Broc N’ Roll – kauac’s uni journal

[kauac]

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!

[Sine]

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.

[kauac]

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?  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!

[ashmi]

Hey Kauac! Great to see a new update!

Popping in for a quick update:

Also, mandatory 8am lectures on mondays for speech?  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

[kauac]

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.  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!

[Bri MT]

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

[kauac]

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! 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!

[kauac]

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!

[kauac]

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!

[kauac]

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.

[kauac]

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. 

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.  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.   

[salma.hijazi1]

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?

[kauac]

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.

[kauac]

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?  ).

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 

[kauac]

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)