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notes from a week of new classes by Aiden H. '28

the prettiest peril of higher education

New month, new classes, new semester, yet still my cramping hand sitting across MIT’s campus struggling to write for more than 30 minutes during lecture. I’m taking three technicals this semester, and if there’s one thing they all have in common, it’s that they’re gonna make you WRITE.

5.12 – Organic Chemistry

IPad notes from an organic chemistry class on enantiomers
IPad notes from an organic chemistry class on conformational isomers
IPad notes from an organic chemistry class on conformational analysis.
IPad notes from an organic chemistry class on Newman projections and chair structures.
IPad notes from an organic chemistry class on inversion of sp3 atoms.

I do enjoy this class and it has gotten me more into chemistry, but lectures are lowkey (highkey) bad. The structure of the class really is made to give students as many materials to learn as possible, which is noble but very messy. Every class, there are slides posted, plus an extra notes sheet that has some of the info on the slides (but not all of it?). Already, I don’t know if I should take my own notes, write on the slides, or write on the notes handout. Then the professor writes on the blackboard during class, none of which is put onto the slides/notes handout. You would think this would mean you should take your own notes, but a TA is actually taking all the notes and posting them after, leaving three (3) different files for notes for every lecture, all with different amounts of material.

On top of this, a lot of the stuff I feel like I should takes notes on are definitional, but the professor just reads all of the definitions as fast as possible at the beginning of each lecture so “we know what’s coming”, instead of doing it logically by introducing a definition as it comes up in the lecture. I’ve found the textbook to be most helpful and the notes more as a catch-up than a comprehensive guide.

7.03 – Genetics

IPad notes from a genetics class on sex-linked traits and recombination.
IPad notes from a genetics class on genetic mapping.
IPad notes from a genetics class on recombination and genetic mapping.
IPad notes from a genetics class on
IPad notes from a genetics class on pedigrees.
IPad notes from a genetics class on sex-linked traits.
IPad notes from a genetics class on identifying risks with pedigrees.
IPad notes from a genetics class on Bayes Theorem
IPad notes from a genetics class on Bayes theorem for medical testing.

This class has an all-around better note structure than 5.12, but because the class tries to derive a lot of ideas through various test and trains of thought, sometimes the professor will go back in a different color to a table/chart/cross we ran earlier in lecture and update it/show what we proved/changed. This is really effective when learning, but it does result in me frantically trying to drag and drop different parts of my notes on my IPad so I have space to edit.

8.02 – Physics II: Electricity and Magnetism

IPad notes from a physics class on electric dipoles.
IPad notes from a physics class on electric fields for discrete and continuous charges.
IPad notes from a physics class on Gauss's Law.
IPad notes from a physics class on using Gauss's Law for finding an electric field.
IPad notes from a physics class on electric fields for discrete and continuous charges.

Just like 8.01,⁠01 Physics I: Classical Mechanics this class is taught in the TEAL/flipped-learning style, with lecture videos at home replacing lectures, and “lectures” being practice problems/review with a professor and TAs. Most of my “notes” are coming from the at-home learning-sequences, of which all of the videos are free to view online through MIT OCW!⁠02 Open Course Ware Because class is review and we do practice problems at whiteboards, I feel like I normally don’t have that much to write, but I end up having just enough to make a little section that is adding nothing to the aesthetic (major peeve).

  1. Physics I: Classical Mechanics⁠ ↑
  2. Open Course Ware⁠ ↑