Done with finals

Finally, done with everything. Since I'm off for a month, I'll have plenty of time to update from now on. Here's my report card:

Biology 107 - A - An introductory Biology course. The teacher was great; taught us well, damn nice guy, upbeat, and always willing to help. I definitely learned my stuff, and I'm well on my way to kicking the MCAT's ass.

That said, the class was difficult. The tests were very tricky, especially his wording. Perhaps the single most aggravating aspect of the course was his attitude about the tests. Due to "getting fingers pointed at him", he refused to reveal the content of the exams, instead instructing us to study every possible chapter in the book, in addition to the material we covered in class. That left us with hundreds of pages of readings to do for the test. Since it was all crammed anyway, none of it was really retained. For the first test, we had to read the first 7 chapters of the book - several hundred pages covering everything from evolution to a comprehensive review of chemistry (basic all the way to organic).

Truth be told, it was really only the first test that was bad, the others were more bearable, as I had a good idea of how much he would actually take from the book (jack-shit). His "bogus" policy gave much needed extra credit points to students who got questions right that the majority of the class missed.

I hated the labs. I'm not exactly sure what it was - the teacher was nice, the TAs were very helpful, and my lab partners were good. The frantic pace, and sometimes ambiguous instructions were probably the reason for my disdain. That, and I hate group-work (whine whine real world whine whine shutup).

Overall, a great course. Great teacher. Difficult, but not much work involved outside of studying for tests.

Ethics - A - Another great course. At first I was regretting not taking Logic instead, but now I'm happy. This is one of those courses that I could say I truly learned a ton from. We covered many modern ethical issues - the death penlaty, bioethics, world hunger, war and terrorism, and more. It really helped me find solid ground as to where I stand on these issues. Discussion groups were held on every topic, which really allowed you to debate and defend your stances, definitely my favorite aspect of the course. The study of many topics such as Utilitarianism and Deontology really helped too.

The teacher is a very smart guy, perhaps a little bit too smart to be teaching an introductory course. He would lecture at large about a single passage from a piece for 20 minutes, delving well beyond the scope of the entire class. Other times, I felt he was holding back his opinion too much. Then again, in this politically correct world, he probably did the best he could. Homework mainly consisted of reading, with two papers. He's definitely an easy grader to boot.

Macroeconomics - A - Painfully easy. Decent teacher, formulaic method. Pronounces words funny, worth it just for that I guess. I thought about being an Econ/Bio double major, but now, no - just Bio. I'm definitely glad I chose this over micro.

Spanish 202 - A - The best Spanish class I've ever had. Incredible teacher - extremely clear, very helpful. He talked slowly, which was the best part. I definitley noticed a huge improvement in my Spanish comprehension. Lots of homework, tricky tests, but worth it for the incredible professor.

That said, I've really enjoyed my first semester. I'm definitely looking forward to more.