My tips are centered around UBC courses. I study very differently for each course. Hope these tips help!
ENG 110 – English Literature
- Actually do the assigned reading before class, and take notes while you read.
- Buy a physical copy of the books you’re assigned. They typically cost less than $10
- Bring the book or print out the reading to bring to class so you can refer to it during discussion. You can bring a digital version.
- Do the extra reading on the genre, the author, what society was like and what world events were occurring when the piece was written.
- Speak in your discussion section 1) you get participation marks. 2) you force yourself to organize and vocalize your thoughts. 3) your TA will learn that you’re alive.
- Your professor will often not write or present any notes but you should take notes on what is being discussed.
- Take notes on good points that your classmates bring up.
- Start working on your final paper early
- Spend time working on a good thesis
- Choose a final paper topic that looks least boring to you. I know you think all the topics are awful but it gets better once you start refining your idea.
- Talk to your professor at office hours if you have questions.
- Suggested professor: Dr Gisele Baxter, especially if you’re into Gothic!
MATH 103 – Integral Calculus
- utilize the help of your peers on the Piazza website and give help in return
- Make friends that also take MATH 103 and meet to work on OSH together
- Review your old assignments and quizzes to see what you did wrong.
- Get your homework done at reasonable time before it’s due but not too early when you haven’t learned the concepts yet. Do not do next week’s assignment as soon as it comes out.
- The paper version of the textbook is a waste of money.
- Take good notes during class. This will be your primary study tool.
- Keep copying notes down even if you get totally lost during a lecture (like I did).
- Always come to class on quiz days. If you can’t come to class on an OSH day, make sure you have a trusted friend hand in your assignments for you
- Compile a list of formula that you refer often to so you don’t have to flip through your notes every time to find what you need.
- Be psychologically prepared to feel pressed for time during math exams.
- Pick up your old exams and review them to see what you did wrong
- Suggested professor: Dr Edwin Perkins. Dr Perkins is super friendly and generous about helping his students to work through what they don’t understand.
CHEM 123 – Introductory physical and Organic Chemistry
- Suggested professors: for Physical Chemistry, Dr Keng Chou, Dr Glen Sammis. For Organic Chemistry Dr Jason Hein.
- Take notes by hand, especially for Organic chemistry.
- • don’t do all the questions in the problem sets. They’re not worth your time.
- • Of the practice problems that you do, walk yourself through them step by step.
- • Do the practice midterms.
- • Don’t do the extremely old practice exams because the exam format has changed.
- • If your learning style doesn’t click with your professor, stop going to class. I respected Dr Chou for telling us on the first day that he will not punish us for our different learning styles and will not deduct marks if we do not come to class.
- • Do not stress too much about getting clicker questions wrong. Clicker questions are worth little in the grand scheme of things.
- • Buy the Organic chemistry Workbook. It’s helpful though you likely will not have time to do all the problems.
- • Do not buy the Physical Chemistry workbook. I barely used it because lecture notes were enough.
- You have to buy the Sharp EL-510RNB Engineering/Scientific Calculator because you’re not allowed to use any other calculator on the midterms or final.
Chem 123 Lab:
- Do your pre lab at least the night before. The stress of doing the pre lab a hour before it is due is not fun
- Take pre lab quizzes seriously.
- Listen carefully to your TA’s suggestions on how to do your lab report
- • PRO TIP: ERASABLE PENS ARE YOUR BEST FRIEND. I wish someone told me to use them so I didn’t have to awkwardly cross things out. Chem labs are pen only so if you make mistakes, you’re not allowed to use whiteout. Game over friends. I personnally used Pilot 0.5 mm but any erasable pens will do
- On that note, you must use black or blue pen. I love colourful pens but pink or orange or purple pens do not belong here.
BIOL 112 – Biology of the Cell
- Go to class! I learned more in class than on my own for this course.
- You have to buy Launchpad to do the weekly pre reading assignments
- • The weekly pre reading assignments are really short and easy. Do not stress about them
- Exams are first done individually and then done as a group.
- If you’re in Dr Smith’s class, clicker marks are participation based so don’t worry about getting them wrong.
- Important: Keep up with your pre readings.
- Even if you take notes on a computer, bring a pen because there are hand-in at the end of the lecture assignments.
- It’s hard to get a good seat. Come to class on time.
- There are unfortunately no old exams available to study from. Dr Smith does give you a mock exam though
- Suggested professor: Dr Karen Smith
Eng 112 – Strategies for University Writing
You’ll learn:
- critical reading of academic texts
- how to write to communicate effectively
Class structure
- mandatory regular attendance
- participation in class activities and discussions.
- In-class essays
- Take-home essay(s)
- 3-hour final examination at the end of the course where you’ll be asked to write essays
Lots of
- Implementing “They Say I Say” into your writing style. You’ll find out what They Say I Say means every soon.
- Pointing out what established academics have done wrong in their writing
How to get a good grade:
- Actually do the assigned reading before class
- Bring the book or print out the reading to bring to class so you can refer to it during discussion.
- You can bring a digital version.
- IMPORTANT: Speak in class!! 1) you get participation marks. 2) you force yourself to organize and vocalize your thoughts. 3) your professor will learn that you’re alive.
- Your professor will often not write or present any notes but you should take notes on what is being discussed.
- Take notes on good points that your classmates bring up.
- Start working on your final paper early
- Choose a final paper topic that you’re personally interested. Do not choose a topic solely because you think your professor will like it. If you find your own topic boring, you will write a boring paper and your professor will cry while drinking coffee trying to read your paper.
- Go get at least two physical books when you’re conducting background research.
- The UBC Libraries are great resources.
- Spend time working on a good thesis.
- Talk to your professor at office hours if you have questions
Suggested professor: Dr Lorcan Fox (he’s hilarious!)
PHYS 117 – Physics
- You must bring an electronic device to class to answer in-class problems
- Perusall is due every Sunday night. You have to put online comments about the assigned textbook reading and reply to classmates’ comments for marks.
- PRO TIP: if you have trouble coming up with questions, answer your classmates’ questions instead.
- Pro TIP: the diagrams are good places to ask questions.
- Mastering Physics are online problem sets that are due every week. Carve out time to work on these. Sometimes they can be challenging.
- Yay there’s no lab for this class! (At least when I took this course Sept-Dec 2015). However, you have a test almost every week during tutorial.Weekly tests are not hard and help you keep up with material.
- Exams: you do the exam individually first and then you and three classmates do the exam again together as a group. I enjoyed working in groups because I like sharing knowledge to create a solution together.
- Learning Catalytics is PHYS 117’s answer to Clicker questions. A question is projected onto the screen and you answer it. What I love is that we first answer ourselves and then we discuss with the people around us and then answer again.
- Piazza is well-regulated by physics TAs and professors so you get good answers promptly!
- Office hours are both in person and online (Skype)
- Lots of Collaborating with other students to learn! I love this!
- lots ofOnline assignments & even online office hours
- Suggested professors: Dr Simon Bates and Dr Carl Michael
PHYS 118 Electricity and Magnetism
- Useful class, interesting class, easy midterms but the final was difficult because it covered everything from the beginning to the end of the semester.
- There are clicker questions every class so be prepared.
- Tutorial is optional but I highly recommend attending to get guidance from the TAs.
SOCI 102 Sociology
- I was super excited to attend class!
- Dr. Neil Armitage is the man you want for your professor.
- The written assignments are difficult to do well on though
- My TA was really helpful for tips and feedback if you’re struggling with writing.
PSYC 101 Psychology
- After I took this class, I decided to change my major to Neuroscience and Pharmacology so you can guess how much I loved this class.
- Easy to do well in if you attend class and study a reasonable amount. I’m not sure why this class is notorious for being alarmingly difficult. My guess is that it might be difficult if you take this first semester of first year when you’re not used to the workload of university yet.
- Dr. Luke Clark is super cool and a good professor.
CHEM 233 Organic Chemistry
- I had Dr. Jackie Stewart as my professor and she’s great. Super enthusiastic about what she teaches and willing to help us if we don’t understand.
- Don’t take 8 AM Ochem if you are a night owl. You will regret signing for 8 am class every morning until the end of the term.
CHEM 235 Organic Chemistry Lab
- Your TA is your saviour. Your benchmates are your teammates Love them, be nice to them, help them. You all are part of a team.
- Here are the Flashcards I made – Glossary of terms https://quizlet.com/148816707/chem-235-glossary-flash-cards/
PCTH 201 Drugs and Society
- I highly recommend this elective. It inspired me to major in Pharmacology and Neuroscience!
- Dr. Horne is awesome. Enough said. Take this class.
- If you put in the effort, you will do well in this class.
STAT 200 Statistics
- highly recommend this elective too. Very useful if you do research.
- The midterm was really challenging so our professor changed the grading scheme so that more weight was on the final.
- I went to office hours so often that my professor, Dr. Lang, started to anticipate that I would be back the next week haha. Use office hours!
BIOL 200 Cell Biology
- The material was really cool but the exams are difficult to do well in.
- The problem sets have no answers and this will anger you while you study. You don’t understand me now but you will later. Going to office hours for answers helps only mildly.
- You will want to tear out your hair writing your press release because you don’t fully understand the article you’re supposed to be advertising.
- To be honest, if you don’t need this class and are not taking it for interest, avoid this class. It’s a lot of work and the exams and assignments are frustrating.
BIOC 202 Medical Biochemistry
- Dr. Williams will play biochemistry songs. He’s cool.
- I found this class pretty interesting! You will too probably if you’re interested in medicine, pharmacy, nursing, etc because there are many examples related to medications and medical conditions.
- the exams were tough even with tons and tons of studying
- Study tip: Study with friends before exams! It helps to explain your answers and quiz each other on details and draw out pathways on whiteboards.
CHEM 205 Physical Chemistry
- Our professor provided us with tons of practice exams and problem sets – such a blessing.
- Class attendance is optional – just a FYI for all you self-learners out there.
- I can’t say I found the material particularly interesting but the material is useful for the MCAT and understanding biochemistry.
Some people like Amy follow a strict routine (she has a Study Routine post on her blog if that’s more your style). I study very differently for each course and do not follow a study routine. I find that works much better because each course I took had a very different type of exam and the content was pretty different. For example, organic chemistry required a very different study method from a psychology or an essay-based class.