Collective Apprehension

Collective Apprehension So, a quick recap of my week before I launch into repsonses to the many, many comments Ive received the past few days: On Monday I got back from my Easter visit home just in time for my training session at the MIT Nuclear Reactor. No joke. Reactor safety training is required by MIT-EMS. The idea is that if theres ever an emergency at the reactor, people kind of freak out. So they want us EMTs to be familiar with the facility and to be able to properly deal with radioactive contamination, which, it turns out, is probably not as scary as you think it is. So I got a pretty cool tour of the reactor and learned how to decontaminate someone. Yeah, sounds cool doesnt it? I can teach you now. Ready? If someone has radiological contamination on their clothing, cut the contaminated part off and drop it in this big yellow disposal bin with a caution label. The end. Its actually a bit harder than that, because you have to keep in mind that as soon as you touch something contaminated (with a gloved hand, of course), that glove is now contaminated and cant touch anything clean. Its trickier than you might think. Friday I went to the ZBT semiformal Bryan mentioned before with this kid you might have heard of- Mike Borohovski (or Borski), who comments around here all the time and was evencoolenough to make it into Bens awesome(?) photographic account of CPW. Anyway, he even had the nerve to complain about missing that Oregon Trail thing, as if I asked him to his own semiformal or something. I didnt bring my camera, but only because I knew Bryan would be there, and I figured Id let him cover it. Melis was there too- we bloggers are just likeone big family. Um. So look forward to pictures on Bryans blog soon! Read on for responses to comments. Lots of responses to comments: Michael Borohovski said A few points: 1) The reason every math class starts out with that is because often enough people _do_ forget it. Not to mention it really _is_ the basis for the beginnings of the explanation of what a derivative is. 2) Im exactly the other way around. Give me anything that has application in the real world and I hate it, because I dont like the real world. I like to think theoretically. I like algorithms and drawings, not actual objects. Im a CS/Math person at heart. Its kind of amusing actually. I once liked chem, and then I got apprehensive. :p 3) Math is hard, physics/chem is harder. 1) No. No they dont. 2) No comment. 3) Physics is so much better than math. If only I could take more physics and less math..*sigh* Caroline said MIT scares me to no end Im going to fail out, first semester, and transfer to community college. Hopefully not :) but Im still scared. Nah, pass/no record will be your God. You dont have to worry about failing out until second semester. =) Seriously though, you are not alone. I cant tell you how many of my freshman friends have referenced community college this semester. Itskind of sad, actually. Its hard here, and you might be nervous and scared, but so will everyone else. And you know what, I think people here worry too much. Were all used to being brilliant and now that were not the smartest person in the class, some of us panic. But that doesnt mean were stupid. They dont let you into this crazy place unless theyre sure you can handle it. So it wont be smooth sailing but I have faith that everyone can pull it off with the necessary help. nehalita said: Those psets scared me. A lot. =) Dont stress about it just yet. I mean, they do teach you what all that gibberish means before they ask you to do it. elaine said: i came across your blog while searching google for pictures of ideas for something to wear to and anything but clothes party. your duct tape was awesome! anyway, im a mechanical engineering major at a little school called rose-hulman institute of technology, and just wanted to let you know that i think most engineers feel the same way you do about math! engineering gets better once all the math for maths sake courses are over Haha, that duct tape outfit will probably haunt me for the rest of my life. (Every time I go home, another relative or family friend has been shown that photo and has some would-be clever comment about duct tape up their sleeve) Seriously though, Im glad you liked it. Im also glad you have an optimistic outlook for my academic future. =) My church youth group leader is an engineer and we always used to joke about engineering in ways that no one else understood. One time we were playing some kind of game and needed to add up a bunch of scores, so the group asked us to do it in our heads, claiming that we should be good at math because we were engineers. We just laughed at them. =) Kim said: Liked the story! Good to know Im not the only one who is beginning to be a bit apprehensive of math (Im in BC this year) even though Ive loved it throughout the rest of school. Good luck with that pset! It looks crazy, but then you know more math than I do How long do they (professors) expect a pset to take? If you check out the Subject Listing (someone let me know if the link doesnt work, Im not sure if you guys will be able to access it) youll see that each class shows how its credit hours are split up in the form #-#-#. The numbers represent weekly hours spent in class, hours spent in lab, and hours spent doing homework, respectively. 18.03 is listed as 5-0-7, so that means the pset is supposed to take around 7 hours. Sometimes psets take a lot more or a less time than expected. 7 hours for an 18.03 pset seems about right to me, I guess. I dont know, I have a horrible sense of time. =) Aliera said: Write down the constant coefficient homogeneous linear differential equation with characteristic polynomial p(s)= s3 s I disagree with the use of this as an example. It has shock value if youre not familiar with the subject at all but its a really simple thing to remember how to do and do quickly. Well yes, but my point is that this is clearly no longer the same thing as adding and subtracting. Plus this is an in-joke with people on my floorexcept only Adelaide reads this. Im really bad about that- telling inside jokes to people not on the inside. My apologies. =) Lucy said: I still cant get to that pset site. Im taking some calc classes at a local college. Do these credits transfer over to MIT next fall or are these only used for placement purposes? How long does it take for you to do a pset in a class thats easy for you, like 8.02, vs. a class thats more difficult for you, like 18.02 or 18.03? How are final grades given at MIT? Is it mostly based on test scores or half and half between test scores and psets? And dont students usually work in groups for psets? From what I understand, transfering math credits is kind of annoying. In any case, any transfer credit requests are considered on a case-by-case basis. You should visit the First Year at MIT (for the Class of 2010), especially the transfer credit page for more information. Final grades vary from class to class, but its usually some combination of tests and psets that are taken into consideration. 8.02 psets tend to be shorter than 18.03 psets in general, but the fact that its easier for me doesnt really affect the amount of time it takes. We do work in groups on psets, and usually you take as long as the group takes. So when my fellow Conner 2 freshmen get together to do 18.03, Im always the one holding everyone back and asking dumb questions and feeling really bad about it. But then when we get together to do 8.02, Im much more likely to be the one answering everyone elses questions. This works out nicely, because teaching helps you learn, being able to answer other peoples question s makes you feel smart (and you will latch on to things that make you feel smart here), and being helpful during 8.02 pset parties helps me feel less awful for being a drain during 18.03 pset parties. Christina said: My problem with math is that I can spend lots of time working through it and taking tests and quizzes and doing homework, etc. etc but at the end of the day, what have I learned? NOTHING. Ive learned how to do odd things with random letters/numbers, though I have no idea WHY I am doing what Im doing. What an accomplishment! Haha, dont worry about it- plenty of people feel that way. Thats why I like the math that I do in physics- I know Im actually using it for something. As for 18.03, Ive been told that it will be useful in the future in my engineering classes, and Im looking forward to the day that happens. Ill be sure to let you know if that day ever comes. =) arielle said: do psets in any class at mit (this can be physics, chem, or math) actually help w/ tests? as in, are test questions similar to those in the homework so if you understand the homework, you wouldnt have much of a problem w/ tests or are test questions so random that even if you understand homework problems, you need to really, really, really understand the concepts and ten billion other things in order to do well on tests? i guess im just kind of scared of being the dumbest person in a class w/ international science and math olympiad champions and getting like half of the class average on a test Oh my. What a question. Um, sosometimes the tests make you want to strangle someone, because theyre not remotely related to the questions on the pset. On the other hand, most classes will make practice exams available, which are usually exact copies of the exams given in previous semesters, so those are always a great way to prepare for tests, whether or not the psets actually help. =) As for being scared, see above. And my last entry. And my first entry. Dont worry about it. MIT is scary, but if you approach it with the right attitude you can really get a lot out of it.