The Calm
So it’s the weekend right before my first midterms. I figure now is as good a time as ever to talk about my first impressions of my classes.
Algebra for Honours Mathematics (MATH 135) — Koeller
I think out of all of my courses, this one is the most interesting. It’s basically algeo without the combinatorics and vectors, leaving only the proofs and thinking. You’ll encounter your first dose of funny looking symbols here. Thankfully, it is also one of the easier courses. The prof in this class is solid. She teaches well, has really neat and good boardwork, makes sure everyone understands and has a sense of humour. For instance, we were being loud and rowdy one too many times so at the beginning of the next class she says
A lot of people have complained about the noise in this class so here’s what we’re going to do: imagine this is the algebra train. If someone starts talking, I give you permission to go “chugga chugga chugga chugga” and we’ll all go “CHOO CHOO!” and we’ll all know to be quiet because the algebra train is leaving and you don’t want to get left behind.
So during that class, whenever the noise picked up, she’d just go “chugga chugga chugga chugga” and we’d all go “CHOO CHOO!” and shut the hell up.
I think it’s worth mentioning that the textbook for this class, Introduction to Mathematical Thinking, by Gilbert and Vanstone, is very, very good.
Calculus 1 for Engineering – (MATH 117) — Chang
I was looking around in my old posts around the start of Grade 12. Apparently, in a moment of foolishness, I wrote that I understood functions and domains and limits. So the reason the first term of university is just review is because high schools teach you things so simplified that it’s almost wrong. So now, you must unlearn everything you’ve learned. It’s been a month and we’re having a midterm and we haven’t done differentiation yet. That’s how much you have to learn about functions.
Chang is very much like Nguyen. He’s probably a frigging genius and knows everything, but he says random stuff and in an Asian accent, so it’s fairly entertaining and somewhat confusing. One time, after he was done writing, he walks right up to me. As he’s doing so, I’m looking around at the boards and I land on one that he didn’t write on. So he comes up to me and looks at what I’m looking at and he goes “Why are you looking there?”. There was an awkward silence and then he goes “Oh! You were looking at the definition.” And another awkward silence and he walks away… Oh, and his lectures help you on about half of your assignment. The other half is completely new stuff that no one knows how to do.
Linear Algebra for Engineering (MATH 115) — Wollan
So this is where all of the vectors went. The entire course is learning about matrices. But they’re not those wussy 3 x 4 matrices from Grade 12. No, we can have as many entries in a matrix as we want and we’ll row reduce them and solve them. And we’ll do crazy things with them. And we’ll end up with vectors in six dimensions. It’s a bit confusing because after a certain point, drawing diagrams doesn’t work anymore because it’s kind of hard to draw lines in more than three dimensions.
It’s too bad our prof is a noob. Tip: when your prof doesn’t even appear on ratemyprofessors.com, he’s a noob. And if he’s a noob, you’re going to be spending a lot of time with your books.
Oh, and the tutorials for this class make me angry. What the hell kind of tutorial is it where you can’t ask questions because you’re trying to finish an assignment in the two hour window that they give you?
Developing Programming Principles (CS 133) — Alencar
Basic programming, basically. It starts off with the basics and I’m sure it could have things I need to learn about, but so far it’s not a very good course. I guess it could depend on your prof. Ours is not a very good lecturer and our class is at 8:30 in the morning. Not a good combination, especially when half your class already knows what they’re doing. Of course, I need it since I’ve never done Java or any OOP before. Well, at least I know what a class is now.
The assignments and labs make me angry in this class too, more the labs than assignments because labs are, for some retarded reason, harder than the assignments, and are due within 48 hours, as opposed to two weeks for assignments.
Introduction to Software Engineering (SE 101) — Bishop
This class has its interesting material and not so interesting stuff. Some more interesting stuff is things like ethics and law. The not so interesting material is mundane management and writing things. I’m worried about the final design project in this class because I appear to be the noobest in my team and I can’t do anything.
The prof for this class is alright. He’s fairly solid and explains things well. He’s a Microsoft fanboy though. He’s mentioned how Windows Vista is some sort of engineering achievement several times and on his webpage, it says he’s like the head of the Microsoft Alliance in ECE. Let’s say his view on intellectual property is very aligned with his masters in Redmond.
Mechanics (PHYS 115) — Balogh
This class is the same as MATH 117: you may think you know it all, but in reality, you know nothing. So far, though, it’s been fairly standard. The big test is the midterm in one and a half weeks. The midterm is legendary, in the bad way. Every upper year I’ve talked to has said the same thing, that my failure will be complete. Apparently, the one softie that did well on it last year switched out and went over to Physics. Go figure.
Our prof is pretty good, considering it’s his first time teaching this course. His research is in astrophysics, apparently. Anyway, he’s a pretty good prof, and he goes a bit deeper sometimes, into more philosophical areas, like what a force really is or what a mass is. He also says a lot of things that make for very good profQuotes.
Oh God, no, I hate bio. I was growing up wanting to be a doctor, but then I realized this stuff sucks. That and I don’t care about people.
Tags: School