Taking the L by Kayode D. '27

I never wrote a blog recapping last semester. I thought about it quite a bit this summer and I think I wrote a few drafts but none of them really ever came to anything. Among all the thoughts, only one feels all that important to share with applying students: taking the L.

Y’all, I’ve taken so many L’s.

Physics L

The summer before you come to MIT, you have to take a math assessment. This essentially assess your skills and recommends a math course for you. Your advisor is also informed of this suggestion. It’s through a system called MITx, which is like a big interactive textbook a lot of Psets are done through. I did well in Calc BC in high school, so I didn’t study for it. I already know the material, right? I can make up excuses like that I didn’t know the syntax of MITx, but the short of it is that I failed. MIT Test #1: failed. Of all the possible classes:

Math: 18.01⁠01 Calculus 1 (5 on AP Calc AB/BC equivalent) , 18.02⁠02 Calculus 2 (Multivariable) , 18.01a/18.02a⁠03 Both classes in a semester plus January. If you want to knock out both classes before spring, this could be good. Usually kids with adequate calc experience in high school take this to brush up on 18.01 before getting to 18.02. , and 18.022⁠04 Calculus 2 on steroids. More work for no extra credit, but you go deeper into the topics and learn more. Unless you are a math major or just REALLY love math, like an obsessive amount, don't take this class. Seriously, I'm talking to you, overzealous frosh.

Physics: 8.01⁠05 Physics 1 , 8.02⁠06 Physics 2, Electricity and Magnetism , and the accursed 8.01L [Physics Long – same as 8.01 but goes an extra month in IAP].

I got recommended 18.01 and 8.01L, but that had to be a mistake, right?

When I met with my advisor, I told him I wanted to take 18.02 and 8.01 but he strongly suggested I take 18.01 and 8.01L[DUN DUN DUNNN]. I tried to argue that I could handle it and the assessment was a fluke, but settled to take 18.01 and 8.01 and only drop if physics became too hard. Which it did. The people I did work with were already so accustomed and clocked into the material that they flew through it and I sort of rode their coattails by Psetting together and not really learning the material on my own. I bombed the first exam and got an email asking if I wanted to switch to 8.01L. On thanksgiving day, I begrudgingly agreed. I took the L.

8.01L felt like something out of the Breakfast Club. 8.01 met in a large conference room next to the Outfinite⁠07 It's a really long outside corridor parallel to the Infinite, a hallway that stretches across a large portion of main campus. and had hundreds of students in it, taught by some of the most well known and beloved professors at the institution. 8.01L met in the basement under the Stata building and had 20 people in it. Let that sink in, 20 people. I felt like a failure! In my mind I had sunk to the lowest point you could at MIT, to the dumbest class there was for the most fundamental topic!

But just like the swim class (another common Kayode L), I was so wrong!! 8.01 L was 1000% the correct choice for me. The class wasn’t anything different, it was just the same material with better pacing. The class was split up and had enough professors and TAs that every pair had someone that could help with questions and walk though problems that we didn’t understand (of which there were many). And the small class size? Amazing! Not only was everyone on equal footing when we approached problems, but some of these people have become my closest friends at MIT! This class isn’t for “dumb” students at all, it is quite literally a normal physics class in every way. From the outside, it is just MIT physics with an extra month (which just meant more physics experiments and a final project that was more fun⁠08 We wanted to calculate if a penny dropped from a high point could accelerate to strike like a bullet, with the intent to prove that terminal velocity would stop this. They said we couldn't drop pennies off of the 17-story green building, though. Buzzkills. than it was hard.) I have plenty of friends who have told me they regret taking 8.01 over 8.01L, and that they wish they could have taken the better paced and less intense 8.01L if they could go back. Also, the final isn’t in December with everything else so that’s less stress, too.

My point: This L wasn’t that bad.

Common Coding L

As a course 2A6 I am studying Mechanical Engineering with Computer Science, so I wanted to take the first coding class, 6.100. There’s 2 options for this:

• 6.100A / 6.100B are 2 coding classes that fill one semester. If you don’t need 6.100B (not many courses do) then you finish the class in half a semester, but it’s a very intense few weeks unless you are very comfortable coding.
• 6.100L is the class for if you’ve never coded before. The same amount of material but spread out over a full semester.

I had done enough coding in high school to feel comfortable signing up for 6.100A, but quickly realized I would be better suited for 6.100L. I signed up for 5 classes this semester⁠09 ALL TECHNICAL WHY DID I DO THIS so I took the L and switched to 6.100L. You have to decide this switch by the end of the very first week, and once again, I felt dumb for swapping. And THEN once again I realized that this class isn’t dumb, it’s quite literally a normal intro to coding class. We fill an entire lecture hall, too, so I wasn’t alone, and it’s the same amount of work, with only 5 Psets for the whole semester!

Once again: This L was better in the long run.

Broken Computer L

It was during my first and only test in 6.100 A that I realized with horror that my computer’s keyboard had stopped working. Everything worked fine except for the number keys, which only let me use 5 and 6. So I had to do an entire timed coding exam with only the numbers 5 and 6 (I would go 6-5+6-5+6-5 to get 3, or have to copy it from somewhere on the page). This has been infuriating, and the rough draft of this blog had things like “eighteen-oh-one-a/b” written in place of numbers. I got a 50% on that one.

This past week I had ANOTHER coding exam, so I got a keyboard from the admissions office to use in case my numbers stopped working again. But that couldn’t save me from what was coming. I opened my computer an hour before the exam to the Black Screen of Death. My cursor was visible and could move, but no button or click did anything, not even the power button. I was screwed.

Luckily, I remembered a message I had seen in passing on the blogger Slack channel, where Ceri R. was offering to give away her old laptop that she didn’t need anymore. I quickly messaged and went to claim it from her. Success! I took the exam and am now typing on said computer. After the exam, I went to the IS&T tech help desk to see if they could save the non-backed up files on it, and the guy at the desk (I kid you not) just held down the power button longer than I did and the computer turned off and back on again. So I go to the #1 tech school in the world but I can’t restart my computer? Major L.

Music Theory L

This one stings the most.

I love music. With a passion. I have 4 half written blogs where I just talk about the music I like and why I like it so much (that will hopefully see the light of day soon). I took 21M.301 – Harmony and Counterpoint I this semester. This is the first real music theory class, after 21M.051 – Fundamentals of Music. I felt I was ready; I know scales, I know chords, I should be good!

But if the rest of this blog hasn’t made it abundantly clear, I took another L and I wasn’t fully prepared. I underestimated what I was lacking from not playing a melodic instrument. The class focused on a thing called Partimento (which is hard to explain), and I realized I was the only percussionist in a class of classical musicians and acapella singers. We had to write melodies, and while my rhythm and percussion was beyond fire, the musicality of my melodies were lacking when compared to what they should have been, and my professor reached out.

He thought I should drop the class this semester, and take his Fundamentals of Music class to prepare for retaking .301 next fall. I was extremely disappointed with the situation and myself. This class was taking so much of my time and I wasn’t even doing well in it. And I love music!! But I remembered something I saw on a t shirt a while back:

Cool shirt we got that I can't find so this is my roomate's

Wise words, Roger Staubach

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It was on a free shirt we got at orientation. The quote read “There are no traffic jams along the extra mile.” This was true for the Swim Test, and the Physics Class, and now Music. I shouldn’t fear taking the time to learn the “long” way. After all, MIT is a marathon, not a sprint!

So I dropped music theory. Now I have a lot more free time, but I’m planning on coming back to the class next fall to try again.

L: accepted. 😔

So what’s the takeaway of all of this?

I think all MIT students fear failure to some capacity. I’m scared of trying new things because I’m afraid of being bad at it. Which yeah, sounds dumb on paper but its true. I can sit in a room with thirty⁠10 heck, even a hundred MIT students— some of the brightest students in the world, and the professor can ask a question and no one will answer. It’s not because no one knows the answer⁠11 heck, even I might know , but no one wants to try and be wrong in front of everyone…except for people in the front row. These people know the room is full but they can’t see it. All they see is the professor and the board. I think that when you learn to tune out distractions and forget about comparing yourself to others, you can start to actually thrive. Comparison is the thief of joy, after all.

I fail. A lot. I have little or big failures every day and that’s ok. It takes a lot of trying to get through life, and a lot of failing, too. The Bible even says in James 1:2-4, “My brothers and sisters, be very happy when you are tested in different ways. You know that such testing of your faith produces endurance. Endure until your testing is over. Then you will be mature and complete, and you won’t need anything.” This refers to being tested in faith, and it applies to a lot of kinds of tests, too. Because I went through the failures I did, I learned a lot more than I think I would have had I never failed. 

And this reminds me of another thing I say a lot! I saw it on Instagram, and it said that “The man who loves to walk will go farther than the man who loves the destination.” Learn to love the journey more than where you’re going and you’ll go a whole lot farther! Then you won’t be disappointed if you don’t exactly hit the target, because you’ll have gone on a great walk. Mmm, put that in your happy meal!

Ok, I’m done with the Dad quotes. Go fail and learn and grow into the person you want to be! Or don’t, but learn from it anyways.

Song that inspired the blog: