UCSC freshman year 1st quarter wrap-up
Here we go, 1-week+ into winter break chilling man. IT FEELS GREAT TO BE HOME.
So let's wrap-up the quarter before we forget more and more and these memories fade away. I'm anticipating this to be a relatively big post.
Academics
I took 3 classes this quarter. One required, one math, and one CS.
JRLC 01
My freshmen first quarter required core class was every Tuesday and Thursday at 8:00 - 9:35AM. This was quite a journey. For one, I didn't miss or skip a SINGLE class. Which is crazy because like there was a point in the quarter where half of the class would show up. I did walk in 1 HOUR LATE one time because my alarm messed up but I'm glad I did because it ended up working out cuz I participated in class and got the attendance. Lots of times you can just send her an email the day before and say you have a headache or say that you're sick or something but I somehow managed to make it to every class. I would just wake up at like 7:40 and show up 10 min late or whatever.
Ok anyway so this class was mostly just in-class discussions about our readings that were due before class. Meaning we had 2 READING REFLECTIONS EVERY WEEK which became a huge hassle early in the quarter for me. It's just tough cuz it's so much work, but I solved this problem by booking an english tutor every Tuesday at like 2 PM, that way it motivates me to get the Thursday reading reflection done extra early. It's been a super viable strat and my tutor gives some good tips and advice too.
Now among all those reading reflections were some annoying projects. There was the slug story, the group paper, the group presentation, and the final reflection paper. The most frustrating one was easily the group paper and presentation. This assignment easily made me realize how brutally incompetent of a college this was that I'm in, if I'm going to speak my heart out. I picked my own group and none of them did any of work. Even Andres who was in my work. I wrote out the entire essay and did so much planning for like everything. If I didn't do the essay by myself they would've just kept ghosting the chat and been okay with submitting it late for whatever reason. I could've maybe assigned some segments for everyone to complete and for us to stitch together, but I'm just too lazy for that confrontation and just held in my breath. Not just that, but one of my groupmates just kept making the most pathetic excuses. First, he kept asking me for answers to quizzes or reading reflections a week after they were due. Then, during times where we were planning to meetup together to work on the presentation, this guy would dip out last second saying he has to get a haircut like WHAT. Then he like says next that he has a LAB and I look at the calendar and it's a SATURDAY. WHAT DO YOU MEAN LAB ON SATURDAY LMAO this is atrocious.
I knew that after this group stuff was over that I wouldn't have to deal with this again, so I legit had so much grit to do everything for the entire group which was so much work, and I could be studying for finals for my other classes and spending that time doing other things, but man, it took a lot of discipline to get myself together to really push through this. Then come presentation day ONE OF THE GUYS DOESNT EVEN SHOW UP TO CLASS LMAO. So many people in my class just straight up put 0 energy into class, and I thought that this batch of ppl who all chose an 8 AM class were dedicated motivated students. Maybe that's just the best of the worse, which is concerning to think about.
So that's a takeway from this man. Like, lots of ppl in this college come from school districts or backgrounds where they rly don't pay attention to academics or just basic deadlines man. I don't get it, but I get it at the same time. It's just so frustrating having to work in a group with these people, I'm very lenient too and I procrastinate, but these people will go out of their ways to do things late. That's crazy.
Other than that, what are some other final thoughts. Lots of times during discussion there would be that one girl just yapping for 20 minutes somehow making any topic about abortion or something i dont even know lmao but that girl yaps so much so I would vibe out in the back of the classroom with my earbuds watching youtube or doing homework. Lots of times I was working on the next reading reflectoin due during that.
My tutor said that the core class is like the last class with this type of environment of a small classroom with like table groups and like discussion and non-lecture based learning like high school, so I guess it was cool to have this experience in college. I definitely won't miss it, especially that group project. Man dude that was so hard knowing that I was doing so much work that I don't deserve to do.
Reflecting on my grade, this is pretty crazy lmao. I got 10/12 on my first reading response and that freaked me out so from there on I would sweat the reading reflections like crazy, especially with getting the tutor and everything. However, my professor just did that as an initial scare as she began handing out 12s easily and I stopped sweating as much and started using a bit of chatgpt to help.
I did every single extra credit opportunity and I'm very proud of mindset to get things done early. For example, we needed to go to one of her office hours as a requirement for a grade at some point in the quarter, so as soon as she announced that I booked the earliest appointment for office hour because I knew that I wanted to get it over with and not have to deal with that later on in the quarter. Same thing goes for my reading reflections, as I rarely procrastinated on them. The tutor was a big help.
CSE 30
Moving on is my online Synchronous CSE 30 class about programming abstractions Python. I took a passout exam in September to take this class because CSE 20 was a prereq. I had Oswald Campensato or wahtever his name was.
The first like 2-3 weeks I would go into the lectures like a good boy and try to pay attention. He yaps a lot and goes offtopic rambling about random things which is actually quite amusing the way he does it. But anyway lots of times I would get distracted even if I was in the library, as I would boot up geoguessr on my monitor and start focusing on that instead. I felt super guilty and bad afterwards as I realized I didn't focus on like anything during the lecture lmao.
But then I realized that I can skip these lectures which was a good idea because these like 90 minute lectures about concepts I already know just arent it man. Plus, this class' grade is dependent on 3 things: weekly homework assignments, discussion attendance, and a 40 MC question final exam. That's all, no midterm, no quizzes, legit just a final exam.
So my routine and approach for this class became just doing these weekly homework assignments... which took no more than 1 hour, sometimes 2 hours. And that's legit all the time I would put into this class other than discussion. At discussion I wouldn't even pay attention because it was some international student with broken english yapping about a data structure and teaching it so poorly man. Like I remember listening in a couple of times and it's just so atrocious the way he explains things. Anyway tho I met some friends from discussion, mainly Zach from YPSO and band and Amador. I remember when he walked in during that first discussion and we were both like "YOOO YOURE IN THIS CLASS!!" haha, and happened to be in the same discussion too. We worked on the homeworks a lot together if we were stuck, and I remember asking him a couple times if he was sure that all we had in this class was homework and a final exam. It just felt so weird doing committing so little into this class. 1 hour a week is so crazy. It's mainly cuz I already know the concepts and don't have to learn it though.
This was truly a crazy class because like it was just straight up so easy. This was easier than high school. There was legit no time commitment at all, there were like no stresses at all. I didn't even study for the final exam that much even though it's a big thing for my grade.
So yeah that's how my grade turned out. I got 10 points extra credit on one of the assignments so that makes another above 100 grade which is crazy. I struggled in high school man, and here I am in college casually treating this class like a "1 hr a week commitment" and getting 100+.
Classes won't always be this easy, but I sure hope I get more like this lmao. I specifically chose my CSE 12 to be online next quarter so it's easier, partially thanks to zach for the recommendation.
Math 24
This class defined my quarter. Ordinary differential equations with Maria Alejandra Ramirez Luna, lectures every MonWedFri from 10:40 AM to 11:45 AM, and I went to discussion every Wed at 5:20 PM.
How do I begin. This was my hardest class that I put the most time into by far, especially for the midterm and the final exam. We had weekly homework assignments that would be like 4 questions long but they would take like 2-3 hours. I did a rly good job splitting it up, I would get 1 or 2 questions done on Monday, then get another 1 or 2 questions done on Tuesday and so on so it wouldn't be that heavy of an assignment. Like looking back, the college environment and me going to the library every day rly did make me lock in on homework and studying like never before. I could focus very easily in the library and get a lot done.
The key to doing well in this class was keeping up with everything. I went to every lecture cuz I didn't know any of the content and it was super helpful to learn it there. Additionally, I just made sure to always understand the homework I was doing as that's where a lot of the learning happens, especially knowing which steps is the most prone to make mistakes.
There were a couple stretches where my professor had to go online because she was sick and I'm not gonna lie it was sooo hard to focus online but I just had to lock in at the library and rewatch the recordings. I def put in so much work into this class, and I had so much time that I feel like I paced it very well, there were only a couple instances where I felt overwhelmed. And of course during finals, I would grind so much, but that's normal. Man that finals grind was really crazy. I started on like Thursday where I would do like 2 chapters a day and do a ton of practice problems and then I finished reviewing everything by Sunday, where I would do the full practice midterm in one breath and then correct it and everything. I also along the way added stuff to the cheat sheet that we were able to use:
And that's how it all turned out in the end. I dodged a BIG bullet and I repeat BIG BULLET in the midterm because I messed up an entire question that I really shouldn't have messed up. After walking out that classroom I was so mad at myself for not knowing the right way, man I was so mad I legit thought my grade in this class was over. But she curved it down so my grade went from 99/120 into 99/100 on the midterm which SINGLEHANDEDLY made me SO HAPPY when I saw that in the gradebook. I definitely did not deserve a 99 on the midterm and my performance was horrible, but man that made me so grateful and I knew I couldn't choke so I grinded so hard for the final exam. After walking out of the final exam I answered all the questions really nicely and I didn't have like a single major messup, I knew I would do well. As for the rest of the grade, I got homework points extra credit from this random popup quiz she did one time in lecture, and I guess I got over the curve for the final so that ran my grade to this. I can't belive this topped off a 100%+ only quarter. This will probably never happen again. 100%+ on every one of my classes is actually crazy bro, and I was stressing so bad for the math final. I'm going to enjoy this while I can because its gonna get more and more tough.
Fun Times and Places
I'm lucky enough to have some kids on my floor that I vibe with very well, along with like a general friend group where we do a lot of stuff together. Our goto's have been poker, where we often play until 4 AM, I pop in once a while because I can't handle that staying up that late so much. Other than that we will watch a movie, fool around, maybe start wrestling lmao, and just legit fool around lmao. Then some of us especially me and the San Jose kids go to downtown sometimes when we're bored or take a bus across campus to the markets to spend points. Just stuff like that.
Some notable things we've done were in the beginning checking out the forest raves which were horrible and I'm convinced no one genuinely enjoyed. It was so smoky and the music was terrible. The lights were cool and the vibe is kinda cool in the dark.
Then there's those forest walks that we've gone on. There's a lot to explore and still a lot left to explore. And these trails are legit ACTUALLY SICK. Like the trunks, the huts, the koi pond. Some photos actually hit so hard:
That's enough spam you get the idea lmao. Other than that we've gone out to eat a lot, along with a costco trip, capitola, and San Jose. Those trips are always fun.
Fitness
The gym has been relatively on and off throughout the quarter, but I have tapped into phases where I consistently go 3x a week, which I realized was about the best I could do 2 weeks into the quarter. I had a vision that I'd be going to the gym 6x a week. That's def not possible with all the schoolwork.
The gyms are like always crowded, so I have to wake up at like 7:30 AM, I often go with two of my friends who also wake up that early. Sometimes on Sunday mornings there's not many ppl so I'll play basketball and then hit a workout. But I do have to admit I rarely play basketball at all after like the first week. It was just not a priority over working out, and also those courts are somehow always taken by badminton club or fencing club or volleyball practice or something on the weekdays so it's hard. Like I would lowkey pull up on a Tuesday night and play some 5 on 5s but the courts are always taken bruh.
Other than that, I don't even have running shoes lmao, even though the track is so nice. I'll def get into hitting some runs on campus but similarly, I just have other priorities I guess. I do bike like everywhere when I can through the BCycle ebike stations. I often bike to the gym or bike to the library especially since mchenry library is a continuous downhill journey. The whole campus is so uneven tho, there's like no flat parts at all so you have to like constantly switch gears and stuff.
As for next quarter, I hope to get more into this 3x a week flow especially since I won't be having an 8 AM class next quarter. Maybe I'll buy some new running shoes and do some runs too, idk.
Food
Above you can see my very conclusive photo gallery of like 80% of my meals at UCSC. They aren't really good. Lots of the other dining options like the restaurants are way better. I go over it in the linked post but I have been getting into smoothies, I have one pretty much every day because it's so convenient to just scoop ingredients into my cup at the dining hall. The dining hall has free milk, fruits, yogurt, honey. I can also add in some protein powder and collagen and man that is a NICE breakfast. Having a kitchen in my building has been so nice.
Clubs
One regret I have is not joining some social club like the chinese club or Taiwan club. The only club I'm really in is the competitive programming club and I'm like the 2nd best in there. There's a master rated on CF that's a junior, so he'll carry in ICPC, but I can tell they were really happy to have me. It's a nice club, and I think it will be really useful in having in my resume or just having connections because one of the CSE professors helps out the club a lot.
Others
One core memory will be that fire alarm day. You can read about it there, and now that we're on this topic you can check out my diary blog cavs4twdiary.blogspot.com where you can see some random snapshots into my college every day life. That's where I'll sit down at night if I have time and write about everything that happened in my day, whether boring or not boring.
And yeah, it's January 2nd so I don't wanna make this post any later because the 2nd quarter is already going to start in a week :( but yea I'm def missing some stuff that happened this quarter but I think this is enough.
Overall a very successful quarter that I'm very happy with. Next quarter I'll have to focus on academics again and also figure out what I'm gonna do next summer. Along with that I think ICPC season is around the corner. This college journey and college life is quite crazy. There's a lot of time in the day and just straight up so much freedom. The workload so far is also comparably less demanding than high school with like 6 classes. We have 3 classes here and one of my classes I put like 1 hour into every week and aced it. That's still pretty wild to me, to have it this easy to this degree. I thought my civics class in 12th grade was easy. Outside of that, it's just kinda nice having this much freedom and having full control of like how I work, how I eat, and how I sleep. I'll see you again after next quarter!
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