xijuan

I just wanted to say few things about my experiences on reading students' ratings on ratemyprofressor.com.

First, professors who consistently get good ratings are usually very good lecturers. They are not necessarily easy profs. But they do give great lectures and explain things more thoroughly. On the other hand, professors who get consistently low ratings are usually not good. For example, last term, I took a course with a prof who got 2/5 on ratemyprofessor and her lectures indeed suck although she is a kind person. She doesn't explain the math materials she is teaching; just barely writes down notes on the board. And all the students I have talked to also think she is not a good teacher. The term before I took a course a prof who got 4/5 on ratemyprofessor. She is indeed a great prof and explained everything so clearly. Our class wrote the same exams as the sections but our average was 7 percentage higher overall.

Of course, the ratings from that website may not be equivalent to the ratings profs get from their actual teaching evaluation. But from my experience, I think the students do have the ability to distinguish between good profs and bad profs. And students' ratings are not only based on how easy the course is but also based on how interesting the lectures are and how approachable the prof is.

Does anyone who has an opposite experience from what I have experienced? That is taking a course who a prof who got high ratings on ratemyprofs but felt the prof was bad.

Shame on your friend!! I feel your anger...

I had to relearn calculus because I decided to study stats after finishing my BA in psychology. I was good at Math before but now I have to relearn it.. What did I do???? JUST LEARN IT AGAIN! I listened to lectures online; read the textbook.. I really don't think there is any shortcut to this. Also I am sure you didn't forget everything. You will surely learn faster the second time around.

The short story "Runaway" by Alice Munro. Alice Munro is very good at depicting the complex emotions of people in a relationship. This story has given me insight about my own relationship.

I don't think it is your case..But I just want to tell you my personal story about why my dad kept on complaining that the camera is bad on Nexus 4. It turns out that there is a screen protector on his Nexus 4's back that actually COVERS the camera. The other two Nexus 4 I bought for myself and my bf also had screen protectors on its back but it was not covering the cameras.... So yeah..

This makes me really sad because I really like this guy a lot..Watched some of his speeches for young people..He seems to be a really kind and easy going person.

From Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_depressive_episode:

If left untreated, a typical major depressive episode may last for about six months, while about 20% of these episodes can last two years or more, with 50% of depressive episodes ending spontaneously.

I can probably find you an article reference if you want. But I have learned this kind of research findings in psychology class.

If you think interview is really a measurement of one's professional ability, then like any measurement, it has measurement errors. To me, it seems that this person has some sort of interview anxiety because of previous bad interview experiences.. So the anxiety kind of feeds back onto itself. In this case, the interview can't really measure his ability accurately. But this brings another question... How valid and reliable are those interviews? I really have no idea about that since I have never had a tech interview. Just a question to think about when it comes to evaluating a measurement

Omg. This is exactly what I need for my dad's company..

The following quote didn't really inspire me. But I still love it because I think what it says is really true.

“Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides, you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion, it is not the desire to mate every second minute of the day, it is not lying awake at night imagining that he is kissing every cranny of your body. No, don't blush, I am telling you some truths. That is just being "in love", which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident.”― Louis de Bernières, Captain Corelli's Mandolin

"In my stars I am above thee; but be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em."-- Twelfth Night.

It is great that they cover a lot of languages.. Except they don't cover the one I use a lot which is Chinese....I had to buy Swype so that I can switch easily from English to Chinese.

I didn't see this post until now... Please don't do it. I don't want to go into things about life and goals; others have already said enough of those.... But I live in great Vancouver area!! I can meet you up if you want!! And I sincerely want to meet you! Email me or add me on gtalk.

May I ask how did you get the opportunity to work there?

Sigh.. I am actually from University of British Columbia and graduated with psychology degree and know Jessica Tracy. I feel very disappointed by this..

Rest In Peace... Really sad to hear this news...

hahaha. I posted this question few months ago. Here is the result of my poll: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5536734

I just want to say that I am extremely happy about the court's ruling!!!! omg omg so happy!!!!!!! FINALLY!!

I totally agree with you. Some people really see making money as the number one goal of life. I found it very frustrating to interact with such people. They calibrate everything with money. If you ask them whether it is a good idea to learn or study something, they will immediately ask you if learning it would help you make money afterwards. They would treat you nice if they believe you are rich or you will make money in the future..They will abandon you after they find out that you can't make too much money..

>Kindness, and the strength to display it in all situations, is the single most admirable quality that people can possess.

I totally agree with this. The people I admire the most are the kindest people I have ever met. I really aspire to be one of them.

Depression is different for everyone. My depression is quite different from the one described in the article. My depression is usually mixed with anxiety and is triggered by a stressful life event. To me depression is like falling into the sea of sadness. I feel an immense amount of sadness partly because that the stressful event has a reason to make me sad. Along with the sadness is the feeling of disappointment for myself and for others. But sadness is the most prominent feeling. My depression could get a lot better very quickly if the stressful event reaches some sort of satisfactory resolution. But if it doesn't, I would just feel sad,sad, sad ,and eventually escalating to feeling hopelessness...then wishing I could be dead...

Pizza is delicious

I am just glad that theses kind of issues with DSM are being talked about. I just feel that most people are unaware of these issues

Yes. I totally agree. It happened to me few times.

I just saw the webpage for the first time. I agree with you. The writing is very poor on this webpage. Many sentences were awkwardly worded.

>Perks include offerings like free appetizers, complimentary drinks and more.

This is one of the awkward sentences that I found hard to comprehend at first..

And "early beta" is still not changed..

I had a recent post about how this guy got married in the jail: http://www.quora.com/Prisons/How-do-you-nurture-and-maintain...

I think the story was a bit too good to be true. If it is completely true, it is just too amazing!!!

I KNOW! I am a bit surprised that people are talking about it again. Well, it is an amazing story...

I am one of the try-hards OP has described. I came to Canada at the age of 12 knowing very little English. In my first two years in Canada, my self-esteem and confidence dropped to a very low point because I couldn't keep up with my peers due to my poor English skills. Basically, I was not even allowed to take regular classes because my English was not good enough. I am not naturally good at learning language so I had to study very hard. My parents were not good at English and we didn't really have money for tutoring. I don't even think my parents really believe that tutoring would work; they always believe in self-learning. I eventually got better and got the chance to take regular classes. But my English still caused a lot of difficulty in understanding the course materials. Other students could easily understand the lecture and the textbook. However, to me, I could not understand anything the teacher said in class; so I had to read the textbook myself. The textbook was pretty hard for me; so I had to read two or three times. To my surprise, due to hard work, I was able to get the top marks in most of my classes. And the learning strategies I have developed along the way have helped me succeed in university as well.

I think OP definitely has "idealized" the people who could achieve top grades. I procrastinate a lot of times, wasting my time watching dramas and constantly interrupting myself with online chatting. I am not sure if I perform poorly under stress or not. But I am very very very prone to stress and anxiety. I think because that I recognize my limit (my predisposition to stress and anxiety), I always start things early so I don't have to stress out in the end.

It is not that good to get high marks all the time. Some people think I am simply a nerd who doesn't know how to socialize. They would also say that I only know how to get good marks but not know other things. Some people would think that I am an introvert who stays at home studying all the time... In fact, I love being around people, love hanging out with friends.. I love teaching, tutoring and giving out presentations.. There are a lot of stereotypical beliefs about nerds.. And these things made me very sad at times. But I feel that I had to work hard because I wanted to go to grad school and GPA is a big consideration when it comes to applying for grad school..

Anyways...all these rambling probably won't help OP gets good marks..I will provide some of the study strategies that have helped me succeed in school: 1) Prepare before you go to the lecture. Read the textbook before you go to the lecture. There are times when I preview the whole course material during the summer before taking the course... I think that is simply too extreme for other people..But I did that and it worked for me. When everyone was struggling to understand the materials, I already know most of it...

2) I record my lectures and listen to them like "music"? If the prof is good at lecturing, it is actually not that boring to listen to the lectures again. At times, the prof would give some possible hints about questions on the exams; those hints can be helpful at times.

3) Start on your hw early so that you can leave some time to ask questions. If hw counts a significant portion of the mark, you should definitely start early and ask the TA questions if you don't get any of the questions. Keep asking them until you figure out the answers. KEEP ASKING! It is funny that I eventually become a very friend with one of my TAs because I always go hang out with her during her office hour.

5) I know every well about my limit. So most of the times, I don't take too many courses to overwhelm myself. I also tried to balance my semester with some easy courses and some hard ones. Whether the course is easy or not depends on what you are good at. An English course can be easy for an Arts student to get an A but extremely hard to a science student.

6) Know about the teacher's testing strategies. Some profs like to ask questions from the textbook; some like to focus on the lectures more.. Some have really tricky MC questions.Some teachers like to test the conceptual stuff more. Every prof is different. Knowing what the teacher's testing style is very important.

7) I don't know how relevant it is to other people but TAs have marked my exam wrong multiple times.... It happened to my friend also. There was once when the TA gave me 76 when I got 95.. There was also another time when I got 95 on an exam after crazy scaling. I thought this time, they probably marked everything right and I didn't need to check my exam with the TA; but I eventually went to check it before my final just in case there were some similar questions on the final. And they marked a written question wrong again. Maybe I am just bad luck.. Always check your exams carefully to see if the TA has made any mistakes.

8) I am generally a very curious person who doesn't mind studying anything. But after studying something for a long time, I would also get bored and frustrated.. At those times, I would keep telling myself "STUDYING SHOULD BE ENJOYABLE. IT IS REALLY INTERESTING!" OK.. Maybe I was just a bit too crazy..I don't know. My point is that at times, it is important to motivate yourself and to keep remind yourself how interesting the topic is.

These are all I can think about it so far..If I remember more, I may add later.

Firstly there are a lot of people who are using Samsung phones. Secondly, I believe other Android phones also come with keyboard that has Swype features. My nexus 4 has the feature and my friend 's HTC has it too. Thirdly, a lot of keyboard apps in Play store basically does the same thing (i.e. Slideit, SwiftKey and touchpal). Basically, almost everyone who use android phones Swype sometimes.

Not surprised at all...