Winter 2020
MATH 125, CHEM 152, ENGL 182, ARCH 150
CHEM 152
My tests in CHEM 142 were all multiple choice, so I was nervous coming into this class knowing that these tests were going to be mostly free response. On the first midterm, I got my lowest test score ever. But I didn't let this get to me - I rewatched all the lectures, watched 16 hours worth of YouTube videos, and memorized every formula and concept until I truly understood it. All of this hard work led to me receiving one of the top scores in the entire class on the second midterm. I took a similar approach for the final exam and received the highest possible score, in spite of the unexpected online format.
If there's anything this class taught me, it's that I can achieve anything if I put in the time and work into it. Although I'm disappointed knowing I could've gotten a much higher grade if I had done better on the first midterm, I completely turned things around and it was an incredible learning experience. Other than that, everything else in this class went smoothly. I particularly enjoyed the labs; I showed significant improvement in lab report scores from last quarter and received perfect scores on most of them. I had a great lab partner who I worked well with me, which helped make the labs seem less long. I also became good friends with a few students in my section and it was fun to go over lab reports and study together.
ENGL 182
Compared to my other classes that were lectures with hundreds of students, my English class was in a tiny classroom that fit a little less than 30 people. Within a few weeks, everyone knew each other's name and we became a tightly knit group. Sam, our professor, made an effort to get to know all of us personally. Our class was based on a grade contract system, where we signed up for a certain grade and if we put in the work, we would get that grade. It relieved a lot of stress knowing that everything I did was going towards the grade I wanted. Although I didn't find most of the books we read to be interesting, I enjoyed all of our in-class discussions. One of the best memories of this class is when Sam brought his friend's dog Polli (pictured on the right); she made everyone's week.
For this class we did two major projects. For the first one, our prompt was to make a video about our relationship with media. As a lover of filming and editing, I was excited to explore the multimodal component of this class. This project was the culmination of all my artistic interests: writing, photography, videography, and music. All of the content was original, including the one minute of the video that took me two hours to film at home.
Our second major project was a research project. I originally wanted to compare British and American children's literature, but in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak, I switched my topic to that. I watched about 5 hours worth of videos and this was the final product. I wanted to consolidate everything we knew about the disease, ranging from how it affects the body, to how people have responded to it. It's the longest video I've ever made and after sharing it on social media, it received over 100 views, which I wasn't expecting.