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The Midterm Experience From the Outside

Midterms are every college student’s nightmare: a sort of make-or-break exam before the big boss that is the course final. Fortunately for me, I have yet to experience such a task. This quarter I am taking classes that are largely project/participation based so I do not have any big assessments, but rather a research essay or performance to be graded on.

Nevertheless, as midterms began to hit for other students around week 3 I definitely saw a shift in the vibe of the campus. I consider myself to be a night owl so I already prefer to spend late nights doing homework if needed. It was an interesting experience, though, to find other people who developed the same sleeping habits as me- and believe me, there are many. 

Despite what you might think, the whole process of preparing for midterms (based on my observations and the time I spent doing big assignments while everyone studied) isn’t all blood, sweat, and tears- it’s actually pretty entertaining. Everyone has a preferred method of studying or working; for me and those around me it was food and late night hijinks. 

First of all, the Anteatery in Mesa Court (an on-campus residential community) serves a delicious late-night menu from 8pm-12 am so any students planning to stay up can enjoy some potstickers or chilli and fries (sounds yummy doesn’t it?). If the Anteatery happens to close before you can get a bite, worry not because there are also Insomnia Cookies at the University Town Center across campus open until 3am to satisfy your late late night cravings.

So along with food there are other ways of relieving stress. Within my dorm hall the common room will have a show or movie playing for a quick distraction from the textbook. If that’s not enough, I find a friend and dance and laugh our worries away; it’s surprising how amusing jokes can be late at night. I always like to remember that it’s important to keep the mood up during stressful times so finding any reason to spend quality time with others is how I typically de-stress. 

To leave you all off with advice on dealing with midterm season: find what works for you! There are plenty of study areas on campus (libraries, student center, The Court in Mesa Court (open only to residents of Mesa Court)) if you prefer a quiet space and also many people who would love to create a study group- just ask around! 

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Midterm Madness

I can recall vividly the first moment someone ever told me to never second guess. It was in my second grade classroom, and my teacher was going over preparations for a small quiz we were going to take as a class. She tells us to never second guess on a question because we usually are right the first time around. This advice has stuck with me and I have always tried my best to stick to this rule. 

Buttttt …. c’mon, who am I kidding. Anyone who knows me knows I overthink … a lot. A switch goes on in my mind and I’m left with worries and doubts, questions of  “Is this really the answer? Are you sure it’s not B instead of C? Why are there so many A’s in a row?”

Skip to me sitting in my assigned seat in the front row, there’s 5 minutes left on the timer displayed on the projection board for my exam. I’m almost finished with bubbling in my answers, but it’s when I start going over them that I begin to doubt myself. It all goes downhill from there. No longer is the rule of not second guessing in my mind, all reason I once had is just thrown out and replaced with a flurry of worries. If you haven’t guessed it by now, I should note that I did – shamefully – change some of my answers because I second guessed. Oh, and Spoiler Alert: My first choice was correct on most.

 I knew as soon as I handed in my exam that my fate was sealed. Brushing past the crowd, I started to feel this heavy weight and the reality of what I did sunk in, but nothing but time would tell what would happen. Eventually, my score comes through, and although it was not an ideal score, I knew that I did my best … even if it wasn’t my best. 

But hey! There’s still time to improve, and it’s important to take a step back, acknowledge what you did wrong, and find alternatives or different methods on how to study and how to practice to feel more confident the next go-around. As frustrating as it is to change a correct answer to the wrong one, it’s a testament to the amount of work one puts in. This is the push I needed to really consider the issues I am having with the material, if any, and reevaluate my understanding on all the information. Let’s just hope that the next set of exams, I can firmly pick an answer and stick with it. 

Wish me luck! 

Celeste 

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Midterm season is upon us

I remember Wednesday night’s review session last week for my Bio 93 midterm… never have I seen so many freshmen packed into one lecture hall. I kid you not, every single seat was filled up. Some students were even willing to sit on the carpeting. I remember pushing my way through the herd of students as I tried to find a seat towards the front. Minutes after I sat down, I saw that the students just kept on coming. The seats quickly began to fill up. Within less than five minutes, about ninety percent of the seats were taken.

Me and my friend (who came shortly after me) sat towards the front of the lecture hall as we waited for the peer tutors to begin their review session. I nervously turned my iClicker remote in my hands as I began contemplating my life choices, constantly asking myself whether or not I studied hard enough, trying to figure out what I did wrong.

Then the review session started. I took out my binder full of printed-out lecture slides and began making notes in the margins. I think I’m prepared for the midterm, I thought to myself as I frantically pushed multiple answers in for the iClicker portions of the review session, watching the numbers on the clock go up with each agonizing second that passed.

Fast forward to two days later, and I am sitting in the Biological Sciences Lecture Hall with my scantron, Dixon #2 pencil, and test booklet sitting on my desk. I frantically flip through pages back and forth in the test booklet, trying to find questions that I know I will be able to answer. Realizing that half of the content on the exam is material that I completely forgot about, I stare at the clock on the projection screen, rethinking my life choices, internally cursing myself for not studying more. My mind snaps back to reality as I hear someone flipping their desk down to the side of their chair across the room. Then another. And another. Pretty soon about twenty students are walking towards the front of the class to hand in their papers, and I realize that I am wasting my time daydreaming. With less than five minutes left on the clock, I quickly bubble in the answers that I think are right and hastily walk down the steps to the front of the hall to turn it in to the TA’s.

Moral of the story is, please remember to put school first, and learn to discipline yourself while studying! My mistake was that I procrastinated too much and I was very lazy with my studying, and I often tended to neglect my mental health. This is a big no-no! Learning to study without distractions is key to effective studying, because staying focused allows you to get more work done. And for the love of God, find a LARC sponsor ASAP before enrollment opens, because those sessions fill up FAST!

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Blogger Introduction and UCI First Impressions

What’s up everyone?! My name is Ron and I’m excited to be a new ZotBlogger for the 2019-2020 school year! I can’t wait to be able to share my experiences this year, and for you all to come along this journey as it happens. So without further ado let’s get this started!

As a ZotBlogger I am writing my experiences as a first-year undeclared student here at UCI. If there is one thing to know about me, it is that I am very inquisitive and enjoy interdisciplinary learning, so the majors I am considering pursuing range from drama to informatics. It will be a process trying to find the best major for me this year but nevertheless an enriching one for sure.

Before coming into this position, I was living my best life in the East Bay Area, a region that I am proud to call my home. Moving here to Southern California, though, has been a fun change in my environment and being able to live in such a great city such as Irvine has only made my experience even better. Moreover, actually moving away from my family and starting what I call, “adulting”, or a true, independent lifestyle, has been a positive learning experience for me. 

When it came to networking in a new campus I was fortunate enough that before classes began I was already accepted as an intern for the ASUCI (Associated Students – University of California, Irvine) Art Lab commission where I am happy to say I have met many people of similar interests and personalities (me being a huge performing arts person). There were also already many fun activities planned for week 0 (quick shoutout to ASUCI for a huge success during Welcome Week) which allowed me to meet all sorts of people in the student body. 

After all the fun of week 0, classes began and suddenly I had to juggle my schoolwork along with my social life and “adulting”. It surprised me how busy my days were getting as despite one or two hour-long classes a day, I was still responsible for amounts of homework that I admittedly was not anticipating. I’ve learned that organization will be key to surviving this quarter as with many club meetings and assignment due dates to keep track of, it is important to stay on top of everything (Google Calendar is basically my best friend for keeping my life together). College is definitely different from high school as accountability for your own schedule and time management is even more important and this has taken some getting used to lately. 

Nevertheless, I am enjoying this adjustment into a new school environment. There are many resources that satisfy my love for learning and getting to know people. UCI has some of the best students and faculty so classes and clubs have been nothing but enjoyable. Such a great start only makes me look forward to what is in store for the rest of this school year. With that said, zot zot zot for the start of fall quarter!

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Still Hanging In There

I never understood the stress and mental breakdowns that my friends (who were attending colleges that ran by the semester system) were experiencing– that is, until an entire month later. Except our situation is way worse.

Hello all, my name is Azalea Lilliana Walker, one of the U/U ZotBlog writers for the 2019-2020 school year! This will be my second blog that I will be working on, aside from my ePortfolio for my Writing 37 class. I personally love reflective writing– it’s one of my favorite hobbies. It helps me to relieve stress and just share my stories with other people, and being a ZotBlog editor can even help me put my Writing 37 skills to work.

I attended Dr. Maya Angelou Community High School in South Los Angeles, a.k.a “South Central”. You know, the area south of Downtown LA, past the Fashion District, with its abundance in corner stores and liquor shops, elote carts with the chicharron bags hanging from the top of them, and graffiti tagging the sidewalks and murals here and there. Yes, it’s a low-income area, yes, me and my friends (both male and female) do feel unsafe walking around the neighborhood sometimes, and yes, it’s very dirty and it sometimes stinks– the sanitation department does all they can to keep it clean, but people just keep shamelessly throwing trash in the street.

Regarding my experience at UCI, welcome week here was really fun. I loved the Toy Story 4 screening, because I know that my boyfriend and his family got a chance to go and see it during the summer when it came out, but I didn’t get the chance to see it until now– and I’m very glad I did. Aldrich Park After Dark, however, was crazy… I remember leaving early (around 7:30 P.M.) because I got bored, then about an hour and a half afterwards, I’m receiving texts from our house’s GroupMe chat about all the crazy stuff going on– people getting hurt, people fainting, etc.

Fast forward to now, and I’m almost at the end of week 2, with a midterm coming up next week. I’m way behind on textbook readings and understand nothing about half of the content that is being covered in Biology 93. I’m also struggling with some emotional baggage and learning to let go of the past. So far, I have been joining clubs to make friends, and I’m on the Level V Origins dance team, but I’m wondering whether or not I am in too much extracurricular activities. However, one thing that I am grateful for is the fact that I have people at the Black Scholars House in Arroyo Vista that I can reach out to when I need it most. Having a strong support network is crucial for my mental wellness. Personally, I know it’s scary to make new friends at UCI, but there are people out there that care.