Registered for next semester

Last Friday I met with an academic advisor to select my classes for next spring. For my major, I will need to take the second general chemistry course and the introductory molecular/cellular biology class. I decided to take the honors section of MCB to leave open the option of doing the MCB Honors concentration. I also inquired about how to add a dual degree in CS - the time for that will be after I have grades from first semester to show the College of Engineering. To get a head start on the CS requirements, I also selected the next math class (differential equations) and the first CS class. The only CS section that fit the rest of my schedule meets at 8 AM, so I'll have to get used to getting up early.

Today the online registration system opened for me. After the meeting with my advisor, I had placed all my desired classes in a plan, so I just had to click Add All to commit to the plan. To my surprise, it let me add all of them, even the CS class which I thought I would have to wait a couple days for due to my not being a CS major.

Start the exams again

It seems like such a short time since I got the results back from the first round of midterms, but it's apparently about time for the next. The second calculus exam is next Tuesday, so I've started looking things over to make sure I'm prepared. A quick refresher on the tools we covered should do it. The first exam for religion class is also next week, but we will be given the questions in advance of the test, so that makes it pretty easy to figure out how to study. The week after that has the second chemistry exam.

First round of exams complete

Last Thursday, I took the first midterm exam for biology (IB 150). Yesterday in lecture, the professor talked a bit about the overall performance of the class - though no numbers were provided, the histogram made it look like the average was a C. We then had an opportunity to earn some points back. He put up the five most difficult multiple-choice questions (excluding two that were thrown out) and allowed us to work in groups to answer them. My group answered four of those correctly, getting four percentage points added to our exam grade. With that boost, my score came to >100%. That concludes the first set of midterms. The second will begin in a couple weeks with another calculus exam.

Also today, I received a score on another paper for religion class. I got my eighth 100, so I no longer need to worry about writing the essays, only doing the readings and knowing the material. That will nicely balance the increase in work in chemistry class.

Almost done with first round of exams

Tonight I got my first chemistry exam score back: 92% (23 correct out of 25). That's what I was expecting, since I realized only after the exam that I had misunderstood a couple questions. Next time, I'll try to minimize the number of activities on the day of the test so that I have more energy left over to think about it.

Tomorrow morning is the first biology exam. I feel good about it, since I looked at all the learning objectives and can satisfy all the specific goals. It being my first activity of the day will also help.

Saving my eyes with f.lux

I've recently been staying up late and feeling tired even after getting a normal length of sleep. Recently I switched to my new laptop for everyday use, and a couple days ago I noticed that the screen is really bright at night. Then I remembered that since this laptop is new, there's a variety of programs on my desktop that I haven't installed here. One of those is f.lux, which changes the color temperature of the screen toward red at night. I installed that and now my eyes feel much better - hopefully my sleep will also improve.