Help Me Decide

Hey guys. Since the coronavirus blew up, the skating rink that I work at has been closed so I've been out of that job. Same thing with the tennis center. Luckily, I've had my job at the College to fall back on and I'm still making money from that. But now I have a decision to make. Should I apply for a temporary job or stay out of work and focus on school? I saw that Trader Joe's is hiring for temporary employment and they pay really well. It said 15-18 dollars an hour. I just don't know if I should do it because I was struggling in school before work closed and then the virus happened. That ended up actually benefiting me by giving me free time I wouldn't have had before to study because I would've been at work instead. Now I have a surplus of free time. I have more than I need to get good grades in my classes so I know I am capable of it. Please help me make this decision and leave a comment saying what you think I should do. Thanks and I'll see you later.

Just Checking In

Hello, everyone. It's been a while since my last post. It's not that I've given up on writing, it's just that I haven't had much to write about. But because I've been through another week of school now, I thought I could at least tell you about how it was. I created a storyboard for my cinematic arts class and I thought it was funny because I really just bullshitted it and it ended up getting pretty good reviews from my classmates. One guy even said he admires me for it. I also am starting to sorta understand thermochemistry and quantum mechanics thanks to the help of YouTube. It's really  hard to learn anything especially now that class is online. It's hard to stay on task with all these distractions. I'm now one lesson behind for math and computer science. I've got to catch up before it gets to be too much to handle. Anyway, that's basically it for my week. More posts coming soon!

Today is Exam Day

          The day is finally here to take my chapter 7 exam in Calculus. I'm pretty confident in my ability to get an A on it. I really understood the material this chapter, I did all the homework (well I got a little lazy on the last one), and I've been doing math problems nonstop. I actually have the whole weekend to complete this exam because it isn't due until Sunday at 8 pm. When I get my grade back I'll post my score, and a report on the Tutoring Center Experiment. Wish me luck y'all.

What's Going on With My Other Classes?

        I'll admit that this blog has mainly been about my Calculus class and I have kinda just ignored all of the others. I haven't forgotten them, it's just that Calculus is the class I'm having the hardest time with. This semester, the other classes I am taking are General Chemistry (lecture and lab), Computer Science, and Cinematic Arts.
        My chemistry classes are the only other ones that I'm having somewhat of a struggle with. I currently have an A in both but that is because of my professors extremely lenient grading. I have turned in a half-completed worksheet and still received something like a 7/10. The struggle I am having is that I just don't learn anything in that class. We are just flooded with worksheets and handouts that I shove into my backpack. It's hard to tell what's homework and what's notes because she never really tells us. Then the whole time in lecture, we're bouncing between handouts so I never know which one we're on. Who knows how this will go now that it's online. I'm expecting it to get even harder. It looks like I'm gonna have to do some more learning on my own if I want to maintain those As.
         As for my computer science and cinematic arts classes, they're pretty easy. I took my midterm for Computer Science recently and I got an 85/100 plus we could do test corrections. Cinematic Arts is also really relaxed. Assignments are sometimes just watching a movie then answering some questions. Last week I watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind and answered some questions on different types of shots and angles used in the film.
         Anyway, that's all I've got to say. Thanks for reading!

Tutoring Center Experiment: Update 2

Well the virus has taken its toll and this experiment in more ways than one. Firstly, my friend who I was supposed to get help from hasn't been able to meet with me so I have done all of the studying on my own. Secondly, I just got a phone call saying that there will be no face-to-face classes next week. We were supposed to have next week as a transition period to prepare for online classes which meant we would still be meeting in person next week. 

I am pretty disappointed to get this news because I felt like I had a really good story brewing. I really believed in my ability to go from my current grade from a D all the way up to an A by the end of the semester. I even had my first lesson that I had no struggles with. I just did the homework with no issues and got all of the problems right. Now, because we are online, I can still do it, yes, but I feel like the trust from my professor won’t be there. What I mean by that is I feel like my professor might not believe that I was able to raise my grade honestly. Being online means that it will be able to commit academic dishonesty. I am not going to be doing that but somebody raising their grade from a D to an A is always subject to suspicion.

I suppose the experiment won’t be able to continue. I might be able to do it for the next chapter or in another class. I’ll still write something up on the results and what went wrong. Stay tuned for that.

Coronavirus Strikes

Hello everyone. If you’re reading this post in the far future then you may be unaware that I am writing this during the time of the COVID-19 outbreak. I don’t believe that the virus is that serious, however, due to this pandemic, my college has decided to move all classes to be online with the exception of labs. This will make for a good trial to see how well I can perform outside of a classroom environment. I’m trying to see the positives in this situation. This will also greatly impact the experiment I am currently conducting on if getting tutoring really helps. I will continue on with this blog as normal and I will write more about how I am doing in the online classroom setting.

Tutoring Center Experiment: Update

Today I kept my word and I went to the tutoring center at my school. I was a little nervous going inside but I was able to summon the courage to ask one of the tutors for help. The help was great but the fact that I had to ask for it was a problem for me. It took a lot for me to even walk into the tutoring center. How do they expect me to approach the tutors myself when I need help? I wanted them to check up on me and see if I needed help. It shouldn’t be hard to tell when I’m erasing every 2 seconds, flipping through my notes the whole time, and pretending to write things on my paper. The tutors were all gathered together talking to each other. It’s hard for a shy person to interrupt a group like that.

The experiment will continue but with a small change. Instead of getting help from students at the tutoring center, I will be getting help from my friend who is also going to be majoring in engineering. I’ll keep you guys posted with more updates.

My Current Situation

Well as I said before, I was barely able to pass Calculus I with an A and now moving on to Calculus II, I’ve had my butt kicked. I didn’t do so bad on the first test, getting a B, but on the second test… oof. That was my first time getting an F in a really long time. And I promise to myself that’s going to be my last. For that last test, I tried to teach myself how to do the math by using online resources. That didn’t go so well for me. Now, as an experiment, I will be going to the tutoring center at my school to get help with this chapter. I have been reluctant to go for a while now because I am not one to ask for help when I need it but maybe that will all change. I’ll post the results after my next test. I currently sit with a D in the class. There is still a chance for an A but I would need to score at least 93 percent on the remainder of the tests. Who knows? Maybe this is the first step toward getting the A.

Catching Up on My First Semester

I am starting this blog in the middle of my second semester of college so there is some stuff I’m going to need to catch you up on. There isn’t a whole lot so it’ll be brief.  I’ll start from the very beginning of the semester, from the very first thing I remember (my memory is pretty bad sooo…).

The Very First Day

My very first day of college was honestly nothing too crazy. I don’t really remember feeling nervous or anything. It kinda just felt like a continuation from the last school year. The only difference was that I wasn’t really used to walking around school alone. I felt somewhat awkward doing this especially since I didn’t really know anybody. It was a change from going to a high school of just about 200 students where basically everyone knew each other. I got used to it within a week though.

Other than that, I walked into my first day only being enrolled in only six units. Keep in mind that means I was only a part-time student. I needed to be in 12 units to be full-time and also to receive financial aid. I crashed three out of the five classes I took that semester. Luckily I wasn’t denied from any of them and my financial aid wasn't revoked. I also made a really important decision that day to not crash a computer science class, but to crash a counseling class instead. Doing this ended up giving me the benefit of being able to join the First Year Experience The First Year Experience is a service offered to first year students to help them adjust to college life. This is the department that ended up offering me a job which I accepted.

Academics

As for academics, there isn’t a whole lot that you need to know. Classes were all a breeze. I was in Calculus, Intro to Engineering, Counseling, Elementary Chemistry, and Chemistry Lab. I had already taken Chemistry and Calculus in high school so those 3 classes were just review for me. I was only taking Calculus again because I got a 2 on the AP exam. That means the class was still a fair challenge for me, but I managed to pass it with an A. After my first semester, I had a GPA of 4.0. This was something I wanted to maintain for the remainder of college.

Challenges

As I said in the previous section, Calculus was still a challenge for me despite taking it the previous year in high school. This was due to some other problems that I had with my own behavior. Firstly, my self esteem has always fluctuated between being very high and being very low. Sometimes I feel like I am the smartest person in the world and sometimes I feel like I’m not cut out for college, or engineering at least. This is bad for when you’re a student because either extreme can be detrimental to your education. Feel too confident in yourself and you’ll end up not putting in the necessary effort to succeed. Don’t feel confident enough and you won’t believe you can succeed. And you’ll be right. A student needs to have a balance of these to be successful. Secondly, I wasn’t making the sacrifices I needed to in order to do my best. When I wasn’t working, I spent more time going out with friends than I did studying. I knew this behavior wasn't good for me but I continued on with it. I ended up narrowly avoiding a B in my Calculus class and honestly I probably deserved one. A student cannot reach their goal without sacrifice and that is something that I am continuing to work on.

Welcome and Introduction

Hellooo, everyone! Welcome to my new blog. On this blog, I am going to be telling you all about my experiences as an engineering student, the good, the bad, and the ugly. I’ll post updates on my studies, my successes, my failures, my struggles, experiments, and just about life as a college student. The goal of this blog is to help other engineering students who might have similar struggles to mine and also to help myself get out of my comfort zone. 

I’m starting this blog in my second semester of college so I have missed out on publishing some things I would have wanted to but I will do my best to catch you up on my first semester. Before I get into all of that though, here is a little bit about myself. My name is Tony and I am a 19 year old engineering student. I am majoring in electrical engineering specifically. My original plan was to attend a 4-year university (SDSU) straight out of high school but unfortunately, finances got in the way. I am instead attending community college (Ventura), trying to make the most of it there, before I take the next step and transfer. At the time of writing this, I am working three jobs, one at my local skating rink, one on campus at my school, and one at a local tennis club. I went to catholic school from Kindergarten all the way to the end of high school and I regard high school as the best time of my life. In high school, I was captain of the Varsity tennis team, participated in the drama club, and played NBA 2k on my iPad during robotics club. I like basketball and my favorite NBA team is the Lakers. Finally, my cat Ryder is the homie.

I hope you enjoy this blog. I also hope I am able to stay committed to it. We’ll see how long I can go before I call it quits. That’s all for now; enjoy what is to come!