Eric點滴繪畫筆記book

Before getting in / 小回顧:

在UBC大一時間才8個月，暑假馬上來了所以一般在上課的時候只知道衝衝衝...

每個月都有大考，每個禮拜都有兩次三小的實驗課，有點招架不住 (習慣了其實還好)

課業和社團兼顧...還有一些而外的大小咚咚...學期中開了刀 (感謝所有學長姊大大幫忙)

之後我在分享一些學用戰術...爭對UBC大一課程有用而已...

所以呢今天分享一下這一年課程的回顧: Alright I'm ready to start this.

UBC FIRST YEAR COURSE REVIEW

Finishing term 2 wasn't tough, it was actually term 1 for me. So going through each class:

TERM 1

BIOL 111: Intro to Modern Biology

This class goes through exactly the AP Biology curriculum without the plant and human physiology part, except the immunology and the cancer part. This course overlaps a lot with BIOL 121 and BIOL 140, especially ecology (pretty much identical). It was an intro course so most of the biological concepts surround memorization and less comprehension. The majority of the class was discussing HIPPO (factors of decreasing ecodiversity) and basic cell biology with genetics. The exams were all short answer and the course avg was lower than most mainstream first year bio courses.

COMM 120: Business Immersion

Just as the name is, this is a purely fundamental course that teaches the magical "Business Model Canvas". Most of the class you will be using all the blocks of the BMS and applying it to case memo (a business essay) surrounding all these blocks and class concepts. This class is dedicated for Bachelor + Master of Management students (I was, but I dropped it second term). The course was purely the nuts and bolts of what you need to know if you aren't studying in Sauder all day. No exams at all, but hard grading on the case memos though.

ENGL 112: Strategies for University Writing

Yes. Everyone hates this course, but it's all because you chose the wrong prof. I got a chill prof who actually taught us the structure of a research paper and how to do it systematically. Around 5 papers and 2 presentations were required in the course along with a final exam. The course was essential for my first year experience and I would say it was worth it despite the fact English courses are usually not the vitamins for your GPA.

MATH 200: Calculus 3

This class is putting Calculus 1 and 2 into a 3D space. Basically coordinates are your friend, from Cartesian to Spherical and lots more. This questions are a lot tougher than first year calculus and there are 2 midterms worth a total of 40% and 1 final worth a total of 50%. My advice is to keep up consistently and do lots of practice problems until it becomes intuition!

PHYS 101: Energy and Waves

This class was very useful for me, at least the labs were. Even though it's called energy and waves, the class teaches mainly intro to fluids and application of waves in physical sciences. The course is very straightforward with applications to life sciences (ex. BIOL 200). I would say it is one of the most core courses to master in first year for the success in higher level chemistry, calculus, and biology.

TERM 2

BIOL 112: Biology of the Cell

If you loved high school biology, this is a great course to start with. The course covers basic cell bio with a concentration on proteins structure and synthesis (very closely tied to AP Biology, but a little more in depth). It is mandatory for all life sciences to take this course as it covers the fundamentals for second year cell bio and biochem. Midterms and finals were MCs with one or two pages of FRQs.

BIOL 121: Genetics, Evolution, and Ecology

This course has a usual low average for some reason but the concepts are really straightforward. The course depends highly on your writing skills and the TAs who grade your answer. Your answers are graded purely on if they touch upon the taught concepts in the RIGHT order, for example food chain questions require you to start discussing about limiting nutrients or toxic waste, the producers and its contribution to the net primary productivity, and the amount of available and accessible natural resources, and lastly population size or density. All exams in this course were consisted of short answers.

BIOL 140: Laboratory Investigations in Life Science

Three hours of watching pillbugs or slugs. Pretty sure that's about it for at least my part of the works...lols...the only valuable thing I learned in the course was how to write an actual research paper for the department of biology in a specific format. That's it? and in 2015 the biology department changed the course completely, so the avgs for this course flew sky high (check out UBC pair grades).

CHEM 123: Thermodynamics, Kinetics, and Organic Chemistry

Aka the first year geometry course. Despite the fact that OCHEM is one of the most important parts that help the understanding of bio and chem, it still stays as one of the most feared subjects by most science students. In my opinion, it is pretty much like a 3D geometry class so MATH 200 came in really helpful. The physical chemistry part was the easier part and was my favorite part, while in OCHEM, chair flips kinds struck me hard during final review. Other than that I spent most of my time preping for the lab portion of this course. The lab quizzes were difficult for me, although the lab final was super duper easy. Exams are half MCs and half FRQs, tbh FRQs are way easier than the MCs...

ENGL 110: Approaches to Literature

I didn't learn anything useful from this course. My Irish-accent prof went on discussing about the sexual and violent elements a book and how the idea was reinforced by a popular movie in 1999...etc. Although the prof was nice, the whole lecture was terrifyingly boring. I can't make it more clear. I had a good British-accent TA though...so it kinda trades off.