All Posts Tagged With: "chemistry"
When your course holds you hostage
The first step is acknowledging the problem.
When I finished Organic Chemistry in my second year, I thought I would never have to see chemistry again. I knew I would be taking Biochemistry the following semester, but I deluded myself into thinking that Biochemistry isn’t REALLY chemistry.
I even managed to convince myself that I enjoyed the course. That lipid bilayers are a fascinating cellular structure and that there’s a simple yet elegant beauty to the assembly of proteins.
Throughout last semester I thought I liked Biochemistry. Now I realize it was just Stockholm syndrome.
-Photo courtesy of digitalprimate
The class everybody loves…or hates
How to mess up biology. Or fix chemistry.
After writing my organic chemistry exam last semester, I was officially done with chemistry. Forever.
Never again would I see the words “valence shell” or “titration.” I’d never have to draw resonance structures or identify the chirality of a molecule. All my remaining science credits are biology courses, which is my favourite subject area. The Reign of Chemistry was over.
Kind of.
This semester I have biochemistry and I can’t decide if I hate it or love it. It’s a combination of biology, my favourite class, and chemistry, my least favourite class.
Which means that when I’m sitting in a lecture, half the time I find the material interesting and engaging, and the other half of the time I want to gouge my eyeballs out with the corner of my spiral-bound notebook.
I’d love to know the origins of biochemistry. Was it created by a thoughtful biology professor who wanted to make chemistry more interesting than usual? Or was it created by a bitter chemistry professor who wanted to make biology more boring than usual?
It’s kind of like the university version of a lame cartoon-crossover.
Except instead of combining The Flintstones and The Jetsons, it’s combining thermodynamics and living organisms.
-Photo courtesy of Alicia Nijdam
Life is worth living again
…until next semester.
I still have two exams before Christmas vacation. I’ve got six chapters of my microbiology textbook to read before Friday, and I’m trying to not even think about history. But ever since last Thursday, life has been worth living again.
Organic chemistry is finished. Gone. Forever.
Until next semester. When I have Organic Chemistry Part 2.
Stuck in post-midterm apathy?
How to make it through the home stretch
There’s only one week of classes left. I’ve got a chemistry lab, a biology lab, and a couple of history classes between me and Christmas vacation. It’s the home stretch.
But I’m stuck in Post-Midterm Apathy.
I only have to read a couple of chapters in my chemistry textbook, practice with my molecular model kit, and do some study problems to prepare for my organic chemistry final exam. There’s only one assignment and a test left in my religious studies class.
And then I’m finished.
But I just don’t have it in me. Thanks to five full courses, two labs, and two part-time jobs, I admit it: between September and November, I used up all my School Energy.
It’s times like this that I need to do some carefully planned procrastination.
Otherwise, I just end up siphoning off study time by doing stuff that isn’t really worthwhile. Like staring at the same paragraph in my history textbook for half an hour. Or checking my e-mail. Twenty times in a row.
Instead, I know I should allow myself a couple of hours to recharge, doing anything I want, guilt-free. And then my Study Efficiency will be back up and running for the next week.
Okay Halo 3, here I come.
How to ace chemistry class
Making the complicated science accessible to millions
Every once in a while my microbiology textbook shares a vaguely interesting fact that (almost) makes it worth reading. Like the fact that certain species of bacteria can be found 4,700 feet underground.
Sometimes my history textbook can be interesting. A Minoan palace that dates back to 1500 BCE featured indoor plumbing.
But there are absolutely no redeeming qualities to my Organic Chemistry textbook. Here are some of the organic molecules mentioned in the textbook:
1-Bromo-3-methylpentane
3-Methylpentylmagnesium bromide
N,N-Diethylethanamine
Those are real names. Seriously.
Another problem: some of the names are way too similar. Certain types of molecules are called “alkanes.” Some are called “alkenes.” Others are called “alkynes.” Then there are ethers and esters. Amines and amides.
Wouldn’t it be a whole lot easier if organic molecules were named the same way hurricanes are? As in “Chemical Bob” or “Chemical Irene”?
Of course, considering that there are tens of millions of organic molecules, we might start running out of names. Or at the very least, we might have to start using wimpy names. Like “Chemical Lawrence” or “Chemical Stuart.”
But there is an alternative. It’s a naming system that would be easy to learn and intuitive to use. Heck, it would transform Organic Chemistry. Instead of being universally hated, it would be an accessible and manageable course.
The new system: naming organic molecules after Pokemon.
It’s a tried-and-true method. For the past decade, millions of kids under the age of 12 have been able to memorize the names of thousands of Pokemon. And they can pronounce them perfectly, too. Why shouldn’t it work for Organic Chemistry?
There would be no such thing as “1,2-Dibromobenzene” or “1-Chloro-3-ethylbenzene.”Students wouldn’t have to learn names like “N-Phenylacetamide” or “1-(1,1-Dimethylethyl)-3-nitrobenzene.”
Instead, they would be memorizing “Charmander” and “Pikachu.”
Yup, easy peasy.
Get to know your sciences
…including the oddball of the group
No longer stranded on campus
How to find your sense of direction
On my first day of classes at the University of Waterloo, I got lost. I was leaving my physics lecture, headed towards my chemistry class, and then I realized I had a big problem.
I didn’t know where my chemistry class was.
And after taking a couple of turns, I had another realization. I didn’t know where my physics class was anymore, either.
I was stranded.
It’s been almost a year since that first day of classes. Despite my horrible sense of direction, after two semesters on campus, it’s hard to believe I ever got lost. Waterloo’s campus actually has a logical lay out. Of course, once stuff becomes obvious, it’s hard to believe that it wasn’t always, well, obvious.
Last Saturday I volunteered for Student Life 101 at the University of Waterloo. It’s an open house for incoming first-years, giving them a chance to explore the campus and find their future classrooms. The weird part? My job was to give directions.
It was a full circle kind of moment.
The ultimate sacrilege
Setting foot on campus… before September
When I left my chemistry lab exam last April, I thought the next time I’d be on Waterloo’s campus would be this September. Starting my second year. But last week, when I set foot on campus for the first time in over two months, I thought I was doing something blasphemous.
Going to school? During the summer? Even though I’d only be there for 10 minutes to hand in some forms, it felt like I was performing some obscene act. School and summer just don’t mesh.
I had the same expectations of visiting Waterloo’s campus during summer vacation as I would visiting my old high school. That it would be depressing. A reminder of past anxieties and worries. I was sure the whole visit would just be something to endure.
But as I walked around campus, seven weeks early, I realized something that surprised me.
I’ve missed being on campus.
Why September isn’t the end of the world. Sort of
A month of summer vacation is gone. But that’s okay
It’s been more than a month since I wrote my chemistry lab exam, and finished my first year of university.
Initially, it was hard to believe. After eight months of labs, tests, assignments and physics class, it was over. My first year of university. Done. An endless supply of summer vacation ahead of me.
And now a month of that endless supply is gone.
Back in high school, this would have been cause for alarm. Summer vacation had to be carefully rationed. Spent efficiently. If I decided to watch Star Wars, I’d fast forward to the lightsaber battles and skip any scenes where Anakin opened his mouth.
There couldn’t be any wastage.
But this summer, for the first time ever, I’m not dreading going back to school in September. It’s one of those things about university that I would never be able to explain to my grade 12 self.
It’s a hard habit to break. Every summer vacation for my entire public school life, I went through the same pattern of enjoyment: three weeks of fun, five weeks of September Dread.
Okay, so maybe I’m not exactly looking forward to September. But it’s not ruining the rest of my summer vacation, either.
Why university made me feel stupid
If high school had the same pace, you’d finish grade 12 in two weeks
My secret fear before I went to university was that I wouldn’t make the cut. That I wouldn’t be able to handle the academic overload of university. I knew first year wouldn’t be like the average high-school grade transition, where the material is a little more difficult, but doable. University is a total revamp of what you’re used to in high school.
The rules change.
Everything you learned in high school physics, biology ― everything ― is condensed into a perfect little packet of 12 weeks. Like astronaut food.
If high school had the pace of university, where you have five courses instead of four, not to mention some labs and tutorials, you’d finish grade 12 in about two weeks. I can’t believe I didn’t have perfect 100′s in all my courses. What was I doing with all that time?
I felt a little out of control during my first semester of university, that at any moment my fine balance of keeping up with the readings and completing assignments could crumple.
Then it happened. I fell behind.
My worst fear had been realized. I wasn’t keeping up. And it made me feel stupid. It seemed impossible that I would ever be able to juggle everything. How could I possibly be able to read four chapters of my chemistry and biology textbooks, while simultaneously completing my physics assignment and political science essay, all due next class?
Then I realized my problem. University isn’t 10 times harder than high school. It’s 10 times faster. It’s the pace that’s a killer in university.
I wasn’t being stupid. I was being inefficient. I needed a plan.
Using study habits from high school to prepare for tests and quizzes wasn’t working. Even how I approached the readings was all wrong.
I learned how to prioritize, university style. I started the readings right away, instead of procrastinating about it. I learned how to really focus. In high school, you can often get away with studying at the last minute and still pull off a pretty good mark. It doesn’t work that way in university. It’s not always how smart you are in university that determines your marks, it’s how disciplined you are.
My second semester was much better. You really do adapt to the pace and learn how to get so much more done than you ever did with that sloth pace back in high school.
Now the pace of university doesn’t scare me. I prefer it.
- photo courtesy of michellekopczyk
Revenge of the test tubes
What happens when test tubes get testy?
Final marks: stalling my summer vacation
On my chem lab exam, did I say fumaric and maleic acid are alkenes?
All my exams are finished. My summer vacation should have officially started April 24.
But it didn’t.
Because right now, I can’t enjoy playing Halo 3 with my friends. I can’t relax and read a book. When I watched Righteous Kill last weekend, I suddenly remembered question 14 of my chemistry lab exam, and then spent the next hour and a half wondering, “Did I say fumaric and maleic acid are alkenes?”
My summer vacation can’t begin.
At least, not until I know what my chemistry lab mark is.
Lessons of First Year
I worried that I would somehow end up drinking coffee. And enjoy it.
It’s hard to believe that my first year of university is almost over.
Five of my courses are finished. I don’t have any more labs or tutorials. Only two more exams sit between me and summer vacation.
I still remember how I felt last summer when I was leaving high school forever and heading toward university. Before I started my first semester in September, there were all the Big Fears.
Like worrying that university courses would be impossibly difficult. Or that university physics would be 10 times worse than grade 12 physics. Or that after becoming a university student, I would somehow end up drinking coffee. And enjoy it.
Looking back, there wasn’t any reason to be scared of university.
Okay, come to think of it, those last two fears did come true.
There were also the Stupid Little Fears. Like worrying that I would get lost on the gigantic campus (which did happen). Or that when I would sit down to write my first-ever university mid-term, I would realize in a moment of horror that I was screwed: my out-dated high school studying habits would have to adapt if I wanted to get good marks.
Actually, that also happened.
The Big Fears turned out to be No Big Deal. University courses aren’t impossibly difficult. If you do the readings and take good notes, you’ll do fine. As for the Little Stupid Fears, well, most of them are true.
As someone who has absolutely no sense of direction, the University of Waterloo campus was like a labyrinth of identical-looking buildings. With too many people riding bicycles.
And your study habits from high school do need to evolve.
But you get past those Stupid Little Fears within a week. I don’t get lost on my way to lectures anymore. And after writing two batches of mid-terms and final exams, my high school study habits have adapted.
I just try not to think about that first chemistry test too much.
- photo courtesy of waferboard
Procrastination 101
I’m trapped in Midterm Limbo. Two weeks ago it was physics. Last week was health. Yesterday I had a chemistry midterm, and next week is religious studies. I’m surrounded by tests. I’m stuck in that special kind of inertia where reading another chapter of my textbook is the last thing I want to do, but [...]
I’m trapped in Midterm Limbo.
Two weeks ago it was physics. Last week was health. Yesterday I had a chemistry midterm, and next week is religious studies.
I’m surrounded by tests.
I’m stuck in that special kind of inertia where reading another chapter of my textbook is the last thing I want to do, but I’d feel too guilty to play my Nintendo DS, or read anything even remotely interesting.
I keep telling myself that a month from now, classes will be over. There won’t be any more labs, assignments, tutorials, or quizzes. Midterms will be a thing of the past.
But a month is sooooooooooooooooooooo long.
The true value of the Internet
Up until last September, I only used the Internet for two things
Up until last September, I only used the Internet for two things: Ebay and Runescape.
But now?
Halfway through my second semester of university, I use the Internet to access physics assignments, and to watch tutorial videos for my chemistry class.
And if a midterm is looming, I can use it to cheer myself up.
Trapped in second-semester purgatory
It doesn’t feel like it’s been two weeks. It feels like its been 10 years
It’s been almost two weeks since Christmas vacation ended. Two weeks since I last played Halo 3. Two weeks since I watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (also known as Indiana Jones and the Plot that Initially Held Promise But Stopped Making Sense When Aliens were Introduced). But it doesn’t feel like it’s been two weeks. It feels like its been 10 years.
Last September, when my parents told me that my first semester of university would be “over in the blink of an eye,” I figured it was one of those things that parents collectively agree to tell their children just to annoy them. Sort of like, “You’ll thank me when your older.”
Then I blinked, and I was sitting in the middle of my chemistry lab exam, unable to remember what the heck a triprotic acid is.
But for whatever reason, second semester is going in slow motion. It’s the same kind of feeling I get when my family is crammed into our mini-van for a long road trip, and the only thing I can do for five hours is play the Dilemma Game with my brothers. Would you rather be stuck in a pit of spiders, or a pit of earwigs? Would you cut off all your toes or all your fingers? Your eyelids or your tongue? Would you rather poke a sharp stick into your ear or your eye? What would be worse: eating someone else’s baby toe nail, or being trapped in a sleeping bag with one of my younger brother’s nacho farts?
I wonder what would be worse: being stuck in my physics class for the rest of eternity, or having to listen to an endless stream of hypothetical questions?
I need a nap
I was sitting in the middle of a chemistry lecture the first time it happened. One moment I was copying notes from the projector, the next I was suddenly staring at my sleeve. It took me a couple of seconds to realize that 15 minutes of class had vanished, and instead of writing notes about [...]
I was sitting in the middle of a chemistry lecture the first time it happened. One moment I was copying notes from the projector, the next I was suddenly staring at my sleeve. It took me a couple of seconds to realize that 15 minutes of class had vanished, and instead of writing notes about electron orbitals, I had been drooling into my armrest.
In university I’m in a constant state of tiredness.
By the time I was sitting in anthropology, my final class on Friday, I was thinking in slow motion. I registered the fact that the professor’s lips were moving. And that, judging by the way everyone else was scribbling into their notebooks, what he was saying was probably important. But lifting my pen required too much coordination. In fact, keeping my eyelids open took too much concentration. When reading over my biology notes on the bus ride home, I blinked- and suddenly my notebook was on the floor.
I’m looking forward to my weekend coma.
How to get out of a chemistry exam: kill off a distant relative
Even in uni, I’ll still need a signed note from my parents to skip class
One of the biggest differences between high school and university is the death of permission forms.
Back in high school, if a teacher wanted to take their class on a field trip to the downstairs broom closet, everyone’s parents had to sign a permission form first. Usually along the lines of, “If my child sprains their ankle, breaks their arm, has their feelings hurt, or sustains an injury to their epidermal layer after excessive scratching of their nose, I promise not to sue the school board.”
But in university? If one of my professors wanted to take the class on a field trip to the rim of an active volcano, where poisonous sulfur dioxide gases and carbon monoxide fumes had genetically mutated nearby animal life into vicious raptors, there wouldn’t be any need for permissions forms.
Mind you, if we were accompanied by a group of archaeologists, a couple of vulnerable children, and a disposable crew member or two, we wouldn’t be on a field trip anymore. We’d be in Jurassic Park 4.
After the Great Permission Form Extinction of Post Secondary School, I figured that university students would never have to ask their parents to sign a piece of paper again. But after reading through my chemistry class’s course information booklet, I realized that I was completely wrong. Attending the funeral of a family member is one of the valid reasons for missing a term test. But first, students have to provide a note from their parents.
This seems wrong on so many levels. One of the things that I’ve been enjoying the most about university is the fact that everyone seems to treat students with the same level of respect that they’d give an adult. Suddenly requiring a signed note from someone’s parents kind of seems like a step back towards high school.
Not to mention, if someone is actually willing to tempt fate and pretend that a family member has died, asking their roommate to forge a note probably wouldn’t nag their conscience too much.
