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Uni Stuff => General University Discussion and Queries => The University Journey Journal => Topic started by: kauac on January 04, 2020, 11:29:37 am

Title: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: kauac on January 04, 2020, 11:29:37 am
Hi! I'm Katie, and welcome to my broc n' roll of a uni adventure - filled with friends, fun, food and fabulous learning.  :)

An Update on me:

So I have definitely been MIA on the forums for most of 2019, so I thought I’d share a few reflections from the year.
This year I did a gap year program called “Year 13”, which involved studying a Diploma of Christian Studies whilst also serving at my church in programs such as Youth Group and SRE in schools. I also had the opportunity to go to Fiji for a month in June to meet locals and delve into their culture.

At the start of the year I was super nervous and even a bit skeptical as to how everything would pan out, but looking back, it was a terrific decision to do the program. It has challenged me to think deeper about my faith, taught me a lot about myself and also how best to help others. Very, very glad for this year.

Some other random highlights from the year:
- I started drinking tea (current fav: T2’s Singapore breakfast)
- I got a job at Subway in August
- I did a half-marathon in early November
- I joined the gym on the Black Friday Sale


What’s next?

Well, as I kinda spoiled in the title of my journal, this year I am heading to uni! I’ll be studying a Bachelor of Science and Masters of Nutrition & Dietetics at USYD! Wow, it’s a bit of a mouthful to say!

It’s a five year degree, where the first three years are the B Sci, and guaranteed entry into the two year masters, as long as I maintain a credit average or above.

For the B Sci, I will be majoring in nutrition science (which was mandatory to allow entry into the masters), and then minoring in Speech and Hearing sciences. I’m a pretty indecisive person, so it took a while to settle on a minor (already changed it once – was gonna be psychology). But I’m pretty content with this minor as it means, for some reason, if I decide I don’t want to be a dietitian by the end of the B Sci, I have technically done the correct units to qualify for a M of Speech Pathology OR Audiology (as far as I can tell).

I was also invited to join the Daylell Scholars program, but at this stage, I’ve declined the offer, because I didn’t want to have the added pressure of maintaining the distinction average to remain in the program.


Semester 1 Subjects:

CHEM111 – Chemistry 1A
BIOL1008 – Human Biology
BIOS1163 – Speech Science
CSCD1034 – Linguistics and Phonetics



Pre-Uni Thoughts and Feelings?

At the moment I am feeling excited and hesitant at the exact same time, if that is even possible?! I am keen for my first semester subjects, keen for o-week and the experience of uni.

Yet I am slightly worried about getting burnt out by all the travel to-from uni. It’s a 1.5hr commute each way by train, and so if I’m down there 3-4 days a week, that will easily rack up a lot of time. And to do that for 5 years, man that’s a big commitment. But I often remind myself that many people where I live commute to the city for the full-time jobs, so if they can do the trip for 5 days a week, surely I can survive the travel then. And if I feeling studious, I could use the trip down to uni for study (no hope of doing that on the way back – standing room only for most of the trip).

On another note, I’m not looking forward to the lack of spare time I’m bound to have once uni starts, but that’s just life, I guess. I’ll definitely have to cut back on my work hours, but that’s okay.

In terms of subjects, because of when the hearing and speech science core units are offered, I have to do 2 units this semester, whilst none next semester. It’ll be nice not having to do 4 pure science units this semester (mainly because sci units have so many face-face hours!) So next semester I have all of my mandatory junior maths units instead, fun! My nutrition subjects don’t actually start until second year, which is a bit of a bummer (And don’t get me started on the fact that we don’t have placements until 5th year!).

But overall, I’m keen to begin! Uni is new territory for me and I’m keen to explore it!

Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: Sine on January 05, 2020, 01:05:54 am
Great to see you back on AN!  :)

Hoping to hear about your course through the year. I'm sure many students will benefit from reading about your experiences at Usyd.
Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: kauac on January 19, 2020, 12:24:11 am
Popping in for a quick update:

Timetable preferences have opened, so I've had a decent look at what my timetable is going to be like. Definitely will have to go in for 4 days (but not all will be full days). Trying desperately hard to avoid having uni on Fridays as I have already have previous commitments, but it's not looking good. There are clashes between one of my chem lectures and speech lectures if I don't go in on a Friday. Uni definitely won't let me select something that's gonna clash when there is another option available. Might just have to suck it up and do Fridays for this semester.

Also, mandatory 8am lectures on mondays for speech?  :o I so don't want to get up at 5am every monday morning. Makes me want to change my minor again aha! Is it just me or does planning timetables actually make you less motivated for uni?

Onto bigger and better things, I'm hoping to head up the coast for a few days sometime in Febuary before o-week. I feel like if I don't go away before uni starts, probably won't get another chance for a holiday until between semesters. Like I have been pretty restful at home, but I can sometimes get into a weird cycle of: work --> existentially questioning the concept of rest & relaxation --> work. So a little venture seems delightful!
Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: ashmi on January 19, 2020, 08:20:19 am
Hey Kauac! Great to see a new update! ;D

Popping in for a quick update:

Also, mandatory 8am lectures on mondays for speech?  :o I so don't want to get up at 5am every monday morning. Makes me want to change my minor again aha! Is it just me or does planning timetables actually make you less motivated for uni?

Waking up that early on a Monday morning is going to be terrible😭. Timetabling is like another challenge on its own, trying to get all your lectures crammed into a few days.

Have fun on your trip to the coast! That sounds like it will be awesome and hopefully, you are well rested before you go to uni ;D
Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: kauac on February 09, 2020, 01:52:25 pm
Hi again!

So I had a lovely time away up the coast last week! Despite the forecast being pretty raining, it actually didn't rain too much and my friend and I went to beach a lot! Also conveniently ate a lot of great Japanese food, including dessert gyoza! A refreshing get-away, and now I am looking forward to starting uni!

My timetable is now finalised, which is great! I'll be trekking in for 4 days - monday & tuesday are full days and thursday and friday are just mornings. I will have not only 1, but 2 days where I have to get up at 5am  :'( (the other two days will be a mild 6am). Just realised how sarcastic that sounds - but I'm actually not too annoyed, I'm just going to have train myself to be a morning person.  ;D I'm currently trying to reset my sleep cycle to work out the optimum amount I need. Then I can calculate when the best time to go to sleep for uni. That's my science brain for ya!

As I've begun preparing for uni, I've come to the universal realisation of all uni students about how expensive textbooks are! I've been quite savvy and been able to find all but one of my textbooks online. The other one I'm hoping to borrow from the uni library, except it's only available at the Health Sciences campus, not the main one. Guess that warrants a bit of an adventure to go and borrow it!

I've also been doing a bit of research about potential exchange opportunities through uni. Unfortunately, from what I've found, it'll be really hard to find a uni that offers units for both nutrition and speech/hearing science (since they are both so specific). But I will definitely go along to exchange info sessions and talk to someone at uni about my options. There's still a while to think about it anyway.

The reality of uni actually starting is hitting me, and I can't wait for it all to begin!

Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: Bri MT on February 09, 2020, 09:16:43 pm
Great to hear that you had a fantastic holiday and are looking forward to uni :)

Sounds like it's a good thing you're doing your exchange research early; hopefully you can work it in!

Good luck with optimising your sleep & thanks for the update :)
Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: kauac on February 22, 2020, 03:38:57 pm
O-week was this week, and it was pretty cool!

I went on Wednesday for a science faculty welcome & mentoring welcome. Both of these weren't really that helpful, and I definitely would have been fine without going to them, but you only start uni once, so it was an experience! ;D I did get to meet other first-year science students, which was good. I also managed to walk around campus and find every building where I will be having classes this semester. Definitely helped me feel at ease, and will hopefully make next week less stressful navigating.

On Thursday I had lunch with some friends and then picked up my student ID card. I took a risk and tried insect icecream, which was interesting! Mine was raspberry flavoured and it actually had whole bugs in it, but they kinda just tasted like a weird wholegrain.

I ended up signing up to the EU and the nutrition society (which is called "SUNS", which I think is pretty cute :) ). I really wanted to join a sports team like ultimate frisbee, tennis or quidditch, but the days they have training don't fit with when I'm at campus. Currently lamenting why I live so far away from uni (and have to work when everything is on).

As for freebies, I made use of the free cans of kombucha, and scored a USYD drink bottle from attending my science welcome event. Overall I'm glad I went, and looking forward to getting into the routine of uni!
Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: kauac on February 29, 2020, 06:43:52 pm
First week of uni done & dusted! I've had a lot to reflect on this week as there have been many new experiences I've encountered.

I survived all the early wake-ups, which was good. The only killer was Friday morning, having to get up at 6am after working til 10.30pm the night before. Though I feel like I'm still going to bed at the same time as I normally would (which isn't the best, because it means I'm getting less sleep). I'm sure as tiredness kicks in I will definitely want to get to bed earlier.

The travel to/from uni has been fairly good. I have established a bit of a train routine to use my time effectively, and it's been going well. Tuesday morning was annoying with all the train delays and cancellations. Was so scary trying to get off the train because it was so packed, I literally had to barge through all the people and thought I wouldn't get through before the doors closed, but I did, thankfully. Aside from the trains, there's a bit of a walk from Redfern station to the main part of campus, which I definitely conquer a lot faster than the calculated walking time (if I'm in a hurry, it takes me 10 min, instead of the calculated 20 min).

I actually managed to find all my classes pretty much just fine, thanks to pre-planning from last week. There was one lecture which I had in the "John Woolley Building", but I found out the hard way that there is multiple entrances to the building, but there was only one entrance that would actually get me to my lecture theatre. So myself and about 20 others, all looking for the same Speech Science lecture, walked around the entire perimeter of the building until we found the right entrance. We got into the lecture about 10 mins late, but we hadn't actually missed that much.

I was expecting to launch right into all of my units, but since it was first week, a lot of the lecture content was just introductions, and some of my pracs/tutes weren't on at all. It has been helpful for the lecturers to explain who/what we can go to if we need support in our units, since I used to think that uni was kinda like, if you have a question or concern, "you're on your own". The content hasn't been as fast-paced as I thought it would be, especially since in chem & bio, 95% of what we have done so far we already learned at school.

Nevertheless, I have already formed some opinions about my lecturers and the units as a whole:
- Chem: A bit intimidated by them. And they're also my tutor for tutorials, eek!
- Bio: have been good so far, but there are actually so many lecturers for this unit!
- Speech Science: not a big fan (doesn't help that they never responded to my email I sent pre-semester starting)
- Linguistics: Great - very helpful, engaging and entertaining.

It's been nice to get back into Chem, since studying it 3 years ago (2017!). We're doing nuclear chemistry at the moment, which I really enjoyed doing at school, and it seems interesting so far. We've only had one proper lecture for bio so far, so it's hard to tell how it will be like. But I know I'm quite fond of human biology, so it's bound to be good! Though its the only subject I have assignments for - the rest of the units just have quizzes and exams. I'm excited and keen for the phonetics part of the linguistics unit - and also tuts, where we get to learn how to transcribe words phonetically! A bit nervous about speech science, since I know it's going to be a big content dump every week. Also nervous for the practicals, since we will be working with cadavers, starting this Monday.

I've also been exploring the different facilities on campus. Practically speaking, I've located where there is food, water filling stations and bathrooms at many of the locations I will be in each week. Still experimenting with study and chill out spaces - I've enjoyed the shady garden seats outside the chemistry building, and the silent study spots in Fisher library. But I might try and check out some of the "learning hubs" this week - whatever they are, anyway.

It's been a bit difficult to get to know people at uni, since I often strike a conversation with someone and then never see them again. This has been pretty annoying, but I've heard that since tuts and pracs are in smaller, consistent groups, it's easier to make friends there. I was hoping to go to the SUNS welcome BBQ, to hopefully meet other people who are studying nutrition, but of course I have work on when it's happening!  :'( Fingers crossed there will be more events soon - which are not on a Wednesday or at annoying times. I did go to the EU PM on Tuesday, and made a friend there, which is cool!

As for this week, bio and speech science pracs start, which should be interesting! I don't think I'll go in on Friday, since all I have is a 1hr Chem lecture (and would involve 3 hrs of travel, just for that!). Keen for another week of learning, meeting new people and having fun while I'm at it!
Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: kauac on March 16, 2020, 08:10:21 pm
Back again for an update!

Week 4 of uni began today. Despite some interruptions to classes due to COVID-19 action plans, I did go into uni today, mainly because I had a speech science practical. As of today, the rest of my classes for all units have been cancelled/converted to online learning indefinitely. No more early trains to catch! Also, all societies/clubs (including EU, sadly) are not running for the rest of the semester.

I am disappointed about the whole scenario, because I feel like I just got into a good rhythm and have been enjoying uni, and some of my practical classes had only just started. But I do recognise that uni is just trying to take responsibility in preventing the spread of the virus, like everyone else. The actions they have taken are reasonable and understandable (esp since there has been at least 1 reported case on campus).

Apart from all that drama, what's been happening?

We have been working with cadavers in speech science, which has been interesting! I've actually managed quite well and haven't felt disturbed or sickened by anything yet, like I thought I would. Speech science as a unit is pretty content heavy, and I've got a exam coming up in two weeks time (will probably be online, I guess), so I definitely need to be putting in a bit more effort to committing content to memory!

Human biology we have been covering different body systems/organs. It is pretty interesting, but also very broad at the same time. Had my first prac for this last week, and we dissected a heart and did some breathing experiments. It was a good afternoon because it was really the first time I had engaged with and got to know other students in this unit - rather than just sitting by myself in a lecture room of 300 people.

Chem has ramped up a bit because we covered quantum numbers and orbitals, which took a bit to wrap my head around! I do keep asking myself though, why do I need to know this to be a dietician? But I guess that's just the way Chemistry is structured at USYD that everyone has to do Chem1A and Chem1B to get into any second year+ chemistry units. Was looking forward to my prac on Friday, where we were going to make a blueprint, except now it's cancelled.

And linguistics & phonetics: think this could be my favourite unit at the moment?! I love learning how to transcribe, and I see it more as something fun to do, rather than study. And who knew grammatical analysis could be so interesting? Our lectures have been pretty interactive, which has been super helpful for consolidation. We usually spend half our time learning content, and then the second half of the lecture is devoted to practicing our analysis together.

I'm hoping the online format won't be too much of a hassle, but I guess we'll see how it goes. It does give a bit more flexibility to work uni around general life, but at the moment, I think I'll try and keep when I do uni work as similar as possible to when I would have been on campus. Definitely a creature of habit.

I have actually been working a lot more the last few weeks, due to understaffing, but I'm hoping it will be back to normal. On another note, I applied to be part of USYD's questagame team (kinda like a biodiversity version of Pokemon Go is the best way to describe) and it actually sounds super cool! I'm hoping I'll get a spot, but it's kinda hard to tell if I will, as I have no idea how many people applied (there were only 50 spots overall).

Nevertheless, I will be keeping myself busy being involved in kids ministry at my church, keeping up my exercise habits, taking time for rest and family life! These next few weeks shall be interesting!
Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: kauac on April 06, 2020, 04:48:00 pm
Hi! It's now been about 3 weeks since uni was converted to online learning. There has definitely been some advantages and disadvantages to this delivery method.

Most of my practical classes were initially cancelled but they are now slowly being reintroduced into online forms (which definitely aren't as fun or engaging, unfortunately). Some lectures seemed to take a while to upload, which was a bit annoying, but the system is getting better now. A lot of them are now delivered via zoom - which is good, because then I can watch them at my timetabled time, but bad, because then I can't watch them at double speed hehe. Today was actually the first day where I did everything according to my face-face timetable, since going online.

Some thoughts about my units:

SS: Did an online exam for SS last week, which went well. Got my results right after finishing, since it was a quiz. But then the markers looked at my quiz and gave me an extra 2 marks, which was a nice surprise! Had a dry 4 hours worth of speech physics today, and I found it really hard to concentrate. Turn's out this afternoon's "tutorial" was just a 2 hour revision lecture, which was very repetitive. This subject definitely isn't in my good books atm :'(

LiPho: cruising I guess, practicing for my grammar analysis task. I enjoy the rhymthic approach to analysis, and the often very random sentences we are given to analyse aha. They ended up moving the task one week back (to week 9), as it was originally going to be the day after the end of the mid-sem break. Reasoning: they wanted us to have an actual break. Thought that was quite nice and considerate of them!  :)

Chem: we are actually heading back into familiar highschool territory of organic chemistry, which is good! Aced the tutorial quiz. Liking the satisfaction of getting calculation questions right. Practicals have started up again, which just means some more online quizzes, essentially.

Bio: Submitted an assignment about my motivations for study human bio, should be some easy marks. Learned about the nervous system, which was cool! Just starting a new topic about the digestive system, which is right down my alley! Just a lot of content to remember, but that's bio for ya!

Aside from sitting at my computer for what seems like forever each day, I have been occupying my boredom in other ways. I was accepted into the Questagame team, so I have been submitting photos of various insects and plants I have found on my little exercise expeditions. It's pretty hard to identify my submissions, but I give it a go.

I've also taken to building things. Like making things out of lego, as well as paper architectural models. I think this stems from an inner desire to look back on these isolation months, knowing that I actually did something, achieved something, rather than just staring at a computer screen.

I want the make the most of the free time I have (because I have a lot). Last week, I ended up getting through every possible form of study I could think of during the week, and had a whole study-free weekend, which was refreshing. But rather then just passively relaxing, I was productive in other ways. I baked, I played piano, I decluttered, socialised and exercised. So that's what I'm aiming to continue in these times. I find this approach helps to keep the boredom at bay, and maintains a healthy sense of motivation for each day forward.
Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: kauac on April 20, 2020, 03:49:29 pm
Hi!

Today's the first day back after our 1 week mid-sem break. I made the decision not to do any uni work in the break to have a well-needed proper rest. Work hard, play hard, right?

Easter was different but still nice. My family used to go camping by a river every year, but we still did some fun activities together at home this year. Church together, an afternoon walk/skate, easter egg hunt and campfire were all very enjoyable. Despite some quality family & friends time, I did get very very bored in the rest of the break though, and acquired some new hobbies (more like boredom busters, I don't think they'll be long term). These included skate boarding, drawing and making a diy wreath type thing with a coathanger. Very tempted to invest in buying lego (there are these really cool architecture sets), but of course, price is a factor, and I don't make purchase decisions very quickly.  ;D

As for uni, it was actually a pretty good day. Had a 8am zoom lecture this morning, and my alarm didn't go off, so I literally jumped out of bed at 7.57am, scrambled to make some breakfast and managed to log on before the lecture started. Very impressed with myself.  ;D My bio lecture today was on the kidney, which I've always had a fascination for, so that was cool! My Speech Science prac wasn't too tedious - and I understood what was going on, and was starting to memorise the function of the muscles.

Have a few assessments coming up. A grammar analysis task for LiPho next week, pretty confident about this, just have to do a few timed analysis practices. For bio, I have a scientific report to write about some health data our cohort collected. This week's tutorial is meant to be where we get feedback for our draft, but I haven't started yet, oops - to be fair, they only gave us the assignment on Good Friday.

Also had a zoom meeting for Questagame (the biodiversity app USYD team), which was a bit awkward, as it was mainly teaching staff with a couple of students. But, at least I got a few tips for snapping those plants and animals. Our team is currently coming first for sightings, and second for identification - gotta up Uni of Adelaide to be first in this one.

Upon reflection, I'll finish with a few tips for isolation/online learning.
- Beverages, especially water & hot drinks, are key for survival.
- Use those 5-10 minute breaks between class to stretch!
- Make sure you get outside at some point during the day.   :)
Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: salma.hijazi1 on May 12, 2020, 07:40:19 pm
Hey, im currently a year 12 student and am interested in this course. Just wondering what subjects you did in your HSC year and what your atar was like? Also, are there any prerequisites for this course?
Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: kauac on May 13, 2020, 08:43:49 pm
Hey, im currently a year 12 student and am interested in this course. Just wondering what subjects you did in your HSC year and what your atar was like? Also, are there any prerequisites for this course?

Hi!

That's cool that you are interested in this course!

I did a bit of a mixture of subjects for HSC: Adv English, 2U Maths, Chemistry, Biology, PDHPE & Food tech. My atar was 95.75 (the cut-off was 97). Sydney are fairly strict on the cut-off, but I was eligible for the future leaders scheme, which I think boosted my standing.

The only official prereq is getting a band 4 or higher in 2U maths (a requirement across all undergrad science students for USYD). Assumed knowledge is 2U Maths, Chemistry & biology - you can get away with not doing these, as long as you do a bridging course or self-learn the basics.

Feel free to send me a PM if you have any more questions.  :)

---------------------------------------

Hi!

Been plodding away at uni the last few weeks, enjoying the satisfaction of crossing assessments off my calendar!

I've done two short exams for LiPho - I've got my marks back for the grammar one, very excited, and the transcription test, I'm feeling fairly confident, so fingers crossed I can maintain a HD for the final exam! Submitted my scientific report for bio, on comparing wrist circumference and BMI and waist circumference, which was actually really interesting to research! I think I have completed all of my Chem Lab assessments now, which is good to get out of the way.

My exam timetable came out a few days ago, and I'm happy with it. I've got one take-home case study-style exam (Bio), two Proctor-U (SS & LiPho) and one online quiz style (Chem). There is at least two days between them all. But the one weird thing is that my LiPho exam is on a Saturday? My sister heard that linguistics exams at her uni (Macquarie) were also on a Saturday, so there might be a weird reason for that, I'm not sure!

Anyways, currently deciding if I should start to study for exams yet or not. I've got just over a month til they start. I just don't know how much time I'm going to need to feel adequately prepared, because I've never done this before! Because I don't want to start too early and then forgot things and have to revise again, but I also don't want to feel like I left everything to the last minute! Who knows! Maybe I'll focus on brushing up on skills, like chemistry calculations, before I officially go into ROTE mode.  :)

Oh and our team won the Questagame UniBioQuest, which is super cool! There is another round that happens in August, so I'll probably participate in that too.
Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: kauac on June 05, 2020, 09:08:32 pm
Hi, it's been a little while!

As for the whole: "should I start studying yet" dilemma, I did start with a bit of exam study and eased my way into full study mode - which is now, drawing to the end of STUVAC week. There was one point where I was bit stressed for a few days, but now I'm feeling pretty comfortable for exams. I think I got through my content quicker than I thought I would (but the question is, will I remember it all?  ;D).

I'm still waiting for several marks back for my subjects, which is kinda annoying, but nothing I can really do about that. For chem, we actually have to do a few more practicals in the winter break, so I don't know if we will even get our final results back when the others come out. Also just found out today that there is a whole topic that we are meant to self-learn for my Speech Science exam! Would have been nice if they actually told us this in lectures or emailed us or something! That's quite enough of my ranting, though!

I've kind of reflected on how this pre-exam study period doesn't feel as boring and lonely as previous ones, because I've just kept doing what I've been doing for several weeks now - exam study life is not much different from isolation life! Nevertheless, I'm keen to get these exams done! My timetable looks like this:

Tuesday: Bio
Thursday: Chem
Saturday: Linguistics & Phonetics
Wednesday: Speech Science

After that, guess it will be time for that 9 Week break? Though what does one do to occupy themselves for 9 weeks - I will find out! I'm keen to touch up on my Dutch, maybe go on a short holiday somewhere, try out some macrame even? I'll still be working, which is something.

It feels rewarding to have made it this far in the semester, and will be satisfying to conquer the exams!

Oh and I've made it my challenge in June to learn "goodbye" in a different language every day, so that by the end of the month, I will be able to say goodbye in 30 different languages.

So today, I bid you farewell in Swedish:

adjö  :)
Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: kauac on June 09, 2020, 08:55:46 pm
Well, just completed my first ever uni exam! 1 down, 3 to go!

I had human bio today. Probably the most relaxed exam I've ever done - complete with a midway snack, starjumps and stretching - quite fitting, for the exam. So basically we were given 7 patient case studies, and we had to choose 5 and diagnose, explain the biology behind it and suggest treatments. It was helpful being open book, as well as getting a choice of cases, meaning that we could play to our strengths. The 3 hours kinda dragged on forever - haven't done a 3 hour exam since HSC! I think I did well though, it just depends on how picky the marking will be. Anyways, tomorrow I will focus on chem practice questions, and memorising linguistics and phonetics.

A mundane anecdote:
Spoiler
So the instructions for the exam reccommended clearing the browsing history on my laptop. So I did that, but now I have to login to everything again, including AN,  which is kinda inconvenient. So many passwords I now have to try and remember!

Adios!

(Spanish)  :)
Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: katie,rinos on June 09, 2020, 09:01:08 pm
Good luck for your other 3 exams!!  :D
Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: kauac on June 09, 2020, 09:09:06 pm
Good luck for your other 3 exams!!  :D

Thanks Katie! How you are finding the start of the new term?

It seems so strange that you guys are just starting again when we are finishing:)
Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: katie,rinos on June 09, 2020, 09:22:36 pm
Thanks Katie! How you are finding the start of the new term?

It seems so strange that you guys are just starting again when we are finishing:)
It's been pretty good so far but I'm not too keen for it all to be online.  :)

(It's weird because I'm waiting for some friends assessments/exams to be over before meeting up but I'm already starting back)
Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: kauac on June 11, 2020, 08:12:19 pm
Chem is now done and dusted!

Feeling a bit disappointed about it, so maybe writing this will help me to vent a bit aha.

I wasn't sure if they would increase the difficulty of questions, since it was open book. But the questions were actually decent, and fairly similar to past papers that were closed book.

BUT, having to type up our working out for short answer questions took forever! It was really frustrating, because most of the time was spent typing and formatting our answer, rather than doing a calculation or thinking about how to get the answer. As well as this, we had to keep going back and forward between questions on different pages, because we needed the data from previous questions. All of this meant that I was stressed and rushing to put down at least some sort of working out for all questions, some answers only half-finished.

I feel a bit robbed, because there were questions I knew how to answer, and would have answered perfectly fine, had it been a paper exam. This seems to be the common opinion on our unit's discussion board, so I wonder how the markers will respond.

Regardless, it's over, time to rest (for tonight :) ), and focus on my next exam, Linguistics and Phonetics. I did a practice Proctor U Test for this yesterday, which was pretty weird - with remote control, and speaking to my proctor and all. So the plan for tomorrow is to go through and memorise all the mindmaps I have made (about 12), and maybe do some practice questions, if I have time.


Pozdrav!

(Croatian: This is really hard to say in real life haha!)
Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: kauac on June 26, 2020, 10:44:45 am
Hi!

It's been a bit over a week since I finished exams. The last two exams were on Proctor U, which was an interesting experience! After hearing a lot of negative talk about Proctor U, I found it okay. It was a bit weird that we were being recorded while we did the exam though!

Linguistics and phonetics went alright! The multiple choice were pretty good, but there was one tricky short answer on aphasia - that wasn't really covered in a lot of detail in the lectures. It was a really short exam though - I got through all of the questions in less than an hour for a two hour exam!

Speech science went better than expected! It was mainly multiple choice, and most of them were alright. I had a good shot at the nerve lesion short answer, which is notoriously tricky.

Since exams, I have been working a lot, relaxing, and hanging out with friends and family. I think I always feel a bit funny after finishing exams, because I have had a certain routine for a while, and then all of a sudden, it's gone! So guess I'm starting to get into new routines now, as well as trying to be spontaneous (though that's not my natural tendency  ;D).

I bought a lego set of Tokyo city, which was been really fun to build! Been trying to keep up with my June "goodbye" language challenge, but honestly, 1 language a day is a lot for someone with low motivation haha! I should get back into learning Dutch as well!

In July I have a few more online practicals that we need to complete for chem, but other than that, I'm uni-free for the next 8 and a bit weeks. Looking forward to the EU conference later in July as well!

안녕
["annyeong"]
(Korean)
Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: kauac on July 11, 2020, 12:05:40 pm
My results for this semester came out a few days ago! I think USYD was one of the first uni's I know of to release results, which is weird, considering semester 2 goes back so much later.

Bio: 81 DI - a bit disappointed, because it was really just one assignment that I didn't do very well in that made the difference between a HD and DI.
Speech Science: 86 HD - pretty shocked in a good way! I found this subject fairly challenging all semester - but I'm glad my efforts paid off!
Linguistics and Phonetics: 88 HD - pretty much what I was expecting, so I'm happy with that.
Chem: still waiting for results - have to finish my holiday pracs first.

Although I was a little disappointed about bio, I'm stoked to have 2 HD's and a DI so far! Just have 2 more pracs to go, and then I have officially completed my first semester of uni!

My break has been busy! I've been working 30-35 hours each week, and then have been exercising and catching up with various friends in-between. I'm taking a bit of time off work at the end of July for various conferences, so hopefully that will be a bit more relaxing!

Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: kauac on August 09, 2020, 05:12:18 pm
A rainy Sunday afternoon, and the gym's not open  :'( ...So thought I'd pop in here.... So my Chem results came out early (meant to be officially released tomorrow, but was sent an email on Friday)!

Over the moon ecstatic to get an 85 (HD)! I was expecting a low credit, so I was actually laughing at how I managed to pull this one off! All I must say is that they must have been very kind when marking/scaling the final exam.  :)

Had an awesome week off work! Super recharging and gave me a chance to reflect / look forward on life and plans and such. Work's settled down now, so I've got a more manageable amount of hours.

I signed up and started the second round of Questagame, which will be fun! I've only taken a few photos of birds at the moment, so I probably should be a little more intentional about it - since it is a competition, after all!

I've had a bit of a look at what my timetable looks like for this semester. In terms of face-face, I'll have 3 hours of tutes each week - mostly likely a Wednesday morning, and then 2 chem pracs in the semester. So still mostly online at this stage. Honestly, I feel like this semester will be a bit dry will all the data science and maths I'm doing, but I've just got to get through before I can get to bigger and better things. Still a few more weeks before I head back. Hoping to sneak a little trip away before uni/potential lockdown sets in.  :)
Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: angewina_naguen on August 09, 2020, 05:34:53 pm
Congratulations on your amazing results  ;D They're super impressive and very well-deserving!

Also great to see that you're thinking positively about the online learning experience as much as possible. What are your thoughts on how USYD's handled the pandemic, for next semester as well as overall?
Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: kauac on October 23, 2020, 01:55:20 pm
Hi! It's been a mighty while!
(So long that I had forgotten my AN password, oops!)

So this semester's been happening... Now at the end of week 8 of 12. I've been enjoying going into campus once a week for some F2F tutorials. Always lots of protests when I go though, = lots of police, so it's a bit strange.

I also had 2 lab skills sessions for chem... I'm pretty hopeless when it comes to pracs though, so I found them pretty scary and intense. Thankfully it was just a P/F mark for this though, so it ended up being fine.

I don't think I've recorded what subjects I am doing yet, so here they are and how I'm finding them:

- BIOL1007: From Molecules to Ecosystems - fairly interesting and not too hard - liked the genetics and biochem sections, not so much the plant science
- CHEM1112: CHEM 1B - has been okay. Did a lot of organic chem and analysing spectrums (a little tedious), but not too bad.
- DATA1001: Foundations of Data Science - starting off liking this a lot: learning about experimental design and how to code using R, but now I find the lectures a bit dull (using R is still cool though :) ).
- MATH1013: Linear Algreba - Enjoying this quite a lot! A bit different to the kind of maths I did in highschool, but it's a very methodical process using matrixes to solve things, and the lecturers are really helpful (and provide pretty lecture notes!).
- MATH1014: Mathematical Modelling. Building on highschool 2U, but somehow I'm struggling with this one a lot more!? I feel like the lectures make sense, but when I get to tutorials, I have no idea what I'm doing! Probably need more practice.

Very ready for this semester to be over! My friends from other uni's are all wrapping up their classes and starting exams, whereas USYD still has 5 weeks before exams to go! Have felt very time poor this semester since I'm doing 5 subjects (even though it's the same amount of credit points). Mainly because I have to spend more time on maths since it's not my strong suit - probably more time than my 6cp subjects, oops.

Being on campus has been great, though! I had free pancakes yesterday, which was a nice surpise! Been good to have some social interaction in classes (even though I'm less productive), rather than just focusing on the work, when classes are online.

Participated in a research interview in the mid-semester break for chemistry. They were testing how VR technology could assist in visualising substitution reactions, so that was cool! I feel like you aren't officially a uni student until you participate in some sort of research for uni.

I started playing a mixed indoor netball competition with my brother and sister, which has been exciting - and something to look forward to each week! Work has been alright - doing a manageable amount of shifts (around 15-20 hours), and have been training a lot of newer workers. Going to have full rest day on Saturday - no uni work or working, which is exciting! Probably going to go shopping!

What are your thoughts on how USYD's handled the pandemic, for next semester as well as overall?

I think USYD have managed things pretty well. It's been good that they have offered some things F2F whilst being flexible for students where this isn't possible for them. They also have given plenty of extra resources for online learning, which is terrific!

Not sure why they gave us such a long break in between semesters, but hope it was helpful for them!
Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: kauac on December 23, 2020, 01:30:37 pm
Another semester down, only 8 more to go!  ;D

Exams flew by - most of them of were quite difficult, but it's satisfying to have finished them now. Marks are supposed to come out sometime in January, but my marks for BIOL1007 came out early, which was cool. I ended up with an 88 (HD), which I'm really happy with. It'll probably be my highest mark for the semester, since I did find my maths subjects quite challenging. Just hoping I passed these (but if not, my back-up is repeating them as January intensives).

Feeling a bit more confident with my lab skills after having a chill microbiology skills session one week. Quite familiar with pipetting now, and had a go at using the spectrophotometer and various microscopes, which will be helpful for next year and beyond.

When I went to campus for the last week of semester, I was getting a little sad that I wouldn't be back there again until March. That's not normally like me to get emotional haha, but going to campus has been a highlight of this half of the year! We had a little party in our chemistry tute that week to celebrate end of semester, which was pretty cute! Turns out it was our tutor's last tutorial, since they were graduating, so a nice way for them to finish too.

It seems uni next year will probably be pretty similar to this semester in terms of online / F2F learning. Going in for 1 day a week was certainly sustainable, but I do wonder how I'll go with all the travel when we eventually go back to full-time F2F. But that's a problem for future Katie! I am looking forward to my subjects next semester, since content becomes more specific - doing a bit of biochem, physiology, a speech/hearing unit and some OLE's (Open Learning Environment). Not too sure what OLE's I will pick yet, but there are some cool health-related ones. I was even thinking of doing a music notation one, since I play the piano and can read music, hopefully it shouldn't be too hard!

Uni break for me looks like some part-time work, getting around to those things that I put off during semester and resting in-between. Hoping to get away for a bit in January, (covid-willing), but if not, I'll find ways to enjoy some relaxation at home. Already started building some lego, cooking a bit, and thinking about getting back into learning Dutch (now that I have the brainspace). Should be a great next few months!

Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: kauac on February 07, 2021, 02:33:57 pm
I've been doing a whole lot of nothing the last couple of days since having wisdom teeth surgery on Friday... seems like an ideal time to update my journal.  ;D

Bit of a mammoth post, so decided to section it all off!

2020, Semester 2 Update
Spoiler
Got the rest of my results back in January... they kinda trickled in by email every few days, rather than all being released at once on the official release day, which was kinda nice actually. Pleased to announce that I passed my maths units, yay! No maths summer intensives for me. :)

MATH1013: 69 CR - This was my hardest subject all semester and I felt overwhelmed after each tutorial, so to get a credit in this is a surprise and relief!

MATH1014: 79 DI - Very happy, stoked to get a distinction in a maths unit! This unit was very fun, and I loved the methodical nature of working with vectors and matrixes. The final exam was shocking, so glad my marks still reflected how I was tracking throughout semester.

DATA1001: 84 DI - Also a nice surprise! The content was easy enough and I had done well in all the projects, but the final exam was definitely intense. 1 mark off a HD though aha.

CHEM1112: 81 DI - Very content. Pretty similar to last semesters' chem results, and considering I had all this maths to deal with, I think I handled this subject quite well.

BIOL1007: 88 HD - Good stuff! Wasn't sure how I'd go with the long responses, since bio marking tends to be a bit picky, but it turned out great in the end.

Can't think of any other uni-related things from last year, so let's continue onto this year.

2021, Semester 1
Spoiler

Made a minor change to my enrolment: I'm now doing a second major (rather than a minor) in Speech and Hearing Science. I'm really excited for all of my subjects this year! Only thing is, this semester it's looking like I'll have 27 hours of classes / week, which is a bit nightmarish! I blame all the pracs - esp biochem, which will be 4hrs! Enough said, here's my subjects for this semester:

BCMB2901 - Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Advanced)
PHSI2007 - Key Concepts in Physiology
BIOS2166 - Neuroscience of Hearing
OLET1504 - Health Challenges: Diabetes
OLET1510 - Health Challenges: Sleep
OLET1801 - Music Theory and Notation Essentials

This seems like too many subjects, but the last three are just 2 cps each, since they are online open learning units. This will be my first lot of OLE's, not too sure what to expect in terms of difficulty or how time I need to dedicate to them each week. The good thing about them though is that they are basically self-paced, so I guess if there are weeks where my other subjects are really demanding, I can be a bit flexible about my OLE learning.

I'm really keen for the diabetes subject, since it was created by a lecuturer I had last year in human bio that I really enjoyed. Sleep should be cool too, since it's an area of health where I really don't have any background knowledge in or know anything about. I picked the music one with the intention of it being an easy subject, since I learned music theory in piano lessons for many years in primary & highschool. I'm wondering whether it might actually be a bit harder than what I first thought, but should still be cool! Kinda fun to say that I'm studying a subject at the con this semester haha.

Feeling both thrilled and nervous to be studying biochem this year. I first fell in love with biochem when I did an option module for it in HSC chemistry, and have been keen to delve into it further ever since (only did fairly broad biochem stuff in first year bio). I've heard this subject is really intense (and perhaps not too well organised), so I'm a little worried. Last year I was adamant that I wouldn't pick any advanced / SSP units, because I wanted to make uni as cruisy as possible. I kinda picked advanced biochem on a whim, since my friend was doing it and we wanted to be in the same practical. As far as I can tell, the two different streams are fairly similar, except the pracs are more research-oriented in advanced, which could be cool! I guess I see how I go in the first couple of weeks - it it gets too much, I have until census date to drop back down to the mainstream.  ;D

Physiology sounds really interesting as well! Kinda seems like human bio 2.0, since structurally it's very similar - looking at all the different body systems and doing pracs for them. The pracs will be in the Charles Perkins Centre, which is exciting! I can pretend to be a real fancy scientist now :)

Neuroscience of hearing is the unit for my Speech / Hearing major this semester. If it's anything like the hearing version of speech science from last year, it will be intense, but good! Apart from not being able to choose our prac time, I generally appreciate how the Faculty of Medicine and Health is run, and they're good a giving exam feedback and things like that. I wonder whether we will be working with cadavers again in pracs - guess I'll have to wait and see!

As for my timetable, I submitted my class preferences and am waiting to receive my timetable back in the next few days. I'll looking like I will be heading down to campus for 1 day a week, and 2 days each fortnight, which is fairly ideal actually! All of my lectures are online, (except for physiology!?) so I'll be watching those at home and just going in for pracs. Have a couple of online tutorials, but some of them are only fortnightly as well. Still waiting for all the unit outlines to come out for this semester though - will be helpful having a bit more info about each subject.

Next semester should be a breeze though, I calculated that I will only have 17 hours of classes (instead of 27!), so I'll try and keep that in mind this semester in moments when I am feeling swamped with uni! Think that's about it for uni stuff.

& Everything Else :)
Spoiler

I have been working a fair bit over the break, some weeks 30+ hours. We have just changed over owners at the store which has been a little bit crazy with lots of new changes and workers, but things are starting to settle down again.

Been looking to find some more health-related casual work. Recently just applied for a perfect job - a diet aide at my local hospital. Basically working under the supervision of a dietitian to help patients select meals and then deliver them. The job description says it would suit a dietetics student, but I don't think I have much of a chance of getting it, but good application practice, I guess!

Have managed to slip away a few times for a youth camp, camping with friends and then with my family. Finally have been able to use my swag that I got for Christmas 2019! Very easy to set-up and pack-up, I'm quite happy with it! I've been to several different beaches across the last month or so, which has been nice! Good to get out of the house.

About my wisdom teeth surgery (thought I'd write a little about this so I can remember the experience when I look back on this)... was my first time having surgery / general anaesthetic, so I was feeling a bit nervous... Especially since I had to do the whole hospital experience solo due to COVID. Honestly, it was nothing to be nervous about... everything went smoothly, the whole anaesthetic experience wasn't too wacky... I remember looking at the clock in the recovery ward while I was still half-asleep, saw the time, and proceeded to try and wake myself up properly ASAP because I wanted to watch the livestream of my friends' wedding that was happening soon. Probably wasn't the smartest idea because I was feeling fairly dizzy, but I really wanted to watch the wedding! Kind of missed the first half due to the livestream lagging, but glad that I could still join for part of it!

I've been feeling alright post-surgery, tend to feel a bit funny in the head in the afternoon / evenings though. I'm meant to be back at work on Wednesday - I think I'm on track for that at this stage. My face is still a bit swollen (feel a little like a chipmunk) and I'm dosed up on pain killers, but other than that, we all think I am doing really well considering!

Leaving the most exciting thing til last, our family recently got a puppy! His name is Jaffa, and he's a 7 month old border collie cross kelpie rescue dog. He's got so so much energy and loves to lick our feet, but very cute. Definitely feels like our family is collectively trying to raise a child together, so it can be challenging at times, but a lot of fun! He's been very gentle and has been looking out for me the last couple of days as I live on the couch.


Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: kauac on February 11, 2021, 08:52:11 pm
A lil update:

Got all my uni preferences that I wanted, yay! No annoying trips to campus for me, just my weekly day and fornightly two days.

Recovering from surgery is taking longer than expected, which is a bit frustrating. I feel bad for having to take more time off work, but I just keep getting dizzy all the time. Think it could be sinus related. I'm following it up with my GP & surgeon. Have been sleeping for 11+ hours every night - which is great, but also, when will my body go back to normal haha? Jaffa has been keeping me company while I'm resting. He's pretty cute and likes to get me to hold his paw, but then he tries to sneak up and lick my face.  :)

Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: K888 on February 11, 2021, 10:40:06 pm
A lil update:

Got all my uni preferences that I wanted, yay! No annoying trips to campus for me, just my weekly day and fornightly two days.

Recovering from surgery is taking longer than expected, which is a bit frustrating. I feel bad for having to take more time off work, but I just keep getting dizzy all the time. Think it could be sinus related. I'm following it up with my GP & surgeon. Have been sleeping for 11+ hours every night - which is great, but also, when will my body go back to normal haha? Jaffa has been keeping me company while I'm resting. He's pretty cute and likes to get me to hold his paw, but then he tries to sneak up and lick my face.  :)


For what it's worth, having surgery and a GA really takes it out of you and it's not unusual to take several weeks to recover! It's a real shock to your system and takes a toll on it, so don't feel like an alien for taking a bit of time to recover haha.

Jaffa sounds absolutely adorable, sounds like he's just what you need to help you get better ;)
Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: kauac on February 12, 2021, 10:24:18 am
For what it's worth, having surgery and a GA really takes it out of you and it's not unusual to take several weeks to recover! It's a real shock to your system and takes a toll on it, so don't feel like an alien for taking a bit of time to recover haha.

Jaffa sounds absolutely adorable, sounds like he's just what you need to help you get better ;)

Definitely agree with you K888!  :)

I think I was a bit naive going into surgery about how long it would take to recover... In some ways I did recover fairly quickly (in terms of swelling & pain), however I coming to realise now that it might take a couple of weeks to get back to 100% peak health.

Adopting Jaffa has been a highlight of the year so far... it's so funny watching him relate to us and the world, because he really is a puppy in an adult sized body.
Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: kauac on August 07, 2021, 01:25:33 pm
Woah, I let this journal slide for a bit too long!

Enjoying my final weekend before uni starts again - as much as one can enjoy lockdown aha. It hasn't all been bad though, I've had plenty of time to complete my lockdown fun bucket list, including reorganising spaces, creative projects, building lego and the classic lockdown activity - baking.

Been exercising more than ever, taking the chance to go for long walks with friends & fam, as well as 30 min strength workouts and plenty of running. I'm starting to do a couple of longer runs again (like when I was training for my half marathon). I did 16km on Thursday and I really surprised myself with how fast my pace was - probably about 20 seconds / km faster than paces I have previously at similar distances. I've put it down to the fact that I've had a year and a half of gym workouts and leg toning, which have hopefully made my leg muscles more powerful in each stride. I've taken to really craving the sore muscle feeling the day after a workout - is that weird?

Back to some actual uni stuff... I think last semester it took me several weeks to adjust to my uni schedule life - I changed my sleep schedule and had the most hours of classes I had ever taken. I think I cried when I looked at my uni schedule last semester, but I just did this semester's one yesterday, and it's actually not looking too bad! After last sem's first couple of rough weeks, I settled into everything and the rest of semester flew by!

Subject wise, I loved all of my OLE's, and a tough choice, but I think Sleep Health was my favourite. It was good to get them out of the way before my other exams started. For molecular biology/ biochem, the former was painful and confusing, the latter was very interesting and relevant to nutrition. I despised the pracs because I am a disaster with a pipette, but I liked the theory side of the pracs - designing and running assays for blood glucose and blood alcohol levels. Physiology pracs were amazing! Feel like I just started to work on some clinical skills, doing things like running an ECG and testing blood glucose levels. Neuroscience of Hearing - the second half, more focused on hearing, was brilliant! However I felt robbed in terms of assessments for that subject - it was only MC for every single assessment, but I feel like often the things I got wrong were just tiny irrelevant details that actually don't contribute anything to the topic as a whole. Despite feeling very confident as a subject, I don't think this was reflected in my marks, which was a bummer. But we live and learn, don't we!

This semester is looking great! We will be entirely online for the first 4 weeks at least, probably more, considering the state of Sydney at the moment! And I'm finally only doing 4 normal sized subjects, which has been a rareity for me so far:

BCMB2002: Proteins in Cells - not looking forward to molecular bio again, but maybe there will be some relevant things about proteins that might be helpful for nutrition.
PHSI2008: Integrated Physiology. Keen! Pracs sound fantastic, a bummer that we will be missing out on some of them F2F. But they have a whole module dedicated to nutrition, which will be brilliant!
CSCD2070: Human Communication Development. Looks interesting! I think I will need to brush up (A LOT) on my transcription skills, but I found out it is being coordinated by a great lecturer I had in first year, so that should be a ball!
CSCD2071: Audiology 1 - Seems like this one will follow on from the Neuroscience of Hearing, and sounds like a fairly practical, clinical subject, which is cool!

Overall, I only have 17 hrs of classes, which is very managable! I've decided to dedicate a bit more time to EU activities, as well as just have some free time on my weekly schedule, which is amazing! I don't mind doing uni online actually, it'll just be the online pracs that will be a killer. I'm planning on getting back into waking up a bit earlier - 6.15 or 6.30 for a relaxed morning routine, before starting uni stuff at 7.30. I haven't talked about work because I took 2 weeks off, which has been amazing! Dreading going back to work but I think once I'm back it won't be as bad as I thought.

Well, I think that's it for now... back to my restful weekend. :)

Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: kauac on January 04, 2022, 06:42:11 pm
This journal hasn't seen daylight for some time! I'll have to admit I haven't been on AN for ages, but seems like a mild case of COVID and spare time to kill has brought me back! ;)

Let's do a semester 2 recap!

The whole semester was online, so it actually flew by pretty quickly!

Proteins in Cells was pretty hard, but my mark was so good it actually made me laugh. Pracs were long and hard, a lot of excel and watching other people do assays. Did like learning about amino acids though!

Physiology was good! Some modules better than others - my favourites were the pain / CNS lectures, nutrition and ear lectures. The bioengineering module was something different, way out of my comfort zone but learned a lot!

HCD was cool, actually loved the assignments! We got to interview a 4 yo child and then analyse a sample of their language, which was lots of fun! I tend to have a fairly analytical brain, so it was a slow and meticulous process.

Loved, loved, loved audiology! Just so good to dive into a specific area of healthcare, learn how to perform and analyse different types of audiological testing. And definitely picked up some clinical skills that will be helpful for wherever I end up! Another nice thing was that we just had one 3hr Zoom class for this a week (with breaks, how good!!) which was super chill and we got to know the lecturers quite well!

I always say I want to join more clubs / societies but then the busyness of semester kicks in and I don't commit. Sydney recently started up a Yoga society so I did 1 zoom session and that was it haha. Maybe I'll try a few more classes this year. Still pretty involved with the EU though, which has been a joy!

Only had 1 exam in the finals period semester 2, since the rest of my units were just made up of assessments. Went to the Central Coast with my friend for a weekend in between finishing my other subjects and my exam, which was a treat! Well needed, I think, since I was approaching burn out towards the end of the semester.

Went away for a week after uni for an EU conference / weekend mission trip! That was cool to get out and about, meet old and new friends and see new parts of Australia. Had to call the NRMA but all ended up well!

2022 & Semester 1

Christmas was great for catching up with fam I haven't seen in a while! Plenty of food to go round. Didn't really do anything for NYE, because my sister and I had been on a bit of a river expedition floating down the river for several hours on water mattresses and got quite burnt / tired.

Been having a few hayfever/ cold symptoms the last couple of days and came back with a positive RAT test this morning. So off I went to try and get a PCR (which is so so hard to get at the moment, so many places are still closed from Christmas!). By God's grace, I rocked up to my second testing clinic for the morning an hour before it closed and I got tested within 30 minutes. So now I have to wait until I officially get my results back to contact people and stuff. I'm not actually feeling that sick (even felt better today than yesterday), the vaccine is pretty good for that!

Onto semester 1 for this year - haven't done my weekly schedule yet but did my enrollment couple of days ago, and here's my subjects:

FOOD3001 - Food Processing and Value Adding
NUTM3001 - Introductory Nutrition and Metabolism
BIOS3166 - Neuroscience of Hearing II
OLEs (still considering which ones, but likely a physiology, chemistry and arts one)

Super keen for these subjects since they're all quite niche, and I'm finally getting into some proper nutrition subjects! I expect them all to be quite intense assessment-wise, but it should be worth it! It's looking like I'll be in at uni 2 days a week for some practicals, I think all lectures will be online - I think this is my ideal uni model. Planning to be involved in some EU things as well (hopefully in-person). For prac locations, I'll be in the Charles Perkins Centre (cool but also a hike) and also another building which is on the other side of Redfern, fun! The topics sound great though!

Whilst life (and a consistent exercise schedule  ;D) is on hold at the moment, I've still been a bit productive. Applied for a hospital job today, planning things for a youth camp that I'm leading on in a few weeks time, ticking things off my to-do list. Got some more lego for Christmas so I've built one already - a flower bouquet. Might make a start on the other - a friends central perk set - this week. Maybe I can get into reading - something that I normally try and do during holidays. It's a world of possibilities.

Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: katie,rinos on January 04, 2022, 07:08:27 pm

Went away for a week after uni for an EU conference / weekend mission trip! That was cool to get out and about, meet old and new friends and see new parts of Australia. Had to call the NRMA but all ended up well!
Did you go to NTE?? If so, I also went with CBS!! Where about did you go for mission?  ;D


So great your not feeling too sick with covid at the moment! Really hope that the recovery goes well & staying at home isn't too annoying/boring!
Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: kauac on January 10, 2022, 11:16:42 am
Did you go to NTE?? If so, I also went with CBS!! Where about did you go for mission?  ;D


So great your not feeling too sick with covid at the moment! Really hope that the recovery goes well & staying at home isn't too annoying/boring!

Yes I did go to NTE! Really solid teaching on mission, hey! :) I went to Berkeley (south of Wollongong) for mission. What about you?

Thanks! Haven't run out of things to do in isolation just yet, and I'm almost done.  ;D
Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: katie,rinos on January 10, 2022, 05:22:58 pm
Yes I did go to NTE! Really solid teaching on mission, hey! :) I went to Berkeley (south of Wollongong) for mission. What about you?

Thanks! Haven't run out of things to do in isolation just yet, and I'm almost done.  ;D
Would've been funny if we saw each other there (but there were so many people)! yeah, I had heaps to reflect on from the talks & strand groups were so good!

ohh, Wollongong's nice (never been to Berkeley before though)! Did your group get to go to the beach?

I was at Chester Hill for mission (kinda near Fairfield/Bankstown area). It was a super multicultural church & I'd never done mission before so was really great to be involved in lots of new things & get a lot closer to our mission team.   ;D
Title: Re: Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal
Post by: kauac on January 12, 2022, 04:30:47 pm
Would've been funny if we saw each other there (but there were so many people)! yeah, I had heaps to reflect on from the talks & strand groups were so good!

ohh, Wollongong's nice (never been to Berkeley before though)! Did your group get to go to the beach?

I was at Chester Hill for mission (kinda near Fairfield/Bankstown area). It was a super multicultural church & I'd never done mission before so was really great to be involved in lots of new things & get a lot closer to our mission team.   ;D

That would have be funny haha! Sounds like both NTE and mission was a really valuable time! We didn't go to the beach as a team but I stayed an extra day and went with a friend after haha.  :)