On an End-of-Semester Evaluation

Sorry for the late End-of-Semester Eval!  (Thanks Anon for reminding me!)
Whenever I planned to write it, I ended up answering comments instead (as can be seen by the numerous Dear Readers these past few weeks).

End-of-Semester Evaluation:

This semester, I took Chem 3B (Pedersen), Chem 3BL, Physics 8A (Heinemann/Charman), Comp Lit R1A (Ruth/Julia), and lab..
I'm not sure why, but this semester was easier for me than last semester. Maybe it was due to a better sense of time management, maybe I'm finally starting to learn how to handle things at berkeley, OR maybe it's just because I'm on summer break and all the pain is behind me (I hope it isn't that...). Anyway, to all the viewers who are curious about taking chem 3B and physics 8A together, I can finally say: Yes, it is possible :)

Chem 3B: I was really intimidated going into 3B with Pedersen because he seemed like such an unrelenting professor.. And it turns out, he is.. He's very picky about how you answer questions on the exams. For instance, every wrong answer cancels out a correct one, redundant answers cancel out correct ones (stereochemistry), etc. In all, his exams were fair and up to the standards which he taught his class. Pedersen was/is a great professor. He was very clear when teaching the material and constantly reminded students what was and was not going to be on the test. However, like chem 3A, I did most of my learning in SLC. Even though I never skipped Pedersen's lecture, Pedersen goes over the material very quickly so it's hard to take notes and listen to everything he's saying. SLC helped to reinforce all the material, and luckily, I had Neil as a group leader. I must say, if you find out which section Neil is teaching, take it with him! He is the best SLC leader I have ever had and he saved my grade more than once. His notes are fantastic and he's a great lecturer, making ochem super clear and easy to understand. I should send him a box of chocolates...

Chem3BL: I did not enjoy chem 3bl, almost as much as I didn't enjoy bio 1AL... In chem 3BL, all the labs are done alone- no more partners, which sucks because the labs are incredibly long. It took us the whole 4 hours to finish up almost every week, and we were rushed more than once.. There's a ton of TLC and recrystallization- practically all the labs require you to do those two, some more than once. My GSI wasn't all that great either, which made my lab experience all the worse. He kept making me repeat my recrsystallizations because it recrystallized too quickly.... Also, there are no lab reports for 3BL (at least for Pedersen). Instead, there are two in-lab lab reports. You get to choose one lab out of two choices which are based off of four labs and write that report during your lab. For instance, let's say you did labs 16, 17, 18, and 19. Your GSI will choose two labs (17 & 19) for you to pick from but you don't know which two labs ahead of time.. You find out the day of the in-lab lab report and can choose which of the two to write your lab report on. The lab final was not that bad, but there were some tricky questions on it as well as some questions from the 3A lab final. Your final grade is based on your lab observations, NMR (which you have weekly), your 2 in-lab lab reports, and your lab final. It's strictly points (no curve) but the grade cut-offs are very low.

Physics 8A: Like I mentioned in the Start-of-Semester eval, we had Heinemann at first, but she was later diagnosed with breast cancer so Charmann took her place. Both Heinemann and Charman based their lectures on deriving equations, which I found unhelpful.. Thus, going to lecture felt like a waste of time, and whenever I did skip lecture, I didn't feel like it hurt my learning of physics (or lack thereof).. So I had to find other ways to learn physics and basically teach myself.. Heinemann's exam was not that bad but Charmanns' exams were really conceptual and the averages were very low (lower than Bordel's which is unheard of..). So if you can, take physics in the fall with Deweese, who I heard was a great professor (and easy ;). Just a note, discussions are not mandatory although labs are, and the labs are really easy and easily graded (and some are even enjoyable!). Mastering Physics was really annoying but if you can, try to actually do the problems. I think attempting mastering physics was one of the reasons I did well on my first midterm and not attempting them caused my grade to drop on the second one (albeit not the entire reason)...

Comp Lit R1A: English is english- never liked writing papers, never will... Although one note, Ruth/Julia (Becoming Unbalanced) are tough graders so beware..

Lab: I am now working on two projects simultaneously so I get confused on what i'm doing half the time i'm there.. But I think i'm starting to enjoy it little by little :)

This summer: Physics 8B, Music 128, lab, Alta Bates, small side job as a student mentor.

Overall, it was a hard semester and I am extremely glad my pre-reqs are almost done!

If you have any questions or would like to me to elaborate more on a subject, just leave a comment!

-K