EPTSo I used to live in Washington. Then my dad died and I was really happy because he had been sick for a long time so I could move on with my life. Then a month or two later I moved to Oregon with my family. Then I started going to a crossfit gym (2nd best decision of my life) which I cross-referenced their exercise techniques (deadlifting, for example) with my friend who is into fitness and they all checked out OK and I got some encouragement so I'm still doing it a couple months after coming to Oregon.
Then I started at a local junior college, (best decision of my life!) just taking Algebra II and Physical Science for now. (math 65, physics 104) So coming from a homeschooled background with no handwriting practice to speak of and very little education during my teenage years, I think this is okay and I am getting good scores, although they could be improved a lot. It's a quarter based system so in the fall quarter I will add on one more class, and if I think I can handle more then I will add another.
I turned 18 a few days ago which is really cool because I'm above the age of consent, (not that it matters much atm, I've never dated anybody but wHo cARES HAHA Xd) I can legally change my name, I can get hotel rooms, and get a credit card. I didn't have a party because I think it's a hassle.
So college. The first couple of weeks were great, really really fun, both classes are morning classes (math starts at 10:15 on Monday/Wednesday, physics at 8:30 on Tuesday/Thursday) and I was getting up really early really consistently, I was prepared to take notes, and I finished the assignments I had on time. Apparently these are very easy classes, and I'm OK with that because my success in these classes proves that once I'm finished with these I can move to harder classes, and more of them.
The classes themselves are amazing.
+ Show Spoiler [Math class details] +
My math class uses a program called Hawkes, which lets you do homework in 3 stages in any order you want: Learn, which is like slide format for the math lecture during class which you can look at on your own time, or you can use it to work ahead. Then there's Practice, which gives you a problem and asks you to solve it a certain way, and as long as you arrive at a correct answer you can use decimal or fraction and it'll accept it either way, and if you can't get it right it has a tutor function which walks you through each step to figure out the equation. Last, there's certify, which is what you use to prove that you did your homework. You simply answer the questions in order, and if you get one wrong, you get to try a similar one on the spot. Once you answer enough questions correctly, you get 100% no questions asked.
Quizzes happen every week, and tests once every 3 weeks as a replacement for the quiz. So quiz > quiz > test > quiz > quiz > test and repeat. You get a list of problems and you enter the answers for each, then submit them all at once. With quizzes, you can repeat the quiz as many times as you need to and you can ask the teacher for help. With tests, you are on your own unless you have some sort of technical issue, and you can only take it once. Otherwise it's the same as a quiz, although there may be more problems or fewer problems.
I really love this format because it gives me a lot of leeway to understand what I'm doing wrong if I'm doing something wrong so I can correct it, and if I understand whats happening then I can just do certify and then move on to the next homework assignment.
The class format is basically a lecture on the math lessons/homework which are due by the day after the next class, followed by lab time, sometimes with an in-class activity, ex. fill out this paper with math problems and staple it to a page of your work that you used to complete it. Then lab time until 1:30PM.
I usually stay until the end of lab so I can get as much done as possible in the best environment possible, with the teacher there to help me if I get stuck on anything.
I rate this class a 10/10.
Quizzes happen every week, and tests once every 3 weeks as a replacement for the quiz. So quiz > quiz > test > quiz > quiz > test and repeat. You get a list of problems and you enter the answers for each, then submit them all at once. With quizzes, you can repeat the quiz as many times as you need to and you can ask the teacher for help. With tests, you are on your own unless you have some sort of technical issue, and you can only take it once. Otherwise it's the same as a quiz, although there may be more problems or fewer problems.
I really love this format because it gives me a lot of leeway to understand what I'm doing wrong if I'm doing something wrong so I can correct it, and if I understand whats happening then I can just do certify and then move on to the next homework assignment.
The class format is basically a lecture on the math lessons/homework which are due by the day after the next class, followed by lab time, sometimes with an in-class activity, ex. fill out this paper with math problems and staple it to a page of your work that you used to complete it. Then lab time until 1:30PM.
I usually stay until the end of lab so I can get as much done as possible in the best environment possible, with the teacher there to help me if I get stuck on anything.
I rate this class a 10/10.
+ Show Spoiler [Physics class details] +
So this class is pretty fucking cool. It's a series of 1 hour lectures about a bunch of physics concepts, theories, and laws, and a little bit of history on famous scientists. (so far just Newton, Einstein, and Galileo) We've gone over Newton's laws of motion and some stuff about thermodynamics so far, scientific method, and maybe something else I forgot about.
Labs happen every Tuesday. They are hard for me because I have to write some stuff by hand. By comparison I'd say my typing speed is around 15x as fast. This isn't accurate but it's what it feels like. I also blank during labs which sucks.
How the labs actually work is we're given some equipment to do an experiment after grouping up. Ideally there would be groups of two, but there are too many people and not enough equipment so some people are forced into groups of three. One experiment that we did was figuring out the volume and weight of a 2012 or later penny vs a pre 1982 penny vs a penny from the 80s/90s. I won't go into details here, but it felt like the closest thing I had ever gotten to *real* science experiments in my life, although there were a ton of potential errors and what would be bad practices if I was actually trying to prove something. It's also really helpful because I have to actually start working with people for the first time in my life, even if I'm a bit of a third wheel.
Homework is cool. My first assignment was to apply the scientific method to something and condense the process & results into a 1-page essay. What I did was give my Havenese breed dog a piece of cheese, a piece of cucumber, and a piece of banana 3 times a day for 5 days and recorded the results. He always ate the cheese, ate the banana once, and ate the cucumber sometimes. I can link the google document that I made if you're curious about it.
I really enjoyed that assignment, and got a really good grade for it.
The other homework assignment I got had some "explain this" things, like it told me to define inertia. Also some stuff proving that I understand F=ma etc. This is what I expect most of my homework to be like.
I had a test on week 3 that I didn't study for which sucks but I got a good grade on it anyway. It was cool because it had a bunch of every type of question: True/False, fill in the blank, word problems, match abcdef to 123456, etc. I think this made the testing environment more fair for everyone involved, and it was a lot of fun to be challenged in all the different ways.
Overall I rate my enjoyment of the class a 9.975/10. The class itself is a 10/10 class IMHO.
Labs happen every Tuesday. They are hard for me because I have to write some stuff by hand. By comparison I'd say my typing speed is around 15x as fast. This isn't accurate but it's what it feels like. I also blank during labs which sucks.
How the labs actually work is we're given some equipment to do an experiment after grouping up. Ideally there would be groups of two, but there are too many people and not enough equipment so some people are forced into groups of three. One experiment that we did was figuring out the volume and weight of a 2012 or later penny vs a pre 1982 penny vs a penny from the 80s/90s. I won't go into details here, but it felt like the closest thing I had ever gotten to *real* science experiments in my life, although there were a ton of potential errors and what would be bad practices if I was actually trying to prove something. It's also really helpful because I have to actually start working with people for the first time in my life, even if I'm a bit of a third wheel.
Homework is cool. My first assignment was to apply the scientific method to something and condense the process & results into a 1-page essay. What I did was give my Havenese breed dog a piece of cheese, a piece of cucumber, and a piece of banana 3 times a day for 5 days and recorded the results. He always ate the cheese, ate the banana once, and ate the cucumber sometimes. I can link the google document that I made if you're curious about it.
I really enjoyed that assignment, and got a really good grade for it.
The other homework assignment I got had some "explain this" things, like it told me to define inertia. Also some stuff proving that I understand F=ma etc. This is what I expect most of my homework to be like.
I had a test on week 3 that I didn't study for which sucks but I got a good grade on it anyway. It was cool because it had a bunch of every type of question: True/False, fill in the blank, word problems, match abcdef to 123456, etc. I think this made the testing environment more fair for everyone involved, and it was a lot of fun to be challenged in all the different ways.
Overall I rate my enjoyment of the class a 9.975/10. The class itself is a 10/10 class IMHO.
The next couple of weeks though. I had a relapse into my life before moving to Oregon. A life where all I did every day was wake up, browse forums/watch videos, have breakfast, then play Dota/other video games for 10239812 hours before going to bed at 3AM. I didn't miss class because of this, but I didn't get enough sleep (especially when it comes to my 8:30AM physics classes) and I forgot my pencil twice. I also didn't study for my physics test which happened last week. I still got a really good grade on the test, but if I reviewed the material I'm sure I could have gotten a 100. In-class labs are a problem because I'm really timid due to my sheltered upbringing and introverted personality, which is something I'm working on, but this also means that I get nervous during the lab so I don't contribute much, or anything to my group of 2-3 people.
This timidness extends to the rest of my life. I have to call my hair stylist about getting a haircut, but I want to ask my mom for the 3rd time what exactly I should be saying. But back to college.
So I decided I had enough of losing entire days to DotA last weekend after spending two days eating pizza and playing DotA non-stop, and so I uninstalled it from both my laptop and standing desktop. This was a little redundant on my desktop because it has stopped recognizing mouse button clicks, but I did it anyway by starting it in safe mode which let it recognize my mouse again. So now that DotA is uninstalled I'm going to do my best to actually study while I'm at home in addition to playing games, watching anime, and spending time on forums.
For the last couple of days since then I've been waaay more productive. I spend way less time doing *nothing but dota* on the computer, and more time doing more useful things, like researching for my first smartphone purchase. It's an amazing change.
I've also started reading a book called How to Win at College by Cal Newport. It's an incredible book, and I'm going to start applying new and innovative concepts like cleaning my room and doing the laundry to start with, and eventually move on to doing cool things like joining a club or getting a job.
I have reinstalled dota for now but I'm going to do my best to keep down the number of hours I spend on it each day, especially during the weekends. We'll see how it turns out and I'll post an update in a few weeks.
Anyway, that was my rambling. I hope at least some of you enjoyed reading this absurdly-long-but-not-quite-EE-level blog post, and I wish you well!
most of the ones I know have plenty, as do I, and don't struggle to socialize any more than publicly schooled people I know.
