College / Uni / School

[black_mamba]

How is the new term/semester going for everyone?

I want all the details, the gossip, the good the bad and the fugly!

Today was the last day of my first week as a final year student. Already I've had my fair share of forced social situations. The worst being today when I realised my dissertation supervisor has a very strong Chinese accent and a mild inability to understand what I was saying. However, he seems quite charismatic and laid back so eventually I relaxed around him - it took me a email and a hours wait to pluck up the courage to talk to him for the first time. I'm happy I did it but dissapointed in that it took so long.

The work is intense, difficult and plentyful (yes, already!) but I enjoy the subject matter so thats cool.

My class is interesting - we've lost a few people I liked and now I'm the only girl (no big deal) ...I also happen to have my boyfriend in my class because he dropped back a year. This isn't as great as it sounds as I feel more aprehensive around him (I want to impress him, not embarrass myself) plus I quite enjoyed being the class loner.

Overall - it's been cool, but I think the situation will change when group work comes along and presentations loom. :?

Your turn now!

 

[Toad]

*This rant really doesn't make much sense, so for the shortened version of it go to the last paragraph*

Well...I've been going for over a month now. Things aren't going to great for me...just got back from failing a dynamics test that i studied way to much of the wrong stuff for....ugh. I'm doing ok in my classes as of now, but I have tests in each of them next week...so that will probably change shortly.

I haven't had any presentations or group projects really...but 3 of my classes have labs with them so I'm forced to work with people during those. It's not to bad since I know the people I work with pretty well...but the people I work with don't have a clue what they are doing so whenever I don't understand something to do with the lab I have to ask for help...which I really hate doing. Fortunately I understand what's going on in two of those classes, but the other one is just a disaster for me (circuits).

Right now I'm confused as hell as how to hook up the circuits, and take measurements off of them, so I have to constantly make myself look like a dumbass and keep asking the professor what I'm supposed to do. Only a handful of people know how to hook up the circuits and take the measurements in that class though...so at least I'm not the only one confused as hell, but constantly having to ask for help is very taxing on me, and this being the first class of the day for me just leaves me in a surreal state for the rest of the day...which isn't good for my other classes cause I can't really pay attention.

On top of classes sucking, my social life is still very non-existant. I don't have time to even try and do much of anything because the lab classes take everything out of me, and since I don't completely understand the stuff, the homework takes me longer than it should, and I'm always doing extra of it so that I can learn it. Of course theoretical concepts don't help in lab so damn it all to hell...well...time for yet another weekend of doing nothing but studying...I love my life.

Anyways...if you just want the shortened version of this, right now my life sucks, I'm still a hermit, and my circuits and dynamics classes (and professors) need to burn in hell.

 

[black_mamba]

What sort of circuit work are you doing??

And, after many years of feeling stupid as hell, I think I'm finally starting to 'get' dynamics (tough isn't it!!) ... I'm always here for advice, soon enough I'll be a whizz at it since I inadvertantly chose a dynamcs-based final year project. (noooooo!) :x

 

[triceratops]

Being a student is hell!

I've just started university and i'm struggling like hell new place, new people new subject only turned up to 40% of my lessons so far and its only the first week. This is the hardest thing i've ever has to do at least with college and school I had my mates with me. Now i'm on my own.
But I'm not gonna give up the one postive thing I got out of SA is it makes me more determined to do stuff finish college finish uni etc.

If I don't go insane from freaking out I may well finish my degree

 

[marki]

im going to my first year at college for a month and a halve and im with people in a class that are much older then me (im 17 and most of the students in my class are about 20) That means they are a lot more adult than my former class that is a plus point, cause i feel less judged by them then im my former class. But it doesn't makes me more comfortable around them. Especially with the boys. Im in a projectgroup with 3 boys that are much older then me.. i don't really feel confortable around them.
But I also had some very fun conversations with two girls in my class where i feel very comfortable around. I like them very much and i think they also like me. We always sit together in the breaks and stuff, so im really happy about that, having friends makes everything alot easier. But there's always a fear in me that they don't like me anymore cause i know they like eachother more then they like me they're also in the same group and stuff. That's the annoying thing everybody hangs out with people in their own group and i don't like the guys in my group so that makes it harder for me to contact the paople i do like and feel comfotable around.

I am thinking about quiting college, cause i feel a little down lately and college is so much presure. I also think i've chosen the wrong study, it is alot working with computers and im absolutely a-technical, unlikely my classmates, they seem to be so easy with computers. it makes me feel stupid but i know i am not stupid i just want to show people who i am and what i can, where im good at..right now i am not able to do that, that's very frustrating

i hope i didn't bored you with my long story it isn't really an interesting one but right now im bored and down so i have nothing fun to say

 

[paul]

ah - I have a hard time understand accents sometimes - makes me feel overly-American
well in grade 8, things are alright. our class has jumped in size by 5 people, two of which are dumbasses, the other three are alright. nothing really DRAMATIC has happened yet, but I am happy today because it's the weekend and my anxiety hasn't been overly intense since the first week.

well, actually today, one of the annoying new kids, Will (I swear to god this is the most annoying kid you'll ever meet, he is the most un-SA person and also is annoying and tries to fit in too much) kept irritating and hitting (lightly) my friend Shanavia. She told him not to touch her. He didn't so she smacked him really really hard and he cried. Normally I wouldn't be laughing at that but jesus christ, this kid is always saying that I should just "OPEN UP" and that I'm "negative" (I'm not!) so I found this quite amusing. :twisted:

things are actually going quite well in school, well except for an 80 on a quiz (ahhh very difficult, teacher asks about details in books that I can't remember) but other than that things are fine, especially socially

Overall - it's been cool, but I think the situation will change when group work comes along and presentations loom. Confused

yes -- oh I dread those. :| nothing really you can do about it eh?

 

[Toad]

What sort of circuit work are you doing??

Most of the circuits up until lately I've been able to get (after the initial how the fuck do i even set up my breadboard phase), because they have all just been resistor circuits. The newest lab that we are doing involves an op-amp...which has like 8 different things you can hook wires into all of which do different things. Our professor just handed out the lab and was like...get started. Didn't even explain how the op-amp was set into the circuit. Also in this lab we have to use a frequency generator as our power suppy which ive never used before, and we have to measure the voltage gain due to the op-amp using something that spits out sin waves. I don't even know how to use these things...how the fuck can he expect me to construct and measure a circuit with them. I just wish he would go step by step explaining something new in lab rather than assuming we already know how to use it...oh well....just another thing to add to my list of things to figure out this weekend....after asking for help like 10 times and staring at my circuit board for a couple of hours i kinda know how to do it now but not entirely.

And, after many years of feeling stupid as hell, I think I'm finally starting to 'get' dynamics (tough isn't it!!) ... I'm always here for advice, soon enough I'll be a whizz at it since I inadvertantly chose a dynamcs-based final year project. (noooooo!) :x

Heh...yeah...sucks about the final project...good luck with that. I dunno...I understood most of the stuff that was in my dynamics book before the test, but on the test there was a problem where he gave us a position equation of some part with respect to something elses angular velocity, and we had to find how the max velocity of the thing described by the position function changed if the angular velocity was doubled. Of course this problem was all symbolic 8O and the position function was not a very nice one...had some trigonometric functions thrown in there.

I think what we were supposed to do was use the min-max test (Fermat's Theorem maybe?) on the derivative of the position function (velocity)...so we were supposed to take the second derivative of the position function and find when that was zero which would give the max velocity....we never did this in class though...i only know it cause im looking at my calc book now . Of course this was 1/4 of the total test...so I'm fucked for not remembering something i learned a year ago in calc class (assuming that this is actually the way to solve the problem).

Anyways...time to move on I suppose...this will probably be hanging over me for a while though since i never can just move on...damn perfectionism.

 

[Chilling__Echo]

this year is going better than i expected. kind of starting over my life

but classes are kicking my ass a little bit... and i need to go to grad school oh well

 

[black_mamba]

scyth - you sound determined as hell. Go for it! What are you studying? It was hard for me at first as well, but slowly slowly I met people and starting relaxing.

How come you didn't go to all your lectures? I find sitting at the back a great place to hide and also meet the more interesting students.

marki - these girls sit with you, so they obviously enjoy your company. What subject would you prefer to study?? Academically it's never a big deal to change subjects around, thers always a way to reach your dream job, but it's not easy financially if your not supported by parents (as I was when I started changing my college courses around.

paul - yet again, another example of divine justice (about Will crying). What sort of presentations will you have to do in the future? Hopefully something fun so you can concentrate on the subject matter.

Chilling - whats up with the classes? You didn't expect it to be easy did you? Pardon my ignorance but whats grad school?

Toad - I'm shocked that you started a lesson who no basic instructions - thats the sort of thing I feared of tougher universities in general. Did they expect you to revise the subject matter before hand or have you not covered it at all?

Heh wow, op-amps eh? You're doing the practical shit that I learnt all the theory of last year. My lecturer was abysmal though, and it all went over my head. Considering you askd for help and were left none the wiser; pretty poor teaching I think. If something like that happened in one of my classes, everyone would be ranting and raving at how awful the tutor was and they may even make a formal complaint! (well, threaten to anyway) ... do the other students in your class struggle?

I think what we were supposed to do was use the min-max test (Fermat's Theorem maybe?) on the derivative of the position function (velocity)...so we were supposed to take the second derivative of the position function and find when that was zero which would give the max velocity....we never did this in class though

2nd derivative of position, so when acceleration = zero, isn't that when the object described is changing direction, so the velocity would be zero? Or am I confusing myself here? I think I may have a similar example in my notes, if I ever come across it I'll let you know.

Drat, wish I could help. The dynamics I'm currently researching is vibration analysis with multiple degrees of freedom - my project is about studying twist vibration in engines. Oh dear god what have I let myself in for! 8O ... ... and the thought of a presentation trying to describe something I barely understand myself ... 8O ... scary!

 

[Chilling__Echo]

grad school = graduate school, for Master's degrees and Doctorate degrees. bleh!

nah, i knew they wouldnt' be easy, this is my second year but they're still swamping me

 

[Sue]

i feel lonely. all this studying and working.. i cant get enough time in to see my friend. i miss her so much.

monday to friday collage
friday to sunday work

im so tired and cant wait for the mid term.

 

[allanboy]

Just, what, 2 months for school to finish and i´m going to college. I´m a bit optimistic about that, i think i wont be able to enter at first, ah godamnit, i will. If not, i give up on psychology and get in something that requires less points.
School sucks. Since i came back from my trip to orlando, going to school is becoming a boring chore. Not about homework or studies, but for my roommates. Damnit, annoying people, that damn room. My schizoid disorder is taking shape quite nastly, but i´m fighting over it.

Although i really like it...

 

[black_mamba]

Updates people - hows everything going so far?

I'm a quarter of the way through my final year and its so unbelievably hectic. I'm working on my dissertation every weekend and the barely noticable social life I had with my family before has dissapeared.

Waaa! :?

How is everyone else coping?

 

[Angie_05]

This has been the hardest semester ever for me. I'm near graduation and I left all the upper division classes for the end (ugh!).

But surprisingly its been the best semester for my self-esteem. I am getting to know my professors really well, so most of them say "Hey Angela" when they see me in the hallway. Not a big deal to normal people...but it feels darn good to me. I went through high school hardly speaking to teachers so they never really knew who I was.

 

[black_mamba]

Wow me too! My dissertation supervisor and me actually exchange hellos and good mornings as we pass each other in the corridors, its something I've really missed at uni because lecturers rarely get a chance to get to know individual students (well, not the shy ones in any case).