Advice for the young grasshopper starting university -- Instructor feedback and the final exam

Last week of classes brings about two things:

• Exams are coming up
• Instructor feedback forms

The instructor feedback forms (called CEQ's at my university which stands for Course Evaluation Questionnaire) are meant to be use to gather information on how the course you are taking is being taught. From these things the instructor can either change the way the course is taught (like changing the textbook which changes how the course will be taught in the future) or continue on teaching the way he or she has been for the past who knows how many years (I will be saying something on instructors in my next post related to this series).

Be careful what you write on these forms. The instructor may recognize your handwriting so if you have something negative to say about the teacher do not write it down and keep it to yourself. As for funny comments . . . I guess I could leave it up to you but I suggest that you keep your comments to the point or don't comment at all and just rate the course.

Just for fun some students at a university in Singapore wrote comments for some instructor. I'm not sure if any other instructor does this:


Now for the final exam. Not all courses have final exams but out of all the first year courses I've been through there is a final exam. I could say the final exam is like the midterm where you might have a closed book, take home or an essay. Depending on what courses you take there might be other components that are set before the exam period like interviews or dictations for language related courses, but there are some things that make the final exam different than a midterm:

• the final lasts between 2 to 3 hours whereas the midterm is completed during class time
• the final is scheduled some time between the exam period so you might have to write it either on a Saturday morning or a Wednesday evening whereas the midterm is usually completed on a day where you normally have a lecture
• the final covers the major things you have learned over the semester whereas the midterm only covers thing learned up to that point
• finals tend to be worth more than midterms, it could even be worth the whole course if no midterm was ever given in the first place
• the final may or may not be held in a classroom. Most first year finals I've encountered are usually held in some large auditorium or gymnasium while the higher level courses are usually held in classrooms. You will most likely be in a classroom if your class is the only class that is there or if the combined number of people from more than 1 section is small. Also if your class had lectures in a lecture hall it will most likely not be in a classroom.

Like high school you pretty much show up to campus when you have an exam. There will also be other reasons you may show up on campus such as you're still working on that essay that counts for your final mark or you want to get away from some distractions and study at the library. Also you want to keep note of when your exam takes place and where it's located because the exam proctor may or may not be your course instructor and may not be lenient in giving you extra time. If for some reason you cannot make your exam on the scheduled date and time consult the instructor and university regulations as there you can get information on deferring an exam.

Just because the final is worth a lot and can be the make it or break it to passing your course, try not to worry too much. It's okay to feel nervous but just don't let fear take control of you (in the famous words of the bene gesserit: fear is the mind-killer). Same as the midterm don't overexert yourself with studying and do take breaks in between. Try to get enough sleep and eat something too as you don't want your mind to be thinking about sleep or what you want for lunch.

Hopefully this has been of some help. Good Luck! Bonne Chance! Ни Пуха Ни Пера!

Note: I've only seen the Dune movies and may have played some old DOS game so my Dune knowledge is quite limited.

Are they human? Or a machine that dials your number?

For about three weeks now I've been getting a phone call everyday at around the same time (+/- 11:00 A.M.) from some 1-800 number that belongs to some debt collector agency. The thing is my cell phone, which these people or the machine have been calling, is one of those pre-paid ones and the number is recycled.

I don't bother to answer as whether I make a call or receive one on my cell phone I get charged 25 cents per minute and toll free numbers aren't exempted. If I don't pick up or don't answer them due to not having my cell phone around me I'll get a voicemail message. I don't answer those either as answering voicemail costs +/- $1.35. This process repeats every day since I've been getting a call from this number.

So here's my two cents: When will these guys give up? I mean if there's no answer from the number you're trying to reach then stop calling. With a recycled phone number one never know who it came from (maybe a name or two if you answer calls for these people) or where it will end up. Heck it could end up on one of those firefly phones for kids. I mean how is an 8-year-old owing money to some company? Even if the number doesn't get recycled the person the debt collector is calling could be dead.

Every time I receive I missed call from these people I keep thinking the next time they call I'll tell them to f--k off. Yet again, is it worth it if it's a machine on the other end.

and now for some Weird Al

Two essay due on the same day . . . say what?!?!?

 . . . and I make a blog post. Having two things due on the same day, whether it's a lab report, some sort of project or in my case right now two essays due on the same day (though they're for different classes) seems to be a common thing once anyone starts having different teachers for different courses.

Elementary school for some (and at least for me) there were two teachers: one taught almost all your courses (math, sciences, English, religion since I went to Catholic school, visual arts, physical education) and one taught French and one subject, usually history or geography, in French. Sure I'd get homework for almost all of my subject but there would only be one major project going on at one time. Things started to amp up in grade 7 as that was the year I've had more than one teacher and each would specialize in teaching you something (sometimes you might have the same teacher for one or two subject). From that year on I've been getting more than one project assigned as well as homework from each of the classes and that when I started to think that each teacher believes that their course is more important than the others.

I remember back in grade 12 my chemistry teacher believed in the x number of homework hours should be assigned per grade (something like 30 minutes of homework per grade) so she would assign 2 hours worth of homework for the class. That semester I had only three courses and even with three courses I had trouble keeping up with the assignments. Besides school I had music and dance lessons and even though I didn't practise a lot it would still take up most of my after school time. It was also during that same year and semester I had to make two slideshow presentations and both were due around the same time. Somehow I was able to complete those on time. I mean I'm already a 4th year university student so I should be able to do it.

Now back to the present, the two essays I have to do: one for history and one for a linguistics course. The history essay was assigned at the beginning of the semester and had things like a topic proposal, a(n annotated) bibliography and an outline (called a historiography which I have no sweet clue what it is, only taking the history course as an elective) as assignments. With something assigned to you at the beginning of a semester start as soon as you have enough background information to start the essay, especially if it's n x 1000 words (n being a number between 1-9). That way if you're good at essays you have time to make a draft that can be looked over by the prof or some writing tutor or if you're slow at least you're getting things done bit by bit. The essay I have to do for my linguistics course (though the prof mentions it's not but I'll refer to it as one) was assigned just recently so I assume there's not a lot to be done.

Anyways since I've procrastinated too much:

• if something is assigned to you don't leave it until the last minute whether it's a two question weekly assignment or an n page paper
• if you find yourself distracted try to distance away from things that may distract you.
• also if it seems that having too much work/assignments is forcing you to become some sort of hermit you are allowed to take breaks. you're the one responsible for starting/completing your assignment so it's totally up to you to decide when to do these assignments, but make sure it's sometime soon rather than the day before it's due.