A thousand drums. Rhythmic waves of destruction followed every blow. I buried both my ears in my palms but the rude, hollow thumpings were far from inaudible. I fell on my knees — on what felt like dirt. With great effort, I opened my eyes against the chilly gale beating relentlessly on my face. The landscape was barren, dark and hinted in every way of an imminent sandstorm.
“How are you doing?”
The storm vanished into thin air as Ms. Cynthia appeared beside me to check on my progress. A mess of scribbled algebraic functions, numbers and workings came into focus as I peered at the stack of foolscap paper on my table. Intergration, pfft. The reality wasn’t any better.
The air-conditioner above my head on full blast threatened to freeze the gears in my head grinding to a halt. My head weighed twice as heavy and felt like it could fall thump on the table any time. Then there’s this constant throbbing going on at the temples so bad, that you feel that urge to bang your head repeatedly against walls.
My sanity is at stake.
That’s Engineering Mathematics B for you.
I figured a little break would do.
Semester two feels soou tough. I don’t know, perhaps its because of the rather laid-back three-subject Summer Semester we had before this. Or it could be just that semester two subjects are just more challenging. Or was it the lectures that made the difference?
The language and IT subjects were okay, if not bearable. At least they don’t pose the danger of getting flunked, only that burden of semester-long assignments they require of you.
But oh boy, the Math and Physics subjects are a whole different story.
There are Finite Math lecturers who’d just mercilessly cramp three bloody mind-boggling subtopics in an one-hour lecture. Leaving you gasping for air not even ten minutes into the class. Then there are Physics B lectures which I simply cant keep up.
Lecturers just love to explain concepts in long-winding ways so complicated nobody ever understands. Of course, it is only the ultimate goal of an educator to get the point across to his students in the most comprehensible way possible. But no matter how hard they try, at the end of lectures you’d just find it hard not to say, ‘Huh.?’
To cook up a lame analogy, if you’d ask them for directions to the cafeteria next door, they would draw you a world map, point at the Himalayan region with a thud, ask you to scale Everest’s peak and back down, make your way under Paris’ Arc de Triomphe, swim across the Atlantic, get sucked into a fourth dimension off the coast of Bermuda and poof, you’re at the cafeteria next door.
Make no mistake though, Swinburne’s got great lecturers. There’s this obvious effort by the University to woo in quality lecturers, complete with PhD. certs or Masters in qualifications. And the lecturers we have are brilliant, they know their stuff and they certainly have the passion to teach.
The Math and Physics subjects of semester two has got to be the toughest stuff yet.
Notice how both lecturers share the same hairstyles. They are walking testaments of what these subjects could do to you. Period.
If it helps, I have a Finite Math test coming up tomorow. Shove me a question and all I have in mind is a Large. Void. Blank.
*Gaspeth.*
ow…nice descriptive writing 😛
i could almost feel the throbbing in my head while reading ur post…
everything will bcome much more simpler as time goes by…it always does! good luck in ur test! isit test 1 already? 🙂
Why thanks. =D Yeah *only* test 1 and feels like hell already. =(
man, write like that wor. u can get a band 8 for MUET liao. lol. impressive.
good luck with ur test. xD
I have been thru the exact same trauma as you 10yrs ago. haha… all the best in cracking your head to understand at the speed that they are going.
Good luck with your test tomorrow! Hehe. Good thing I don’t have to go through all that anymore. Programming classes FTW. :3
@wying, that’s why i left form 6, I thought if i’d stay..you guys no chance to shine. =\
@Ah Dom, Wish I could say that .. 10 years later. lol.
@Free, thanks! So I read from your blog. Great to know you on to something you actually like! =D
…and EM1, 2, 3, 4… will kill you. Trust me.
*Gulp*
this little boy never stop bragging about himself. sigh. talking about maths, i’m now in vectors. kinda driving me crazy. but it’s fun.
Bwahaha! Can’t help it lar. Humility is not in my dictionary. =D =D
Vectors?! Damn. They must’ve been as bad as manipulating complex matrices we’re having in Finite math. T.T
Wahaha. If humility isn’t in your dictionary, i could point out a few grammatical mistakes you made even while replying to other people’s comments. =P
But I’m nice. Lol.
Okay, okay it is — page 336. =P
Well, what’s holding you back? I’m having this bloody academic writing subject this semester and realised that my writing. is. deteriorating.. thanks to seeing too much of numbers and formulae. =( Hence the lame attempt on descriptive writing out of the blue.
By the way, May, it’s been awhile. =)
*runs off to correct petty mistakes before May spots them xD*
Nah, the descriptive writing’s great. It’s better than my own — lately I’ve been running dry on pretty phrases and sui sui terms.=P I guess it stemmed from the “numbers and formulae” overdose as well.
Keep up the good job — I’m still a fan of your writing! XD
p/s The stuff I said about your grammar? Don’t worry, was just checking if your dictionary lost a few leaves. Apparently it hasn’t. XD
OMG I got a fan! =P No really, the honor is mine.. and I still think you’re way better off in writing. Okay, okay, let’s just stop throwing compliments at each other before we both start walking into poles. =D
Btw, I’ve been dropping by your blog. Just hadn’t shown myself in the comments. =P Can’t get enough of the May-ish outlook of life and style of writing. XD
I’m starting to be thankful for not taking up engineering. Your classes look like good places to sleep!
You bet they are lol. Engineering certainly isn’t the easiest stuff out there. =(
i love that stunning pic of swinburne.. may I have it??
No problem! =)
Best of luck in your studies!