Arts

Term 1 Roundup (Part 2)

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ASTU 100B – FIRST YEAR CAP SEMINAR (Instructor: Dr. Laila Ferreira); PPE

I loved this course. Not only did I receive my highest mark in term one from this course, but it was also the only course where I enjoyed doing each and every assignment. This course is a part of the Philosophy, Political Science, and Economics (PPE) stream of the Coordinated Arts Program. ASTU’s main focus is academic research and writing. Each ASTU class is assigned a particular topic, and students analyze the academic discourse regarding this topic. Disability was the assigned topic to our class. Hence each of our reading and writing assignment revolved around the topic of disability. I definitely did not expect I would enjoy reading research papers about disability. Because I found the topic to be so interesting, I had an exhilarating time doing my research paper. Although our prof had the tendency to give out very confusing instructions, she was very helpful during her office hours. She did not have any problem with proofreading my drafts, so that definitely strengthened my research writing techniques.

One thing I learned from this course: Assigned readings are not as horrible as most students make them out to be.

 

POLI 100 – INTRODUCTION TO POLITICS (Instructor: Dr. Christopher Erickson); PPE

Poli 100 is another course in the PPE stream. Dr. Erickson always had interesting and hilarious lectures. He never failed to perfectly connect critical political concepts to celebrities (for instance, he mentioned Miley Cyrus when discussing the concept of globalization). That made waking up early to attend his 9 A.M. class a lot easier. Also, his lecture slides were very easy to follow and were sufficient to do well in the course. I only used the textbook whenever I felt like the lecture slides weren’t enough to understand a concept. The midterm and the final are fairly easy if you study the lecture slides. One thing I didn’t like, though, is that the five-page essay was worth as much as the final exam. I did not like this mainly because the essay that I turned in was crappy. And by crappy, I mean I-wish-I-don’t-ever-remember-that-I-wrote-such-paper-ever-again type of crappiness.

One thing I learned from this course: TRY TO DO YOUR PAPERS AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE. AVOID STARTING YOUR PAPER THE NIGHT BEFORE IT IS DUE. Hate that I had to learn this the hard way.

ECON 101 – PRINCIPLES OF MICROECONOMICS (Instructor: Dr. Clive Chapple); PPE

Another course in the PPE stream. Even though the exams in this course were the longest and trickiest exams I’ve ever written in my life, it was hands down my most favourite course of the term! Dr. Chapple always had the most effective analogies and examples which made understanding the course more comprehensible. Every course-related work that he assigned to us–from his Clicker questions to our weekly Aplia online assignments–greatly helped in understanding the course better. I also liked that he posted lecture notes on Connect ahead of time. That way, all I had to do was print them out and annotate them in class. The midterm and final exam were very tricky and time-consuming in my opinion, but you can pull off a decent mark if you put a lot of time and effort in mastering the concepts.

One thing I learned from this course: If you are genuinely interested in a certain course, you won’t care about how difficult it is; you’ll always enjoy studying it.

 

That was how my term one went. Tomorrow, term two begins! I’m ready to see what it has to offer.

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..

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! 🙂