At the end of each semester, I like to reflect upon my classes so that I have some idea of what I should do and not do next time. Writing down what went well and didn't go well for each class makes me feel some sort of closure. When I leave things like these behind, I just keep having this nagging thought telling me to write it. Since I am not that busy during the summer, I might as write it now or else my memory will deteriorate in a month or two.
5.08 - Fundamentals of Chemical Biology (Dropped)
I dropped this class because I couldn't handle 48 units (4 classes) and I switched from Course 5-7 (Chemistry & Biology) to 6-7 (Computer Science & Molecular Biology), making 5.08 no longer a required class for my major, though it does satisfy the biology elective for Course 6-7. I really enjoyed the content during the first half of the semester, though my interest in the class slowly declined over time. I appreciate how they revamped the curriculum, though I was a little bored when a lot of experimental techniques using chemical biology were covered. I understand the importance, though I guess it wasn't as engaging because I don't really like wet lab so learning about these techniques wouldn't be very helpful as a Course 6-7.
I liked that they replace midterms with long problem sets, but at the same time I don't have very good self-discipline so that made doing problem sets a pain. If the long problem sets were broken down into two or three small problem sets, I would probably not be behind as the alternative structure would have forced me to be accountable. But this is my fault, not the class's fault. I also liked how the quizzes were short and a cheat sheet was allowed.
When I had the discussion with the professor on my performance in the class, she asked me to promise her that I retake the class next year or senior year. I nodded intently, though a few days later I didn't see myself retaking the class cause nowadays I find biology more fascinating like infectious diseases and cancer. I don't want to sound mean, but I don't want to be stuck in a class that's mostly Course 5s (Chemistry). I like chemistry, but I prefer being in a setting that has a variety of majors. I would rather be in a class where there are 10Bs (Biological-Chemical Engineering), 20s (Biological Engineering), 7s, and 6-7s. Sorry, Professor Imperiali.
A general takeaway I learned from this class is that when it comes to long-term assignments say a project or a lab report, self-accountability is very important. You have to break down them into chunks that can be achieved by the end of the week. It reminds me of SMART goals - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. If you don't finish them bit by bit and leave it till the end, you will be in pain. Don't do an extremely long problem set in the span of two days. It means not sleeping much since two days means 7 hours for each day.
6.101 [6.009] - Fundamentals of Programming
I have so many thoughts about this class, good and bad. If I had to tier rank this class, it would be tricky since on one hand, I learned so much from this class. On the other hand, however, this class was so painful and stressful. Tier ranking this class is not easy because I would have different ranks based on different categories such as curriculum design, mental health, etc. I would give it an A for the curriculum design, C for mental health, and A for what I got out of the class.
The main downside of the class was that it took up so much of my time. In MIT, the standard number of units for a class is 12, while a half-length class (quarter or a class that meets half as often) is 6. The reason it is 12 is that this is the average number of hours students should devote to the class every week. Typically that means 4 hours for lecture and recitation and 8 for outside work. This class was more like a 15 unit class. Since I had little to no programming experience (6.100A does not count), I had to go to every single lab hour from 7-10 PM four days a week or else I was not going to pass the class.
The lab hours aren't perfect, but I am glad that they have been trying very hard to make the class have more LAs (Lab Assistants) to help students. I have no idea how I would have survived this class if I took it last year before they made significant changes to the class. Past semesters were rougher because the queue would be very long and there weren't as many LAs. Lab hours provided me some glimmer of hope that I was going to complete the assignment as long as I tried writing code and getting help from the LAs. It reassured me that I was not going to fail the class and that there were quite a few people in the same boat as me -- people will little to no programming experience.
This class taught me that I can do hard things when I am forced into such circumstances. It also made me have somewhat more confidence in switching to Course 6 because while future Course 6 classes will be hard, I feel like surviving 6.101 was the main barrier I overcame. I am scared of 6.120 and 6.121, but those classes are more math-based instead of programming, so it will be hard in a different way.
The worst part of this class was that for three weeks straight, I didn't even complete the labs fully. The first week was because I didn't spend enough time on the Mines lab and couldn't complete the last part (dig nd) by the deadline. The second week was CPW and I could not go to the extra lab hours. The third week was from having a viral sore throat. I was so depressed by the third week and wondered how was I going to go back to completed labs. After talking it out with the instructors and staff, however, I wasn't as scared and thankfully was able to complete the last three labs.
I really don't want to be in that awful spot in the future, so I think the main way to prevent this is to simply start the day it's assigned. Of course, some things like getting sick aren't under one's control, but some things are under one's control. I don't mind asking help from TAs and instructors, but I still have trouble with asking my friends for help even though they don't mind helping. As long as I am putting effort and trying first before asking others, then I shouldn't feel bad about asking for help. Honestly, some classes like 6.101 require peer collaboration because without peer collaboration, you are going to have a very hard time in the class.
6.100B [6.0002] - Introduction to Computational Thinking
I was lucky to get an A in this class since I was on the border. The content was interesting for the first half, but then I started to be bored and had to force myself to go to lecture. I didn't feel like paying attention for the last half of the class because I disliked the lecture format, which was going through 60 slides in 80 minutes, so that meant less than 90 seconds for each slide. It felt like a lot of information was crammed with little room for me to take time and process the information.
While the lectures were not very good, I didn't mind the problem sets because that's where I learned a lot about Numpy and Pyplot, things that I hope to use in my future UROPs. I am also glad that the microquizzes didn't require too much studying and a cheat sheet was allowed.
Another good thing about this class was that there was office hours 9 AM to 9 PM every weekday except for Fridays which was 9 AM to 5 PM. The reason I got my work done on time (except for two late days I used, one when I was sick) is that I would just devote my free hours during the day for 6.100B office hours. The office hours classroom was a good environment to get work done since everyone else was doing the problem set and it wasn't loud. I don't think I would have gotten much work done if I stayed in the dorm room because that level of seriousness isn't there.
If my future classes offer a lot of office hours like 6.100B, I will probably just do the same thing of going to as many office hours as possible to finish the assignment. I think 6.120 [6.042] and 6.121 [6.006] probably have a lot of office hours given how big the class is.
7.002 - Fundamentals of Experimental Molecular Biology
This class was the least stressful one out of all the one because you were guaranteed an A as long as you showed up to all the labs and did the work. This was good, though sometimes I wondered why this class was designed when a lot of people in the class were in wet lab UROPs that taught these skills. Sometimes I sat in lab wishing that I got to skip the lab and go to 6.101 lab hours to finish the lab assignment.
What made the class more fun was that my TA was pretty chill and funny.
7.06 - Cell Biology
This was my favorite class even though I didn't do that well (got a B). At first, I came in worrying that I would find cell biology to not be that fascinating, but I was proven wrong. 7.06 was probably the class that made me like biology more than chemistry. I still find chemistry to be an interesting field, but 7.06 explained things on a larger scale that chemistry doesn't address. I got to learn so much about how diseases like cancer work and how the signaling pathways keep us alive. I loved how engaged the class was. I think one factor that helped was that 7.06 is not a big class unlike the Course 6 classes. Although attendance was only 35-50%, there were still some engaged classmates who asked questions. People were paying attention, taking notes, and curious to learn more about things that weren't covered in class.
The reason I didn't do well in the class was that I over scheduled myself on the weekends by staying in some clubs the whole day, even though I didn't need to be there the whole day. I am also bad at saying no to things, which is pretty problematic because it isn't a good idea to do so many things to the point that you can't even do a good job in your classes. It sounds kind of dumb, but I felt like if I wasn't there, then the club would not run as smoothly so my help was essential. It was not a very healthy mindset and I wished I told the exec members earlier. For me, I really can't get any productive studying done unless I do at least half of it on the weekends. To some extent, time management is just being good at protecting your time and not letting other things take over time.
I think one regret I have in this class is that I didn't really take advantage of the office hours until the month before finals. I was surprised that there was no one else who showed up to the professor office hours. It was very nice to get 1:1 help from my professor by asking questions on things I didn't get and going over some recent lectures. The reason I didn't go to office hours before was that I felt like I had to stay in lab longer even though I didn't need to and my mentor would have been understanding and let me go to office hours. In short, take advantage of office hours because they really help clear up some conceptual misunderstandings. I noticed that going to office hours made studying not as bad because I understood things better and I actually retained some information.
Conclusion
Each class had good and bad things, and I learned different lessons from each class. My semesters at MIT will only get harder, not easier, so it is crucial for me to not repeat the same mistake again or else I will be sad.
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