School update.
I realized I haven't talked much about school, lately, besides my LJ post and subsequent comments in which I ranted about my biology class. It ain't all bad. Here's the goings-on, as I recently typed up in an email to my grandmother:
Well, this week is officially the half-way point of the semester. I feel like I'm doing pretty well, though it's been occasionally a rough readjustment to the study habits and homework of being in school. Luckily for me, my classes are - for the most part - pretty easy, as long as I keep up with readings and take notes in class.
In my Ancient Egyptian Culture class, I achieved the second-highest score out of 52 students on the first half of our midterm. I only got a B+, which should give you an idea of how rough that was, haha. We had the second-half of our midterm today, and I feel so good about it that I'm worried I forgot to do a page or something. We had an hour and a half to complete 30 short-answer questions - I was done in 25 minutes. I should get my score back on Wednesday - here's hoping I did well.
My Physics class is kind of bizarre. Basically, our teacher seems to be intent on completely (and extremely thoroughly) reteaching us the fundamentals of physics, while spending time also talking about metaphysical philosophers in both the ancient and modern worlds. I don't know what my grade is in that class, since it's based on participation, a presentation (which I've already done) and our final exam. The final exam is worth 50% of our grade. If I based it just on participation and my presentation, I'd venture to guess a B or B+.
My English class is exceptionally easy. We have a quiz every class to make sure we did the readings due that day. These quizzes make up 50% of our grade. So far, I've gotten perfect scores on almost every quiz...and I don't always finish the reading (seriously - does this professor actually expect me to read all 56 pages of a 16th century puritan sermon, small-print?). We have a research paper due in a month that I'm a little worried about, but more because I'm having a hard time coming up with a topic than anything else.
I love my German class. I'm pretty sure that German will be at least one of my majors (I'm still on the fence about whether I want to also major in Sociology or Anthropology as well, or just German). I'm doing pretty well - my grade right now is an A, but we have a midterm this evening that will have a pretty big impact on my grade. Here's hoping I do well. I'm also considering doing a study abroad program for a year over in Giessen, where UWM has a sister school. It would earn me 33 credits, which would be a hefty load of credits, and it wouldn't cost much more than going to UWM for a year (only about $1500 more). I'll be talking to an advisor next week about the possibility of getting a scholarship through the University of Giessen - I may be eligible for up to a 600 Euro-per-month stipend while I'm there.
Biology 103: Invasive Species is, by far, my least favorite class. It's supposed to be about Invasive Species, as the title would suggest. Instead, the professor has taken it as an opportunity to pontificate about her somewhat-radical views on environmentalism and global warming. I haven't done a single assignment, yet, that has anything to do with invasive species. It's all been stuff about our ecological footprints and carbon emissions and conservation - which, granted, are good things to think about if one is passionate about taking care of the earth, or, say, if one is taking an ecology or conservation class...but I'm pretty miffed that this class has been entirely NOT about what it said it was going to be about. Oh well - at least it satisfies my natural science requirements.
So, there you have it!
Well, this week is officially the half-way point of the semester. I feel like I'm doing pretty well, though it's been occasionally a rough readjustment to the study habits and homework of being in school. Luckily for me, my classes are - for the most part - pretty easy, as long as I keep up with readings and take notes in class.
In my Ancient Egyptian Culture class, I achieved the second-highest score out of 52 students on the first half of our midterm. I only got a B+, which should give you an idea of how rough that was, haha. We had the second-half of our midterm today, and I feel so good about it that I'm worried I forgot to do a page or something. We had an hour and a half to complete 30 short-answer questions - I was done in 25 minutes. I should get my score back on Wednesday - here's hoping I did well.
My Physics class is kind of bizarre. Basically, our teacher seems to be intent on completely (and extremely thoroughly) reteaching us the fundamentals of physics, while spending time also talking about metaphysical philosophers in both the ancient and modern worlds. I don't know what my grade is in that class, since it's based on participation, a presentation (which I've already done) and our final exam. The final exam is worth 50% of our grade. If I based it just on participation and my presentation, I'd venture to guess a B or B+.
My English class is exceptionally easy. We have a quiz every class to make sure we did the readings due that day. These quizzes make up 50% of our grade. So far, I've gotten perfect scores on almost every quiz...and I don't always finish the reading (seriously - does this professor actually expect me to read all 56 pages of a 16th century puritan sermon, small-print?). We have a research paper due in a month that I'm a little worried about, but more because I'm having a hard time coming up with a topic than anything else.
I love my German class. I'm pretty sure that German will be at least one of my majors (I'm still on the fence about whether I want to also major in Sociology or Anthropology as well, or just German). I'm doing pretty well - my grade right now is an A, but we have a midterm this evening that will have a pretty big impact on my grade. Here's hoping I do well. I'm also considering doing a study abroad program for a year over in Giessen, where UWM has a sister school. It would earn me 33 credits, which would be a hefty load of credits, and it wouldn't cost much more than going to UWM for a year (only about $1500 more). I'll be talking to an advisor next week about the possibility of getting a scholarship through the University of Giessen - I may be eligible for up to a 600 Euro-per-month stipend while I'm there.
Biology 103: Invasive Species is, by far, my least favorite class. It's supposed to be about Invasive Species, as the title would suggest. Instead, the professor has taken it as an opportunity to pontificate about her somewhat-radical views on environmentalism and global warming. I haven't done a single assignment, yet, that has anything to do with invasive species. It's all been stuff about our ecological footprints and carbon emissions and conservation - which, granted, are good things to think about if one is passionate about taking care of the earth, or, say, if one is taking an ecology or conservation class...but I'm pretty miffed that this class has been entirely NOT about what it said it was going to be about. Oh well - at least it satisfies my natural science requirements.
So, there you have it!