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Author Topic: University/College  (Read 435626 times)

Barmymoo

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2400 on: 13 Sep 2014, 14:39 »

People of the internet! I am preparing for a new academic year and experimenting with new note-taking techniques. This is mainly in an attempt to maintain focus during boring, often not very useful lectures, but also in an attempt to improve my grades.

What note-taking techniques do you use? A few parameters: I can't afford to print out the slideshow presentations that almost all our lectures are based around, and I find that less useful anyway than writing by hand. I've explored the Cornell system and am considering a variation on it. Ideally I'd like a system that lets me use the same sheet of paper for in-class note taking and before/after class studying on the same topic.

I'm going to try out a system using the Cornell layout, but instead of writing key words in the left column during the lecture, I've written out topic headings taken in advance from the slideshow. The bottom section, instead of a summary, is for making notes of additional reading I need to do, things to follow up or clarify, and any work we're told to complete. We'll see in a couple of weeks whether this works!
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There's this really handy "other thing" I'm going to write as a footnote to my abstract that I can probably explore these issues in. I think I'll call it my "dissertation."

Method of Madness

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2401 on: 14 Sep 2014, 19:48 »

If you have access to the slideshows, why not just read them on your computer instead of printing them out? (In addition to taking notes, of course)
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Grognard

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2402 on: 14 Sep 2014, 21:54 »

I get the feeling about wanting to back to school occasionally.

I go lie down until the feeling goes away.

smart man.

unfortunately, I'm an idiot, and have decided to double down on my current student loan debt.  :psyduck:
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GarandMarine

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2403 on: 14 Sep 2014, 21:57 »

How to do early morning classes right.

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2404 on: 14 Sep 2014, 22:10 »

How to do early morning classes right.


If you do that in one of my classes, I expect a bribe.
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Papersatan

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2405 on: 14 Sep 2014, 22:44 »

Several.times in highschool on was late to my Thursday 1:00pm class (my first class on Thursdays) and was forgiven because I brought cake.
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Barmymoo

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2406 on: 15 Sep 2014, 00:53 »

If you have access to the slideshows, why not just read them on your computer instead of printing them out? (In addition to taking notes, of course)

I do, prior to the lecture. I don't have a computer with me in lectures. And they're still available when I'm revising for exams and I often look back through them, but that's not really enough.
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There's this really handy "other thing" I'm going to write as a footnote to my abstract that I can probably explore these issues in. I think I'll call it my "dissertation."

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2407 on: 15 Sep 2014, 14:52 »

Wait, if you can look at them before and after classes, why isn't that enough if you're also taking notes during class?
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Barmymoo

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2408 on: 15 Sep 2014, 14:56 »

Because the lectures don't cover everything or even nearly everything I need to know. Often I don't even fully understand what's covered in the lecture, but there's always more we need to find out about after the lecture too. The main issue is really that I need some way to keep my focus during lectures which I usually find either very dull or very confusing.
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There's this really handy "other thing" I'm going to write as a footnote to my abstract that I can probably explore these issues in. I think I'll call it my "dissertation."

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2409 on: 15 Sep 2014, 14:57 »

If they don't cover everything, then how would taking notes help? Also, have you tried talking to the lecturer during office hours and telling them that you're having trouble following?
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They call me Mr. Madness.

Quote from: Polonius
Though this be madness, yet there is method in't.
MR ARCHIVE-FU MADNESS
Does anybody really know what time it is?
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

Barmymoo

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2410 on: 15 Sep 2014, 15:02 »

We don't have office hours, I'm not really sure what those are. They cover some things, so taking notes on those is useful. Also they often mention things that would be useful to look up later, so I need to have a better system of noting those down (last year I often wrote down "look at this thing" but it would get lost in the general mass of my notes which covered the whole page without much of a system). There are 65 people in my cohort and I think I'm in a minority in terms of learning style - I learn far, far better alone, out of a book/from a computer than I do by listening to a lecture or talking in a group - so they aren't likely to change the teaching style for me. I did talk to my personal tutor about it and she suggested taking a textbook with me so I had something to look at which was related to the topic, but I found that I stopped listening to the lecture if I did that/
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There's this really handy "other thing" I'm going to write as a footnote to my abstract that I can probably explore these issues in. I think I'll call it my "dissertation."

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2411 on: 15 Sep 2014, 15:03 »

On this side of the pond, professors have office hours which are the times where they are in the office and can be seen without an appointment (assuming they're not seeing someone else, of course) for questions and additional help. I'm surprised you don't have that.
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They call me Mr. Madness.

Quote from: Polonius
Though this be madness, yet there is method in't.
MR ARCHIVE-FU MADNESS
Does anybody really know what time it is?
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

Loki

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2412 on: 15 Sep 2014, 15:56 »

On this other side of the pond, most professors (if they can afford it) have assistants which fulfill those duties.
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Re: University/College
« Reply #2413 on: 15 Sep 2014, 16:30 »

Yeah, professors have TAs who help grade papers and do that for big classes, but that doesn't mean they don't ever talk to the students directly during office hours.

Also wait, "if they can afford it"? Professors have to pay for their own TAs? Wouldn't the TAs also be employees of the university? (Over here they're usually grad students who work for free tuition plus a small stipend)
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They call me Mr. Madness.

Quote from: Polonius
Though this be madness, yet there is method in't.
MR ARCHIVE-FU MADNESS
Does anybody really know what time it is?
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

Loki

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2414 on: 15 Sep 2014, 16:40 »

Now that you ask, I am not too sure. I do, however, think that the chairs have a certain budget (which is approved by some commissions) which is where they pay their TAs from. Legally speaking, the universities are institutions of the state (like public schools) and the employers of the TAs. So in a sense, TAs work for the state.
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Re: University/College
« Reply #2415 on: 15 Sep 2014, 16:47 »

As do the professors, right?
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They call me Mr. Madness.

Quote from: Polonius
Though this be madness, yet there is method in't.
MR ARCHIVE-FU MADNESS
Does anybody really know what time it is?
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

Loki

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2416 on: 15 Sep 2014, 16:56 »

I suppose so. I am actually not sure on how the employment chain works in detail.
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lepetitfromage

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2417 on: 15 Sep 2014, 20:41 »

This might be a silly suggestion, but have you tried color coding your notes? Maybe using a highlighter for specific groups of things- yellow for "this is incredibly important", green for key terms and/or definitions and orange for things to look up later. It would make it easier to look back on the notes and also possibly keep you entertained a bit.
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Papersatan

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2418 on: 16 Sep 2014, 00:48 »

Yeah, professors have TAs who help grade papers and do that for big classes, but that doesn't mean they don't ever talk to the students directly during office hours.

Also wait, "if they can afford it"? Professors have to pay for their own TAs? Wouldn't the TAs also be employees of the university? (Over here they're usually grad students who work for free tuition plus a small stipend)

Or a generous one if they are fortunate enough to be in a union. umich pays tuition plus what works out to $28/hr.
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Papersatan

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2419 on: 16 Sep 2014, 00:53 »

Also, May, what abt this
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Barmymoo

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2420 on: 16 Sep 2014, 02:03 »

We don't have TAs here, or office hours. I suppose a comparable thing would be that if we have an assignment due (we have one for each module, each year) then we can book a single tutorial with the lecturer who set the assignment. They're allowed to look at a certain percentage of the work we've done (I think 10%?) and give us feedback on whether we're going in the right direction.

Kat, that looks like an interesting approach and quite similar to what I was attempting to do with filing my midwifery journals, although I never finished it because it was so labour-intensive to punch all the holes and it got boring! The notebook idea seems a lot more straight-forward. I'm not sure whether it would help for note-taking in lectures, since I use loose-leaf lined paper that then gets filed into different folders depending on which module it relates to, but it definitely looks like a more useful way to file my journals so thank you!

Edit: also, colour-coding is a good idea and I have no idea why I wasn't already doing that since I love colour!
« Last Edit: 16 Sep 2014, 02:20 by Barmymoo »
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There's this really handy "other thing" I'm going to write as a footnote to my abstract that I can probably explore these issues in. I think I'll call it my "dissertation."

Barmymoo

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2421 on: 29 Sep 2014, 00:56 »

Me again since I seem to be obsessed with university  :roll: Guess that's what going into your sixth year of undergrad does to you...

And yeah. Today is the first day of lectures for my second year (my THIRD second year) and I'm a bit nervous for no rational reason. Could be because I've only seen a handful of the cohort in the last ... four months? It's been a while.
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There's this really handy "other thing" I'm going to write as a footnote to my abstract that I can probably explore these issues in. I think I'll call it my "dissertation."

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2422 on: 07 Oct 2014, 08:54 »

Sending an e-mail to my former supervisor who is still going to help me submit a paper is like ripping off a band-aid. I feel very anxious hovering over the 'send' button but eventually I just rip it off/click the mouse and send it just to get it over with.
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Re: University/College
« Reply #2423 on: 07 Oct 2014, 09:02 »

Going to be attending an open house tomorrow.  It's going to feel incredibly awkward being there with people are more than likely going to be at least 10 years my junior.
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Re: University/College
« Reply #2424 on: 07 Oct 2014, 09:09 »

Don't forget your cane...
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Re: University/College
« Reply #2425 on: 07 Oct 2014, 09:36 »

If I was cruel I'd spout cautionary tales of what will happen to you if you don't finish college.  'I'm almost 30 and I work a dead-end job ooooooo'.  Stay in school, kids!
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Peace is a lie, there is only passion.  Through passion I gain strength.  Through strength, power.  Through power, victory.  Through victory, my chains are broken.  The force shall set me free.

cesium133

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2426 on: 07 Oct 2014, 09:54 »

One of the guys at the conference said to me, "Would you have thought when you became a physics major that it could lead to you listening to a talk on Rydberg atoms while drinking water out of a coconut on the beach in Brazil?"
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94ssd

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2427 on: 07 Oct 2014, 10:04 »

Our football team is hilariously bad this season and I'm deriving much pleasure from it.
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Method of Madness

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2428 on: 07 Oct 2014, 16:46 »

If I was cruel I'd spout cautionary tales of what will happen to you if you don't finish college.  'I'm almost 30 and I work a dead-end job ooooooo'.  Stay in school, kids!
I'm about your age and I work a dead-end job and I did finish college :(
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They call me Mr. Madness.

Quote from: Polonius
Though this be madness, yet there is method in't.
MR ARCHIVE-FU MADNESS
Does anybody really know what time it is?
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

Fig

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2429 on: 07 Oct 2014, 19:24 »

If I was cruel I'd spout cautionary tales of what will happen to you if you don't finish college.  'I'm almost 30 and I work a dead-end job ooooooo'.  Stay in school, kids!
I'm about your age and I work a dead-end job and I did finish college :(

Trolling young people is fun, though in reality I'd probably just be hanging at the back of the group, half-listening to what's being said and thinking more about how I'm going to pay for school.  (My credit history isn't exactly stellar)
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Peace is a lie, there is only passion.  Through passion I gain strength.  Through strength, power.  Through power, victory.  Through victory, my chains are broken.  The force shall set me free.

Grognard

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2430 on: 08 Oct 2014, 03:59 »

Federal student loans, friend.

I don't think you can actually be turned down.
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Papersatan

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2431 on: 08 Oct 2014, 09:17 »

Only if you currently in default on other federal student loans.

Graduate PLUS federal loans have slightly stricter requirements: you can be currently in default on any debt.
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Re: University/College
« Reply #2432 on: 08 Oct 2014, 09:29 »

That's my primary concern.  After my divorce I tried taking online courses and I couldn't keep up with the workload between two jobs and trying to take said courses.  When that bombed out very shortly afterwards, I couldn't keep up with the loans and ended up defaulting (Which is most likely the source of one of the garnishments in my checks).  I'll probably have to just use  state and federal grants for as much as I can, stop once they run out, and resume when I renew the FAFSA every year.
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Peace is a lie, there is only passion.  Through passion I gain strength.  Through strength, power.  Through power, victory.  Through victory, my chains are broken.  The force shall set me free.

Papersatan

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2433 on: 08 Oct 2014, 11:24 »

If you contact your loan holder, and get on a payment plan, you will no longer be in default, and you should be eligible for student loans again.  Once you are back in school, your payments go on hold, though you may have to fund one semester on your own.

Grants pay by the semester not the year, so you can't just use the year's grants to cover one semester and skip the next, the "max per year" assumes you are attending full-time for the whole year.  They max out at <$3,000 a semester.  It's actually enough to cover tuition at a community college, if you qualify for the full amount, but that is more difficult than some people imagine.  You can look up online what your "expected family contribution" is based on your income.  That amount is what you will have to pay in tuition before you are eligible for federal or state grants.
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Re: University/College
« Reply #2434 on: 08 Oct 2014, 17:13 »

So I was no where near the oldest person in the room, made me feel a whole lot better about my decision to do this. 
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Peace is a lie, there is only passion.  Through passion I gain strength.  Through strength, power.  Through power, victory.  Through victory, my chains are broken.  The force shall set me free.

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2435 on: 09 Oct 2014, 16:25 »

I had a moment of unease (panic would be a big word) when I looked at the list of my grades and found that the 'current issues' course, which the whole first year of my master's revolved around, was missing a grade. I'm in my third year now. It would be a very bad thing if I had somehow neglected to do a part of that course that was required for credit, so I searched my memory for that period and all I found was a vague feeling of "fuck this shit, I'm not doing it" that I recalled having, which made me even more uneasy. But then I realised I did miss an essay I had to write and I did get to re-do it, even though the request, the submission and the grade were on three separate e-mail chains, and apparently something messed up and my grade hasn't been registered.

It would have been really messy had I planned to graduate at the end of the previous academic year and remained unaware of this, but as it is I'm sure it's easy to sort out. Still, it's unnerving to see that 'requirements not met' where a grade should be. I was going to update my CV with my most recent grades, but I'll have to leave this one out for now. I'm gonna see if there's a job as a research assistant available to me. That should make up for the fact that the student financing money hose has been shut off for me.
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I just got the image of a midwife and a woman giving birth swinging towards each other on a trapeze - when they meet, the midwife pulls the baby out. The knife juggler is standing on the floor and cuts the umbilical cord with a a knifethrow.

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2436 on: 10 Oct 2014, 14:39 »

Yep, hit the roadblock with my FAFSA because of the loans but I've already taken the initiative and got my loans into rehab.  My plans are still to start in the Spring but I may need to figure out how to pay for them if I'm not eligible for any state grants.  Not going to let this get me down, not this time.
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Peace is a lie, there is only passion.  Through passion I gain strength.  Through strength, power.  Through power, victory.  Through victory, my chains are broken.  The force shall set me free.

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2437 on: 01 Nov 2014, 10:13 »

So we have two different offices that handle money issues for students. The Financial Aid office that gives you money through scholarships, grants, loans, etc., and the Student Accounts office, which exists for the purpose of taking your money through collecting tuition, fees, parking tickets (a typical student will accumulate a LOT of those of the course of their time here), library fines, and anything else they can think of.

They really are the opposite of each other. Everyone who works at Financial Aid is really nice and willing to go out of their way to help you, everyone who works at Student Accounts is a curt asshole who seems to loathe every second they are forced to spend speaking with you. These people make DMV look like the pinnacle of customer service. As I just discovered, even the answering machine is extremely rude.

"You have reached the Student Accounts office, please listen to the following options and make your selection carefully..." It then spends the next minute and a half listing the names and extensions of nine other offices your problem might be related to instead of theirs before it actually starts telling you the extensions of student accounts staff members.
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Re: University/College
« Reply #2438 on: 14 Nov 2014, 11:34 »

After what seemed like an eternity waiting I'm officially a student.  Since I'm on my own for now with paying for classes I'm only taking one course in the Spring semester, an Intermediate Algebra course since I did score high enough in the placement test to be able to test out of taking the review course.  (Scored high enough in the English and especially writing parts of the test, though.)  Once my loans come out of default and I'm eligible for financial aid again I'll be bumping it up to two classes a semester.  Looking forward to getting back in the classroom again.
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Re: University/College
« Reply #2439 on: 16 Nov 2014, 17:50 »

After what seemed like an eternity waiting I'm officially a student.  Since I'm on my own for now with paying for classes I'm only taking one course in the Spring semester, an Intermediate Algebra course since I did score high enough in the placement test to be able to test out of taking the review course.  (Scored high enough in the English and especially writing parts of the test, though.)  Once my loans come out of default and I'm eligible for financial aid again I'll be bumping it up to two classes a semester.  Looking forward to getting back in the classroom again.

Don't forget that Math thread if you need any help with the algebra class! 
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GarandMarine

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2440 on: 09 Dec 2014, 23:25 »

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2441 on: 10 Dec 2014, 09:21 »

Got an email from the bookstore reminding me about my outstanding rentals...I rented $543 worth of books that I'd have to pay for at a lot of other colleges. The only thing they didn't have that I needed this semester was a $20 novel about political campaigns. Textbook rentals (included in tuition) are one of my favorite things about my school.

I especially enjoy the fact that if you get a book and end up not using it (our new Arabic professor decided she didn't like the $150 textbook/DVD combo the university had assigned to the course, and she ended up writing all the lessons without the aid of a book) you haven't wasted money.
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Re: University/College
« Reply #2442 on: 10 Dec 2014, 15:41 »

I especially enjoy the fact that if you get a book and end up not using it (our new Arabic professor decided she didn't like the $150 textbook/DVD combo the university had assigned to the course, and she ended up writing all the lessons without the aid of a book) you haven't wasted money.

Oh Arabic, how I hated you, so, so much... I have like 4 Arabic books still cause no one buys them back. Also, I have 4 despite only needing 2... where did these books come from?
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94ssd

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Re: University/College
« Reply #2443 on: 10 Dec 2014, 16:45 »

Learning it without a textbook was a good experience. I only picked up a fair amount of new vocab from this semester, not the amount I'd expect from an Intermediate I course, but I have dictionary. Instead I learned a metric shit-ton of grammatical rules that the books weren't going to cover until later. The professor is of the opinion that the best way to learn a language is by speaking it as much as possible rather than by just memorize lists and rules. I feel like that approach has improved my ability to functionally use the language.
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Re: University/College
« Reply #2444 on: 10 Dec 2014, 16:49 »

Both my teachers did the same, grammar was covered but not really studied in depth. I forgot pretty much everything except basic stuff and I only stopped learning it last year... I also can't speak it for shit, my teacher would make fun of me constantly
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Re: University/College
« Reply #2445 on: 15 Dec 2014, 08:21 »

So I did end up getting a fail on my pass/fail internship (pass/fail courses are 100% bullshit by the way), the same unpaid internship where I was lied to about the requirements from the start, treated like shit, and after a spat with the supervising professor pretty much cut off from communication, causing me to possibly miss out on post-election "reflection" requirements that were mentioned (I really don't know).

I'm drafting an email to the Dean of Arts and Sciences (the chair of the Poli Sci department was the supervising professor, so I have to go above him), and I'm struggling overcoming my "eat shit, jackass" anger and write a professional message.

I thought I was going to be a campaign intern. Help with messaging, communications, data. Cut turf, generate social media content, learn how to do finance and fundraising. That's the shit that was fed to me when I interviewed for it. Instead we were menial labor make phone-calls and canvas interns. We were doing this shit alongside a dozen volunteers, the staff positions the four of us supposedly had were totally unnecessary. But the difference is they had a way to demand we do it for 20 hours a week and stay late into the night. And the professor had us reading books and writing papers on top of that.
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Re: University/College
« Reply #2446 on: 26 Jan 2015, 11:57 »

Boy, it's amazing just how much math you can forget in ~11 years of time.  Some of the algebra is coming back to me some of it is a stuggle to remember.
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Re: University/College
« Reply #2447 on: 26 Jan 2015, 12:22 »

Hi.  Math professor for over 20 years, here. 

If you need any help, there's a "Let's do Math!" thread, or you can feel free to PM me. 

There are several other math people here, too.  We're always willing to help! 

Carl-E, AK "Dr. Carl" to my students. 
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Re: University/College
« Reply #2448 on: 26 Jan 2015, 12:24 »

Thank you.  It's just linear equalities and inequalities so far.  I'm doing fairly well grasping it but fractions and decimals tend to throw me through a loop sometimes and I have a tendency to sometimes overthink word problems. 
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Re: University/College
« Reply #2449 on: 26 Jan 2015, 12:28 »

Badly worded word problems are par for the course. 

The usual problem is that most native speakers don't know English well enough to do the translation into "math"...  :roll:
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