Hello again readers! So midterm season has ended or is close to ending for many students here at UCI. So I wanted to share my experiences of going through the first midterm of my career at UCI. Just an FYI, I only had to take 2 midterms this quarter, one for Math 2A (Calculus) and one for Environmental Engineering Challenges (EngRCEE) 60. While I was not expecting to have anything from the professors to use for review my math professor gave us a .pdf for a sample midterm and told us the lecture before what specifically was going to be on the test. My environmental engineering class wasn’t so generous.
The way I studied for the Math 2A midterm was quite the story, so my roommate Felix, our friend Brendon and I were heading back to the dorm room after eating dinner at the Anteatery (the cafeteria for Mesa Court residents) and we are discussing how we got stuck on a question or two on the sample midterm. Then Brendon suggests we join him in the study room that one of the people in our dorm had reserved for themselves. It’s important to note here that we accepted the invitation because Felix and I were under the impression that we were going to get help with the problems we had problems with.
Either way, fast forward a few minutes and we are in the study room and introducing ourselves to the others in there and I brought up the questions I had issues with. From there I asked the group if they finished it and if I could see their work for it. To my surprise everyone looked at me like I was crazy then soon after said they didn’t even do the sample midterm yet. Keep in mind that this is the night before the exam. So as it ended up, Felix and I ended up teaching the other people in that 2 hour study session. Looking back, it was probably better for the both of us that we ended up teaching people how to do the problems because it helped us understand the process of how to solve such a problem.
In short, go to study sessions with your friends because even if you end up teaching the entire room how to do that problem, you will remember how to solve it better than everyone else in that room.
The studying for Math 2A continued later that night in my dorm room with Felix, a new friend we made called Wong, and I. We were discussing how to solve all the problem in the sample midterm again but we had no space to write out our work or to see it visually. Then I remembered that my dad gave me a huge roll of paper and said “You’re probably going to need this to write down ideas and what not.” So we hung it up on the wall next to my bed using one of Felix’s old belts and my tie connected to the bars that hold up the curtain in our room. One thing I definitely didn’t expect to do in college is use a belt and tie to hold up a roll of paper so that we could write math problems on it. From there we were able to write our problems down on paper and actually see the process in how to solve the many problems on the sample midterm. Fast forward to around 2am where we just finished reviewing for the last time and are in the process of cleaning up and getting ready for bed. In my extremely tired state was like “Hey Felix, you know what we should do with our work for the sample midterm? Make a scroll out of it like those you see in China.” Then I proceeded to roll up the paper and seal it with a sticky note. I really don’t remember what came over me but that’s how we decided to keep all the stuff we write on that paper from then on. So now we just have scrolls of test prep on top of my dresser.
Moral of the story here, learn in whatever way makes you remember the material best, for both me and Felix, we prefer to see things drawn out so that we can understand the process of how to get to the right answer. Also, don’t stay up late the night before a midterm!
My final story comes from the EngRCEE 60 midterm but before that we need to explain the circumstances of the story. So the night before the EngRCEE 60 lecture, Felix and I were browsing through the PowerPoint lectures that our professor uploaded and trying to review. We came upon this one slide about the Romans and how they were one of the best civilizations to study civil engineering from because of their aqueducts, public baths, fountains, and most importantly their toilets. On the slide that we were looking at showed the remnants of a roman toilet and I explained the photo of where the person would sit and do their business, where they would wipe themselves down, and where they would return the sponge stick after they were done. Felix believed that the professor wouldn’t test us on the role of each part of the toilet but I was adamant about it since she spent a solid 10 minutes in lecture talking about it but we continued onward until the end of the lecture PowerPoints. The professor actually didn’t fully finish the last PowerPoint we covered but just in case, we looked through it till the end.
Now on that midterm, the extra stuff we covered was actually not even talked about remotely so sadly we wasted time on memorizing things that were not going to be tested. But you know what was covered? The roles of the various parts of the Roman toilets. You wouldn’t believe the grin I had on my face when I turned the page and there was a grainy photo of a Roman with the directions Label. You know that feeling when someone doubts you but then you prove them right? Yeah that was me for the remainder of the test. Either way, I caught up to Felix after we finished and was like “So that toilet question…” He said that he didn’t actually expect the professor to actually ask us the roles of the various parts of the roman toilet and so probably got that question wrong. I could say in response was “I told you so”
I guess the moral of the story here is that even if the information may be strange, you will probably be tested on it in some way so if your professor talks about something strange like an ancient toilet for ten minutes, it’s probably important or at least going to be tested on.
Zot On!
Josh
