On Mon, 2009-04-13 at 12:36 -0400, solarwind wrote: > On Mon, Apr 13, 2009 at 11:02 AM, John Ferrell > wrote: > > For some, going off to a University is just life as usual. For the rest of > > us who were accustomed to being at the top of our classes, it is a rude > > awakening to be surrounded by so many people who are least our equals and > > many times a whole lot smarter! > > What's that supposed to mean? There is no smart or stupid, it's just > how much you study. Your mark is directly proportional to how many > hour you spend studying and understanding your course. Very, very, very, very, very,very wrong. Your mark is influenced by MUCH more then how much you study. I went to school with some people who never showed up for lectures, never even really opened the texts, and yet got astonishing marks in most courses. OTOH some studied WAY more then me and yet didn't do as well. It even depends on the course, for some courses I had to "study" FAR FAR less then others (heck, for one course I didn't even study for the final, the prof was so good that by the time the final rolled around I found I just "got" the material). For others no amount of additional studying would have helped. > There are complete noobs in my class getting 95% because they do > nothing else but study. On the other hand, there are some people > getting a 60% but could be getting a 95% only because they have never > opened their textbook. That's how it is... Sorry, that is not how it is, and the quicker you get this "that's how it is" out of your mind the better. The most difficult element to university is choosing how to divide your time (time management). You will have to make choices that will result in very poor marks for some assignments (perhaps even failures of some assignments) in an effect to actually pass another (sometimes more critical) course. Sleep is VERY secondary to everything else, be ready to pull nearly all nighters. The best formula for me ended up being 4-6 hours sleep during the week and then a "recharge" of 12-14 hours on the weekend, although those recharges were more often then not cut short. Although I went through engineering, which tends to be a little more "brutal" in undergrad then many Arts and Sciences streams, there are a few pointers: - no matter how good you were in high school it means nothing in university - chances are some courses you LOVED in high school you will end up hating in university - you will likely fail something (likely much more then just one thing), be it a quiz or an assignment. Many students have never failed anything, that first 2/10 on a quiz can really shock some people (I have seen tears) - you will "give up" at some point, it's my opinion that part of the university experience is to get a feel for "how far" you can be pushed, most students reach this line sometime in their tenure, and get pushed over it (for me it was the "week of hell" as many of us called it, last week of October in 3rd year) - the people you meet in your first class will likely be your friends throughout your time in University - don't even bother thinking about "reading ahead", you won't have the time Now, some things specific to UofT: - you will live by the bell curve: again, this is more specific to engineering, but I believe it's pretty universal across UofT. Don't worry about the actual mark you get, what matters is how you are doing vs. your peers. I vividly remember screaming for joy when I received a mid term and the mark was 53%. Why? Because I knew that almost everybody got less then that (IIRC that 53% was the second highest mark on that mid term). You do you receive your final exam mark (unless you contest the final course mark and pay a fee to get a copy of your exam), all marks for all classes are "belled" to achieve an average mark of around 70-75% - no matter HOW much you liked math in high school, you will almost certainly hate it with a passion in University. The math profs are VERY "in" to math, and see undergrads as lower beings. This sounds dramatic, and perhaps things have changed, but I doubt it. To the math department anybody who uses math but isn't IN math doesn't really deserve their time. In engineering I took ALOT of math courses, we all held this opinion by the end of each math course. The best result is if your math course isn't taught by a math prof - the best place to study is probably Gerstein. I don't know if you plan to live on res or not, either way, res or home is never a good place to study - the TAs are VERY hit and miss, some are incredible, better then the profs, others are not worth your time. I find the more ArtSci TAs (i.e. history, philosophy) are better then the more technical ones (math, science) - speaking of tutorials, for most classes none of us went, we quickly discovered they were a huge was of time, use office hours if you have questions. Some profs however run the tutorials and those you have to go to, so don't count on your tutorial times as being free times - get a locker. You do NOT want to drag your books around campus. Most buildings have lockers, first choice is usually reserved for students from that building's discipline, don't worry about it. Have a look at where all your classes and labs are and choose a central spot, if you don't have first choice wait until they open it for everyone. For me the mechanical engineering building was always best - for engineering ALL classes started at the earliest at 9am, and most were only one hour. More ArtSci type classes tend to be later in the day, and are sometimes 2 or 3 hours in length. Labs tend to be either first thing in the morning, or late in the evening. You will likely have days that go 9-9. Almost everything ends by 9pm. - go to frosh week, for engineers it's more of a frosh day since they start classes earlier. It's fun, it's a great way to meet people you will likely be spending many hours a day with and it'll temporarily distract you from the stuff that's coming That's all I can come up with. If you have something more specific to ask perhaps a private email is best. TTYL -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist