First exam went great

Results came out yesterday for the first calculus exam. It turns out that I did pretty well, especially considering that it was an evening exam. My only mistake was an arithmetic error when calculating the determinant of a 3x3 matrix.

My attention now turns to studying for the chemistry exam next Monday. A lot of the material is things I learned previously, so that's nice, but there is some reviewing I should do.

First exam handled

Tonight was the first Calculus III midterm. We had 75 minutes, which was plenty of time. I was briefly confused and thought the exam ended at a time that would make it only an hour, so that induced a bit of panic as I observed the rate I was handling the questions. I got stuck on one in particular, decided to skip it and come back, and was worried that I wasted too much time trying it. When I finished and realized that I had lots more time, I rechecked my answers to the other questions (finding a mistake in some arithmetic) and solved that tricky one. Overall, I feel pretty good about the exam and I look forward to getting the results.

It turns out the chemistry exam is not this week, but next. Next week will also include the first biology exam, and then after that I'm done with tests for a while.

Exams are coming

Tomorrow I have my first exam at UIUC, a midterm for Calc 3. I'm feeling pretty good about it - I took an old version provided by the professors and did quite well, and I haven't had much trouble with the worksheets in class. I've also had several years' experience taking college exams from Black Hawk, so I'm familiar with the process, though the proportion of class grade determined by exams is markedly higher here. It's also held in the evening, and after my chemistry lab (the most challenging class of my week). Still, it'll be fine.

Later this week, I'll have the first chemistry midterm. The professor is moving through the material much slower than I expected, so I can easily handle the material covered so far. The only studying I need to do there is reviewing my memorization of the polyatomic ions.

Getting things done ahead of time is a great idea

I had plenty of extra time last weekend, so I went ahead and handled as much homework for this week as I could. This turned out to be a great idea, since I have quite a lot of assignments that have an item due each week, and it would be easy to get overloaded if everything piled up for the day before. Particularly on Tuesdays and Thursdays, there isn't a ton of time between classes, so work done on those days mostly has to be done in the evening when I'm tired, and that's suboptimal. Handling all assignments as early as possible is definitely the way to go.

So far, my strategy of using a Notepad text file to keep all assignments is working. I have a big "recurring" section with the weekly routine; individual assignments are in sections grouped by date due. I delete non-recurring work items when I complete them, but I haven't yet figured out a quickly-readable way to record when I last handled a recurring task (other than double-checking that it's submitted).

Additional activities

Today I attended a couple more interesting meetings on campus. After my chemistry lab, I went to hear about a chemistry-related volunteering opportunity. The REACT program connects college students to elementary schools to demonstrate basic chemistry. It looks like a neat way to get involved in my new city, and it has the added bonus of making the chemistry class count for honors credit. I think I'll join them.

Then I went to hear an FBI recruiter speak. The event was a cooperation between some specifically-FBI-related group and the ACDIS Security Studies Group. A career in the FBI sounded pretty good from the speech, though it might not align with my current career goals. It's something to think about, at least.

Finding activities

Last week, I attended the first informational meeting of the ACDIS Security Studies Group. They're pretty interesting - they cover all kinds of security, from the environment to computing. Many members are particularly interested in nuclear security. They invite experts on various kinds of security to come and speak. They also manage a blog and a reviewed journal-like publication, both of which accept student submissions.

A handful of math contests are held at the University. Looking at some sample problems, these competitions are far more challenging than ones I've done previously, but there are training sessions. Perhaps I'll attend some of those and see if I can learn to handle problems at this level.

The Navigators are starting up their weekly studies next week. The freshman men's group apparently meet at 9 PM on Mondays, which is pretty late, but I'll try it to see if it's manageable.

Doing fine

It's now the second week of classes here at UIUC and so far everything seems to be going quite well. Making a Google Calendar for classes and other important events was a very good idea - I couldn't possibly remember all the places I need to be and the times I need to be there at without some organization. Even with slow-moving crowds of people on the quad, 10 minutes is enough to get from one class to the next, and I have been on time for every class. For getting from the dorm to the quad, the buses are great. Each evening, I prepare the Google Maps directions page for the first building I'll be going to so that in the morning I know when to go down to the bus stop. I've gained a decent sense of direction, enough that I don't need to constantly check Google Maps for which direction to walk, but there are a couple classes for which I needed to double-check with it today.

To manage assignments, I have a simple text file with dates and brief descriptions of the things that I have yet to do. That's doing the job so far, but if it gets too clunky, I might have to look for a more sophisticated system.

Ten dining hall meals per week worked out fine for the first week. I always eat breakfast in my room, and I went to the grocery-store-like facility in the neighboring residence hall to get some individual food items using café credits. Occasional free pizza from various campus events helps too.