(Un)fortunately, after my finals is the end of studying for me until next September. I am going to be taking 2 semesters off to do a little fulltime work; I am going to be doing a workterm placement with Microbiology Science Co-op. Unforunately I did not get a research lab job which is what I wanted. The job listings were really sparse this semester, and I frankly just didn’t want to put much work into looking for a research placement or do anymore cover letters. So I applied to this Computer Science placement that was also listed as Microbiology (for who knows what reason)… I am going to be basically translating an algorithm that predicts protein folding from Fortran to C++!

I’ll probably miss school. Someone I met this year said that “when you’re in the industry you will want to get back in school and when you’re in school you want to get in the industry, its a never ending cycle” so he’s back in school.

Cramming is a fickle fruit, sometimes it works (rarely in the long run), sometimes it doesn’t. If you do find that you’ve put yourself in a position to cram, give the following tips a go and see how it works out.

1. Stay away from caffeine and energy drinks – These aren’t going to be of any help. Sure you can stay awake but your mind will be so numb and overwhelmed that most likely you’ll be rereading the same page for hours. Although I admit staying up from energy drinks will make you feel like you accomplished something and could make you feel better.
2. Find a good place to study – Find a place that’s free of distractions so you can actually do what you ultimately set out to do -> Study, so you don’t fail. For me, home is very distracting. I see the computer I think “Oh, let me put everything on a task list online” which inevitably will lead me off trail. I see a messy binder I think “Oh, let me reorganize all my notes so that I’ll be more efficient when I study” which is very unnecessary and takes up too much time. Head out to the nearest library and study there.
3. Stay offline – Very similar to the above, try to stay away from a computer. If you absolutely need to use the computer, stay offline. Unplug your ethernet cable, turn off the wireless, rip out the network card — just do whatever you need to stay offline.
4. Prioritize - With the exam just under 24 hours away, the last thing you want to do is go through your email or check up on your friends on Facebook. All those things can wait until after the exam where it won’t be a burden anymore. Get out a piece of paper, write down what you need to accomplish before the exam and follow it. Include short breaks that are 5-10 minutes long, don’t turn on your favourite electronic devices during this break, just go get something to drink or take a stroll outside.
5. Relate! – Connect the material you’re learning with things you’re familiar with. Last year I had a quiz where I was required to memorize the structures of the 20 amino acids. I had to memorize something like that — plain, boring, lines on paper. My friend and I tried to connect each amino acid with connecting them with something we know (Ex. we thought Arginine looked a little like Arcanine breathing fire [have to force this one]). We also tried to analyze the names (Ex. Threonine is what it sounds like — THREe lines with a OH attached). We both memorized the structures of all 20 amino acids in under an hour.
6. Study relevant information – Look through your notes, try to extrapolate what your professor thinks is important. Usually these things are emphasized and spent more time on. These could be very subtle so you may need a set of exceptionally great notes to catch the emphasis. Another way is to attend review sessions if they’re held — this is especially true if the review session is led by the professor. Most of the times, its a Q&A session. Even if you don’t have questions you should attend the Q&A to see what other people are having trouble with (note: people with questions are usually people who studied enough to know what they don’t know).
7. Read beginnings and ends – Most modern textbooks have a little intro for each chapter that describe what the chapter will be about. Similarly, at the end of each chapter there is usually a section that summarizes the ideas that were discussed and sometimes even a vocabulary list. Read these before you read the content of the chapter to get a good idea of what the chapter is about — these are key ideas that will help you connect to the details of these  ideas when you need to recall the information. If you’re really short on time you could just read these parts and skip out on the chapter all together .
8. Do the practice exams - If your professor provides you with practice exams, do them! They are usually left over questions from their brainstorm sessions that didn’t make the final cut. These questions are usually a very good indication of what the exam will be like (only true if the practice exam was written by the same person/group of people). Try to work through these like a real exam, don’t look at the answer key until you finish the whole exam. When you do these try to be honest with yourself, if you got the question wrong then go over it in detail. If you’re short on time, you can just read the question and then read the answer to see the structure of the solution and how it was done.
9. Get sleep – Simple, try to grab 6-8 hours minimum of sleep to get your brain working. Especially important for those conceptual heavy courses.
10. Read through notes one more time – My rule is that if there’s 12 hours before the exam then its worthwhile to read through my notes again. If there isn’t, then I am fairly sure I won’t be getting anything new.
11. Dress smart – If you think you’re smart, you’re smart! If you think you’ll pass, you’ll pass! Its all about mentality! Everything in life is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Even if you fail, no one would know because you looked like you knew what you were doing .

1. the quirky talkative person

These people are very rare, usually only one or two per lecture. They have answers to every question the professor throws at the class. They have questions for everything the professor says. Anything you say, they probably have a way to prove you wrong; unless you’re right, then they have something to add. They usually get the grades the whole class wants. Sometimes they like to yell totally unrelated things, or laughly loudly when nothing warrants it to create an awkward moment.

(these people are so rare I couldn’t find a picture)

2. the sleepers

This is the second most common category. This group of people doze off during random periods of the lecture. Usually they are attentive in the beginning, then as they settle down and the lecture gets notably more dull they fall asleep for a good chunk (15-30 mins). As the class nears its final 15-5 mins, these refreshed students wake up and soak in as much of the content as possible. This is very similar to the recency and primacy effect in psychology. As a student many people are pressed for time as they try to maximize their “fun” time and minimize-maximize their school work time; this leads to sleep deprivation.

3. everyone else

This is probably you. These students do most of the following: listen to the professor (not necessarily retaining any information), gossip, copy homework, play games (this is you back-row people!), snack, and take notes. They just want to fit in — these students probably make up >80% of the lecture population. However, common doesn’t mean average! Some of these students will surprise you with their involvement on campus, high grades, and interesting life styles. They just don’t want to stick out in a lecture hall.

This semester I am taking four courses: CPSC 320, MICB 300, MICB 322, PSYC 101. It feels very different taking four courses; I feel like I have a lot of free time.

CPSC 320 – Intermediate Algorithm Design and Analysis

This course is taught by Dr. William Evans. He stated that he had never taught the course before. He had a very kind and gentle demeanour; however that does not necessarily mean he is so. I will have to attend some more lectures before I can decide with confidence. The introduction to the course was slightly odd, the whole class was introduced to a “pre-course” exam that tested what knowledge we were going into the course with. The quiz was anonymous and optional, however most of the class stayed. He talked a little about how the course was structured and what we can expect to be taught. He said he writes the notes as he goes so its a little spontaneous in that regard, and that he would post his written notes up on the course webpage after class. However, this would mean that there would be no notes to preread for the course, and since the course had no textbooks, I felt like I was going to be taking the class “blind”. I left the lecture hall with the impression that the professor likes to joke, is spontaneous, and cares about the learning of students. While I am a little intimidated by the course (reputation for being hard), I am slightly excited to take it.

PSYC 101 – Introduction to Biological and Cognitive Psychology

I have to say, this class is humongous with a breathtaking 500 students registered in this course. I haven’t been in a course with this many students since my first year taking Physics in the Hebb lecture hall. I had no idea the class was going to be so packed. I walked into the lecture hall with 4 minutes before the lecture started, the whole lecture hall was unexpectedly full. Several scattered seats were available, but they were located in the middle of aisles. I managed to squeeze through an aisle, in the back, to get a seat. As time passed, I saw newcomers congregating around the entrance doorways because they either weren’t looking for a seat hard enough, or they just didn’t want to climb over people. This course is taught by Dr. Catherine Rawn. She introduced the class by having the class introduce ourselves to our neighbours; I thought this definitely broke the ice. A warm chatter filled the lecture hall. The professor expressed she had a great interest in psychology; I definitely felt her passion for psychology by the way she was speaking with enthusiasm and clarity. She introduced the course teaching assistant which happened to be a graduate student. From what I can see, the teaching assistant will be sitting in to the lectures so she can provide us with better help. She had a lengthy outline created for us; its several pages long. She explained she wanted to give us a clear idea of what we’re getting into so that we would be able learn clearly. She took some time going through the outline and some introductory slides to psychology. It was definitely a fun lecture. I am looking forward to attending more.

MICB 300 – Microbial Ecology

This course, taught by Dr. William Mohn, appears to be a group discussion driven course. He mentioned that he will try several styles of teaching to cater to the wide range of needs of all students. He explained that some students prefer the traditional lecture styles, and some prefer group discussion styles. He stated that studies have been done to show that group discussion in class shows learning improvement. After listening to his teaching approach, I felt that he clearly wanted the students to learn about microbial ecology and to share the passion he has in microbiology. The introduction was short but concise. He followed the introduction with some notes.

MICB 322 – Molecular Microbiology Laboratory

This is more of a laboratory course with some lecture components. The introduction felt like a lab introduction, which to me always seemed distant. Since its a laboratory course, introductions were kept short.

Every professor for my lecture courses seem genuinely interested in teaching students. They seemed to have a huge passion for their work; to me if the professor can show their passion for a subject or pay attention to the learning needs of students then they are a great professor in my books. All my professors this semester seem to have these qualities.

Around a year ago I received a Samsung YP-T10 MP3 player (imaged below) for a present, but it was more a toy for the little dust bunnies that rummage my room than me. Being a university commuter student, I find that there’s next to nothing in terms of entertainment on the bus; that being said, its almost impossible to hear anything meaningful without having to risk hearing loss. That was the reason I looked into getting a pair of noise isolating or noise cancelling headphones.

Samsung YP-T10

So I had two options — noise cancelling and noise isolating. Noise isolating headphones (earbuds) work very similar to earplugs, they are equipped with a rubbery tip (usually silicone) that go into your ear canals, blocking outside noise. I remember that my phone came with a pair of noise isolating earbuds, so I decided to try them out on the bus. To my dismay, they didn’t work as well as I hoped; however it did seem to cut away around 10-15% of the ambient engine noise. Noise cancelling headphones work by producing sound waves that cancel out the ambient sound waves. I tested out a pair of Sony MDR NC-6 (SonyStyle.ca) at their store. The noise cancelling outcome was very poor and the sound quality did not impress me. However I noticed that Sony’s MDR NC-22 (SonyStyle.ca) had both noise isolating and noise cancelling capabilities. So I decided to buy those and give them a try.

Packaging

1x Sony MDR-NC22 headphones
2x S sized silicone earbud cushions
2x M sized silicone earbud cushions (default)
2x L sized silicone earbud cushions
note: these sizes of these cushions appear to be the same as ones that come with other Sony accessories
Airplane adapter
Black soft drawstring carry pouch
Quick start guide

Features

Specifications

Sony provides these specifications for these headphones:

• Driver Unit : 13.5mm diameter, dome type
• Frequency Range : More than 9dB at 300Hz (range of active noise attenuation)
• Frequency Response : 8-22,000Hz
• Impedance : 20 ohms at 1kHz (when the power is on), 8.5 ohms at 1kHz (when the power is off)
• Sensitivity (db) : 102dB/mW (when the power is on), 100dB/mW (when the power is off)

Noise Cancellation Circuit

picture of earbuds and noise cancelling circuit

The noise cancellation circuit is powered by 1 AAA battery so the enclosure is rather large. It comes with a clip that is meant to allow you to clip onto your shirt or a pocket. A rather small detail that I enjoy is that the battery compartment has a little plastic strip in it, which acts to keep the battery cover attached and also allows for easy ejection of the battery. As seen in the picture there is a simple on and off sliding switch to turn the noise cancelling circulation on and off. There is also a little round silver button (Monitor button in picture) which simply acts to “mute” your music and feed sound in from the microphones (for use in conversations or quick pauses to listen to announcements). This convenient little button has limitations which can be a source of annoyance — the button is not functional if the noise cancellation feature is turned off. I find that sometimes I want to bypass the passive noise isolation feature of the headphones and to temporary stop my music, just listen to an announcement but to my dismay the button doesn’t work. The LED indicator light acts both to indicate whether the noise cancelling feature is turned on and to indicate low battery.

As indicated above, the headphones come with a airplane headphone jack so you can bring these headphones for a long trip to help cancel out the roar of the engines. The airplane plug has one of the two plugs “foldable” so you won’t have to unplug twice if you want to reconnect back to a normal standard headphone jack.

The carrying pouch is a dual compartmented soft black draw string pouch with Sony printed on it in a discreet black colour. The compartments are meant to be used to store the noise cancellation circuit and the headphones so they don’t clash.

Performance

Sound

These headphones were surprisingly impressive. I had no particular expectations from Sony because I had no previous exposure to Sony audio accessories. The high notes were clean and harmonious, and the bass was distinct and clean. Every sound can be heard distinctly and rarely overpowered by the bass. These headphones are equipped with the larger (compared to other Sony earbuds) version of the MDR driver so that may explain the better sound quality. Since there are in-ear headphones, be sure to attach a silicone tip that fits your ear canal properly. If the tip is too small, there will be literally zero bass, and if the tip is too large it would get uncomfortable very quickly.

Noise Cancellation

The noise cancellation feature cancels sound in a certain range (~300Hz) pretty effectively, however the range doesn’t seem to extend low enough to drown out all of the bus engine roar. Although I would say it cancelled out about 70% of the ambient noise on the bus, it was very nice. These headphones do seem to increase the pressure in my ears a little, a little like a slowly inclining airplane. After a while the pressure becomes less noticeable though. The noise cancellation circuit also generates a slight “hiss” when turned on. It won’t be noticeable when the ambient noise is loud enough, however if you’re in a semi-quiet room you’ll definitely notice the hiss. Furthermore, by turning the noise cancellation feature on, the audio becomes slightly louder; I am not sure if this is a side effect of the circuitry but I feel that this might be a move by Sony to improve the perceived effect of the noise cancellation feature.

Conclusion

The sounds reproduced are distinct, the highs are clear, and the lows are clean. Great for commuters and travelers a like. The headphones produce great sound even though the noise cancellation is a little disappointing due to the hiss. These also come in different colours — I only know of pink, white and black.

Ways to Improve Your Memory:

• Moving your eyes side to side for 30 seconds in the morning can improve your memory throughout the day. You can also do this exercise right before an exam for better information recall; however people around you might think you’re having a seizure or a mental breakdown due to stress.
• Use flashcards — it’s commonly said that repetition helps learning and memorization. Flash cards are effective due to their simplicity and their ease of use. When making flashcards:
  • Keep them simple and short, that means one question and one answer.
  • Keep the questions straightforward (What is my name?).
  • Try not to combine questions (What is my name, age, and gender?)
• Keep stress at a low — stress at low levels isn’t bad and could sometimes be beneficial. High stress can cause major problems, some which are fatal. High stress can cause neurons to stop maturing and developing thus hindering learning and memory recall
• Ever heard the expression “Its at the tip of my tongue” when someone’s trying to remember something? If you get this feeling you should stop trying; studies show that if too much time is spent trying to recall the memory, you will just reach the same feeling again the next time you try to remember. Instead stop trying to remember, or find the information you’re looking for by asking someone or looking it up.
• Colours help — studies show that red ink will improve cognitive memory and blue ink will improve creativity. So choose wisely when taking notes.
• Most, if not all, students will eventually come across a boring lecture when they doze off or get distracted (daydream, etc…); either way the outcome is that you most likely walk out of the classroom with little clue of what just happened in there. A solution to this problem is to doodle; some of my friends worship doodling as the best method of memorization. A study showed that people who doodled were able to recall better than those that did not. The rationalization is that the performance of a second distracting task would improve concentration to the duller primary task thereby stopping the brain from wandering.
• I am not one to forget a name but here’s a tip for those you that have trouble. When conversing with someone just imagine their name on their forehead, this will make the name stick to their face better (no pun intended). In addition to that, you could just repeat their name often when talking to them (eg. Alice is such a nice name, tell me do you know what Alice means? Alice what do you do for fun?)
• Research shows that studying while hungry will help the material stay in your mind better due to certain chemicals and hormones that are released when hunger strikes. Be careful not to starve yourself!

Getting Proper Sleep:

• Cut down on usage of light emitting devices; these items give a self-perceived level of wakefulness that will keep you up even though you might be tired. Some internet surfers have reported that a normal flickering screen is better than caffeine when trying to stay awake.
  • Turn off your screen (TV, LCD, etc) one or two hours before you plan to retire to bed to prepare your brain for sleep.
  • Read a book or listen to some music to tie over the extra time before going to sleep.
  • Adjust the level of lighting in your house or room can also bring you into the mood to sleep.
• If you endured a long restless night or just didn’t get enough sleep, the solution is to take naps. Naps will give you the energy boost your brain needs to be productive. Naps work like caffeine but without the crackdiction you might get. Check out The Guardian’s guide to power naps for more tips. The die-hard caffeine mongers may try this radical method of combining both caffeine and sleep by drinking some coffee (or energy drink) and then quickly taking a nap before the caffeine kicks in. When you wake up, you’ll be energized from the nap and the effects of the caffeine will give you an extra boost to go on. Furthermore, research shows that taking naps allow materials recently learned to consolidate better into memory. Either take a long nap (1-1.5 hours) or take a short one (15-30mins); don’t take a “medium” nap, it will leave you groggy when you wake up.
• Having trouble sleep? try this guide to beat insomnia with meditation “blue energy” from LifeHacker.