I believe I haven't yet told you my experience with college, so I figured I'd tell you now that I've successfully finished my first year.
Instead of a predefined schedule, each student has to select which subjects they want to study and then make their own schedule. While there are a few compulsory ones, there are several optional ones with several different topics. That gives you a wide range of choices for what you want to study. But the problem with setting up your own schedule is you can't always make it the way you want. For each subject there's only a limited amount of hours at which you can register a class for it. Combine this with the fact you should ensure none of your subjects overlap, your schedule likely ends up being all over the place.
Case in point: During my winter semester I'd often have class only until noon, on some days for only two hours or so, but on Wednesdays I'd have class from morning to late afternoon.
But if your schedule doesn't become all over the place, the other unpleasant thing it can become is stacked, as mine was during summer semester. Three days a week would I have class until late afternoon, one day would I have class until 8 in the evening. Flipping 8 o'clock. Because there was simply no better time I could have registered the subject for. And every other Wednesday I'd have class from 8 in the morning to 8 in the evening. 12 hours of straight studying! That assumes you don't eventually become tired and decide to skip class a few days, as I have near the semester's end.
Fridays were, however, completely free. I had no subjects for them, giving me an additional day for weekends. But it's tough to say if a three day weekend makes up for having to be running for most of the other days.
The count of students can also get overwhelming. In secondary school I'd have about 30 classmates. Here in college, an exercise classroom would have up to 60 students, but a lecture hall coul have up to 300 of them. That's so many students that for some subjects teachers are aware a lecture hall may not have enough seats for all students, as such some of them take a sit in a different classroom, where they'd watch a live stream of the teaching. And yet, I've experienced two instances in which there weren't enough seats even in the reserve classrooms. I've talked a bit more closely to four students or so, but otherwise, with how many students there are, I can't look at them as classmates anymore. I just see them as a crowd.
That was a lot of downsides. I wanted to quickly get them out of the way for this post so that I don't end it negatively.
Because in the end, I love it here. All the subjects are focused on what intrigues me, or I can see being useful for me in the future. No more need to memorise dozens of century old names, simply learn a new mathematical or computational term and I can the logically connect it with other things I know. It makes studying much more fun and it further drives my motivation to learn more about these topics.
The lectures and exercises are completely optional. None of the teachers will care if you skip class, the most they can do is call you out and say you should attend it. The only one who should care about you skipping class and consider the consequences is yourself.
The only extensive exams ever are mid-terms and final-terms, which means there's much less stress to have over exams. Or more specifically, there's less frequent stress. Each semester only lasts three months, so you also put less overall time of the year into studying, yet you can argue that it brings you more than secondary school ever could.
And for the finals exams you don't get simply one shot, there are three different terms you can sign up for. So in case you sign up for an earlier one and fail, you can sign up for a later one and try again. While not recommended to rely on this, it means the risks are lower and passing a subject isn't so strict.
To end this off, here's a list of very specific or very niche examples of what I've learnt. These are either trivial things, or funny oversimplifications.
1. Discrete mathematics taught me the five room puzzle is blatantly lying.
2. Circuit engineering taught me the famous level 'The Cluttered Chaos Calculator' in Super Mario Maker is the most ingenious thing I've seen in a Nintendo game.
3. Physics seminar taught me to analyse a situation and consider risks in advance, so as not to make foolish decisions that could have heavy costs. The most stand-out example of which was a physics problem where you have to find out how fast a ball would be falling just before someone on the ground would catch it, if you threw the ball from 240 metres. Why does it stand out to me? Because it's based on a real event.
4. Machine level programming taught me that computers are incredibly dumb machines who only manage complex tasks by doing several simple tasks one after another very quickly.
5. And lastly, a course on operating systems taught me... not to underestimate homework! Because oh my god! A project that was essentially my final means of getting enough credit to pass the course, I began working on it just a few days before the deadline and was so panicked I wouldn't submit it in time. Lesson learnt, do not leave homework until the final opportunity.
In conclusion, in college you've got significantly more freedom over what you study and what you do, which however means you have a lot more responsibilities. And that's really what you come to realise and accept as you step further into adult life.
PetÃk :D
I believe I haven't yet told you my experience with college, so I figured I'd tell you now that I've successfully finished my first year.
Instead of a predefined schedule, each student has to select which subjects they want to study and then make their own schedule. While there are a few compulsory ones, there are several optional ones with several different topics. That gives you a wide range of choices for what you want to study.
But the problem with setting up your own schedule is you can't always make it the way you want. For each subject there's only a limited amount of hours at which you can register a class for it. Combine this with the fact you should ensure none of your subjects overlap, your schedule likely ends up being all over the place.
Case in point: During my winter semester I'd often have class only until noon, on some days for only two hours or so, but on Wednesdays I'd have class from morning to late afternoon.
But if your schedule doesn't become all over the place, the other unpleasant thing it can become is stacked, as mine was during summer semester. Three days a week would I have class until late afternoon, one day would I have class until 8 in the evening.
Flipping 8 o'clock. Because there was simply no better time I could have registered the subject for. And every other Wednesday I'd have class from 8 in the morning to 8 in the evening. 12 hours of straight studying! That assumes you don't eventually become tired and decide to skip class a few days, as I have near the semester's end.
Fridays were, however, completely free. I had no subjects for them, giving me an additional day for weekends. But it's tough to say if a three day weekend makes up for having to be running for most of the other days.
The count of students can also get overwhelming. In secondary school I'd have about 30 classmates. Here in college, an exercise classroom would have up to 60 students, but a lecture hall coul have up to 300 of them. That's so many students that for some subjects teachers are aware a lecture hall may not have enough seats for all students, as such some of them take a sit in a different classroom, where they'd watch a live stream of the teaching.
And yet, I've experienced two instances in which there weren't enough seats even in the reserve classrooms.
I've talked a bit more closely to four students or so, but otherwise, with how many students there are, I can't look at them as classmates anymore. I just see them as a crowd.
That was a lot of downsides. I wanted to quickly get them out of the way for this post so that I don't end it negatively.
Because in the end, I love it here. All the subjects are focused on what intrigues me, or I can see being useful for me in the future. No more need to memorise dozens of century old names, simply learn a new mathematical or computational term and I can the logically connect it with other things I know. It makes studying much more fun and it further drives my motivation to learn more about these topics.
The lectures and exercises are completely optional. None of the teachers will care if you skip class, the most they can do is call you out and say you should attend it. The only one who should care about you skipping class and consider the consequences is yourself.
The only extensive exams ever are mid-terms and final-terms, which means there's much less stress to have over exams. Or more specifically, there's less frequent stress.
Each semester only lasts three months, so you also put less overall time of the year into studying, yet you can argue that it brings you more than secondary school ever could.
And for the finals exams you don't get simply one shot, there are three different terms you can sign up for. So in case you sign up for an earlier one and fail, you can sign up for a later one and try again. While not recommended to rely on this, it means the risks are lower and passing a subject isn't so strict.
To end this off, here's a list of very specific or very niche examples of what I've learnt. These are either trivial things, or funny oversimplifications.
1. Discrete mathematics taught me the five room puzzle is blatantly lying.
2. Circuit engineering taught me the famous level 'The Cluttered Chaos Calculator' in Super Mario Maker is the most ingenious thing I've seen in a Nintendo game.
3. Physics seminar taught me to analyse a situation and consider risks in advance, so as not to make foolish decisions that could have heavy costs. The most stand-out example of which was a physics problem where you have to find out how fast a ball would be falling just before someone on the ground would catch it, if you threw the ball from 240 metres.
Why does it stand out to me? Because it's based on a real event.
4. Machine level programming taught me that computers are incredibly dumb machines who only manage complex tasks by doing several simple tasks one after another very quickly.
5. And lastly, a course on operating systems taught me... not to underestimate homework! Because oh my god! A project that was essentially my final means of getting enough credit to pass the course, I began working on it just a few days before the deadline and was so panicked I wouldn't submit it in time.
Lesson learnt, do not leave homework until the final opportunity.
In conclusion, in college you've got significantly more freedom over what you study and what you do, which however means you have a lot more responsibilities. And that's really what you come to realise and accept as you step further into adult life.
4 months ago | [YT] | 17