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My first impression of each of my classes this semester:
Analytical Chem - Fast. The professor plans to finish a chapter every other session. Could be boring, but probably goes too quickly to get really down on any particular subject.
Analytical Chem Lab - Leisurely. Six labs, spread over 14 sessions. Probably won't be bad, but the busywork given on the first day felt kind've insulting. I was ready to dive in, but apparently some people who take the class haven't had General Chem(!), so the TA had to figure out which students didn't know what they were doing first.
Physical Chemistry I - Professor has a moderately heavy accent and occasionally difficult to follow lecture structure. The latter may have been because it was an impromptu intro to quantum mechanics rather than something he'd planned for, when most of the class turned out not to have adequate background.
Differential Equations - Retaking this one for a better grade and improved understanding. So far, things are looking good. The professor speaks English well, has legible handwriting, and uses a textbook that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
zeightyfiv has in a different edition. (All things that weren't the case last time.) The only problem so far is that the university put it in the PE building. Around a third of the class arrived later than I did, because we either couldn't find the building or couldn't find the classroom, if not both. (Really, though. Math classes in the PE building. I thought that was what we had a an eight-floor math building for, but apparently they're holding a bunch of religion classes in it instead. There's a joke hiding in this somewhere.)
Intro to Chaos and Nonlinear Dynamics - *SQUEE* I've been wanting to take a class like this for years. It and the upcoming class on fractals are the reason for my math minor. So far it's looking good. First class covered the idealized model of a pendulum on a pole, which let the professor talk about phase space, nodes, and (in)stability. I'm the only female in the class, but that happens sometimes. My classmates range from grad students to one high-school senior who's getting dual credit. Turns out that 40% of our grade will be a project, for which I already have an idea. I hope to be able to study the sometimes-chaotic behavior of chemical oscillators. There are a couple of reasons why it might not pan out, primarily difficulty of taking quantitative measurements and/or lack of an adequate mathematical model, but also possibly being unable to get hold of the appropriate chemicals on my budget. The first problem is most likely the less tractable one, but I can take advantage of the expertise of some nice people that I met while in Boston this summer.
Analytical Chem - Fast. The professor plans to finish a chapter every other session. Could be boring, but probably goes too quickly to get really down on any particular subject.
Analytical Chem Lab - Leisurely. Six labs, spread over 14 sessions. Probably won't be bad, but the busywork given on the first day felt kind've insulting. I was ready to dive in, but apparently some people who take the class haven't had General Chem(!), so the TA had to figure out which students didn't know what they were doing first.
Physical Chemistry I - Professor has a moderately heavy accent and occasionally difficult to follow lecture structure. The latter may have been because it was an impromptu intro to quantum mechanics rather than something he'd planned for, when most of the class turned out not to have adequate background.
Differential Equations - Retaking this one for a better grade and improved understanding. So far, things are looking good. The professor speaks English well, has legible handwriting, and uses a textbook that
zeightyfiv has in a different edition. (All things that weren't the case last time.) The only problem so far is that the university put it in the PE building. Around a third of the class arrived later than I did, because we either couldn't find the building or couldn't find the classroom, if not both. (Really, though. Math classes in the PE building. I thought that was what we had a an eight-floor math building for, but apparently they're holding a bunch of religion classes in it instead. There's a joke hiding in this somewhere.)Intro to Chaos and Nonlinear Dynamics - *SQUEE* I've been wanting to take a class like this for years. It and the upcoming class on fractals are the reason for my math minor. So far it's looking good. First class covered the idealized model of a pendulum on a pole, which let the professor talk about phase space, nodes, and (in)stability. I'm the only female in the class, but that happens sometimes. My classmates range from grad students to one high-school senior who's getting dual credit. Turns out that 40% of our grade will be a project, for which I already have an idea. I hope to be able to study the sometimes-chaotic behavior of chemical oscillators. There are a couple of reasons why it might not pan out, primarily difficulty of taking quantitative measurements and/or lack of an adequate mathematical model, but also possibly being unable to get hold of the appropriate chemicals on my budget. The first problem is most likely the less tractable one, but I can take advantage of the expertise of some nice people that I met while in Boston this summer.