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How to do midterms 

“Rome wasn’t built in a day, but they were lying bricks every hour.” (John Heywood)  

Many of the skills and things I can do today, things I’m proud to show and can use at a moment’s notice wasn’t something I learned and mastered instantly. Getting strong, being good at art and music, and tons more took years of learning, experimenting, and really enjoying what I do to lead me to be able to accomplish what I can today. Even now, I’m working hard to make my skills even better and even picking up on even more new things to learn, an ever growing list I’m proud of having.

We finally reached the halfway point of our first ever college quarter! But along with that celebration comes the second worst test of each quarter, MIDTERMS. Like everyone else, I heard how much harder it would be then high school and how much I should prepare for it, but I barely scraped by from my first test. Having little homework to do, class times to attend, or notes to take, most of it being optional anyways, the midterm was definitely a wake up call to change my study habits.

Like many people in high school, I’d say that most of the assignments were very 1 dimensional, easy and simple to solve. Tests were often an exercise of how much you memorized of the subject, how much info you could absorb during class to regurgitate on paper. College courses and tests however, is nearly a different league altogether. AP test gave an insight into college would be like, teaching that unlike memorizing, its more of application. It’s easy to memorize, it matters now on what now can you do with what you learned, what can you develop from it and what deeper meaning can we get from it. And because of that I need to make a deeper method of studying to match.

Even starting from week 0 I’ve been going down a list of different methods of studying and note taking, trying and experimenting to find the best way for me to study and review. And finally, after nearly 2 months of testing and practice, I have the routine I really stick with. After listening and using dual encoding during a lecture, I work with the note taking app Notion using a bulletin point style of note taking, making sure to hit all the important topics and details of what I’ve learned and make sure to develop questions and later answers for visiting teacher’s office hours. Reviewing the notes every few days, I lead up to what I’ve learned recently, as well as things I’ve learned a while ago. Finally leading up to a test or quiz, I do a final review using a concept map to draw down all that I know and how all the topics connect with each other in a huge web of knowledge on my tablet or whiteboard. And although this is very effective for me, something else might work out even better for you. So feel free and experiment, find what really makes you an academic weapon. Just remember to SPACE OUT YOUR STUDYING, ask questions whenever you don’t understand, and get tons of sleep and food before your test.

Best of luck on your tests,

Nicholas Chou

Posted on 1 Comment on ACADEMIC WEAPON

ACADEMIC WEAPON

Academic weapon (noun)—An individual (typically a student) that acquires traits that are seen by many as scholarly. Example: Ian is an academic weapon who doesn’t miss class and studies hard for his midterms. 

The term “academic weapon” blew up as a meme on TikTok, where people doing academically positive things such as not skipping class, studying, and asking questions were referred to as “academic weapons.” And who doesn’t want to be called a weapon? Of course, I had to comply.

Throughout this quarter, I have tried my best to maintain a healthy work-life balance with the help of my friends—and this silly little meme. Midterms the week after Halloween? No problem. My friends and I would go out for Halloween but come home earlier, all in the name of academic weaponry. 

So far, I have taken a midterm for math and econ, and both have gone well! To study for math, I was able to get help from our class’s online discussion board, which allowed me to ask questions to the other 600+ students, as well as the professor. It also helped that I go to class with my roommate Brandon, where we sit in the first row of our 400 person lecture (as academic weapons should). Brandon has been a huge help in this class, teaching me things I didn’t understand and letting me study with him for the midterm. My midterm could have gone better, but I still have finals, so I still have a chance of getting that coveted A.

Even though I expected better in math, at least I have econ to cheer me up. Somehow I aced the midterm, leaving me physical proof of my hard work. And because of this, I now find myself in a predicament I would never have imagined myself in. 

So my econ class has two midterms: one in week 3 and one in week seven. However, in this class, the lowest-scoring midterm gets dropped. See where I’m going with this? I could technically get any grade at all on the next midterm, and it wouldn’t matter one bit. The thought is tempting, and I’ve imagined myself reenacting a scene from my favorite movie Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse, where the main character, Miles, knows all of the answers on his test but gets a zero on purpose. However, one thing is holding me back—I need to be an academic weapon.

All that effort to ace an exam just to throw away my title like that? Not a chance. I’ve already started studying for my midterm next week, and I plan on doing just as well. Maybe then, just then, I can hold the title of academic weapon with pride, knowing that I took the right steps and got the results I wanted.

See y’all next time!

-Ian

Posted on 1 Comment on Mid-Quarter Meditations

Mid-Quarter Meditations

I have something to confess: I actually have zero midterms this quarter.  I’m taking three classes: the first revolves around writing two major papers, the second is a project-based ICS class, and the third is Intro to Linguistics, in which we had our first quiz of the quarter during Week 4.  I did have some major deadlines (including my first major paper of the quarter and an ICS project) around the time my friends started complaining about their midterms, so I felt included in the mid-quarter stress; however, I don’t think I’ve had the true “UCI Midterm Experience” yet.

Due to this apparently unique experience, I have found myself having more “homework sessions” than “study sessions” at this point in the quarter.  As a commuter, I’ve found myself spending most of my time on campus either in class or in the library.  I’ve done productive work in both the Langson Library and Science Library and found some spots I like at both.  In the Langson Library, I usually stay on the ground floor, sitting in those wooden cubicles by the floor-to-ceiling length windows.  I like the location of those desks, as there usually aren’t many people passing by, so I can have a reminder of the outside world without feeling like an animal at the zoo.  Also, the wooden walls that cage in the desk provide an illusion of privacy, and I feel comfortable visibly expressing any frustration or confusion induced by my work.

As nice as those cubicles are, I’ve found myself at my most productive on the second floor of the Science Library – the colorful chairs and high ceiling make it feel more like an IKEA showroom than a library, and something about being in that artificial environment makes me want to do work.  Not being in a cubicle also reduces my desire to procrastinate, as I know my less than productive YouTube endeavors can be seen by any passerby’s searching for seating.  I also usually go relatively early in the morning (around 9am), so it’s quiet enough where I can put my AirPods in and just grind through my to-do list for the day.  It always feels nice to get things done early and know that you have a full day ahead of you still.

I’ve been enjoying this quarter a lot, not just because of the fact that I’ve had no midterms, but because everything I’m studying interests me.  Since I find the things I’m doing interesting and mentally stimulating, not even the frustration of debugging, the stress of writing, and the initial confusion of trying to wrap my head around entirely new concepts can dissuade me.  I can only hope that I’ll have a similarly pleasant combination of classes next quarter, so that my first midterm experience doesn’t come with too much stress.

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Yes, it is that time of the year!

Hello Anteaters! I am excited to share my midterm experience with you all!

After I committed to UCI, one of the most common conversations I would have with college students would be about midterms and how intense they were. 

From the start of week one, my chemistry professor would repeatedly announce to the class that midterms were week three. He wanted the class to ask for help if the introductory topics or online videos were difficult to understand. He knew that the level of stress would decrease during exam week if students were intentional with the class and sought help before it was too late!

Because of his advice, I took advantage of not only his office hours and my TA’s office hours, but my math professor’s office hours and the Learning and Academic Resource Center (LARC) for extra help.

My chemistry midterm was week three, and my math midterm was week four. For chemistry, my midterm was online, and this meant that I had the option to choose where I wanted to take my exam. Because I wanted to take the exam in a quiet space, I reserved a room for a couple hours in the Study Library. If you ever have to take an exam online, I would 100% recommend reserving a room because it is a comfortable amount of space, you are the only one in the room, and you do not have to worry about a roommate or outside noises.

A few study tips that worked for me were attending review sessions for your courses, attending office hours, and studying material by small increments a few nights prior to the exam. I found that the material covered in the review sessions were useful and provided extra guided practice before the exam day. 

(This is from the LARC study session for my math midterm. There were plenty of opportunities where students could ask questions for clarification. )

Before my exam days, I  made sure to go to bed earlier ( around 11:45 pm-12 am, and I promise this is an earlier bedtime for me). In the morning, I woke up extra early to eat breakfast and prepare my materials for my exam.  I recommend giving yourself at least 30 minutes to set up an exam if you are taking one online. A tip is to make sure your device is charged the night before and to bring your outlets in case your device starts to run out of battery. 

(After my chemistry midterm exam review (that was led by the Chemistry Department),  I was greeted by a ZOT Bot 🙂  Because this study session ended at 9:30 pm, it was a pleasant and cheerful surprise to see the Bot! I could not pass up the opportunity to ask my friend to take a photo of me and the Zot Bot! )

Overall, attending review sessions and office hours were key factors in helping me prepare for my first midterms at UCI! 

Until next time….. ZOTZOTZOT!!!

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The absolutely most dreadful, undeniably painful, and gruesome midterm experience.

Just kidding. I am chillin like a villain. So far I have only had a single midterm so to be fair, I can’t really say much.

The one midterm I did have was for Film and Media 85a and it was basically just memorizing key terms and concepts. I just completed it a few hours ago and although it ended up being pretty easy, I still had high expectations for my very first, big adult, college midterm exam.

You see, at my high school, midterms were a big deal. Like a really big deal. In fact, we didn’t even use the word “midterm”, we just treated the exams as finals and the school did too. Midterm days were designated with minimum days so it was basically just a final for the end of each quarter. So when I walked into HIB 100 on this particular Wednesday, I thought it would be a little more, well for the lack of a better word, serious. I don’t know I thought maybe that there would be TA’s guarding the doors to collect phones or at least some type of the usual “plagiarism lecture” before we started. But no, I basically walked in and sat at my usual spot and waited for instructions. And eventually the exams started in my usual lecture spot with my usual lecture side desk thing.

At the end of the day, I was wrong but hey I’ll take casual and wrong over serious and right at the end of the day.

And if anything, it was a good study experience for me. I had kind of slacked off for the course so I crammed the night before. Yes, I procrastinated but, personally, I think it was still a very productive and effective cram session. I started studying around 12 a.m. which probably isn’t exactly healthy but besides that, I kind of just jumped straight into the zone. I stayed focus and concocted a study strategy on the spot. Everything felt really natural and I think I did a good job in the end.

What is this super effective and original study strategy you might ask? Well that’s a secret I’ll never share.

Just kidding again. It isn’t super secret and it certainly isn’t original. I just compiled all the important information from my notes and re-wrote it on a google doc. It’s sort of a last-minute study guide–and I think it definitely worked. It allowed me to, one, go over the information in my notes and allowed me to process it as I was rewriting everything. I like it because while studying and going over terms and concepts are important, it also leaves you with an actual cheat sheet at the end. Shout out to my AP Government Teacher for forcing me to do that for homework so I could discover how effective it was for me.

While my very first mid-term was pretty rad (I am not using rad unironically; I just think rad is a rad word and I am trying to bring it back), I have another one (an in class midterm and a take-home essay) for English on Tuesday but to be frank, I am not letting it bother me. I am keeping my peace, kind of, so go me.

Before I finish, I am going to tell you my song of the week/day/songIamcurrentlyfeelingasIwritethis. And for this post its:

“Afterglow” by Taylor Swift wooohooooo!

I was listening to it during my study break and gosh it literally just released all of my negative energy. #sograteful #becomingaswiftie

That concludes post numero tres. I hope you all are doing well. I am I think–trying to anyways and I am being positive about it. Until the next post, see you soooooooon.

P.S. I am learning to add photos to my blogs. I just uhh, don’t know how err, I do but I am lazy to transport my photos from my phone. So until I find an easier way to do it without having to type my entries on my phone, it will stay pictureless. No that’s a lie I have too many good photos not to post so I think next week’s will have photos but no promises.

With love,

jaden.