On Sunday, I was studying for a midterm I had Monday. After Monday’s midterm, I wouldn’t have another midterm for two weeks! Midterms never end….
But on Sunday, my psychology professor decided to post the scores for the midterm we took last week online. I checked my score first thing in the morning when I went online. I wasn’t especially pleased with the score I got, but it was okay. I would just do better next time for the “A” I must get in this class.
Three hours later, my psych professor sent out a mass email saying that there was a mix-up with the scores and he uploaded a new version of the accurate scores online. So I went back to check my score and became devastated–I was more than a standard deviation below the mean. Obviously, the first thing I did was write an email to my professor to ask if there was any mistake, and in five minutes I received the reply, “I am afraid that is your score.”
I was in shock. On one hand, I still did not fully believe that was my score because I didn’t feel I performed that poorly, but on the other hand, the professor had written to me that it was my score. I tried to move on and study for the midterm I had on Monday, but I couldn’t focus.
An hour later, another email appeared in my inbox saying the scores were messed up again and that they had been taken down from the website. I had tears falling in relief and frustration.
Three hours after that, the scores were uploaded again and I had the same score I had in the morning. Three hours from that, my psych professor wrote to me, “You actually got ___, an excellent score. Hope you didn’t jump off anything tall.” I had to smile at that.
This really does give a whole new meaning to “psych.”
My schedule looks pretty crowded this week: two midterms and one “quiz” as well as a dance performance this Friday. The good thing is that since I have been pretty good with studying so far this year, I do not have to cram really badly like last semester. But, it’s still a lot of studying. Today, I managed to sit through a one and a half-hour test, a one and a half-hour chemistry lecture, and then a two hour chemistry review one after another. That was tiring. And by the end of the day, I didn’t want to do any work, but I had to get back to my dorm and study for the physics test I will be taking tomorrow.
So how do I get through the day having to study one course after another? I manage to find some retaining interest in the material. Here is what I think (or I will myself to think) about these courses:
Psychology: It’s psych. It’s about humans such as me. It’s interesting, although very skewed to the western world. But it’s interesting.
Madness and Medicine (History of Science): It was kind of bland in the beginning (you should really like asylums before taking this course), but I like learning about history and we are getting to the effect of psychiatry on war veterans. That’s interesting.
Physics (electromagnetism): Although I am not one for physics (simply put, physics ranks the lowest of the three sciences), the material is somewhat interesting. It explains how the electrical/digital world works, which is pretty cool considering we are using so many electrical appliances. People should know about how things around them work, so this course is pretty crucial to just understanding the world.
Organic chemistry (biochemistry): I actually really like this course. The material relates organic chemistry to reactions that occur in our body, which is pretty neat. We have examples of things that actually occur, so that captures my interest. Plus, it’s definitely not as hard as last semester’s organic chemistry class, which is a sigh of relief. It might be because my study habits improved, but I also think that the material is easier to understand.
Obviously, there are things I don’t like about each class too, but I find that I am much more productive when I think about how a class is cool and interesting rather than how it’s boring and tiring.
The weather today was absolutely horrible. I woke up to my roommate passing my room, where she took one look outside my window and remarked, “It’s snowing really hard.”
In the morning of this blizzard, I was in the science center listening to a lecture on capacitors, resistors, and physics in general. As an anecdote in relation to learning about the ground acting as a big capacitor, our professor told us a story about what happened to him when he was cleaning out his garage.
Basically, as he was wiping this metal screen in his garage, he suddenly could not control what he was doing anymore and just felt himself shaking. He continued cleaning and felt himself shaking again. In the beginning, he thought that he was having a seizure, but then became wiser and thought that maybe he felt an electric shock. So at that point in time, he took out his voltmeter and measured the metal that he was cleaning and an aluminum trashcan nearby. Sure enough, charges were going from high potential of the metal to the low potential of the trashcan.
At this point in time, the whole class was bursting out in laughter. Only a physics professor would (1) have a voltmeter handy (2) measure conductance after feeling an electric charge.
I personally find it kind of foolish to prevent students to use their laptops in class. If it’s to prevent disturbances, prevention of the use of laptops will not force students to pay attention. If anything, they will waste more time being bored and zoning in and out.
It’s the job of the section leader to make the class interesting and keep the student’s attention. The laptop is a tool to enhance learning.
I’m pretty peeved that I cannot use my laptop in one of my sections. It isn’t that I will die without my laptop, but rather than having to waste paper and pen writing out notes and then eventually typing it out again on my laptop, I can just save everything on my laptop and review there. It saves time, paper, and ink.
On a side note, I am happy with my decision to pursue neurobiology rather than psychology.
I have been exercising lately. I am trying to create an alternating pattern of 15 minutes one day and 30 minutes the day after, but I sometimes get too weak-willed and don’t exercise. Then I feel guilty like I should make it up. For example, yesterday when I woke up to my alarm (I try to exercise in the mornings), I told myself, “Today is going to be a long day. I have twelve hours of classes. I need my rest. I should just sleep.” And so I slept.
Today when I woke up, I told myself, “I’m tired. I’ll exercise later.”
So tonight, I felt guilty. I had told myself this semester that I was going to start a new exercise regimen and if it died within one week, that really shows just how weak-willed I am. So I forced myself to go down to the gym and I used the elliptical for an hour, while watching a bizarre show called Burn Notice and then switching to Project Runway. Seriously, if you exercise, exercise with the TV. That really takes the mind off of the pain.
When I came back to my dorm, I was a bit tired, but I felt rejuvenated. That is really how exercise goes! You feel tired, but then after you are finished, everything feels better. Your blood is pumping again and you feel more awake. You feel happier.
This may really only be the placebo effect, but I seriously think that exercise has made me happier. I think it has helped me manage all the classwork I have been doing and helped me to not bang my head every second when I get frustrated, and really helped me not to give into watching Hulu anymore.
The sad thing is, the only reason I started exercising is because I realized my health deteriorated from last semester. All I did last semester was sit on my butt and never really move (when I went to class, I always took the shuttle), and when I went home for winter break, I realized my circulation was not that good. I would always get cold hands and feet no matter where I was and that could only be due to lack of exercise. So be healthy! Exercise!
