Emmanuel Tafa
"Freshman Time Capsule" Reflection Essay
Starting my 2nd semester, I was familiar with some tougher courses that I would have to take as a general biology major, one of them being organic chemistry. My advisor first told me about it and being that it was a requirement for my major, I couldn’t avoid taking it. I heard a lot of bad things about organic chemistry from upperclassmen and others who have taken the course already. Most of it being that it would be incredibly challenging, difficult exams, and that you will likely have to rely on a curve by the end of the semester.
With all this in mind, I was dreading the start of the course. To be expected, organic chemistry definitely aligned with what I was being told and it was challenging for me. Surprisingly, topics in the course overlapped with one another, so technically there often wasn’t much new material introduced. There is an overarching “theme” of the course and everything kinda falls under it, as opposed to being taught many different topics. Everything built upon each other which allowed me to grasp a better understanding of lessons. From the things the professor taught, I made an effort to not only understand how things occur but why they occur. Understanding the reasoning behind why things work the way they do, though wasn’t required, gave me the aha moment that I needed to do well in the course.
I feel like as incoming students get acquainted with the course, they will start to understand this “theme”. Once they take the added effort to understand the “why”, they will be surprised to see that organic chemistry isn’t as hard as it's made out to be. Developing strong relationships with faculty, specifically the professors/TA’s will greatly help in terms of being comfortable enough to reach out to them if you experience difficulties. I was able to develop a strong relationship with my Organic Chemistry professor by stopping by his office on the first week of classes to introduce myself and to make sure he knows my name, attending office hours regularly and engaging in conversation. The greatest obstacles to this were the fact that lecture rooms were filled with more than a hundred students so it can be generally hard for the professor to get to know their students individually. However, if you go the extra mile to meet up with your professors during office hours, you will surely be able to build that relationship which will help you further down the line.
Building relationships with my peers has helped me cope with adjusting to university life because it was easier to relate to people who were kind of in the same boat as me. Given that we are all transitioning from high school to college allowed us to have that level of understanding so this made it easy to make friendships. I’d say the biggest obstacle in pursuing these relationships were the fact that it was often difficult to juggle 15-16 credits worth of mostly STEM related courses along with extracurricular activities. Next year freshmen can make the most out of these connections by having study sessions with them because it’s a lot easier to understand the material when you're reviewing it with a peer. Pursuing extracurriculars with peers is also a good way to get involved if you’re on the introverted side, just to have someone with you as you join clubs and take on all these activities.
Out of all aspects of university academic life, I was least prepared for how fast paced some courses are. A lot of courses have up to three to four midterms total, so it can be hard to keep up and effectively study for all of your classes. The best thing I’d recommend is to make a schedule of all your exams at the beginning of the semester, so that you won’t be surprised by the time exam week comes. Attend office hours and go to guided study sessions whenever you can for the extra practice. These resources are very underutilized but they are all meant to help guide you to success.