Listening to: “Pretty Vacant” – The Sex Pistols
Feeling: Relieved
Surfing: This blog!
It’s amazing what study can do.
No, really.
I studied so much last week. More than I’ve ever studied before in my life (though I’m sure I’ve said that line a few times before).
I was never a “study” person back in school. I was always the “cram-the-night-before” type. Teachers would always say “one day you’ll find out it doesn’t work”. Thankfully I never did have to find out the hard way, though I’m realising now that I should probably find myself a study routine.
Contrary to what my friends at school used to think I did not spend a lot of time locked in my room studying. I remember a junior student at school asking me for tips once and one of the things I told her worked for me was really trying hard to understand concepts during class time, instead of daydreaming and staring out the window.
Well that may have been relatively easy during the good old days, but more and more I think you begin to realise that in a lot of lectures, you’ll be sitting there thinking “gosh where is this going?” or “what is he talking about?” But you won’t be the only one.
I’m glad to say that I’ve had really good lecturers so far, although sometimes it’s been much easier learning out of the associated textbook. If and when you feel totally lost during a lecture, don’t worry. Don’t fret. Don’t panic. Lectures are only a tool. And only one form of tool. There are plenty of other resources out there for you. You have the course guide, your textbooks, fellow peers (many of whom also probably didn’t understand a word), you can email your lecturer directly, if you’re in college you might have tutors and more senior students living with you. And let’s not forget wikipedia. Especially for the medics, wikipedia will be your best friend (if it’s not already that is).
Ok so anyway, what I was saying was that I pretty much got into study mode as soon as I arrived back in Melbourne after Easter break because we had a test scheduled for this morning. I planned my study blocks so that I would cover a certain number of topics each day. Of course, sometimes things didn’t go according to plan, for example if I didn’t quite get to the end of a chapter and I really needed sleep, I would stop, sleep and catch up the next day.
I noticed that some of the other med students weren’t really doing any study, but that didn’t phase me, because I knew that I needed to work hard and it didn’t matter what other people were doing.
Well I’m glad I got started early because it meant I got everything done by Sunday lunch. During that week I pretty much swallowed An@tomedia (my textbook). Saturday was allocated to reading over all my lecture slides, and on Sunday I read all of the course guide synopses and did some final revision.
Once I had finished I felt so so so relieved! I hadn’t expected to finish that early. By this time though I could feel myself getting a little light-headed, so I decided to head out into the city and perhaps do a little shopping (which I did). I hadn’t yet been to DFO Spencer Street so I took the tram down to Bourke St, walked around Myer for a while, then trammed to DFO.
Later that night we had a College party, themed “Too Kool for Skool” where everyone put on their school uniforms partied, danced, drank and ate fairy bread.
It was an awesome night, and I’m glad I was able to go. I was, however, the only person representing the med crew, as all the others were cramming their way into the night (teeheehee). I guess if anything, it goes to show that with a little bit of time management, and self-perseverance, it still possible to lead a balanced life, something that has always been really important to me.
Edit:
It occurred to me about 10 minutes after posting this, that I failed to report on how the test actually went!
Well, to cut a long story short, it was great! Awesome test. Glad I studied though!
Gee, what was that big evacuation???? What happened? Anyone's got any info?
I think the commerce building is about to blow up.
I can't speak Chinese anymore. I tried to call my parents the other day, and I had absolutely no idea what they were saying. And I couldn't email them either because I'd forgotten how the written grammar works. Crap.
Cheeses, I've only been in this country for two months. This should not be happening.
(Sigh)...those dreamy days are gone and now, we are back to the usual monotonous days of uni classes.
I was all ready with all the revision in my head and those are just vanishing from my head right now as I am burdened with assignments due god knows when. First my research paper, I had almost completed it at home and put it into my new (let me repeat NEW) USB and guess what? I lose it in my IT class...I had a few teary moments...searched the whole of the class again but no sight of it. Asked my friends abt it but no positive response. I have been sulking for a few days now over it but I realized there's no use crying over spilt milk...
I needed to find a solution myself...get a new botle of milk!! Get a new USB asap...(but the new lost one keeps coming into my head...bugger!) I had been soaked in a pool of tension these couple of days coz I had my fully finished assignment in that! Since I lost it, I had to modify my old copy in my home computer in one night and get it out the next day...It's a relief to have the report in my hands right now...Since I had such a bad start, I am forced to feel pessimistic...maybe sumthin's bad gonna happen again..so I am keeping my eyes and ears open..
I have noticed that nowadays, students have been studying all of a sudden..those silent study areas in the basemnt of the balilieu library used to quite vacant but now it's hard to find 1 seat now!! Well, good luck to all..
I'm really in a sad mood, so no more to talk abt..assignments coming up one after the other like bullets into ur chest..it's hard to keep up with the pace and catch them just in time or u r dead!
One thing that made me happy was watching the Comedy festival on Channel ten..I loved 2 of them : (i) the guy (forgot his name) with that magic act with the fake legs....so funny!! (ii) the puppets with the new zealand language and "sheep-chasing"..jeez!! was that really a language? They are so talented to get a topic from the audience and just go on and on...just brilliant! Watched the Pirates of the Carribean: dead man's chest last night (I know it's old..but I loved the first)..not as good as the first one but I love to watch the character Jack Sparrow..
Till next time
Finished my PPL essay yesterday, so I've decided that I deserve a day of procrastination, even though I have my LMR essay due on Monday.
Anyway. This morning, I open the paper, and I find a newspaper article which says that because the uni's worried about losing talented students after the Melbourne Model switch, they're going to offer a $2500 for all applicants with a ...score thingy (I did IB so I don't know what it's actually called. The score thingy out of 100 that you apply to uni with) of over 98, and that it'll waive all HECS and give an additional $5000 allowance to anyone with a score thingy of over 99.90.
At this point, I should mention that I had an IB equivalent to a score thingy of 99.95. Therefore, I am annoyed, because if I'd applied one year later, I wouldn't have had to pay HECs fees. Damn you, Melbourne Model.
Personal gripes aside, the whole switch thing makes no sense to me. The point is to move to a more US style university system, and this is where I have problems with their reasoning. See, the vast majority of my friends back home went to the US. I applied there myself before the absolutely shocking price tag and a series of university rejections persuaded me to come here instead. In my experience, and I'm the type of person who does incredibly extensive research on things like university life, down to the colour of socks most prevalent on campus, before I ever apply to anything, the Melbourne Model has a number of features that are actually contrary to the spirit of a US style liberal arts education.
The most obvious one of these is the fact that they're cutting double degrees. Yes, generally, in the US, you do mostly take single rather than double degrees. But the fact is, that these single degrees are usually so broad that they're the equivalent of taking double or triple or completely faculty-less degree. I have a friend doing a Bachelor of Arts. With a double major in Chemical Engineering and Japanese. I have a cousin doing a Bachelor of Arts in environmental science (more like the science or engineering degree here than any arts based environmental studies program), but with an extensive literature and humanities focus. I have more friends doing music, but at the same time fulfilling science prerequisites for medical school admission. One of the biggest strengths, and what I like best about the US tertiary education system, is that you can combine the weirdest and most starkly contrasting subjects together in a double major, and this doesn't seem to be transferring over to the Melbourne system -- I don't see anything in any of the literature that I've looked at referring to the possibility of majoring in chemistry as a BA student like my friend at UC Berkeley is doing, or having a Bachelor of Science degree in music composition or linguistics like kids at MIT can do.
And although single degrees are most common in the American system, there is actually still a very flexible double degree system in place, especially with music schools and engineering schools. It's the same kind of thing that happens with music/arts or engineering/arts here, except that the term 'arts' really means 'arts/science' in the US. You can even have double degrees between different universities, such as the Tufts/New England Conservatory, or the Juilliard/Columbia arrangements. It makes absolutely no sense to me to cut double degrees -- in fact, if you really want to get the benefits of the broad education found in the US system, you want to expand double degrees, not cut them.
The second point is with the cutting of gender studies at undergraduate level. When I applied to the US, I always got the feeling that gender studies was one of those subjects most often found in liberal arts colleges -- small universities with no graduate departments at all. Interdisciplinary subjects were things that were very much encouraged at undergrad level. I honestly do not see the logic in cutting the subject.
Really, for the most part I agree with the idea behind the changes. I like the idea of having a broader education, more time to choose, and moving law to a graduate system (honestly, I don't think most kids fresh out of high school, myself included, are equipped to handle law. The kids in my law classes are brilliant, insightful, and for the most part, mature, but sometimes I really think we'd get so much more out of class if we'd all had a few years more experience with critical reading, writing, and research before having to read and evaluate cases. And the large number of people who are in law just because they got the mark or couldn't think of anything else to do doesn't seem particularly healthy to me -- some of them would probably really benefit from having more time and advice before jumping into a degree with a relatively inflexible structure). I just don't really like the way it's been implemented. Broadening an education system just doesn't work if you limit the choices and combinations of concentrations students can have. That's not the point of the US system, and it shouldn't be the point here.
Ah, what the heck. I'm just sour that I could have avoided HECS fees.
Any thoughts or comments from the floor?
Here's the problem with Melbourne Uni. Not to sound conceited or anything, but at high school I was one of the smart ones. So if I thought someone's comments were rubbish in class I could just discount them and be like 'they don't know what they're talking about'. I was also the queen of essay writing. But now, at uni, everyone's smart. Everyone in arts got a decent mark and has a good head on their shoulders. So now when I find someone annoying, I can't just be like 'Oh well, they're wrong', I have to actually listen to them. And there's this really annoying english guy in my USA Today tute and whenever he speaks I just want to stuff a sock in his mouth to stop the pain. But I have to acknowledge that maybe, just maybe, he has a point.
Well, I didn't succeed in not sounding conceited.
And now, half the time I just feel dumb and that my education has got me nowhere and everyone knows ten times more than me about everything. Particularly in USA Today. So this is my plan for next week. I'm going to do all the essential reading for the tute, and then my own stuff and become an expert on 'The Rise of Conservatism' (our topic for next week) and then I'll actually be able to make a point. Good, huh?!
Johanna, you've convinced me, I'm going to do literary classics next year. Hopefully it will make up for the terribleness that is modern lit.
I started and finished my essay for USA today on Sunday (it was due on Monday). I went into the Baillieu at 11:30 and powered through till 5:00. I only went to the toilet like once and I didn't stop to eat. Result? A way less than perfect essay with only four books used when the recommended minimum was five, but a good Sunday night, knowing that I'd finished it. So it'll be interesting to see what mark I get on it.
Oh, and I racked up a $21 fine at the library for borrowing books on Tuesday and then not giving them in until Sunday. I'm thinking that I'll just postpone borrowing for a while until I have enough spare cash to throw away. Tip: don't borrow overnight loans unless you actually have the intention of returning them the next day.
At the moment I'm feeling a tad poor. I bought about 20 books from work on the weekend because everything was 50% off, I think that'll be it for a while.
Listening to the Scrubs album at the mo', good music, had anyone heard it?
That's all from me now,
Georgie
...of the Easter break and the beginning of the second half of semester 1. NOOOOOOO! Just when I was starting to enjoy my holidays and the freedom that comes with age. The end of the Easter break also marks the return of the monkey on my back (his name is ‘Mr. Nodontgooutoropenthefridgeevery15minutesdoyourbloodyhomework!’ (He is African and Africans can have exclamation marks on their last names). I wish I hired him on a casual basis instead of full-time because then I would only have to stress about study during assessment and exams times instead of every single minute of my life, not to mention the spare cash left over to hire Harry High Pants (my imaginary friend). So why am I blogging on a uni day when I had the past week to blog? The answer is pure and simple; procrastination. Well I did spend the night trying to studying at the Baillieu. One thing I did notice when I left uni tonight was the beauty of South Lawn in the dark. The uni is silent and the light-shone sandstone buildings are compelling in the background. Anyway, here are some of the things that happened during my short Easter break:
• Went to the comedy festival. My friends and I were outside the box office deciding on which show to see when out of nowhere a female appears and starts chatting to us. Turns out that she was part of a group called ‘The Delusionists’ and she offered us cheap tickets ($5 each). We decided to give it a go and it turned out to be the best decision we made that night. Funny enough to compel me to see other similar small productions. It’s a sketch show performed by a bunch of uni students (I think) from Sydney.
• Watched ‘The Office’ – it’s dumb, lame, random at times and bloody hilarious. I also wasted my days playing old school Pokemon Yellow. I am up to the dark underground bit and my best pokemon is Butterfree at level 30. Pikachu is a useless rat.
• I spoke at one of the sessions at ‘Access All Areas’ (sort of a mini open day at uni). My task was to speak to year 10-12 students about transition from high school to uni. I was really unprepared and I think I got sidetracked. There were serious things I wanted to mention like the intensity of the classes, etc but instead I was saying how travelling on public transport isn’t too bad because you get to listen to other people’s conversations and how Monash sucks because of their 1960s architecture. And I can’t believe I ended my talk with ‘enjoy high school while you can’. I got a few laughs and I am sure the kids were entertained but that was honestly not my intention at all. I actually wanted to be serious for once. Michael from this blog was also present at the session and he spoke very well. It’s wonderful meeting other bloggers in person.
• Squeezed into a Toyota Echo hatchback with 7 other friends (a couple of them are giants so it was a good effort by us)
• Saw a gay couple hugging and kissing at South Yarra Station. Personally, I have nothing against gay relationships but it was very interesting witnessing the reaction of a man in his 60s or 70s. He was walking along the platform and as soon as he realised what was before him he stopped, turned around in shock, looked again to make sure he was seeing right and after a few more pauses walked around the couple and continued on his way. His blunt and disgusted reaction amused me.
• Found out my brother was successful in gaining a place in the Victorian Boys Choir which surprises me because with his voice, I thought he would be in the Girls Choir.
• Heard the song ‘Graduation (Friends Forever)’ by Vitamin C while walking through Melbourne Central the other day. I am not sure if you are all familiar with that song but as its title suggests it’s about graduating from high school. Hearing that song made me miss school even more. Uni is enjoyable but some things are just unique to school – like the opportunity to be an immature boy. There were some magical moments like the times when we turned on the fans full blast in the classroom and threw things up at them. It was hilarious watching all the guys duck for cover under tables (me included). Who wouldn’t when one of the objects thrown was a graphics calculator (it wasn’t me, it was some other idiot). See my point? These things just don’t happen at uni. Maybe it’s because everyone at uni is mature and well-behaved. On second thoughts, no that can’t be the reason.
I am handing in my application for college tomorrow. I still can’t believe I am going ahead with this. My first preference is JCH because its smaller community appeals to me. I hope all goes well with my application and that I am accepted a place because all I can think of at the moment is college and it would be so disappointing if something happens and I don’t end up in college.
At the moment, I am utterly obsessed with ‘Oh Mandy’ by The Spinto Band. Make sure you check it out. I love the lyrics too because I can relate to them, but in my case her name isn’t Mandy.
Every time a kid smiles, I smile. It’s one of those things that cheer me up. So if you are feeling down, this is for you:
Toilet Tally: still 9
P.S: It’s wonderful to see readers (other than the bloggers) commenting on this site. Whether you are a high school student or a current uni student, I encourage you to register and comment on our blogs if you haven’t already. It’s heartwarming and it also lets us know that there are actually real people reading our experiences.
The Easter break has been good, if a little too short. Can you believe NSW gets three whole weeks? I did my assignments and caught up on my work, but also managed to spend a lot of time lying around on the lawn reading Stephen King. It was really nice just to be back at home, if only for a week. I got to see my dogs and my cat, which was awesome. I miss them so much at college. And I ate way too much chocolate. I say that every year after Easter, but I think this year I may have really outdone myself.
I just finished unpacking my room at college. It's surprising - it really doesn't feel like I've been away that much. Instead, it feels really normal, and, dare I say it, a bit like home. I'm feeling pretty positive about this second half of semester - I think now that I know the routines of college and uni, it'll just be easier to really enjoy it. I'm planning to go and check out the comedy festival, which should be awesome.
Tomorrow morning I have my Biology mid-semester test. At 9 o'clock, of all times. That should be interesting, considering that's about the time I've been getting up over the break. I'm pretty confident with my Biology, but I'm nervous about this test, because I heard that you get your grade right after you complete it, which scares me. I'd prefer just to forget about it and get the marks later when I've at least had a week to try and muster up some apathy.
I also have to hand in my first real assignment tomorrow, for Cinema Studies. I'm a bit nervous about that as well. I tried to do it as well as I could, but who knows what mark I'll get. The fact that there's no real way to tell where you stand in the class has probably been one of the more challenging differences from year 12. I guess I'll find out soon enough.
In other news, my scholarship payment came through. Well, half of it did. I assume I get the other half next semester. It's a bit concerning, cause now my bank account has $1000 more in it. I'm sure that the uni didn't give me money to spend on DVDs and novelty t-shirts, but it's tempting. Maybe I'll just save it for that trip to America my sister and I have been dreaming about for years.
Hope everyone feels refreshed and ready to face another 6 weeks of university. I'm going back to my Stephen King while I don't have to feel guilty about it. :)
^ Need I say more?
Anyway, I've gotten absolutely nothing from the list on my last post done except number 1, my Principles of Public Law research essay draft, which took me all week and still sucks. Clearly, I am not cut out for legal research, which has been this huge drain on all my time and ruined pretty much all my practise and travel plans for the holidays.
Actually, now that I think about it, I did in fact get number 5: buying a new mouthpiece for my clarinet, done yesterday. I love my new mouthpiece. It has this lovely, dark mellow tone, kind of like melted chocolate, and it responds beautifully to my every command. Unfortunately, I got so carried away with the prettiness of the sound that I forgot why I was actually buying a new mouthpiece - namely, to bring my pitch down to normal because I play horrendously sharp. So now I have a really lovely sounding new mouthpiece, which plays at almost the same pitch as my old mouthpiece (despite being marked on the box as one which plays flatter), which means that I have basically not spent my $175 particularly wisely.
On the plus side, it's a lot more responsive than my last mouthpiece, so I can shift the pitch manually with my embouchure. Plus, it is actually slightly flatter, just not as much as I was hoping for. To be fair, though, it's perfectly in tune in the lower register, it just kind of goes sharp again once you cross the break into the upper one, which is not such a big deal because it's not too hard to try and push the pitch down yourself in that register. I am, however, disappointed. And also, it's a little too responsive -- I keep moving the pitch back and forth accidentally because I'm used to little changes in embouchure, tongue position, jaw pressure, etc. not making a difference to the overall pitch. So I'll have to start learning to be more precise and controlled with all my lip and jaw muscles, or else everything I play will sound like Mariah Carey on crack.
Since it seems to be 'talk about concerts you went to' week on the first and second year blogs, I suppose I'll fill you in on the details of the Cologne New Philharmonic concert at St Paul's Cathedral I went to yesterday. They played all four of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Elgar's Serenade for Strings, and the Mozart Clarinet Concerto, which happens to be the piece I played in concert class two weeks ago and will be playing again on May 1st for the Music Faculty Mozart Concerto Competition.
So anyway, the clarinet player was German. For those of you that don't know, German clarinets are completely different to clarinets in the rest of the world. The Boehm clarinet, which was invented by the French and is now what most countries use, has a much simpler fingering system, but much less consistent tuning and a different sound, to the Oehler clarinet, which is what the Germans, Austrians, and half of the Dutch play. So I was listening to this clarinetist do all sorts of absolutely painfully complicated looking things on this Oehler clarinet which had about twice as many keys as my Boehm, and I couldn't help but be impressed. I suppose they've got the advantage of not having to worry about being in tune like us Boehm-system people, though -- the reason the Oehler system has a much more complicated fingering system is that they've actually decided to cut the holes and put the keys in where they're in tune, and not compromise by moving them somewhere slightly easier to reach. I'd like to learn that system, actually, but it's only really used in Germany and Austria, and I have no intention of moving to either country in the near or distant future.
I'm assuming no one really cares about any of the above.
Anyway. I'm starting on my second law essay, for Legal Method and Reasoning, and I've decided to do the medical negligence case out of the three choices we were given. This means that I will probably have to stop talking to my medicine friends about schoolwork, for I have discovered that med students do not take kindly to the topic of medical negligence, or, in fact, law students in general. Note to self: keep gob shut. Hopefully this one will be easier, or at the very least, less time consuming, than the PPL one.
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