Enjoying my summer vacation

It’s my 4^th year to take summer classes. Every summer, I have to spend a month of sitting in a classroom while listening to my professor talk endlessly for hours. TORTURE.

Everyday, I am bombarded with information that I have to understand and remember.

Exam every week.

No breaks in between.

Walking from one building to another in the heat of the sun.

The last time that I had a fun summer vacation was when I graduated from high school. My life revolved around sleep and food. THAT WAS FUN.

I can’t even recall the last time I went to the beach to relax and enjoy my vacation. NO MEMORY.

1 month. 4 weeks. 20 days. 6 hours everyday. Humdrum. Bored.

When Prayer is the only answer

I have done everything to pass this semester. I have deprived myself of sleep and social life just to give more time to my studies.

Some of my exams failed and finals week was horrendous. I lacked sleep and proper nutrition, interaction with other people, and time for myself.

Now when everything seems gray and impossible, prayer is the only answer.

Doodle Doodle

While I was reviewing for my final exams, I realized the value of jotting down notes during lectures. I am thankful that I don’t have to read the whole book to know the important things and concepts to remembers, and I don’t have to depend on it for examples and solutions.

My notebook in my Chemistry subject is full of doodles and senseless things I draw when I get bored. Recently, I stumbled upon one of Yahoo!’s featured topic (of the day) that says doodling can help memory. Sometimes when things get dull, we can’t help but start daydreaming. A simple task, like doodling is sufficient to stop daydreaming without affecting our performance with what we are doing.

Sooooooo….. If I doodle during lectures, there is a big chance for me passing/getting high grades in exams? Hmmm…

Define Stress

Define stress?

It is when you sleep at 4 in the morning and wake up at 7am for your exam.

It is when you start cramming for papers and reports that piled up along with problem sets, exams and projects.

It is when you start on depending on caffeine to keep you awake all throughout the day (and in the wee hours of the morning when you’re studying)

It is when you rush from one building to the other because your professor dismissed you 15 minutes late and you are already late for your next class (and lucky you. Your professor in your next subject decided to give a quiz that day)

It is when you studied the whole week for an exam and felt unprepared when you started answering the ridiculously loooooooooooong and difficult questions in the questionnaire

It is when you start being uneasy, restless and can’t concentrate with what you’re supposed to do because you are bothered and distracted with things you aren’t really supposed to be thinking of during you finals week.

Stress.

Caffeine Rush

According to Wikipedia, Palpitation is the abnormal awareness (because it interrupts other thoughts compared to normal awareness wherein it is caused by a concentration on the beating of one’s heart) of the beating of the heart; whether it is too fast, too slow or irregular.

Palpitation may be brought from overexertion, adrenaline, caffeine, cocaine, amphetamines and other drugs. Attacks can last for a few seconds to a few hours, and includes symptoms such as sweating, shaking, faintness, chest pain and dizziness. It can also be associated with anxiety and panic attacks in which case, psychological assessment is needed.

This is what I’m going through right now. I am palpitating and although I try to brush it aside, I can’t ignore the fact that I can feel my heart beating irregularly (too fast) in my chest. I have had too much caffeine and chocolate today. Though I try my best to minimize the intake of coffee and chocolate in my daily diet, I can’t help it but indulge myself with these temptations since I rely on them to survive the hectic and mind-boggling exercise called COLLEGE.

EPEKTO NG PAGPUPUYAT

AYOKO NA MAGPUYAT DAHIL:

1. NAKAKASIRA NG DIET

Dahil gising ka buong gabi, siyempre hindi mo mapipigilang magutom. Hindi ka kumakaen ng dinner para hindi ka tumaba. Pero pag nagpupuyat ka, pagdating ng alas-dos ng umaga, kakalam ang tiyan mo at maalala mo bigla na hindi ka pa nga pala kumakaen ng hapunan.

2. MABIGAT SA BULSA

Sira na nga ang diet mo, mabigat sa bulsa ang pagpupuyat. Dahil magugutom ka, mapipilitan kang kumaen. Kung saktong malas ka pa at wala kang naka-stock na pagkain na pwedeng gawing snack, mapipilitan kang lumabas ng bahay at kumain sa isang fast-food restaurant katulad ng Jollibee o Mcdo (na usually ay 24hours) para kumain. At dahil sa matinding komersyalisasyon sa ating bansa, sobrang mahal ng bilihin ditto at mapipilitan kang maglabas ng pera.

3. NAKAKAHILO

Habang naglalakad ka papunta ng Jollibee o Mcdo, gegewang-gewang ka dahil sa hilo at antok. Madadapa ka sa mga ‘obstacles’ na hindi mo nakikita dahil madilim ang dinadaanan mo. Madalas mahulog ang kinakain mo dahil wala ng lakas para hawakan ang kubyertos.

4. MAPAPAINOM KA NG MADAMING KAPE

Dahil madami kang kape na maiinom, magsisimula ka na magpalpitate. Hindi maganda sa pakiramdam dahil ito ay nakakapanghina at feeling mo ang abnormal ng puso mo dahil mabilis itong tumibok.

5. MAPAPAKAIN KA NG CHOCOLATE

Kapag hindi ka pa nakuntento sa kape, kakain ka pa ng madaming chocolate para hindi antukin. Sira na nga diet mo, mapapagastos ka pa. (see reason nos. 1 and 2)

6. MALALAKI AT MALALALIM NA EYEBAGS

Hindi mo man gustuhin, lumalala ang eyebags mo dahil sa kakulangan ng tulog. Magpupuyat ka ngayon, may klase ka ng maaga bukas. Mapipilitan kang bumangon ng maaga dahil nagamit mo na ang maximum number of absences mo para sa klase na yun. Kaya sa susunod, wag ng kumuha ng klase na sobrang aga para maiwasan na magmukhang raccoon dahil sa pagpupuyat.

Losing Focus

Problem of the heart is keeping me from really putting all of my attention in studying for my exam on Monday. I am restless and unsure of how to deal with the predicament that I am going through right now. Love is something that doesn’t really go well with studies. If something goes wrong, everything is affected — health, focus and academics. I have less than 36 hours to finish studying the 4 chapters included in the exam. I am already feeling sleepy and tired and yet, here I am blogging about something that really shouldn’t be bothering me now.

Fixing things

                With finals less than two weeks away, my things are as messed up as my life is. With my academics hogging up most of my time, I don’t have enough time left for fixing my things before I leave for school. Since I sleep late these past few days, I wake up in the morning with only 30 minutes left to prepare for school. I come home with my bed undone and books and clothes piled up on it. When it’s time to sleep, I would just throw all the dirty clothes to the hamper and pile my books on the table. The next morning would be another unending i-don’t-have-enough-time-to-fix-my-things cycle.

                I recently lost my memory card adaptor. I really don’t like losing any of my stuff… Since then, I vowed to fix all of my things as soon as my last exam is over. I just hope I won’t be losing any more of my things until then.

FOCUS bern FOCUS

I promised myself that I would finish studying at least one subject before this week ends. It’s already Saturday and I haven’t even started opening my books and notes for my exams two weeks from now.

I need to focus. Focus. Focus.

Hopelessly trying to understand

I’ve been hopelessly trying to understand the topics for the exam in Physics which will be two weeks from now. I’ve been reading the same paragraph over and over again in despair — I don’t understand a word of it.

The chapter is all about atoms and their quantization. I found out that laser is an acronym for ‘light amplification nby stimulated emission of radiation’ — well, at least I can say that I LEARNED something kahit papaano. I don’t even know why we have to study this. I won’t be using it in my majors in the future anyway.

This is hopeless. This is frustrating. I still have 4 chapters to go. I NEED to finish studying by the end of this week because I have two more exams the same week my Physics exam is on.

Can’t wait for summer

Summer is almost here. Its time to store away those jackets and heat blankets as the temperature starts to rise.

Summer is all about going to the beach, vacations and taking a break from a stressful thing called ‘acads’. It’s the time when people enjoy the heat of the sun as they attain the perfect bronze skin and tan lines they brag about when they get back to the city. It is about long naps, pigging out and relaxing without the pressure of deadlines and exams. It’s when you just stay home all day, watch TV and just be a couch potato for two whole months.

This is how my summer’s supposed to be. This is how I imagine myself spending two months of leisure time.

Too bad I have to take classes this summer. Goodbye beach. Goodbye tan lines. Goodbye sleep. Goodbye fun.

Computing over memorizing

Too much memorization and terminologies made me appreciate how much easier it is to solve and compute problems than to memorize 8 pages and 70 slides of lecture.

I am not really sure how I will manage to cram and store all of that information in my brain in one night, but thank God I was responsible enough to have started reading and memorizing last weekend.

I am only halfway in re-reading my notes and recalling what I have already memorized. Luckily I don’t have class tomorrow until 1pm. I will still have enough time to review in the morning. Well… Wish me luck.

Master in the art of cramming

          I am a master in the art of cramming. For the past 12 years of my academic life, there never came I time that I didn’t cram for an exam, reaction paper, problem sets, and all school works you can imagine.

          I remember cramming my take-home exam in CL30 (Comparative Literature) last semester. I started doing it 5 hours before the deadline. I had to answer questions regarding the assigned readings/books (which I was only able to read ¾ of what we were required) for the semester. Thanks to technology and internet, I was able to answer most of the questions through ‘careful’ and much research and reliance on the world wide web. The result? A not-so-good-grade in that subject.

          I lose interest and motivation when I study and do things in advance. I work well under stress, and I can yield good results because I think and get inspired the most when I’m under pressure. But after seeing the outcome of my work, I tell myself ‘I could have done better if I have done this earlier.’ I would promise myself that I won’t cram again the next time a project/assignment comes up, but the cycle would go on and on and on.

          Anyway, I promise that I would do things earlier so that I would have lots of time to collate ideas and put them into action. This time, I MEAN IT (I told myself this a lot of times already and broke my own promises) and I hope things would be different.

Stupidity is….

You know what stupidity is? It’s accidentally pressing something on your keyboard that closes the document that you’re writing without saving it.

DAMN! I was almost done with the blog I’m writing when I pressed something on my keyboard. ANG TANGA. Sayang. That blog was due today!

Anyway… Since the momentum’s gone, I’ll try to do it later.

Recovered Physics 73 sample exam

Oh yes.. Nakakakuha na ako ng copy ng sample exam in Physics 73. Ibinalik na din sa wakas ung sample exam na tinangay nung isang student. Nakonsensya ata.

Hahaha.. Wala lang. Nashare ko lang.

Physics 73

KUNG SINO MAN ANG KUMUHA NG COPY NG SAMPLE EXAMS NG PHYSICS73 SA NAGPHO2TOCOPY SA CASAA, PLEASE LANG… PAKIBALIK NA.

naman kasi. Magpapaphotocopy sana ako kanina, langya pagpunta ko dun sabi ni manong nagpho2tocopy dinala daw nung student na nagpaphotox kahapon. Dios mio. Sa MONDAY na ang exam wala pa akong alam .

***hahaha.. hindi din pala ako sure kung mababasa niya to , pero naiinis talaga ako.

Moving on

January 11, 2009

11:45 pm

Hiyes… This is one of those few times where I spend the whole day studying for an exam. I’ve been making notes, solving problems and finally understood one chapter included in the exam. I haven’t been studying in vain after all… Hahaha. Although I had a LOT of breaks during studying — playing Plant Tycoon and eating of course. Hehe.

I still have a problem set and formal report in my Chemistry subject and although it’s not due until Tuesday and Thursday respectively, I want to finish it as early as possible so I don’t need to cram on the last minute.

Haaay.. Acad mode na ulet.

Trying to study

January 11, 2009

2:30pm

I’ve been trying in vain to study for hours now — staring at the computer screen while trying to comprehend the slides that our professor provided us. I tried to read the book and my notes but I really can’t understand what I was reading.

My concentration and thoughts are on other things. I have a lot of things to do and I don’t know where to start. The first week of school for this year was really tiring and I was already bombarded with exams, papers and problem sets my professors gave me.

School’s fun, especially when you don’t have any problems with your academics. But when you’re failing most of your subjects (even though you’ve studied hard), you’ll feel like a failure.

I should get back to studying now. I have two chapters to review and I am still having problems with solving problems. *sigh*

Resignation

            My professor in my Chemistry17 laboratory said her farewell this afternoon. She resigned from her job and her resignation will take effect 2 days from now. She told us how she’s saddened from leaving. Being too emotional, she wasn’t able to discuss and just wrote everything on the board.

            She really didn’t say the reason for her sudden decision to resign. I learned from my professor in the lecture that sometimes, we need to assume in order to solve the problem. So these are the assumptions me and my classmates have come up with:

-          she passed her board exam and was offered a good job

-          she was accepted to a university abroad

-          family problems

-          she’s pregnant

Anyway, she is one of the best professors I had so far. I learned a lot from her even if we only had her for a month and a half. I hope that the person who would replace her will be as great as or even greater than her.

About ME

I am a BS Metallurgical Engineering student in UP Diliman. I used to be enrolled in the Industrial Engineering program, but failing IE27 two times caused a bend in the road that I was taking, which I made myself believe was a straight one.

When I was a kid, I imagined myself growing up to be a lawyer. Every grown up I know told me that the best pre-law course to take during my undergraduate years was either business related, or any course that would enhance my literacy in the English language. Taking up Engineering wasn’t really part of the plan. I didn’t know what came to my mind when I wrote Industrial Engineering as my 2^nd choice of course in the UPCAT form. Taking and passing UPCAT was the first step; being accepted in your choice of course is part of it (I applied for Business Administration and Accounting but unfortunately, I didn’t make the cut.) Passing the admission test is easy, but staying in the university is hard work. Sleepless nights and cramming became a part of my daily routine. There were times I felt so incompetent, so stupid because I couldn’t keep up with the topics. They tell me I passed UPCAT because I’m smart — but sitting in a classroom full of brilliant students makes me feel inferior and insecured of my talents and abilities.

            I still haven’t experienced getting unos in all my subjects, but as long as I’m still in the university, and I know that I am beating the hell out of me just to pass the course I am enrolled to, I still have this glint of hope of at least experiencing one semester (kahit isa lang talaga) where I will get 1.0 in all my subjects.