Dear Reader 67

JMarch 28, 2014 at 7:25 PM

Hi K,

I'm currently a third-year IB major who works in a research lab. Can you write about your experience working on an honors thesis for IB? Thanks!

Dear J,

Yes, I will write about doing an honors for IB as soon as I finish! The good, the bad, and the ugly.. :)

K 

Dear Reader 66

AnonymousMarch 25, 2014 at 3:14 PM

What do you think about taking Physics 8A over the summer? The professor teaching this summer, 2014, seems to have a pretty high rating. I have never taken physics before though, so I don't know what to expect.

Dear Anonymous, 

Thanks for stopping by! 

One of my regrets at Cal was taking physics 8b over the summer- I hated it. It was extremely accelerated and having lab twice a week was torture. Just based on my experience, I would recommend not taking 8A over the summer, especially since it's your first time taking physics. This is something you're going to have to revisit for the mcat so make sure to learn it well the first time haha. I found that because the summer class was so accelerated, I didn't have time for the material to marinate before moving on to the next topic. Also, physics 8A is a very conceptual class, where you have to apply a lot of equations to one problem- critical thinking. This, for me anyway, takes a lot of practice, so it might be difficult to master over summer. However, with that said, if the professor teaching over the summer is a "summer professor" (only teaches in the summer) and is known to be a great professor who doesn't have harsh curves, then perhaps it won't be so bad. But once again, I am very biased about summer classes haha 

Good luck! 

K