We have arrived at the one third mark of the Winter quarter and I have to admit, this quarter is definitely more relaxing than last quarter for me. The reason being, I am currently only taking 12 units since I am currently enrolled in ICS 31, a prerequisite for becoming an ICS major. With my current 12 unit course load, I have the time I need to slowly work through the material so that I understand it rather than just for getting the grade I want. Regardless of course load, Week 3 is the first checkpoint in your classes since many classes have midterms on Week 3 or Week 4.
Speaking of midterms, I learned a few things from my first quarter that didn’t seem to work for me when it comes to studying or doing work. First and foremost, I cannot work efficiently when I am in my dorm room. The reason being, that my roommate is usually playing games while I’m working on homework he already completed. My eyes just tend to naturally drift from my tedious calculus homework to his monitor and just stay there. Regretfully, I managed to stare at my roommates monitor for over 30 minutes this one time last quarter. As a result, I started to look for places to work that provide an environment that I can be productive in. Last quarter I found that the balcony that the Computer Science building has fits my needs. This quarter I started to look for a new place to work and remembered that one of my high school friends told me that he was part of a PP&D (Planning, Policy, and Design) elective course that was held from 7pm to 10pm. Being the night owl I am, I decided to follow him to see if I could be productive. The three hour lecture as it turned out was held in the same building that my math final was in the previous quarter. Not being actually enrolled in a class and just using the space to work seemed to help my productivity as the classroom setting kept me focused on the task at hand. As a result, I think I may just start following my friends to their lectures just so I can work.
Looking back at the Fall quarter, there was not much that I regret not doing since I dedicated myself to working on my academics and not my professional development. So all these job and involvement fairs were not really piquing my interest. That being said, going to the ARC every so often and playing a good few hours of badminton is something that I should be doing more often as even though I feel sore afterwards, my mind seems to enjoy the stress relief. While we’re on the topic of stress relief, my sleeping schedule has consistently been improving since my last quarter as I can wake up at about 9am to 11am depending on the day. It’s definitely a plus that my classes are not in the early hours of the day and hopefully this trend continues. Furthermore, classes this quarter seem to be going better than the classes last quarter for the sole reason of experience. After going through a quarter you will start to realize your strengths and weaknesses as a student and hopefully begin to play to your strengths and try to avoid your weaknesses to the best of your ability. For me, social life is just kinda like a side mission since there is little doubt in my mind that somebody can go through four years here at UCI and not make any new friends.
Zot On!
Josh
