eat while working to make the most out of my breaks!

CAP played an important role in my first year. I am so glad that I signed up for it as it paved way for many different opportunities that I wouldn’t have accessed without being a CAP student. If you have any questions about CAP, don’t hesitate to ask me! I will try to respond as soon as possible. Have fun registering for courses!

Don’t Let Exam Results Decide Your Fate

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…and just like that, it’s finals season again! Yup, the term’s almost over.  If you’re like me, your motivation curve for this term probably looks like this:

Also, if you’re like me, you are probably mad at yourself for not giving much effort on your midterms because now you really have to ace your final exams. Finals season is probably making you feel worried, pressured, or even stressed. You probably need someone (or something) to quickly remind you that there’s no need to feel any of those. Let me (or the following videos) be that quick reminder.

In all honesty, I believe that finals season is actually an ideal time for studying and learning. No need to wake up early to go to lectures, or to sleep late to finish a paper. You have sufficient time to study and learn. So seize this opportunity to consume useful information, fall in love with interesting concepts, and immerse yourself in a world of exciting ideas.

Study for the sake of learning, not for the sake of grades. Besides, you should not let exam results determine your fate.

Sometimes it may get extremely stressful that you just want to say this:

But trust me, with hope and hard work, everything gets better in time.

Best of luck on your final exams! Don’t be silly and go study; your future self will thank you for that.

Term 1 Roundup (Part 1)

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So….. it’s 2014. Which is crazy. So crazy. I mean, I can’t even wrap my head around the fact that I’m not living in the 2000’s anymore! And now we’re about to start the fourth year of 2010’s? WHAT?!

Tomorrow, second term will commence. I would like to prepare for its commencement by looking back at my first term as a university student (because maybe by writing this I will be reminded that term one did not turn out the way I wanted it to, which might eventually inspire me to do better in the second term). Let’s dissect the term according to the five courses that I took:

SPANISH 101 – BEGINNER’S SPANISH I (Instructor: Bruno Nassi)

This course is probably the easiest course I took last term. Since I had already taken Spanish (Beginner’s 11) in high school, I started the course being instantly familiar with 1/3 of its content. Every class, we would always do three to four sets of practice activities from the textbook, which allowed us to be comfortable in pronouncing Spanish words and speaking basic Spanish phrases. I personally didn’t think that the online assignments for this course were very helpful, since most activities were essentially the same with those in the textbook. But overall, I think the marking was fair. Exams are quite easy if you do the workbook exercises.

One thing I learned from this course: When learning a language, it is important to regularly use the new words that you learn every day so you don’t forget them and so that you get a good grip on how they are used. I know it’s common sense to do this, but I know someone who thought he was too cool to do such a routine so he only memorized the vocabulary whenever exams were coming. (If it wasn’t that obvious, that someone is me)

 

MATH 184 – DIFFERENTIAL CALCULUS FOR SOCIAL SCIENCE AND COMMERCE (Instructor: Gonzalo Davila)

This class covers the same exact same content as Math 104. The final exam and midterm exams are also the same as those of Math 104. The only difference between the two courses is that Math 184 is intended for students who have never taken a Calculus course before. The 1.5-hour workshop every week is designed to improve the students’ Calculus techniques, ideally up to the skill level of those who have already taken Calculus. Personally, I loved going to the weekly workshops because it gave me the chance to practice exam-type problems on my own without being afraid of being stuck on a problem. Here’s the thing: math is not my greatest strength. I mean, I used to like it. But somehow, sometime in high school, math scared me. That’s why when I took this course, I was afraid that I would fail it. The weekly workshops were heaven sent. The TAs were very approachable and helpful. It also helped that we were put into learning groups; whenever I could not answer the problem, my group mates were very kind to go through the problem with me. Although I personally believe that my learning style did not suit our instructor’s lecturing style, I liked the fact that he always took the time after class to answer ALL individual questions even when there were twenty students trying to ask him. He also seemed to hate the idea of failing anyone — he even set up a two-hour midterm review session outside of class hours in order to make sure we were prepared for our midterm!

One thing I learned from the course: I love and hate WeBWork at the same time.

 

To be continued..

Getting upset over trivial things

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Typhoon Haiyan’s aftermath in Tacloban City, Philippines.

 

Days before typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines, I was having a hard time trying to manage all my academic and extra-curricular responsibilities. That week was probably the worst week that I’ve had since starting university. There wasn’t an hour during that week when I wasn’t feeling stressed out or anxious. I truly felt like I had too much on my plate. I blame a lethal combination of insurmountable amount of work, poor time management, and lack of sleep.

On Monday of that same week, I only had an hour of sleep because I had to redo a research proposal eight hours before it was due. On Tuesday, I slept late again because I spent eight painful hours solving WebWork problems (seriously, why must they be so time consuming?) Then, on Wednesday night, I tried studying for my math midterm but my sleep-deprived brain could not focus at all. So I decided I would just sleep early so I could wake up early in the morning to study. Not so surprisingly, I woke up two hours later than I was supposed to. When I realized that the sun was already out and I hadn’t studied anything yet, I knew I had to finally get out of my damn bed.

So I used the (insufficient) time that I had to study as much as I could. Man, writing that Math midterm felt like going to war weaponless. 90% of the time I had no clue what I was doing. What sucks is that I totally thought I would do better on that second midterm than I did on the first one (because really, after writing my first Math midterm, I thought it would take a huge miracle to do worse on the second one. Well…. miracles truly happen, I guess). So after not being able to write several papers as eloquently as I planned to, to study for midterms as much as I intended to, and to spend as much time on my priorities as I wanted to, I went home that night feeling so incapable. It was just one of those nights when I felt like nothing was going my way.

On Friday afternoon (still feeling down and terribly upset), while on the bus going home, I checked Twitter on my mobile phone to make the one-hour commute more bearable. As I was scrolling through my timeline, I saw this tweet:

 

Later that night, most of my friends in the Philippines were retweeting this picture of Tacloban City–the city that was hit the hardest by typhoon Haiyan–before and during the storm surge:

Unbelievable change seen 31 minutes after.

The next day, pictures and videos of typhoon Haiyan’s wrath were shown on CNN. Since all means of communication were still down in the city, survivors of the typhoon were interviewed and given the chance to relay important messages to people they needed to contact. Most of them enumerated the full names of their missing loved ones and asked the government for help in finding them. Some survivors couldn’t help but cry as they tried to tell their relatives living outside Tacloban City that their loved ones were now dead. I even watched one survivor tell his relatives in Metro Manila that he was very sorry that he was not able to save his children’s lives. Disappointment, pain, and longing were written all over his crying face.

That was when it hit me: there I was feeling like the whole weight of the world was on my shoulders when, in reality, I was upset over ridiculously trivial things. Sure, high grades are important as they will help me earn a degree, which could increase my chances of landing my dream job. But does a single Math midterm define who I am? Would not getting an A in an essay steal my dreams from me? NO. Man, I felt so sorry for being terribly frustrated by such trivial things when in the other side of the world, thousands of people are trying to cope up with the fact  that their loved ones are missing or are now dead.

Now and then, I have to remind myself that other people have it worse. I have to remind myself this not to find joy in the suffering of others, but to stop myself from worrying about inconsequential matters. I am not saying that I should ignore my problems just because they seem so trivial compared to those of others. I know that all problems are different, and each person experiences them differently. Hence, no problem is too big or too insignificant. But telling myself that there are people who are in worse situations than I am reminds me that the positive things in my life still far outweigh the negative ones. I am truly blessed, and I should not let insignificant things stop me from always knowing that.

To the victims and survivors of typhoon Haiyan, I cannot imagine the pain and suffering you are currently going through. Your courage and strength amidst this terrible catastrophe serve as an inspiration to many people. Please know that you are not alone during this tragic time.

 

#CommuterProblems

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Being a commuter student is not easy. Enduring everyday commute takes a lot of patience. If you are like me who uses the public transit to go to and from UBC everyday, you know that commuting is very much like being a tribute at the Hunger Games. You spend a lot of time running (to catch the bus) and competing with others (to grab a seat).

Needless to say, commuting is stressful. I know I speak for every other commuter out there when I say that these are some of the most common #CommuterProblems:

*You need to wake up early every day–probably at least 2.5 hours before your first class–because you have to think about the possibility of your bus not coming on time, experiencing pass-ups, or insane traffic.

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*So since you always wake up early, chances are you want to maximize your time by sleeping on the bus. But there’s a problem: you don’t want other people to see you sleeping. I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling 22… wait, what? I feel like every time I fall asleep on the bus, this is what I look like:

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*You want to sleep. But the bus is either too cold or too hot.

*You want to sleep, but you can’t because the bus is too full and the concoction of different scents emitted by the commuters around you is just too nauseating to tolerate.

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*More often than not, you have to run like an Olympic sprinter just to get to your bus stop/loop on time.

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*Sometimes, even if you make it to your bus stop/loop on time, chances are the bus that you plan on taking will arrive 10 (or more) minutes late.

*On some days, you spend more time on the bus/train than you do at school.

*Pass-ups. Fortunately, I have experienced only one pass-up this term so far. Since I live fairly close to Metrotown (where the 49 UBC bus leaves), the bus isn’t usually full yet when it arrives at my bus stop. However, those who live 10-15 minutes away from UBC have to allot additional 30-45 minutes because (naturally) busses tend to be more full as they come closer to UBC.

*When drivers are not in the mood to stop at every bus stop. Sometimes, they’ll just flash “SORRY, BUS IS FULL”  when clearly they just have some personal appointments to attend because there is still enough space on the bus for me to sleep like this:

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*You can NEVER estimate your travel time accurately. Sometimes, your travel time will be 15 minutes less than your estimated time. Other times, it will be 45 minutes more than what you expected.

*AND PROBABLY THE BIGGEST #COMMUTERPROBLEM OF ALL: 94.79% OF COMMUTERS DO NOT KNOW HOW TO “MOVE TO THE REAR OF THE BUS”. I mean, come on. When you know it’s rush hour and there are many people trying to get on the bus, why don’t you just move to the rear of the bus and make everyone’s life easy? If you are too concerned about your private personal space, then I’m sorry to break it to you, but you have to stop taking the bus. Just bring your own car. Or bike. Or walk. Just don’t take public transit if you expect commuters to give you some private space. If you’re part of that 94.79%, I have nothing to tell you but this:

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Although I am aware that commuting also has its own perks, I focussed on the downsides of commuting because this blog post is primarily a reflection of what my commuting experience has been like this week. I am probably going to make another post in the future to list the advantages of commuting. For now, if you are living in residence, revel in the fact that you are lucky enough not to experience the aforementioned #CommuterProblems that we commuters regularly have to deal with. If you are a commuter like me, I want you to know that you are not the only one experiencing these things. I guess we should just be happy and thankful that we arrive at our own destinations safely every single day 🙂

Five Songs to Describe My First Two Weeks at UBC

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My first two weeks at UBC were composed of wide variety of overwhelming events, emotions, and experiences which will be imprinted on my memory forever.  They made an impact so huge that I cannot even summarize them through my own words.

So, being the music lover that I am, I decided I would borrow phrases from some of the most famous songs in the world today. I’ll use the help of my friends (like Bruno and Taylor) to convey the feelings that define my first eight days of studying here at UBC.

 

1) “A whole new world is waiting / it’s mine for the taking /
I know I can make it, today my life begins”

These were my exact thoughts throughout the Imagine Day. When I first heard of UBC, I knew immediately that this was where my dreams would come to life. Even just being admitted into and studying at this globally-renowned university is already a dream come true. So when I hopped off the 49 bus last Tuesday and saw the genuine excitement painted on the faces of my fellow freshmen, a sudden stroke of epiphany hit me. “I am now in a place full of possibilities. This is where I will spend the next four or more years of my life, so I better make this place mine”, I thought to myself. By “place”, I was not really referring to the physical campus of the university. I was talking about the world that is waiting for me to claim, the life that I am going to make most out of, the diem that I am going to carpe.

 

2) “I’m up all night ’til the sun” (not to get lucky, though)

In spite of being really exhausted on Tuesday night because of Imagine Day (I was all-out in showing my Arts pride during the Pep Rally), it was extremely hard for me to sleep that night. I’m sure it was because of how I was feeling about the next day (the first “official” day of classes for this term). I wasn’t sure whether I was excited or nervous (maybe I was both) about it, but it sure kept me up late.

 

3) Just gonna stand there and watch me burn / That’s alright because I like the way it hurts.

Go ahead, Math 184, just stand there and watch the complexities of functions, limits, and derivatives mercilessly burn my brain. In Grade 12, I detested functions so much that I think I have developed a fear of them since my Pre-Calculus 12 final exam. Clearly, when I added Math 184 to my timetable, I was hoping that functions would play a smaller role in my life. BUT GUESS WHAT? Our Math 184 prof started his first lecture by talking about exponential and inverse functions. The funny thing is, when he started going over them, I didn’t feel scared. I was thrilled. I was positively challenged. I felt like that was my chance to finally be friends with Math.

…then newer, more complicated topics were introduced to us afterwards. My fear of functions came to haunt me down again.

 

4) We’re happy, free, confused, and lonely at the same time / It’s miserable and magical

My first two weeks were layered with a steep zigzag of emotions. I must admit that these two weeks weren’t all butterflies and rainbows. Of course, I’m extremely happy to be here. Yes, I feel free that I am going through this journey independently. But it also feels lonely at times to start this journey in such a big university, where each individual seems to be focused on reaching his/her own destination.

Taylor’s right. It’s really magical and miserable at the same time. Miserable because it just hit me how time flies so fast, and now I’m afraid I might not be able to feel this exhilarating journey while I’m in it. Magical because I know that no matter what happens during my time here at UBC, it will have an enormous impact on my life.

 

5) You’ve got the words to change a nation / But you’re biting your tongue / You’ve spent a life time stuck in silence / Afraid you’ll say something wrong / If no one ever hears it how we gonna learn your song?

These are my own words of advice for myself. Honestly, I feel like I have been holding myself back a lot lately. I haven’t been participating in lectures as much as I’d want to, haven’t been introducing myself to as many classmates as I’d like to, and haven’t been attending freshmen orientation events at all. I know I should start being proactive. I know I should start taking more risks. I know I should start building my confidence again. And I promise you I will. I will have the courage to step out of my comfort zone and finally make things happen. It might just take a bit of time.

 

If you want to know more about me, don’t hesitate to check out the “Who am I?” page! 🙂