Let me set the scene for you:
Mid-term season.
Group lab report due to be "handed in" online at 11:59:00pm today.
Group has 3 members.
10:00pm: get home from night class, knowing that I have to help the group finish the lab. The discussion section needs to be completed. The lab needs to be edited. I need to eat a sandwich.
10:15pm: finish jam sandwich and start searching for references for the lab.
10:20pm: group member-1 calls. He says he is having trouble with his girlfriend and will not be able to help us complete the lab.
10:22pm: I get a hold of group member 2 and we decide how to split up the rest of the work.
11:15pm: I send off my half of the work to member 2.
11:35pm: I receive member 2's half of the work.
11:40pm: We begin to edit the lab together, on the computer and over the phone.
11:50pm: We decide that the lab is complete and that it is time to "hand it in" online.
11:51pm: my internet browser has frozen ... moment of silence on the phone.
11:52pm: in the midst of panic, I manage to open a new instance of the browser. I open the website to send the lab attachment.
11:53pm: I attempt to click on the "add attachment" button ... nothing. It doesn't seem to work. We are now desperate for ideas.
11:54pm: over the phone, member 2 and I agree that I should send the file to him as an email attachment.
11:56pm: email is sent.
11:56pm: member 2 saves the file to his computer.
11:57:40pm: file is attached, sent and handed in from member 2's computer.
11:57:45pm: Relief.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Standing Out
For the first time in my life, I DO stand out!
Going into first year, my confidence was low. Constantly I heard stories about the exceptionalists. My high school teachers told stories about the "brains" that they went to school with and it seemed to me like the whole world would do better than me at everything. I heard rumors of how, "your average drops yada-yada percent in post-secondary" and, like most people, I assumed these rules applied to me. My average was eighty-something in high school; pretty good, but, I figured it was definitely not good enough to compete in a "great" place like university.
At the beginning of first year, I signed up for a program that asked me to fill out surveys once a month for the entire year. I remember one of the questions on the survey was always, "What do you expect your average to be at the end of the year". At this point, I expected 70's in university -- pretty good, but still "average". However, after getting back my first mid-term, I did better than I thought I could. But, of course, I thought it was a fluke. I got another mid-term back and did okay; so, now I was not really sure where I stood. When the next set of surveys came, I remember thinking that maybe I could actually pull off an 80 average in university. On the next few mid-terms, I started studying with confidence, and I did even better.
I have now completed almost 3 years of university and have a 4.0 GPA. It took me a very long time to realize that it IS possible to stand out in university. Beyond schoolwork, I have learned that getting involved in school activities is not for "exceptionalists", but it can be for anyone -- even me!
Going into first year, I assumed that all great things were done by "greats". But it took me much experience to realize that great things are done by regular people.
Going into first year, my confidence was low. Constantly I heard stories about the exceptionalists. My high school teachers told stories about the "brains" that they went to school with and it seemed to me like the whole world would do better than me at everything. I heard rumors of how, "your average drops yada-yada percent in post-secondary" and, like most people, I assumed these rules applied to me. My average was eighty-something in high school; pretty good, but, I figured it was definitely not good enough to compete in a "great" place like university.
At the beginning of first year, I signed up for a program that asked me to fill out surveys once a month for the entire year. I remember one of the questions on the survey was always, "What do you expect your average to be at the end of the year". At this point, I expected 70's in university -- pretty good, but still "average". However, after getting back my first mid-term, I did better than I thought I could. But, of course, I thought it was a fluke. I got another mid-term back and did okay; so, now I was not really sure where I stood. When the next set of surveys came, I remember thinking that maybe I could actually pull off an 80 average in university. On the next few mid-terms, I started studying with confidence, and I did even better.
I have now completed almost 3 years of university and have a 4.0 GPA. It took me a very long time to realize that it IS possible to stand out in university. Beyond schoolwork, I have learned that getting involved in school activities is not for "exceptionalists", but it can be for anyone -- even me!
Going into first year, I assumed that all great things were done by "greats". But it took me much experience to realize that great things are done by regular people.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Multiple-choice in Physics & Chemistry
In my Physics and Chemistry courses, the tests are all multiple-choice. And they're not like the multiple-choice I'm used to from High School, Biology say, when if you know the work, you can see the answer right away and just check it off.
No, these are different. Like do a normal question, that might take a few minutes and use up most of a page of calculation. Then look at the alternatives given, and hope that your answer corresponds to one of them. Scary when it doesn't. Do I look over my work to see if I can see a mistake? Do I re-do the thing and hope it comes out to one of the answers that at least could be right? Or maybe skip it and try the next one, then come back to it if there's time? There's a technique to this, and I haven't caught on to it yet.
I'm not used to it. There are no marks for part answers. You can get the question basically right, but make just one mistake (maybe a stupid mistake), and then you get no credit at all for what you've done. Just the same as someone who's goofed off and done, basically, none of the work at all, and who therefore really deserves to get the same zero for the question that I got just because of one stupid mistake.
And I soon found out the hard way that the prof who set the question knows the kinds of mistakes people are likely to make, and puts them in for the alternatives; like maybe (c) is the right answer, but he puts answers that people are likely to come up with when they've made the mistakes he knows about as (a), (b), and (d). They're diabolical, some of these guys.
There are over a thousand people in these courses, so I can see why they do it. But then sometimes I think that they get over a thousand lots of fees too, so they should have us write out proper answers and pay people to mark them. But I guess there'd have to be instructions and maybe even meetings for the people who marked the questions to make sure all of them marked in the same way. It could get complicated.
One good thing, though, is this: we all get our results pretty well right away, with all the stats about medians and things. We can see how well we've done compared with everyone else. And they give us the right answers for the ones we got wrong, so we can take it away and see if we can figure out the mistake we made. That's useful. It would be even more useful if we ever had the time to actually do any of it.
But then time ... that's the topic for another story. Or perhaps six more stories. Sorry, I'm short of time so you'll have to get someone else to write them for you.
No, these are different. Like do a normal question, that might take a few minutes and use up most of a page of calculation. Then look at the alternatives given, and hope that your answer corresponds to one of them. Scary when it doesn't. Do I look over my work to see if I can see a mistake? Do I re-do the thing and hope it comes out to one of the answers that at least could be right? Or maybe skip it and try the next one, then come back to it if there's time? There's a technique to this, and I haven't caught on to it yet.
I'm not used to it. There are no marks for part answers. You can get the question basically right, but make just one mistake (maybe a stupid mistake), and then you get no credit at all for what you've done. Just the same as someone who's goofed off and done, basically, none of the work at all, and who therefore really deserves to get the same zero for the question that I got just because of one stupid mistake.
And I soon found out the hard way that the prof who set the question knows the kinds of mistakes people are likely to make, and puts them in for the alternatives; like maybe (c) is the right answer, but he puts answers that people are likely to come up with when they've made the mistakes he knows about as (a), (b), and (d). They're diabolical, some of these guys.
There are over a thousand people in these courses, so I can see why they do it. But then sometimes I think that they get over a thousand lots of fees too, so they should have us write out proper answers and pay people to mark them. But I guess there'd have to be instructions and maybe even meetings for the people who marked the questions to make sure all of them marked in the same way. It could get complicated.
One good thing, though, is this: we all get our results pretty well right away, with all the stats about medians and things. We can see how well we've done compared with everyone else. And they give us the right answers for the ones we got wrong, so we can take it away and see if we can figure out the mistake we made. That's useful. It would be even more useful if we ever had the time to actually do any of it.
But then time ... that's the topic for another story. Or perhaps six more stories. Sorry, I'm short of time so you'll have to get someone else to write them for you.
Not Standing Out
One thing I really like about it here is that for the first time in my life, I no longer feel that I stand out from everyone else. Here's why: I spent my whole elementary school and high school time in a small town where almost everyone was white. I'm not. It's not that there was any hostility, or racism, or anything bad that was done to me or said to me except by a few really ignorant idiots who weren't to be taken seriously anyway. I fitted in well with the groups I belonged to, and I had lots of very close friends, Just as many, and just as close, as anyone else. But the difference was still there. People I hadn't met before, especially older people, would look at me just a bit longer than anyone else. Sometimes people would lower their eyes as I tried to meet theirs: that kind of thing. Perhaps I was exaggerating it in my mind, but it was always there. No matter what, I knew it was the first thing anyone noticed about me. Even if nothing actually occurred, I was always thinking that some rather small thing might happen at any time that would make me self-conscious. I should make it clear that it didn't apply to my friends, my teachers, or other people I knew well. But it was a feeling I was never able to get rid of.
But here, it doesn't apply. There are lots of people of all nationalities and all ethnic origins. So no-one stands out, including me. At last I can feel that people I meet are seeing me just as another person, rather than as a representative of something, or someone with some characteristics they might not feel comfortable with. Stupid maybe. But it makes life a lot better for me.
And actually, I've had discussions about the topic with some people I've got to know since coming here: caucasians. (Yes, they're still in the majority, although here not by much.) They have said something the same as I've felt. The watchword here is tolerance. The most amazing example I've seen so far is that there was one girl who used to be a Christian. She gave it up and became a Muslim because her best friend was a Muslim. No-one thought that the reasoning behind it was any of their business unless she wanted to discuss it, which as far as I know she didn't. She looked a bit different, but it was the same person that everyone had liked before; they still did. Nothing had changed that had anything to do with them.
Here, there are so many different kinds of people (old, young, black, white, brown, gay, straight, Moslem, Jewish, Hindu, etc) that no-one can possibly pay attention to any of it. If people did, there would be fights all the time and life would be impossible for everyone. You just have to see everyone you meet as a person.
Teacher Assistants
In most of my courses there are hundreds of students. Obviously, no one prof could deal with us all. The mechanism that the University uses is called the Teaching Assistant (TA). These are older students, all grad students I think, who know the course and know the profs and the way they do things, and how they think. There's a study centre open at various times of the week, and the TAs are there to help. There is also a writing centre where you can go and show tutors your papers and they will give you pointers on it.
I've been lucky with the ones I've seen so far. If you go at the same time each week, the same ones are usually there. So you can get the same one who you knew from previous weeks, and who can also get to know you. All of them seem friendly, and want to try to help as much as they can. I've never felt that when I made a mistake, or missed doing something, or got something wrong, that I was in danger of being put down.
They do vary, though. Some seem to know exactly what the prof wants, and others not so much. Most profs give out introductory booklets at the beginning of the course, where they do their best to explain the requirements. Other times you can find similar things online. But they're not always as helpful as they might be; one of my TAs explained that a particular prof always says that some things are important but has never found a way to give marks for it. Other times you know that three quarters of the questions are going to be about one quarter of the work in the course. Those are the kinds of things that are important to know.
One time, a classmate and I were comparing notes. What her TA had told her about how important various things were was just about opposite from what my TA had said. So we did a bit of investigating and found that one of the TAs had come form another University and hadn't ever been in any of the Prof's classes. He only knew what the Prof had said, and what the other TAs had told him. So it wasn't hard to figure our which TA to believe. One of them, without doing it deliberately or even realizing it, would have been quite misleading.
That brings me to another point. Talking to other people in the course, and making friends with them, is very important. You talk in the cafeteria, or in the residence, or on the way from one place to another: it really doesn't matter, but a lot of it tends to be about the courses you're taking. The same goes, and maybe even more, for older students who've been in that course in previous years. I feel sorry for students who live at home or off campus and don't have the opportunity to do much of this kind of thing. It must make it a lot harder to know what to concentrate on and what kinds of things to do to get the best marks.
I've been lucky with the ones I've seen so far. If you go at the same time each week, the same ones are usually there. So you can get the same one who you knew from previous weeks, and who can also get to know you. All of them seem friendly, and want to try to help as much as they can. I've never felt that when I made a mistake, or missed doing something, or got something wrong, that I was in danger of being put down.
They do vary, though. Some seem to know exactly what the prof wants, and others not so much. Most profs give out introductory booklets at the beginning of the course, where they do their best to explain the requirements. Other times you can find similar things online. But they're not always as helpful as they might be; one of my TAs explained that a particular prof always says that some things are important but has never found a way to give marks for it. Other times you know that three quarters of the questions are going to be about one quarter of the work in the course. Those are the kinds of things that are important to know.
One time, a classmate and I were comparing notes. What her TA had told her about how important various things were was just about opposite from what my TA had said. So we did a bit of investigating and found that one of the TAs had come form another University and hadn't ever been in any of the Prof's classes. He only knew what the Prof had said, and what the other TAs had told him. So it wasn't hard to figure our which TA to believe. One of them, without doing it deliberately or even realizing it, would have been quite misleading.
That brings me to another point. Talking to other people in the course, and making friends with them, is very important. You talk in the cafeteria, or in the residence, or on the way from one place to another: it really doesn't matter, but a lot of it tends to be about the courses you're taking. The same goes, and maybe even more, for older students who've been in that course in previous years. I feel sorry for students who live at home or off campus and don't have the opportunity to do much of this kind of thing. It must make it a lot harder to know what to concentrate on and what kinds of things to do to get the best marks.
Temporary Death
I had a bizarre experience in October. It was in my English class of about 40, and the Prof was handing back the first essay we'd done. My mark was lower than I'd ever seen before, but it didn't bother me that much because I knew the same thing was true of everyone else I knew, not only in that class, but in most others as well. We all had to learn the new way of doing things, avoid making the same mistakes again, and not allow the same deficiencies into our work again. The prof began the lecture by saying he had expected these problems with our work, and he'd spend about half of the hour showing us how to deal with them, So I knew it was going to be a fairly painful learning experience.
What I didn't know was how painful. The prof had a photocopy of one of the essays in front of him to refer to, and slides of parts of it that he projected onto the screen. It was mine! Turns out that nearly all the errors you could possibly make were in my essay!! He didn't say whose it was, and I used the same layout and fonts as everyone else, so you couldn't tell from looking at the screen either. But I thought some of my friends in the class would know (not so, it turns out), and I also felt that my face had turned into some kind of red and green flashing beacon, that would dazzle everyone in the room and everyone would know who it was. I was all set to slink discreetly out and pretend afterwards that I'd felt sick -- not that far from the truth, really. But then I realized that would only serve to identify me even further with the egregious errors.
Then he proceeded to trash pretty well all I'd done. Paragraph after paragraph was gone over with a fine tooth comb, and every conceivable fault pointed out that anyone could possibly make. It was devastating.
However, some way into the process, he made it better. He said that actually one of the better ones -- clearer than most which made it the best one for him to show how we should correct our approach. He also said that he knew it must be embarrassing for the person who'd done it, and that he'd got to know us well enough to be confident that whoever it was was one of the stronger people in terms of self-image, so only temporary death would result from what he was doing. I don't usually like to boast, but I do think he was right about that. Then at the end, he pointed out one or two things I'd done which he thought were really good. "Better than I usually see at this Level", was how he put it. And in fact, although the mark was far lower than I'd ever had before, it was one of the better ones.
A learning experience for sure! Learning the hard way!! Well, my mother never did promise me that everything would be easy.
Writing Styles
I well remember my first English class here. I wrote an essay on "Liminality in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight". I looked up the terms and spun off the essay with all the usual flourishes and turns of phrase that had served me so well throughout high school. The result: a 25% mark dip and an admonition to write more simply in the future. Sorry, not an admonition, an instruction. Amateur Victorian Lady Novelist indeed. Bah! Humbug!!
Do you "attempt to dissuade" someone from a course of action, do you "try to persuade him out of it", or do you "go 'Don't do it!'?" It all depends, not only on the subject and the topic as you might expect, but also on the individual prof.
"... an unfortunate shibboleth that, due to my previous boasting, betrayed them as my own", or "Jeez, I shudda kept my big mouth shut cus now they'll all know whose it all is." Yes, I'm exaggerating, but the point is a valid one. What to one might be a suitable literary style would be puffed-up, strained, and artificial bloviation to another. Or what one would accept as straightforward and workmanlike, another would regard as bare-bones adequacy that betrays no familiarity with the subtleties of the language.
How do you find out what the Prof wants? Be attentive, very attentive to the way he or she phrases things, especially in writing. Look closely at something that is identified in the class as an example of good writing. See if you can find someone who's taken courses from the same person before.
Or (and this has taken me a while to learn), you can always ask.
Do you "attempt to dissuade" someone from a course of action, do you "try to persuade him out of it", or do you "go 'Don't do it!'?" It all depends, not only on the subject and the topic as you might expect, but also on the individual prof.
"... an unfortunate shibboleth that, due to my previous boasting, betrayed them as my own", or "Jeez, I shudda kept my big mouth shut cus now they'll all know whose it all is." Yes, I'm exaggerating, but the point is a valid one. What to one might be a suitable literary style would be puffed-up, strained, and artificial bloviation to another. Or what one would accept as straightforward and workmanlike, another would regard as bare-bones adequacy that betrays no familiarity with the subtleties of the language.
How do you find out what the Prof wants? Be attentive, very attentive to the way he or she phrases things, especially in writing. Look closely at something that is identified in the class as an example of good writing. See if you can find someone who's taken courses from the same person before.
Or (and this has taken me a while to learn), you can always ask.
Being Accused of Cheating
I had a horrible experience at the end of the first term. There was a Statistics Exam, and we weren't allowed to use calculators. I can see why; the calculators we usually use have the formulas in them, and some of them let you just input the data and do the calculation for you without ever your needing to know anything about how it works.
But I didn't realize the rule also applied to other kinds of calculator which didn't have these functions in them. At the end of the exam, the assistant came round to collect the papers, and saw my calculator on the desk. It was in full view of everyone, a bright red children's calculator with big keys, a big display, and funny smiles all over it. But the TA brought it to the Prof's attention, and he came to my desk and called me down big time.
He accused me of cheating. Actually, I hadn't used the calculator because the exam didn't have any questions that needed it. He knew that, of course, but it meant nothing to him. He just lost it. I said, "Sir, I didn't use the calculator, and I'm one of your best students; I had 96% going into the exam -- look it up." That made it worse. He kind of said that that made him think I'd got the 96% by cheating as well, and that I would probably get 0% in the exam or even the whole course; he'd have to ask the Dean. It was wholly scary; the guy was just yelling right into my face.
Anyway, in the end, it turned out OK. He must have calmed down afterwards, or perhaps the Dean talked sense into him. Nobody ever said anything, but when my mark came out, it was as I'd originally expected, and not reduced by any cheating penalty. It was the worst experience I've had in my few months here, though, by a long way.
But I didn't realize the rule also applied to other kinds of calculator which didn't have these functions in them. At the end of the exam, the assistant came round to collect the papers, and saw my calculator on the desk. It was in full view of everyone, a bright red children's calculator with big keys, a big display, and funny smiles all over it. But the TA brought it to the Prof's attention, and he came to my desk and called me down big time.
He accused me of cheating. Actually, I hadn't used the calculator because the exam didn't have any questions that needed it. He knew that, of course, but it meant nothing to him. He just lost it. I said, "Sir, I didn't use the calculator, and I'm one of your best students; I had 96% going into the exam -- look it up." That made it worse. He kind of said that that made him think I'd got the 96% by cheating as well, and that I would probably get 0% in the exam or even the whole course; he'd have to ask the Dean. It was wholly scary; the guy was just yelling right into my face.
Anyway, in the end, it turned out OK. He must have calmed down afterwards, or perhaps the Dean talked sense into him. Nobody ever said anything, but when my mark came out, it was as I'd originally expected, and not reduced by any cheating penalty. It was the worst experience I've had in my few months here, though, by a long way.
Everyone's Nightmare: Late for the Exam
Here's a piece of advice for everyone: know when your exams are, and make sure you don't turn up late for them. I messed up with that once. Never again.
At the end of my first year, I faced the spectre of University exams for the first time. All went by fairly unremarkably until my last one arrived. The day of the exam I woke up at 4 am to study, and well before the 5 pm exam time rolled around, I was pumped and on my way out the door with sharpened pencils, erasers, and watch in hand.
On last thought, I checked the registrar’s website to double-check the exam location. I was horrified to discover that the two hour exam had begun at 3 pm. I didn’t understand because I had the exam date written in big letters on the calendar on my desk. After an extended freak out session, I discovered the reason for this catastrophe – I had mistaken the messy three on my calendar for a five.
I panicked. After dashing off an email to my prof, I literally ran all the way to the exam room and found it nearly deserted. I ran back to residence and found that my professor had replied in my absence. He had written that if I could catch him in his office in the next hour, which had already elapsed, I could attempt to write the exam but beyond that there was nothing he could do for me.
I raced to his building only to find that I had missed him. After a nervous bout of exhaustion induced vomiting outside his building, I went back to my room stunned. I can’t even remember the hoops I had to jump through, but it was truly gruesome. They made it very plain that it was extremely serious. I had to be talked to by the Dean (not pleasant, I can assure you) and he contacted the prof on my behalf. I then had to stay on at the University for several days while they decided what to do with me. Everyone else had gone home, so there I was in my room sweating for the whole time, to say nothing of what everyone at home thought when I had to explain why I wasn't coming home for a while. I had to fill in forms, write stuff out, and generally cover myself with stuff I know you won't mention in the book.
I eventually was allowed to write the exam a week later, another version of the exam, I think. Some of the questions were set up just slightly differently from the way the same kinds of questions had been written through the term; I never did find out for sure though.
It was a truly horrific experience that I hope never to relive, made a lot worse by its being 100% my own stupid fault. I have since adopted the habit of checking and rechecking my exam dates and times as well as developing contacts in most classes as a deadline safety net.
At the end of my first year, I faced the spectre of University exams for the first time. All went by fairly unremarkably until my last one arrived. The day of the exam I woke up at 4 am to study, and well before the 5 pm exam time rolled around, I was pumped and on my way out the door with sharpened pencils, erasers, and watch in hand.
On last thought, I checked the registrar’s website to double-check the exam location. I was horrified to discover that the two hour exam had begun at 3 pm. I didn’t understand because I had the exam date written in big letters on the calendar on my desk. After an extended freak out session, I discovered the reason for this catastrophe – I had mistaken the messy three on my calendar for a five.
I panicked. After dashing off an email to my prof, I literally ran all the way to the exam room and found it nearly deserted. I ran back to residence and found that my professor had replied in my absence. He had written that if I could catch him in his office in the next hour, which had already elapsed, I could attempt to write the exam but beyond that there was nothing he could do for me.
I raced to his building only to find that I had missed him. After a nervous bout of exhaustion induced vomiting outside his building, I went back to my room stunned. I can’t even remember the hoops I had to jump through, but it was truly gruesome. They made it very plain that it was extremely serious. I had to be talked to by the Dean (not pleasant, I can assure you) and he contacted the prof on my behalf. I then had to stay on at the University for several days while they decided what to do with me. Everyone else had gone home, so there I was in my room sweating for the whole time, to say nothing of what everyone at home thought when I had to explain why I wasn't coming home for a while. I had to fill in forms, write stuff out, and generally cover myself with stuff I know you won't mention in the book.
I eventually was allowed to write the exam a week later, another version of the exam, I think. Some of the questions were set up just slightly differently from the way the same kinds of questions had been written through the term; I never did find out for sure though.
It was a truly horrific experience that I hope never to relive, made a lot worse by its being 100% my own stupid fault. I have since adopted the habit of checking and rechecking my exam dates and times as well as developing contacts in most classes as a deadline safety net.
Taking Control of my Time
When I started here I was entranced with the number and the variety of activities there are to take part in. I've always been interested in lots of things, so I signed up for lots of things: academic clubs, badminton, debating, volunteering, choir. You name it, I was signed up.
Of course I couldn't do it all. But the time came when I just got so stressed out that I almost gave up. The activities had a lot to do with that. What I hadn't realized was that in volunteering, debating and choir, and sometimes badminton, there are other people who are depending on you showing up. Even if you have urgent school work to do, or badly need down-time or sleep, you have to go because you don't want to let people down.
Anyway, it all came to crisis point and I realized it couldn't go on like it had been. I hadn't been doing any of the things well, and I'd turned myself into a wreck. I had to take control. I couldn't have done it without a good friend from down the hall, but that's another story, I guess.
Reluctantly, I had to wind down most of what I had started out finding the most rewarding and enjoyable. Time wasn't the only factor; there was also how stressful the activity was or could become, like the debating and the choir. As well, there was how much you let people down if you missed it once or twice. I realized something too that I'd only slightly thought of about myself previously: I need down-time. I need parties, hanging out for an hour with friends, and even time on my own when no demands of any kind are being made on me.
Well, maybe I'm lazier now. My marks have gone up though, because I have more time for assignments and can concentrate on them better. And I'm also wiser and happier.
Of course I couldn't do it all. But the time came when I just got so stressed out that I almost gave up. The activities had a lot to do with that. What I hadn't realized was that in volunteering, debating and choir, and sometimes badminton, there are other people who are depending on you showing up. Even if you have urgent school work to do, or badly need down-time or sleep, you have to go because you don't want to let people down.
Anyway, it all came to crisis point and I realized it couldn't go on like it had been. I hadn't been doing any of the things well, and I'd turned myself into a wreck. I had to take control. I couldn't have done it without a good friend from down the hall, but that's another story, I guess.
Reluctantly, I had to wind down most of what I had started out finding the most rewarding and enjoyable. Time wasn't the only factor; there was also how stressful the activity was or could become, like the debating and the choir. As well, there was how much you let people down if you missed it once or twice. I realized something too that I'd only slightly thought of about myself previously: I need down-time. I need parties, hanging out for an hour with friends, and even time on my own when no demands of any kind are being made on me.
Well, maybe I'm lazier now. My marks have gone up though, because I have more time for assignments and can concentrate on them better. And I'm also wiser and happier.
Multiple-choice
It surprised me quite a bit to find out how different the Profs are from each other, and how the requirements they put on the students varies from one to the other. In some courses, everything seems to be done by multiple-choice tests. There's a skill to doing these, and it varies from subject to subject. Often, for example, you'll have a mathematical problem to do that takes maybe five minutes. At the end, you see if any of the answers (a)-(e) on the test matches what you got when you did the problem. If it doesn't, you're in a lot of trouble. Of course, this raises your level of stress as you come near to the end of the problem. Unlike what I've ever seen before, there are no marks for getting it nearly all right. I don't like that, Maybe in the problem there are ten things you have to do, but if you get nine right and one wrong, you get zero. Like, 90%=0%. But that's the way it's set up, and I guess there's no other way when there are so many students.
In other courses, like Biology, you can often do the question by eliminating some of the wrong alternatives. Each question needs you to read four fairly long sentences or even paragraphs, one of which is the right alternative. It's not often you see any ridiculous ones that you'd know were wrong even if you hadn't done the work, but still there are skills in screening out the wrong alternatives. It's hard to describe because it's actually different from one question to the next. Sometimes you have to recognize the right answer; other times you have to go through them all and eliminate the wrong ones one at a time. Or maybe a combination of each. The only way is to have done a lot of them; you get better at it as time goes on.
Something else you have to watch out for is timing. Lots of the questions take a long time to figure out, either because there's a lot of reading, or because there's a mathematical problem that it takes time to solve. With either kind, under the stressed condition you're in, you can get absolutely confused and completely screwed-up. You've already invested several minutes on the question. So it's hard to do, but you absolutely have to: give up and move on. Now occasionally, inspiration strikes you later on and you can come back to it and see what to do. In my experience though, that mostly happens just after the test is over, especially when you're discussing it with others afterwards. And once, I suddenly woke up in the night, understanding exactly what to do. Yeah, it's all sick. But it's part of life here.
Actually, the way they construct the questions is very clever. Once you've mastered the method, you can see that only someone who understands the work quite thoroughly can do the question. If you haven't done it, or if you only half understand it, or only understand part of it, you won't be able to do the question. At best, you might see that two of the alternatives are wrong, but then have to guess from the other two. There are no marks off for wrong answers, so if you find yourself in that position, you're best of to guess. Your chances of hitting it right are better than if you didn't know anything. So over a lot of questions, it works out about right.
In other courses, like Biology, you can often do the question by eliminating some of the wrong alternatives. Each question needs you to read four fairly long sentences or even paragraphs, one of which is the right alternative. It's not often you see any ridiculous ones that you'd know were wrong even if you hadn't done the work, but still there are skills in screening out the wrong alternatives. It's hard to describe because it's actually different from one question to the next. Sometimes you have to recognize the right answer; other times you have to go through them all and eliminate the wrong ones one at a time. Or maybe a combination of each. The only way is to have done a lot of them; you get better at it as time goes on.
Something else you have to watch out for is timing. Lots of the questions take a long time to figure out, either because there's a lot of reading, or because there's a mathematical problem that it takes time to solve. With either kind, under the stressed condition you're in, you can get absolutely confused and completely screwed-up. You've already invested several minutes on the question. So it's hard to do, but you absolutely have to: give up and move on. Now occasionally, inspiration strikes you later on and you can come back to it and see what to do. In my experience though, that mostly happens just after the test is over, especially when you're discussing it with others afterwards. And once, I suddenly woke up in the night, understanding exactly what to do. Yeah, it's all sick. But it's part of life here.
Actually, the way they construct the questions is very clever. Once you've mastered the method, you can see that only someone who understands the work quite thoroughly can do the question. If you haven't done it, or if you only half understand it, or only understand part of it, you won't be able to do the question. At best, you might see that two of the alternatives are wrong, but then have to guess from the other two. There are no marks off for wrong answers, so if you find yourself in that position, you're best of to guess. Your chances of hitting it right are better than if you didn't know anything. So over a lot of questions, it works out about right.
Intro Week
I know most Universities have an introductory week of one kind or another, but ours must be one of the best. I've heard that in the past it tended to degenerate into a drunken orgy, but what has happened is that the university has taken control of it and chosen some students from other years to run it. However it was organized, it was enormous fun and certainly helped with one of the things I'd been worried about: getting to know other people in such an enormous place as this.
I came from a rather small school quite a way away, and I'd never been away like this before. Maybe for a few days, but always with relatives or friends I knew well. I've never had much trouble getting along with people, but there was only one person from my school here, not one of my particular friends, and one who lives quite far from me anyway -- this campus is enormous. Having seen the place in the spring, and knowing how big everything was, I was intimidated and overwhelmed. It was the Fear Factor Big Time.
Well, that week changed all that, at least as far as my social life was concerned. Some of the "initiation" type activities seemed a bit silly, and I was tempted to sneak away so as not to have to participate. Some people did that, but for me at least it would have been a big mistake. We were organized into small teams, and the activities were just hard enough (and humiliating enough!) to make us bond together instantly, so that by the end of the time, we seemed just as close as if we'd have known each other all our lives. Combine that with working with or against all the other teams and groups, and there's a big new family of about 400 people to exchange smiles and laughter with whenever we meet all over the campus. Fear, Intimidation: Gone! And my friends from home seem a long way in the past now, as well as a long way off. I know that many will have gone through the same kind of experiences I have, but I haven't been home yet so I can't tell.
So my advice: if it's properly organized, bite the bullet (in fact all the bullets), forget your dignity, and participate in everything.
I came from a rather small school quite a way away, and I'd never been away like this before. Maybe for a few days, but always with relatives or friends I knew well. I've never had much trouble getting along with people, but there was only one person from my school here, not one of my particular friends, and one who lives quite far from me anyway -- this campus is enormous. Having seen the place in the spring, and knowing how big everything was, I was intimidated and overwhelmed. It was the Fear Factor Big Time.
Well, that week changed all that, at least as far as my social life was concerned. Some of the "initiation" type activities seemed a bit silly, and I was tempted to sneak away so as not to have to participate. Some people did that, but for me at least it would have been a big mistake. We were organized into small teams, and the activities were just hard enough (and humiliating enough!) to make us bond together instantly, so that by the end of the time, we seemed just as close as if we'd have known each other all our lives. Combine that with working with or against all the other teams and groups, and there's a big new family of about 400 people to exchange smiles and laughter with whenever we meet all over the campus. Fear, Intimidation: Gone! And my friends from home seem a long way in the past now, as well as a long way off. I know that many will have gone through the same kind of experiences I have, but I haven't been home yet so I can't tell.
So my advice: if it's properly organized, bite the bullet (in fact all the bullets), forget your dignity, and participate in everything.
Profs' Higher Expectations
Things here are certainly a lot different from what they were in High School. Most of the time when I was there, you got a reasonable mark if you were in class all the time, paid attention, read all the articles on the Course list, did the work , and then studied hard for the exam.
Not the same now. Last week I got back and assignment that I thought was good for a B+ at least . I’d been to all the lectures and taken full notes. I’d done all the readings. I’d read the textbook chapters and all the articles on the list we got the first day of the course. And I’d studied the assignment instructions very carefully, and did all of what they said to do. It looked good and felt good when I handed it in, and I was proud to have got it done on time, and that there were no rushed parts in it.
It came back with a C-. I was astounded and extremely upset. If you’ve done everything you were told to do, what else is there? How could I explain this to my mum, for one thing, and how could it be that perfectly good work got such a low mark? I am here! It's costing me a lot of money to be here -- all of what I saved from my various jobs in the past and what I'll be doing in the summer! I'm doing everything I'm supposed to!
At first I thought there must be some mistake, and I was going to complain to the Prof. Fortunately perhaps, though, it’s quite hard to get to see him, because he has too many students. Then I asked some other people in the course, and found that many had had the same experience.
There didn’t seem to be much on my assignment in the way of criticism, just the mark and some very lukewarm comments here and there. I still knew there was a problem, so I went to the Student Academic Centre to see if I could get some idea of what was wrong.
The Counsellor looked at my work, and said something that, truth to tell, I had begun to suspect. She said that she could tell that I’d paid attention in all the lectures, and read everything we were supposed to. The assignment was well-constructed too, appropriately broken down into sections, and put together properly. Then she said, “But that’s all you’ve done.”
Y-e-e-s-s. And what else could I have done?
She replied with something I’ve since taken to heart. “You must read for understanding, as you’ve done. And the next stage is that in the writing, you’ve got to explore the ideas.”
And she explained what she meant. Imagine you were in the Student Centre with some other people in the course, and discussing the work that was in the assignment. Nobody would say what was in your work, she said, because it would be boring. People would know it already. If you wanted to get their attention, you’d have to put your own slant on it. Relate it to other things you’d read in the past, or even to some more general ideas about the subject as a whole. For example, if it was anything to do with History (which it was), you could bring in some things that had happened previously, or in another place at the same time. Or (rather carefully!), you could explain how it fitted with some political opinions you or other people might have.
Well, it reminded me of what some of my idiot friends did in High School. They hadn’t paid attention in class and had skipped over the reading or asked other people at the last minute what it was about. Their writing, on tests or assignments, was of the kind “In my opinion I think that …”, totally devoid of any sign that they knew anything about the subject. They got mediocre marks, and they deserved even lower ones in my opinion. But none of them are here in this university now. So that’s not what was needed. I had to have a view or an angle on the material, and then when I wrote I had to make it clear that I knew what I was supposed to, but then slant some of the things from my own point of view. Only some of the paragraphs in some of the sections had to be written this way; others would just tell what had happened, and then what various sides in the war, or whatever, had thought about it, in the way I’d done the first assignment.
At first, I thought it was impossible. But then gradually, I began to see how I could have rewritten my first assignment to include some of the things like this. Truly, I do have a personal view of the things the assignment was about. And I could back it up, using other things I knew or at least could google.
Too late for this one. But the next, which I’m just beginning now: yes, I can see how. I’ll need to do all of what I did before, and then some. But know what? I can feel myself feeling quite strongly about the topics we have to deal with. Some of what the historical people did and said makes me mad! Bringing this in might even make it more fun to do the assignment.
Not the same now. Last week I got back and assignment that I thought was good for a B+ at least . I’d been to all the lectures and taken full notes. I’d done all the readings. I’d read the textbook chapters and all the articles on the list we got the first day of the course. And I’d studied the assignment instructions very carefully, and did all of what they said to do. It looked good and felt good when I handed it in, and I was proud to have got it done on time, and that there were no rushed parts in it.
It came back with a C-. I was astounded and extremely upset. If you’ve done everything you were told to do, what else is there? How could I explain this to my mum, for one thing, and how could it be that perfectly good work got such a low mark? I am here! It's costing me a lot of money to be here -- all of what I saved from my various jobs in the past and what I'll be doing in the summer! I'm doing everything I'm supposed to!
At first I thought there must be some mistake, and I was going to complain to the Prof. Fortunately perhaps, though, it’s quite hard to get to see him, because he has too many students. Then I asked some other people in the course, and found that many had had the same experience.
There didn’t seem to be much on my assignment in the way of criticism, just the mark and some very lukewarm comments here and there. I still knew there was a problem, so I went to the Student Academic Centre to see if I could get some idea of what was wrong.
The Counsellor looked at my work, and said something that, truth to tell, I had begun to suspect. She said that she could tell that I’d paid attention in all the lectures, and read everything we were supposed to. The assignment was well-constructed too, appropriately broken down into sections, and put together properly. Then she said, “But that’s all you’ve done.”
Y-e-e-s-s. And what else could I have done?
She replied with something I’ve since taken to heart. “You must read for understanding, as you’ve done. And the next stage is that in the writing, you’ve got to explore the ideas.”
And she explained what she meant. Imagine you were in the Student Centre with some other people in the course, and discussing the work that was in the assignment. Nobody would say what was in your work, she said, because it would be boring. People would know it already. If you wanted to get their attention, you’d have to put your own slant on it. Relate it to other things you’d read in the past, or even to some more general ideas about the subject as a whole. For example, if it was anything to do with History (which it was), you could bring in some things that had happened previously, or in another place at the same time. Or (rather carefully!), you could explain how it fitted with some political opinions you or other people might have.
Well, it reminded me of what some of my idiot friends did in High School. They hadn’t paid attention in class and had skipped over the reading or asked other people at the last minute what it was about. Their writing, on tests or assignments, was of the kind “In my opinion I think that …”, totally devoid of any sign that they knew anything about the subject. They got mediocre marks, and they deserved even lower ones in my opinion. But none of them are here in this university now. So that’s not what was needed. I had to have a view or an angle on the material, and then when I wrote I had to make it clear that I knew what I was supposed to, but then slant some of the things from my own point of view. Only some of the paragraphs in some of the sections had to be written this way; others would just tell what had happened, and then what various sides in the war, or whatever, had thought about it, in the way I’d done the first assignment.
At first, I thought it was impossible. But then gradually, I began to see how I could have rewritten my first assignment to include some of the things like this. Truly, I do have a personal view of the things the assignment was about. And I could back it up, using other things I knew or at least could google.
Too late for this one. But the next, which I’m just beginning now: yes, I can see how. I’ll need to do all of what I did before, and then some. But know what? I can feel myself feeling quite strongly about the topics we have to deal with. Some of what the historical people did and said makes me mad! Bringing this in might even make it more fun to do the assignment.
Distractions in Class
There's no uniform policy around here for using cellphones and laptop computers. Some profs seem to have no rules at all. They seem not to notice them even when the phones go off and people even talk into them, or when a bunch of people get round a laptop and start laughing at something -- obviously nothing at all to do with the lecture. That's a mistake on the part of ... well one prof in particular. She goes fast. You have to work hard all through the lecture to understand all of what she's saying and make adequate notes from it. And these ... people with their phones and their laptops first of all make it hard to hear, and second distract you when your tiny brain tries to process everything. I wonder why if they're not going to pay attention to what's going on, and I find myself getting mad at them for being so distracting and inconsiderate and at her for not stopping it. It's a vicious circle: being mad makes it even harder to concentrate and that makes the anger even worse. Is it supposed to be some kind of psychology experiment or what?
Then there are the profs who go completely crazy the other way. If they hear a text ring, they explode, and one even comes round and physically grabs the phone. He grabbed someone's phone one time when he was near it, and answered it, not too politely either. We all laughed that that, trying to imagine the person at the other end who made the call. But he keeps going around the room and turning off peoples' wi-fi as well. He says people can't resist email and facebook (true) and he needs everyone to pay attention. It's better than just letting chaos develop like in the other class, but it's still really distracting; it takes both his mind and mine off what we're supposed to be there for.
Fortunately, most of the profs are pretty reasonable. If something distracting does develop, they see it and ask the people who are doing it to consider everyone else and stop. After a couple of times, the problem just goes away. People are still texting and emailing and so on, but they keep it to themselves and it doesn't disturb anyone else. I guess this technology is just too new for some of the older profs, and they'll need a few more centuries to learn to handle it.
Then there are the profs who go completely crazy the other way. If they hear a text ring, they explode, and one even comes round and physically grabs the phone. He grabbed someone's phone one time when he was near it, and answered it, not too politely either. We all laughed that that, trying to imagine the person at the other end who made the call. But he keeps going around the room and turning off peoples' wi-fi as well. He says people can't resist email and facebook (true) and he needs everyone to pay attention. It's better than just letting chaos develop like in the other class, but it's still really distracting; it takes both his mind and mine off what we're supposed to be there for.
Fortunately, most of the profs are pretty reasonable. If something distracting does develop, they see it and ask the people who are doing it to consider everyone else and stop. After a couple of times, the problem just goes away. People are still texting and emailing and so on, but they keep it to themselves and it doesn't disturb anyone else. I guess this technology is just too new for some of the older profs, and they'll need a few more centuries to learn to handle it.
Monday, February 23, 2009
INTRODUCTION
As we finish the draft of a story or article for the book, we'll post it here. Sometimes we'll half finish something and post it, so that people can suggest where we should go with it.
Everyone is invited to comment on anything, but we hope that the tone will remain respectful. And we don't want to waste our time or yours with stupid stuff.
It's going to take a bit of time to get everything put up. Neither of us has blogged before, so please be patient with us.
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