Budget cuts are in full force at my post-baccalaureate institution. To make up the difference, lab fees have been increased, tuition will undoubtedly increase in the next year, class sizes are larger, and the list goes on. One thing I noticed quickly last week, in the first week of classes, is that all of the physics recitation sections are now on Friday, and I think the same instructor has the 4 sections. Last semester, recitation sections were covered by several different instructors on several different days, and there were no more than 25-30 people in each recitation, which makes the recitation quizzes easy to administer in a pen & paper format.
This morning in organic lab, one of the TVs did not work, so two lab sections of around 50-60 people, some of which I think were hoping to add into the sections, which seemed full, crammed into one lab to watch the safety video from 1993 (yay protective wear/knowing what you are doing/asking questions if necessary, boo drinking/eating in lab/pouring waste down the drain/siphoning liquids with your mouth/playing practical jokes/doing your own experiment in lab). Someone should really update the safety video. Also, we were watching an informational video about NMR, which IMO was a colossal waste of time for the people not directly in front of the 25" TV. I'm sure the volume was all the way up and still it was hard to hear anything, and not just because I am getting older--hey! I'm only 29!--but because of the overall din of everyone's side conversations, texting, laughter, etc.
This semester, like I said, all recitations are on Friday, each recitation has around 70-80 students in it, and the quizzes are no longer going to be pen & paper but online, or via iClicker in class (multiple choice). MC kind of defeats the purpose of physics in my opinion. I thought the whole point of studying physics was being able to set up the problem correctly, drawing a picture if necessary, drawing out the vectors and then doing what is asked, i.e. physics is one of those "journey" not "destination" type classes, where you are learning how to problem solve systematically, but where you must have an understanding of what is being asked and what assumptions to make in setting up and solving problems.
I'm taking the second part of physics, organic chemistry, and plant biology. There's a new professor for the physics lecture which will be nice, having some new blood and a different lecturer. I have nothing against last semester's physics professor, but like I said it's nice to see a new face and get a different perspective. Another component is online homework that will be rolled into a quasi-participation aspect of our lecture grade (lecture and lab are separate grades in physics, recitation is rolled into lecture). Organic is the same as last semester as far as the lecture goes, I'm assuming that the class average on the exams will be uniformly low like the end of last semester, i.e. 9-10/21 correct on most of the exams, considering there is no "easy" part like nomenclature, acid/base strength, and so on, like the beginning of organic chemistry I had. Plant biology doesn't seem that bad, the lab looks like it should be interesting and not time-consuming, which is nice since I'm taking organic & physics together, I feel like the bulk of my time will be spent preparing for those, but I will have to be mindful to not neglect plant biology. Speaking of plant bio, the lecture is straight from slides, but there is still a participation component via classroom response system/iClicker so it will be fun to see everyone straggle in to maximize possible points.
18 days until Austin! That's two long runs, one flight, stopping in Chicago and switching planes before flying into Austin/Bergstrom, and 26.2 miles. Can't wait. I'll update pretty soon with an Austin-specific blog, and I'm still deciding if I want to live tweet/take pics during the Austin Marathon. We'll see.
Showing posts with label physics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label physics. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Treading Water
I feel like I am treading water. It reminds me of the quote from Van Wilder: "Worrying is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere." I try not to worry, and I'm not overwhelmed by my classes, I'm only taking physics and organic chemistry and the accompanying labs, but I can't wait to move on to the next step - which at this point would be studying for the MCAT. It still feels at times like I'm making very little progress in my goal of being a physician, but I realize it's a marathon, and not a sprint, so I am in it for the long haul, and I've run three marathons... so I feel like I'm capable of staying on track towards my goal.
I will probably start studying for the MCAT this spring and try to take it in May. I still have not decided if I want to apply for the entering class in 2011 or entering in 2012. It may be a better idea for me to wait a year to apply, that way I can work and try to save a little money during the application cycle. I realize I may end up having to reapply, and if I don't get accepted anywhere, I definitely will try to strengthen my application and reapply, but I think waiting a year, having more experience and a better application is better than blowing a lot of money on an unsuccessful application cycle.
My classes are going well. However, I cannot believe the class averages and curves that will be used for them. The class average on the last lecture exam in organic was 9/21 questions correct. Nine. The first exam's average was 12/21. Luckily I have been well above average both times, but still... is the class really that hard? Do my fellow classmates not understand the material, which would indicate either poor attendance, poor teaching, or lack of effort, or some combination of the three? Physics isn't much better... the averages on the exams have been in the low to mid-60's: 62 for the first exam and 66 for the second exam. If that gets normalized to a 75, which is going to be a C, as the professor said, then I should be in A territory since I was in the mid-upper 80s on both exams. That's the thing too about being a post-bac, whether you are traditional or non-traditional: getting As is expected and it's what you have to do if you want to give yourself the best chances of getting in somewhere.
What else is new. I got the Motorola Droid. It's my first smartphone. Before that I had a Motorola MotoRIZR z6tv. So far, I love my Droid. Why didn't I get a smartphone sooner? I find myself less tethered to the computer checking my e-mail when it gets pushed to my phone, which means I'm wasting less time on the internet and generally being more productive™. Yay!
I will probably start studying for the MCAT this spring and try to take it in May. I still have not decided if I want to apply for the entering class in 2011 or entering in 2012. It may be a better idea for me to wait a year to apply, that way I can work and try to save a little money during the application cycle. I realize I may end up having to reapply, and if I don't get accepted anywhere, I definitely will try to strengthen my application and reapply, but I think waiting a year, having more experience and a better application is better than blowing a lot of money on an unsuccessful application cycle.
My classes are going well. However, I cannot believe the class averages and curves that will be used for them. The class average on the last lecture exam in organic was 9/21 questions correct. Nine. The first exam's average was 12/21. Luckily I have been well above average both times, but still... is the class really that hard? Do my fellow classmates not understand the material, which would indicate either poor attendance, poor teaching, or lack of effort, or some combination of the three? Physics isn't much better... the averages on the exams have been in the low to mid-60's: 62 for the first exam and 66 for the second exam. If that gets normalized to a 75, which is going to be a C, as the professor said, then I should be in A territory since I was in the mid-upper 80s on both exams. That's the thing too about being a post-bac, whether you are traditional or non-traditional: getting As is expected and it's what you have to do if you want to give yourself the best chances of getting in somewhere.
What else is new. I got the Motorola Droid. It's my first smartphone. Before that I had a Motorola MotoRIZR z6tv. So far, I love my Droid. Why didn't I get a smartphone sooner? I find myself less tethered to the computer checking my e-mail when it gets pushed to my phone, which means I'm wasting less time on the internet and generally being more productive™. Yay!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Most Likely To...
My high school was relatively large. My graduating class had over 600 seniors walking, and a bunch who were not walking. I didn't win any senior superlatives, you know, like "Best Dressed" or "Best Smile" or "Most Likely to Succeed." I could tell you one I would have won, hands-down, had it been offered and voted upon.
Most Likely To Be Walking Around With Fly Down.
I catch myself like this a lot. I don't know what it says about me. Am I absent-minded? Am I in such a hurry, go go go all the time, that after urinating I rush to wash my hands and gtfo of the bathroom? I don't think other people notice nearly as often as I do, or at least I don't consciously check OTHER people to see if they left their fly down. Maybe that is a good thing?
The sad part about it is that a lot of the time I have no idea how long it's been down. Did I pull my pants/shorts on that morning while getting dressed and completely forget, or was it just after the last trip to the bathroom?
In unrelated news, I had my first organic chemistry exam yesterday, and my first physics exam this morning. I felt pretty good about organic chemistry but there were a little over 20 questions, so there isn't a lot of a margin for error. You figure you miss 2-3 and you're already in B territory if there is no curve, BUUUUUUT....
Apparently there is a huge curve in the class. This professor's exams are multiple choice, but known to have class averages in the 40s. Is organic chemistry like this everywhere?? Like I said, I felt good about the exam, out of the 20ish questions, 7-8 I knew cold without having to draw out a structure or really take a close look at, but I did anyway. These were questions like, "What's the name of this?" (insert picture of some bicyclohexane), or "Put in the correct order of base strength" (easy enough, think about the conjugate acids, position on periodic table, electronegativity, inductive effect, etc). Then there were other questions that you had to draw out (which one is NOT a resonance structure of x, etc.). Overall, though, I think I did well. I should find out tomorrow or next week, and I'm going to call my Dad and tell him, because he asked, and because he wants me to do well.
The physics exam was problem-based, just a handful of multi-part problems on kinematics in 1-2 dimensions including velocity, acceleration and vectors of course. There was no formula sheet, so of course I'm scribbling the formulas I remember on the scratch paper, like v = v(sub)0 + at, v^2 = v(sub)0^2 +2a(x-x0), x = x(sub)0 + v(sub)0t + 1/2at^2. If you have done a lot of practice problems though, all of the problems tend to look alike after a while in that you identify the knowns, and the unknown, or "the-big-bad-they're-asking-for." I think the professor said the grades would be posted Friday sometime, so we'll see how I did.
Big news coming soon-ish.
Most Likely To Be Walking Around With Fly Down.
I catch myself like this a lot. I don't know what it says about me. Am I absent-minded? Am I in such a hurry, go go go all the time, that after urinating I rush to wash my hands and gtfo of the bathroom? I don't think other people notice nearly as often as I do, or at least I don't consciously check OTHER people to see if they left their fly down. Maybe that is a good thing?
The sad part about it is that a lot of the time I have no idea how long it's been down. Did I pull my pants/shorts on that morning while getting dressed and completely forget, or was it just after the last trip to the bathroom?
In unrelated news, I had my first organic chemistry exam yesterday, and my first physics exam this morning. I felt pretty good about organic chemistry but there were a little over 20 questions, so there isn't a lot of a margin for error. You figure you miss 2-3 and you're already in B territory if there is no curve, BUUUUUUT....
Apparently there is a huge curve in the class. This professor's exams are multiple choice, but known to have class averages in the 40s. Is organic chemistry like this everywhere?? Like I said, I felt good about the exam, out of the 20ish questions, 7-8 I knew cold without having to draw out a structure or really take a close look at, but I did anyway. These were questions like, "What's the name of this?" (insert picture of some bicyclohexane), or "Put in the correct order of base strength" (easy enough, think about the conjugate acids, position on periodic table, electronegativity, inductive effect, etc). Then there were other questions that you had to draw out (which one is NOT a resonance structure of x, etc.). Overall, though, I think I did well. I should find out tomorrow or next week, and I'm going to call my Dad and tell him, because he asked, and because he wants me to do well.
The physics exam was problem-based, just a handful of multi-part problems on kinematics in 1-2 dimensions including velocity, acceleration and vectors of course. There was no formula sheet, so of course I'm scribbling the formulas I remember on the scratch paper, like v = v(sub)0 + at, v^2 = v(sub)0^2 +2a(x-x0), x = x(sub)0 + v(sub)0t + 1/2at^2. If you have done a lot of practice problems though, all of the problems tend to look alike after a while in that you identify the knowns, and the unknown, or "the-big-bad-they're-asking-for." I think the professor said the grades would be posted Friday sometime, so we'll see how I did.
Big news coming soon-ish.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Second Impressions, Root Canal Yikes!
The second week of classes is over. Due to the Labor Day holiday, my organic lab didn't meet. Our first meeting is this week, which means I should probably do the reading and pre-lab sometime tonight or tomorrow. I do a fair amount of practice problems, if a fair amount equals I see myself running through reams of paper. I'm sorry, forests! I'm sure there is a direct correlation between your grade in organic chemistry and physics, as it is with most math and physical sciences/chemistry classes, and the amount of paper you expend doing practice problems. I do the textbook problems for organic, plus I use the Klein book, which is excellent. I'm going to e-mail him sometime this semester and tell him how much he rocks at explaining stuff.
Physics is going well. The recitation is interesting, and we get to see any problems we have difficulty with solved by the instructor. She is very good at explaining things, but so far it isn't that difficult - we are only doing kinematics in 1 or 2 dimensions, non-rotating. Basically it is a lot of velocity, acceleration, time, etc. Some problems give velocity and time and you have to find the acceleration, but there are about four equations we use and depending on the given quantities, you pick which one is appropriate, and they recommend drawing a picture. The instructor for recitation is also good about posting grades on Blackboard pretty quickly. Each meeting is worth 20 points (10 for attending the entire time, 10 for a quiz and up to +3 for participation, good explanations or good questions, but can't exceed 20 points in a given meeting). I got a 19 for the first meeting, so I assume I got 9 points on the quiz. I probably got points off for taking shortcuts, not including units or using the wrong amount of significant figures. I guess the important thing is I know how to do the problems but I need to include everything they will be looking for to show my process in getting to the answer. I will have to see what I did.
Tomorrow, I am having a root canal at 8 a.m. sharp. I swear my dental hygiene the past few years has been as good as a dentist's kid's, but I admit for a long time I did not floss regularly, but I did brush and use mouthwash. What that lead to was that I had an inlay done on one of my back molars a year or two ago, and recently developed an abscess on the gum underneath it. After calling my dentist, but speaking to the office manager/scheduler, she said the dentist had looked at the panoramic x-rays from my last cleaning a few weeks ago and thinks I will need a root canal. He called it a prescription for Pen VK for me, so I have to take 500 mg tabs every 6 hours, for 10 days. It kind of sucks not being able to sleep for more than 6 hours since I don't want to miss a dose, but the abscess has grown smaller. The office manager said the worst-case scenario was that they would need to do a root canal, which we went ahead and scheduled, and then crown it. I get a 15% discount since I'm a cash patient, since I have no major restorative dental insurance, just 2/year cleanings and oral exams, so the root canal, if it needs to be done, will be a little under $1k. The post-fill and crown would be an additional $1500ish. I hate the D.C. area sometimes, but I'm sure some other areas have higher dental costs.
I complained about the $2500 quote, considering he hadn't mentioned the possibility of needing a root canal at my last cleaning when the panoramic x-rays were taken. She talked to the dentist and they agreed to drill through the inlay and try to put a filling in its place post-root canal.
I've never had a root canal. Should I be scared? :(
The finale of True Blood is tonight. I admit it, I watch it. I watched the first season and I've read all the books too, my sister got me hooked on them. It's interesting to see how Alan Ball adapts the books into the series, I think he has made some great choices so far (sparing Lafayette, turning Tara from an olive-skinned white woman into a black woman, and a few others). Maybe I'll do the organic lab stuff after True Blood, if I don't watch Hung. Remember, it's not TV... it's HBO™.
Physics is going well. The recitation is interesting, and we get to see any problems we have difficulty with solved by the instructor. She is very good at explaining things, but so far it isn't that difficult - we are only doing kinematics in 1 or 2 dimensions, non-rotating. Basically it is a lot of velocity, acceleration, time, etc. Some problems give velocity and time and you have to find the acceleration, but there are about four equations we use and depending on the given quantities, you pick which one is appropriate, and they recommend drawing a picture. The instructor for recitation is also good about posting grades on Blackboard pretty quickly. Each meeting is worth 20 points (10 for attending the entire time, 10 for a quiz and up to +3 for participation, good explanations or good questions, but can't exceed 20 points in a given meeting). I got a 19 for the first meeting, so I assume I got 9 points on the quiz. I probably got points off for taking shortcuts, not including units or using the wrong amount of significant figures. I guess the important thing is I know how to do the problems but I need to include everything they will be looking for to show my process in getting to the answer. I will have to see what I did.
Tomorrow, I am having a root canal at 8 a.m. sharp. I swear my dental hygiene the past few years has been as good as a dentist's kid's, but I admit for a long time I did not floss regularly, but I did brush and use mouthwash. What that lead to was that I had an inlay done on one of my back molars a year or two ago, and recently developed an abscess on the gum underneath it. After calling my dentist, but speaking to the office manager/scheduler, she said the dentist had looked at the panoramic x-rays from my last cleaning a few weeks ago and thinks I will need a root canal. He called it a prescription for Pen VK for me, so I have to take 500 mg tabs every 6 hours, for 10 days. It kind of sucks not being able to sleep for more than 6 hours since I don't want to miss a dose, but the abscess has grown smaller. The office manager said the worst-case scenario was that they would need to do a root canal, which we went ahead and scheduled, and then crown it. I get a 15% discount since I'm a cash patient, since I have no major restorative dental insurance, just 2/year cleanings and oral exams, so the root canal, if it needs to be done, will be a little under $1k. The post-fill and crown would be an additional $1500ish. I hate the D.C. area sometimes, but I'm sure some other areas have higher dental costs.
I complained about the $2500 quote, considering he hadn't mentioned the possibility of needing a root canal at my last cleaning when the panoramic x-rays were taken. She talked to the dentist and they agreed to drill through the inlay and try to put a filling in its place post-root canal.
I've never had a root canal. Should I be scared? :(
The finale of True Blood is tonight. I admit it, I watch it. I watched the first season and I've read all the books too, my sister got me hooked on them. It's interesting to see how Alan Ball adapts the books into the series, I think he has made some great choices so far (sparing Lafayette, turning Tara from an olive-skinned white woman into a black woman, and a few others). Maybe I'll do the organic lab stuff after True Blood, if I don't watch Hung. Remember, it's not TV... it's HBO™.
Monday, August 31, 2009
First Impression: Physics
Physics seems interesting. I had my first class meeting for the lecture this morning, my recitation and lab meet on Wednesday, since I figured I would schedule them both on the same day and knock them out in one shot. The expectations don't seem unreasonable, there are 8 multi-part exams (multiple choice and problem-based where you have the problem and have to run through, show your work to the solutions). 2/8 of the exams will be dropped. That doesn't seem so bad but I swear my first time in undergrad it was rare for a professor to drop exam grades or even let you make it up. I still stand by my assertion that today's students are pretty coddled, or maybe professors are just more accommodating to students' needs now more than they were "back in the day."
The physics professors is a hoot. Yes, I said hoot. After we got through the administrivia of the class, and he broke out the powerpoint slides for chapter 1, the first slide said "What is physics?" at the top, and he said he didn't know. So he looked it up on Wikipedia (nice joke) before hitting enter and letting the next bit of the slide materialize. We didn't get that far since most of the first 50-minute session was spent going over the syllabus and expectations, along with a stern admonition not to be Twittering during class (tweeting?).
The physics professors is a hoot. Yes, I said hoot. After we got through the administrivia of the class, and he broke out the powerpoint slides for chapter 1, the first slide said "What is physics?" at the top, and he said he didn't know. So he looked it up on Wikipedia (nice joke) before hitting enter and letting the next bit of the slide materialize. We didn't get that far since most of the first 50-minute session was spent going over the syllabus and expectations, along with a stern admonition not to be Twittering during class (tweeting?).
Friday, August 28, 2009
Time Flies
If anyone is actually reading this, I apologize for the lack of updates! The fall semester is about to begin, I'm taking just two classes - Organic Chemistry and Physics, for a grand total of 9 hours. Everyone tells me Organic Chemistry is a weed out class, i.e. it's difficult, takes a lot of time... and so on. The physics I'm taking is an algebra-based physics, since I haven't had calculus in quite a while and that class seems more oriented towards the engineer-types.
You make the time in your life for whatever you think is important. I think it's important for me to do well in organic, so I will take the time and study and do practice problems for it so that I can keep up with it every day. I read ratings of my school's professors on RateMyProfessors, and from reading some of the ratings it's almost like you can tell what people don't want to take personal responsibility for their performance in a class and want to blame a professor that teaches a difficult subject, such as organic chemistry. Now I know that some professors make themselves more available to students, love to teach, and have an easier time connecting with students and making the subject matter interesting and relevant, while others would rather avoid students and be doing research. When the ratings vary so dramatically on certain professors though, it's almost comical to read the reviews and I also wonder just how big of a problem grade inflation poses, especially to me as a non-traditional student. It seems like today's college students want to earn all A's but they don't want to work for it.
Newsflash: "C" is average. If you are an average student, you'll get a C. B's and A's are reserved for good and excellent students.
The real world doesn't just hand you things because you think you deserve them. The sooner you learn that lesson, that you learn you have to work for what you want, work to accomplish your goals, the better off you will be in the future. Take it from me, I was not the world's greatest student my first trip through undergrad and I have the record to prove it. There aren't any shortcuts to success (aside from being well-connected or a trust-fund baby). Most of us that reach success or will reach it is through the sweat on our brow and our hard work towards what we find important. Keep your head down and let your work speak for you.
You make the time in your life for whatever you think is important. I think it's important for me to do well in organic, so I will take the time and study and do practice problems for it so that I can keep up with it every day. I read ratings of my school's professors on RateMyProfessors, and from reading some of the ratings it's almost like you can tell what people don't want to take personal responsibility for their performance in a class and want to blame a professor that teaches a difficult subject, such as organic chemistry. Now I know that some professors make themselves more available to students, love to teach, and have an easier time connecting with students and making the subject matter interesting and relevant, while others would rather avoid students and be doing research. When the ratings vary so dramatically on certain professors though, it's almost comical to read the reviews and I also wonder just how big of a problem grade inflation poses, especially to me as a non-traditional student. It seems like today's college students want to earn all A's but they don't want to work for it.
Newsflash: "C" is average. If you are an average student, you'll get a C. B's and A's are reserved for good and excellent students.
The real world doesn't just hand you things because you think you deserve them. The sooner you learn that lesson, that you learn you have to work for what you want, work to accomplish your goals, the better off you will be in the future. Take it from me, I was not the world's greatest student my first trip through undergrad and I have the record to prove it. There aren't any shortcuts to success (aside from being well-connected or a trust-fund baby). Most of us that reach success or will reach it is through the sweat on our brow and our hard work towards what we find important. Keep your head down and let your work speak for you.
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