Uni Stuff > The University Journey Journal

A tax-free Science journal by Dutyfree

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dutyfree:
Uni journal P7.
Review of mid-semester break and week 8:
I’ve honestly been a wreck. Just when I thought, I had some semblance of a sleep schedule, out pops seizure no.5. I’ve sort of had enough, I don’t know what the medication actually does anymore. It tires me out a bit and affects my mood. During the break, to my parents, I probably looked like I was doing practically nothing and just reading all day. My main priority was to stay calm and prevent spiralling. My doc said, I don’t treat myself very well and I think that statement left a mark.

Positives: Even if its barely, I’m still handing my assignments on time and trying to complete them to the best of my ability. I’m learning and practising how to control my mood, to keep a healthy, stable mindset. It’s going to take a while.

Studies: I don’t know who made up that, ‘arts subjects are easy’ because they are NOT! Mm, I think for me it’s very difficult to get over that 90% barrier. They don’t have strict criteria, like the science subjects, so it’s based on how you interpreted what they want you to write about. I’m enjoying writing, it wasn’t one of my better subjects when I was younger but I’m glad the excessive reading of Wikipedia/ random websites has helped. Bio, chem and stats are so-so, still within the path to meet my expectations.

Major/ minors: I’ve been considering physiology/ developmental biology/ biochemistry or chemistry as a major. I’m indecisive even after reading the past unit guides and my interest is pretty even for all 4. After talking to the bio PASS tutor, I’m a little bit more inclined to do at least a minor in chem. We shall see after this semester’s performance.

Goals: hopefully, keep a clear head and stay in control.
-   Um, breathe pls!
 :)

dutyfree:
Uni journal P8.
2020 Sem 2: Review
The last couple of weeks of semester 2 were brutal. I felt like I was burnt out and procrastinated a ton. It was hard balancing random extra-activities, volunteering and studies.
Semester 2 was messy. I had multiple meetings with professors about motivation levels and managing studies. I dedicated too much time and effort to unnecessary leadership activities and work. On a positive note, I’m proud of myself, with getting through this year with my sanity still slightly in check. I improved on my sleep schedule and tried my best to avoid all-nighters. I only went on 3 social media blackouts and managed to maintain all my close friendships (yay).

2020 Sem 2: Results
ATS1298: 81 HD, CHM1022: 88 HD, STA1010: 91 HD, BIO1022: 93 HD
ATS: oof, only scraped a hd + sort of disappointed. I allowed too much leeway, felt too secure with the first 2 assignments and gave myself 2 days!!?! to write a 40% essay. Of course, that ended badly – 68%, thus, a subject that I began as ‘easy to manage’ turned out to be my worst score.
Learning point: start essays early (roll eyes), stay consistently motivated to do well in all assessments.
CHM, BIO: surprised, considering my in-semester marks were mediocre compared to last semester.
STA: doing SCI1020 helped a ton, otherwise with the pace of the unit, I would’ve been left behind, just as probability started.

To be honest, I was just flat out shocked with my results. I mean, I tried my best with in-semester assessments, but my exam prep was minimal to non-existent. SWOTVAC consisted of just procrastinating with BTS videos and transferring slabs of info from the textbook to a word document and calling it ‘notes’. 2 days before the exam, I would flip through PASS notes and watch Khan Academy (bless).
This lack of actual studying is why I don’t think I deserve the grades. Immediately after the exams, I go through a mild breakdown, imagine the worst possible outcome and calculate a hypothetical WAM to make sure I’m mentally ready to see the number when the results come out. Sometimes, when I talk to my friends and listen to them complaining about studying for hours, I wonder if I’m doing this whole uni-thing wrong. Anyways, I’m very pleasantly surprised about the results and more motivated to believe that I have more potential if I consistently engage with my studies.

Next semester, I’ll try different subjects to solidify what I want to major in. I think, I’m definitely doing physiology but I’m iffy about considering a major/minor in dev.bio, biochem or chem. I also miraculously got into the exec team in a society, without being engaged in first year at all, so I’m excited to be a part of that. I’m looking forward to the new year, after experimenting with how I learn and understanding how my mood affects everything I do!
 :)

Owlbird83:
AHH congrats with your results and improving your sleep schedule!!

I really admire your self discipline with the social media blackouts, I cannot successfully do them. What kind of impacts do they have on you? (positive or negative)

Woo! that's pretty cool about the leadership in the society! What kind of society?or if that would be too non-anonymous what is your role in the society? That sounds like a fun thing!


--- Quote from: dutyfree on December 23, 2020, 05:06:26 pm ---Learning point: start essays early (roll eyes)

--- End quote ---
same

I hope you have a relaxing holidays! take care of yourself  ;D

I hope we get the same physiology class next year!!

dutyfree:
Thanks  :) Owlbird83!
I usually drop out of social media when I get overwhelmed with studies/ work/ people or all of them mashed together ‘shrug’. Sometimes, I feel terrible when I don’t give people a warning before they worry, but now my friends pretty much know it’s standard procedure, so it’s okay.
I guess the impact is neutral. It’s just one thing I can let go of, when I’m stressed.

Mm, the x-society is sort of academic + some social events. I went for the secretary position cos I’m relatively organised and it seemed like the most ‘lay-low’ title with admin duties. I’m weirdly excited to write minutes, agendas and emails (my favourite thing)!!
I’ll see you in PHY2011!  ;D

dutyfree:
Uni journal P9.
Reflection of first year
I only attended on campus on the first day, but it was so underwhelming; traveling my (privileged) 2 stops by bus felt like going to the local high school again. I don’t know why I imagined it exactly as some coming of age film, with the pop song in the background and the great ‘not hot-not cold’ weather. I was about 15 minutes late to my 45-minute lecture and bonded with my fellow late attendee. But then I somehow thought we were going to be friends and add each other on Facebook, because we had a spark?!? (like a clueless idiot). Then I had my lab, where my hair tie decided to not fulfill its ONE job and broke. Thus, only one day in and I had breached their safety codes and had to wait 10 minutes for a rubber band, before participating. Review of day 1: eventful yet mediocre.

Then everything changed to online. Wow! It’s like gap year 2.0 gReat! To be honest, I didn’t find the online situation too hard to adapt to and even found the recorded labs much easier to comprehend (just a bit boring). I joined all the unit chats and even made a few friends from the 4am communicate-only-with-memes hours. Work was really hard to manage with uni, especially because they increased hours after some workers quit. I naively thought I could attend a tutorial at 9am after coming home at 3am (dead tired). So, the natural conclusion was that I had to take a break from my measly income, if I wanted to have good grades (+ a sane mind).

I’ve always known I get a bit too obsessed with calculating grades and percentages but 2020 took it even further. I would panic even if I had lost one mark in a 1% quiz, because that single mark translated to a little percentage subtracted from my grade. I knew it wasn’t healthy but somehow, I fooled myself into thinking that it was motivating and made me self-accountable (as a sort of mental punishment eek). Anyways, I arranged a couple of zoom meetings with my professors to find some other ways to encourage myself to study and stay organised. I think it sort of helped, they offered their own experiences with uni and it made me reanalyse how my perspective was so self-obsessed and arrogant.

Okay, onto the positives: I truly and genuinely appreciated my friends during the lockdown, all the memes, the tiktoks and random facts. My best friend and I bonded over our mutual and slightly consuming love for BTS. My laptop miraculously survived over the entire year (despite my dad’s lack of confidence) and though I’m currently typing on a new one, I will forever remember my OG, who has survived through overheating (a bunch), too many falls and tea spills. Rip

Overall, despite last year being rather abnormal and without much predictable structure, its only really another insignificant year in the timeline. I hope this year is conventional and stable for me. 
 :)

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