HEY! Where did all the time go? Is the second week of university done and gone already?
Week 1 mostly consisted of ice breaking and briefing sessions. (Click here to read about myvery first week at university!) I am now done with week 2 of foundation in science, and this week has been a reasonably manageable one, and the pace has not picked up so much that I cannot catch up – not just yet.
This week, we have just been given some assignments to do, and I am learning to adapt to this different part of uni life that is having to complete tutorial questions and practical lab simulationsbeforeattending tutorial and practical classes respectively. In high school, we seldom had to complete anything before entering the classroom – homework was always given to us to do after the class.
This week may have felt a bit short because Monday was a public holiday for Malaysia, so there were only 4 days of lectures. Our lecturers did not hesitate to set replacement classes throughout the week and the next, to make up for lost time.
Due to a replacement class for math on Thursday morning and a combined scientific report writing and APA citation & referencing workshop on Friday, the last two weekdays of Week 2 were FULLY BOOKED. That is effectively 6 hoursof (four) lectures on Thursday, with breaks in between, and more than 5 hours of lectures on Friday, with no break in between – I was literally seated in front of my computer, attending live sessions from 8 – 1.40pm back-to-back. Non-stop.
“Welcome to medicine,” said my father, when he saw me hurrying upstairs after lunch, to continue with the third lecture on Thursday. “That’s probably how studying for your medical degree will be like.”
“I don’t think so,” I replied. “Medicine must be way busier than the second week of our foundation year.” I huffed and puffed as I bounded up the last of the steps, not allowing myself to be deterred by my busy schedule – but only because I knew studying medicine must be a ton lot more hectic than this, and if I could not survive this now, then there was no need to talk about going up to the degree level. So this little bit of busyness has to be beneath me. I do not mean that in an arrogant way, but simply because with the start of my path in medicine, I know I must shift my very definition of “busy”.
Still, I am thoroughly enjoying the new experiences of online classes AND the different way of studying required at university, despite being stuck at home 24/7.
It’s Saturday and I am using the weekend to do some self-studying of Cell Biology. Time to throw myself into the third week!
And with that my first lecture week has ended and the new week has begun. About an hour ago I just finished attending a class on cell biology. I fell asleep out of exhaustion, despite having a lot of messy Biology notes to organize, and I literally woke up to the sounds of my father waking me up for my next lecture class: English.
I felt immediately embarrassed. My dad has to wake me up to attend my own classes! It should be my responsibility. I made a note to myself to set an alarm on my phone if ever my lecture periods are quite close to each other, and I plan on getting a cat nap between then.
1.35pm: Our teacher is going through How To Make Inferences now, but she is a little bit rushed in her teaching and I struggle to keep up.
2.10 pm: I am out of the lecture now. I have to take some rest, again. After that I will start working on Bio and leftovers of English.
2.45pm: I did not set an alarm. However I think my body, despite being extremely tired from staying up until 1.30 am last night watching my Biology teacher’s prerecorded videos on Carbohydrates, could not fall into a deep sleep because it knows it has things to do.
Now, let’s get to work!
I did manage to glean two quite useful things from my English lecture, and that is
1. inferences made must elaborate on and demonstrate a deeper level of external understanding as compared to what the paragraph is clearly stating, often including things that may be implied by the paragraph or is not even stated anywhere in the paragraph, and
2. the main idea of a paragraph can be found by underlining the main points as if you were making a summary of the paragraph, then writing a blanket main idea that seeks to cover the concept of all those key words as best as possible.
As for the details on how to answer the questions, I might go back to the replay and watch again. Time is tight, though, and I still have my biology notes, which needs thorough organizing for a smooth flow of thought, and a partial report to prepare. I have one more lecture for the day, though, and that is….
A mathematics tutorial class! From 4-5 pm. I’ll update you on that after the class! For now, I really must work a bit on Biology and English. See you in about three hours, real time.
3.19pm: I’m back so quickly, to tell you about something else. I went back to watch my Biology replay first. But I cannot concentrate on understanding what my teacher said in reply to a question I posed during the lecture, even though I know full well I need to. All I can focus on is judging my very own self, for my tone, for my fluency and confidence in communicating, for the way I asked the question, the way I “hassled” my teacher for the answer. Some part of me knows I am only being persistent in my studies, knows I have tried my best, knows I probably wasn’t being as annoying as I felt I was. Only I think so. But I have never been good at things like this.
I will keep working on overcoming this. It’s a small problem, and soon I will learn to judge myself less and be more natural. I already find my foundation so interesting and gradually I know being passionate and absorbed into my courses will take my mind of silly things like picking at the itty bitty details like the tone of my voice of my lack of confidence. Remember, if anyone can love yourself the most, it is you. So don’t waste time judging yourself for every single flaw. Acknowledgement of these flaws are still important, but don’t start feeling disgust of yourself. It is very debilitating and unhealthy.
I know my burning curiosity for learning will take me far, and all these barriers within myself will eventually fall away.
5pm: Alright! I am now done with my first math tutorial class. I have never had such a tutorial session like this before university, and it is a useful type of class specifically for asking questions based on a set of questions given to us to do. I think such sessions are very helpful indeed, and it makes us keep practicing.
5.15pm: I’m going to sit on my bed next to my window, just to soak up some Sun. I haven’t felt the warmth of the Sun on my skin for ages now.
6.20pm: Phew! It’s really hot. I’ve drawn the curtains. I’ve made a list of coursework and other odds and ends I need to get done, all academic related. I’ve got five things on the list. Going to get them done now, one by one! Hopefully I can get them done before dinner, which is…. too soon. Oh dear.
Mr Yeo* (name changed), my math lecturer, said after a while, when no one was willing to turn on their cam (camera) and an awkward silence followed his questions. “I want to hear your voices, to make sure you’re still alive.” I checked to make sure my mic was muted, and laughed out loud. That is totally not the typical thing your lecturer would say in a classroom.
But there was more. “Remember, you can eat or drink during your lectures,” he said, not even an inch of mischief in his voice. He said it matter-of-factly, like it were printed rules from the university code of conduct rule book. “And please, you can go to the toilet without my permission.” I heard someone cough, then a laugh come from my speakers.
What weirdness.
In a blink of an eye, I have already attended a whole week of university lectures!
The first week started off quietly, but it has begun swiftly nevertheless, and I did not even have the time to write a first day of university blogpost for you! 😛
From what I can gather from my lecturers, things will really pick up its pace from week two onwards. Ready your engines… it’s going to be a one-year spurt, charging head on toward the defining moment where I may or may not meet the requirements for my medical degree.
My online lectures are being conducted on Microsoft Teams, a tight-knit community platform which can be used by school or work accounts. Due to the COVID crisis, our university will be conducting online live stream learning for the rest of the semester. All our assignment documents and online class schedules are easily accessible through this special platform.
This week has been a busy yet fun one, as I tried to adapt to balancing lectures and the daily sessions with my father as he tried to guide me with my foundation syllabus. Having two parties trying to occupy your time and teach you, in their respective ways, is not easy to handle. But I have been managing it so far, whilst having fun, enjoying myself and learning new things. I hope to return to campus soon after this COVID situation improves, as I am quite eager to experience campus life!
“We have such a pretty teacher!” A student gushed during our first cell biology lecture class, right below our teacher’s nose – or, to be more precise, right below our teacher’s screen.
“Hahahahaha….” our teacher, Ms Nadiah (name changed), laughed loudly. She found this student so amusing. “Some of the students here are retaking the paper,” she explained to about a hundred of us, listening behind our screens in our own homes. Clink! The sound of a coffee cup was heard… this was probably a shared house for online teaching that the lecturers were sharing, or this could perhaps even be on campus grounds.
Suddenly, Ms Nadiah’s face turned serious. “My line… is lagging a bit ah! I might have to turn off my cam.” She was even so nice as to ask us if it was alright for her to turn off her camera, despite ALL ONE HUNDRED of us having our cameras disabled. No one wanted to show their face.
“Never mind lah, teacher,” said one student, safe behind a disabled camera. “All we need is to see your face.”
Still, online learning is not very much less of an experience. Your hair is messy and you’re still munching on the last of your breakfast. There is the new normal that constitutes an “e-classroom”, where your mom slides open your door every once in a while, and your dad barges in to listen to your lectures, out of curiosity, every ten minutes.
Your new excuse for being late to class is a bad internet connection…. and no one can really blame you for that. If you’re shy to answer a question in class, you can say your mic is not working, and type in the chat box instead. Most the time when you speak, your profile icon pulses, which can be set to a default blank image with your initials in bold on it. But sometimes it doesn’t even pulse, which means you can ask a question without fear of being judged; no one, not even the lecturer will know who you are. You can change the tone of your voice to avoid being recognized by voice; if anyone is even as observant as that.
Of course, I haven’t actually done any of that. This is my chance to gradually ease my way into uni, so I don’t want to let online learning get me too comfortable. Throughout the week I kept trying to push myself out of my own comfort zone, ask some questions, use the ‘raise hand’ function. It’s healthy, it’s good practice, for introverts like you and me (if you’re one). If you’re wondering, I’m actually an introvert in real life. However, I am very verbal and confident online. I am comfortable expressing myself through written or typed out words where I can backspace and prepare.
The workload for the first week has been quite light, though I am sure it will increase sharply in the coming weeks. The chemistry and physics questions mostly touch on the basics, topics we have learnt about in form 5 during our preparation for SPM, but just a few months of not studying has caused out minds to become rusty, and I have forgotten even how to solve the most basic mole ratio questions. Well… not to say forgotten, but perhaps I have to get used to the concepts and formulas I used to remember for SPM again.
I have printed out some of my notes for all the courses I am taking this semester, namely Chemistry, Physics, Biology, English and Math; all of which are either very neatly prepared or very colourful and full of comprehensive diagrams to facilitate fun and effective learning. I have begun to do some self-studying and find it quite fun and interesting! Some of our lecturers are also very nice and helpful, using Kahoot, a simple online multiplayer game, to engage with us; or telling jokes once in a while to brighten up the mood, or telling us not to panic about the assignment deadline on week 7, since they will remind us again when the date approaches. Still they never fail to bring the focus back to lessons, which is what makes them such great lecturers.
In the middle of the week, while browsing through my countless Microsoft Teams groups meant for different classes, I was shocked to find that I had actually missed a class on Monday. It was the first practical class for Physical Chemistry! My student portal stated flat out in red BLOCK LETTERS that I did not have any records of attendance for Monday, 1st of June 2020.
Oh dear. Very luckily, online learning gives us the ability to go back and watch the replay! Of course, the attendance record cannot be changed. I squeezed the time to watch this replay in the midst of the other lectures I already have for Wednesday, which made my eyes hurt quite a bit, as I am not used to sitting in front of the computer for long hours. However e-learning is like that, and I should learn to get used to it.
One thing I have done quite a lot throughout the week is also… guess what? Yeah 😛 Printing my lecture notes and tutorial questions. They come in bulk! I say, the best way to stay fit during MCO is running up and down the stairs to print your lecture notes. Really.
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To date, I have collected quite a lot of lecture topics, neatly in files, and have begun to prepare ahead a bit before everything starts picking up its pace. I never thought I would get to say this before the rush begins, but shockingly, at this very point of time, only SOME HOURS before the second week of lectures begins, I can tell you that the pace has NOT picked up yet. (Whoa. Unbelievable.) (No. I’m just joking.) This statement could possibly be true only for a few more hours… or maybe a couple more days, not sure yet. We’ll see.
For now, I need to get back to learning how to draw a glucose molecule.
You know, drawing glucose is definitely more fun that I had imagined! Especially when your lecturer guides you slowly in learning the steps, and describes the how the actual structure of a glucose molecule really is.
My foundation programme at university will begin tomorrow! I am so excited 😀
For the past week I have been binge watching – not Netflix films, not Astro, and not Youtube, but the live sessions on various topics organized by my university. Over the past week, my university has organized many live sessions. Other than the formal academic briefings and formal welcome by the university principal, there were also live talks on culture and ethics, real estate investing, creative writing, 5G and AI, all of which I took some notes down and thoroughly enjoyed myself. There were even talks by the university alumni, many of which were now staying and working overseas, or have started their own business or are working for large corporations.
Since I had never experienced live sessions on a large scale before, consisting of many university students and faculty lecturers or alumni, it was quite fun to attend these virtual meetings, while playing around with the control buttons in the video conferencing apps and the mic connected to the computer, to promote my smooth transition into the online lectures that would commence in two days time. Although I am still disappointed that I have missed all the fun of participating in my university orientation day, and the games and fun we could have had in real life were it not for the Covid 19 pandemic, this is also very much a unique experience.
My online lectures are going to be conducted on Microsoft Teams, which I have gotten reasonably accustomed to using by attending the various talks we’ve had this week. Microsoft Teams is a highly integrated and very useful live video conferencing and office 365 (word, excel, powerpoint etc) document syncing platform that our university has already paid for to have full access to all of its features. From what I know, Sunway College & University, a premium city campus in Malaysia, uses Microsoft Teams as well!
As I have mentioned above, with the commencement of my foundation course leading to my chosen MBBS degree, these online lectures will commencetomorrow! I have been taking this time to scrutinize my student portal and e-learning website, which we have been advised to check regularly for announcements and assignment updates. I have saved my lecture timetable and class plans to my favourites bar at the top of my browser for easy access.
Now……
It’s 1.16 am, I am a tired teenager and need to get some sleep. 😛 I will check out my lecture notes in the morning, and maybe prepare some empty notebooks for note taking!
Remembering, the bane of all doctors and a highly significant contributor to their success in medical school and beyond.
How often do you try to recall something, only to realize the memory is already long faded and too late to trace back? Even worse, sometimes it feels as if it’s at the tip of your mind and you just. Can’t. Remember.
How often do you make silly mistakes, or do your brain cells feel completely drained, as you struggle to remember?
It certainly must be more difficult to remember.
But is it really?
Say I give you a polynomial equation: 9x^5/9+6x^4/2+x^3/5+7x^2/4+9x+8 = 0, and I ask you to memorize and repeat it back to me in five seconds. Then I ask you to try and forget a formula you’ve known from before – say the root-finding quadratic formula, in five seconds.
Does that first polynomial equation look easy to digest at all? Yet try as you might, you will find it ironically easier to memorize at least partially that polynomial jargon than trying to forget the quadratic formula that you have learnt before.
I am sure the concept of the above paragraph is nothing new to you. However, I am trying to put into concise terms to explain why we cannot give a blanket (general) answer to the question: “is it easier to remember or to forget”. We don’t remember things better just because it’s shorter and less complicated. It also depends on period of exposure – in other words, how long you’ve known it.
We are only human and are not able to over-compromise sleep or take in more knowledge than we possibly can a day. To excel in life, we must make connections with the things we learn. In this case, the transferable skill here is applying what you’ve learnt about memory from this blogpost to your study strategy!
It is learning to expose yourself, regularly but at the appropriate time, to the information you need to absorb. This is done through the well-known method called “spatial recollection“.
Spatial recollection is a scientifically proven method of recalling information through a series of carefully timed re-viewing of the information you need to absorb. It is said that when you’re trying to memorize something, you need to read and reread it the most times in the beginning, then once a week, then once a month perhaps. The neurons in our brains somehow process information in this manner.
Therefore in the beginning, it is crucial to pick your material up and go through it more than once at least. After that, your brain has a stronger hold on the information and it becomes less likely that you will forget it.
I have tried this method and found that it works greatly for me. Try this out in your study strategy, and I’m sure it will do wonders for you!
Rachel's Truth 