I have decided to repurpose this blog to write my experience at UBC. Maybe it will help some poor soul. 🙂 – Will update frequently, ask away at the bottom if you got Qs.
[Conclusion to Winter 2016] After finishing this semester with the best grades I’ve ever received in a single semester, I feel confident that my GPA will drop to a half of what I have so far in the next semester. There are known 3 hell courses at UBC CPSC program. 110 – 121 – 210. I somehow landed myself in 110 & 121 in the same semester. I pray to the gods that I can some how salvage this “A” streak. I’ve also got the idea in my head to apply for a semester exchange, maybe if I’m lucky enough I can go to Europe to study. It would really mean the world to me if I could.
ENGL 301 – Distance Ed [Winter 2016] w/ Dr. Paterson
My experience with the course is a positive one. It required a lot of effort and massive amount of group coordination. I guess I had some luck in finding some kick-ass people, that helped me coordinate work quickly. Grading was strict but very fair, ended up with an A. To do well in this course, expect to work on your blog and group page assignments every week. I put many sleepless hours into the final project because I wasn’t diligent enough to work on the final project little by little. If you keep up with the class schedule and work with your group, you will do fine. To get an A+, I would have internalized what the professor told me to fix, especially the “you” style writing.
TLDR: Solid course, make sure to follow assignment schedule to do well.
ASIA 341 [Winter 2016] w/ Dr. Bailey
I highly recommend all courses with Dr. Bailey. She is the sweetest and the most helpful professor I have ever worked with. If you ask her something, she would most likely give you the world’s information to work with. The course itself is a bit stale as you are reading ancient poetry with rough translations. There isn’t much advice to give to do well in this course. I ended up with an A-. There are mountains of reading every week, I gave 8 hours of reading per week. Make sure to take notes in class, although her lecture power points are very useful, you need to write down stuff that may help you. The exams were surprisingly straight forward, I felt it was less poetry and more history style exams. No need for memorizing the poems, just understand what they mean and who wrote it under what circumstances.
TLDR: Great course, tough material, amazing prof. Read a butt load, know your poets.
ASIA 356 [Winter 2016] w/ Dr. Baker
I took this course because I heard it would be a great GPA booster. BOY WAS I WRONG. I ended with a A-, but it required a lot of work. Judging by asking around, it sounded like the usual professor for this course took a maternity leave. Dr. Baker is a great person, but he managed the class in a difficult manner. In his defence, he is not the usual professor and he never taught this course before. BUT this course is a movie course, and yet the assignments were dizzyingly difficult to get an A. There are no good ways to get a great mark out of the course, go to the lecture, and repurpose what the lecture is about and with your opinion about the movie, write the essay. NOTE! read the textbook and quote from it in Chicago style in the weekly essays. He checks every detail about the smallest things, and will start deducting marks mid-way though the semester if you don’t. I really don’t understand why he didn’t tell the students that from the beginning. There was only 1 final exam, it was very straight forward, and if you have been reading and watching all the films, it would literally take you 2 hours to prepare for the exam (maybe less).
TLDR: Fun course, difficult professor. Read, attend lecture, write right after the lecture ends.