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[kun-summacumlaude]

SUMMA CUM LAUDE? #23

It's time to talk about how the semester ended. I wanted to do this before any result was released but I've already seen one. I'll just talk mainly about the exams, the outlook, and then the reflection after everything.

Wisdom Tooth and Bloating

I forgot to mention this in the last post. I woke up one day and my gum hurt so bad, speaking and swallowing became difficult, I tried waiting it out, but three days went by, and it did not get any better. So I had to go to Unilag Medical Centre to see the Doctor. There's no Dentist there so the goal was to get a referral to the Dental Clinic at LUTH. I also got some drugs to help with the pain. One of those drugs was Diclofenac. I woke up another day and realised I could feel the water just hanging in there in my stomach, super weird and uncomfortable. Basically, everything I swallowed was just lingering in my stomach and I could feel it. There was extremely little pain but very significant discomfort. For that week, my studying was disturbed, and this was the week before the decision to run in the elections. One problem to another.

Academic Status

The famous academic status that shows my progress just around exams:

So I was commenting with time. I'm sure we can all see the disaster together. Let's find out what happened. So this video was taken on the 20th of July. I had just woken up and was thinking, my roommate recorded a video and added a snapchat sound to it. It was actually funny. What was I thinking about? How I would cover EEG326 before the exam. At that point, there was just no time left and I hadn't really done a lot. It was really bad and I saw no escape.

Just see how much I was thinking, I was really in a special kind of soup I had never encountered before.

Examinations

So my first paper was GEG322, I had attended the classes and done the assignments. But I didn't do a lot of solving for this course. Even less than GEG311 in which I got a painful B. But the exam went well. Thank God. We had been using some of the concepts in other courses as well so that was some form of practice. And I solved very hard just before the exam. Hopefully all goes well with this one. And the test went well for me as well. Next two papers were EEG328 & EEG329, both exams were good. but my 328 test, I lost 17 marks on a particular question because I didn't read that part of the material. Not that I did not have time but because when I looked at it, I was like nah it won't show up. It showed up and slapped me. This is part of why I said leaving things to chance does not work, just cover everything to be safe. Hm.

EEG326, guys, this exam was more than a disaster. I've had some bad assessments before, but this was one something else. I tried really hard to cover as much as I could before the exam, but the course was a lot, and I did not have time. I don't know how I managed to neglect the course at some point during the semester because I started it pretty well. We didn't study BJT's last semester and this time around we needed to apply BJT's to a lot of the course so in the process of catching up on the prerequisite, I just never completed it and relaxed on the course. Why would I even do that knowing this was my most difficult course for the semester. Was I on drugs??? Yes, I was unprepared for this exam but in addition to my unpreparedness, I was also unfortunate on the day of the exam. Towards the end of the semester, we had about 8 classes in the same amount of time we were meant to have just 3 of them and these classes covered 6 different slides. In my preparation for the exam, I only studied the topics before and two out of six of these slides. So many exam questions came from those four that I did not even open at all. It was horrible. I spent most the exam flipping the question paper trying to see if I could figure anything out. After the exam, I reviewed in my head and saw that I only correctly answered 9 marks out of 60. Later on I realised I might have made a mistake somewhere reducing that to 7/60. Is this not worse than disastrous?!?!? I wrote EEG346 same day right after and it was alright Thank God. When I got to my hostel after the exam, I was in disbelief. It was just too crazy and from this moment reflections began. I cannot give a proper explanation as to how this actually happened, but the fact is that I just did not give this course due attention which is so foolish when you think about it. Now to do the project well and hope for a miracle. The self-disappointment with this one was just too much.

Moving on, EEG323. This exam was funny but alright. Funny because the questions were just funny. I had never seen such before but okay. Our lecturer had too much fun setting the questions.

Week 2 of the examinations. 5 papers to go. Every day was a different palaver. EEG324 I needed to do really well in this exam but because both test scores were not it at all. Unfortunately for me, because we have little time to solve the questions, I chose one over another since it would be quicker, but I got stuck and couldn't attempt 20/60 marks. It really did look like A was gone but I'm waiting on another miracle here. EEG325 was supposed to be the bane of the semester. I did not cover most of this course because the lecturer had a history of just ensuring you didn't get an A or B but for our set, he repeated past questions which was what I studied just before the exams since I did not know what else to do and on the day, I answered about 80% of the questions. Waiting for another miracle here, a B at least. EEG322. I lost 23 marks in the test. Guess why? ... Of course the same reason as always, I was doing election matter that week and I failed to cover everything. I fell into a trap in one of the questions and failed to attempt another one because I did not cover everything there was to cover. The same thing over and over again. I really feel stupid but it is well. This exam had to be a 60/60 in my head. And on the day, the questions were much more involved than the past questions we had seen. I had to do serious work that day, it was the only exam that gave me a literal headache. Unfortunately, I made a computational error which he might overlook because he's nice like that. But once again, I am waiting on another miracle because it feels like a case of getting a 68/69 and I badly need that A. O God, have mercy on me.

10 Days Protest

You have to be kidding me!!! You just have to. Two more papers left and then they boy get postponed because of a nationwide protest due to the economic hardships, thanks Tinubu. The only thing that upset me was that I needed this protest a week earlier, a day before EEG326, I would have had a different story but nope. It came when I did not need it. How wonderful. Both exams were postponed by a week, alright. I used that time to work on getting the project started. God bless Ebuka once again. How I wan do project if this guy no dey my group??? Omo.

Guess whose back? My Laptop. So this bad boy crashed again. At this point, I knew I had to get another laptop for the remaining exams. I got from a friend, Ebube (my VP!!!). You know when you're comfortable with something and you don't want to change it, yeah that was me with my laptop. I still wanted to take the risk of using it for my final papers because I was used to it. So I prayed to God the day before the first, "God, if I shouldn't use this laptop for my exams then let it crash again". Behold and Lo, it crashed again, the night before the first paper. I just closed it and focused on the borrowed laptop which wasn't even that much work to get used to.

CPE321. Dr Ogboi seemed to be on a roll this exam period, changing his ways and making us laugh in the hall. First EEG323, now CPE321. Another funny exam that I only escaped because I already knew C++, I would have been in soup because I did not really understand those questions. This course all semester had been funny because I really did not know what we were doing asides the one assignment he gave us. I don't know what to expect buy I pray for an A. CPE322. After writing CPE321, I knew this exam going to be trouble as well and he did not disappoint. This one was even worse. It was just weird from start to finish. I did a lot of freestyling for this paper. I hope I freestyled my way to an A though. I'll reflect on these CPEs because they were just weird to take.

So that was the end of my examinations, all that was left for the semester was the EEG326 Project which we were about 65% done with at this point thanks to Chef Ebuka. I couldn't even be so present this time because I still had two more papers after he finished his. But I continued my Project Manager role. I thank God for taking good decisions so we could meet the deadline of August 30. I mentioned that one result was out. God is good, EEG340 (Electric Drives Laboratory) - A. The one that didn't have an exam, I got an A. Good start to the White Paper Season.

End of Semester Reflections

The summary of what you are about to see is that I am not pleased with my performance this semester. And I am already gearing up to absolutely do all it takes to get the As in first semester of 400 Level. But let's go on.

My Laptop & Dr Ogboi: I got my HDD swapped out for an SSD that is still giving me headaches because we were promised a lot of programming, with some heavy-duty applications by the way and at the end of everything we got a template. I can confirm I am upset by this. These courses were just about downloading software and one assignment each and a presentation and a template. That was it. The note didn't even count for much in the exams. E pain me sha.

Failure to Cover is Plan to Fail: One bad test after another and in hindsight, no reason or excuse to have lost those test marks I lost to be honest. It's just really disappointing. To talk less, if you're reading this just make sure you study all the material you have to study. Leave the rest to God is not inside the Bible. Cover everything and still trust God to help. Don't leave anything at all. One mess after another. Let's see what happens next semester.

Time Wasted Attending Lectures: Funny right? I believe strongly that my exams would have gone better if I did not attend a lot of lectures that I attended. Out of the 10 non-lab courses I did this semester. I can say that only 3 of those classes helped me in the grand scheme of things. For the other 7, I could have just remained in my hostel studying and I would have done really well as well. But for some of the 7 I had to sign the attendance and so I just went. Some of these 7 were a bigger waste of time than others but I won't say which is which. Honestly, if you can stab a class and there are no consequences at all, then just don't go but use that time to study. You'll be glad you did.

The plus side: Yeah, I have a lot to complain about because my main thing in school which is the academics didn't feel great this semester but generally it was a good one which nice and not so nice lessons and activities so I am certain that by the Grace of God next session will be much better.

That'll be all for #23. I will either add my results to this or create a mini one and call it #23.5 or something when I see all of my results. I'll also talk about the EEG331 Project from first semester and the EEG326 Project after the defence.

God is good. And bye-bye.

[kun-summacumlaude]

SUMMA CUM LAUDE? #22

I've done it again.

August 21, 2024. Second Semester and 300 Level both ended on the 9th of August, but this is my first post for the semester. An extremely eventful semester with a not so fairytale ending.

This semester, I wanted to be everywhere, in and out of school. Force myself to manage my time and juggle this and that. Expand a bit. I got off to a great start, getting things done here and there. Weddings, meetings, classes, assignments, service, it was going well. You're expecting to find out where it went wrong right? Well, sorry because even I don't know. Conclude however you like based on what I tell you.

12 Courses. 3 Units (1), 2 Units (9) and 1 Unit (2). 23 Units in total. The goal remained the same: get as many As as possible (which means get all As). We were warned about this semester, a semester with one stumbling block here and there but the only one I was initially really worried about was EEG325 - Digital Design of Logic Systems. Why? The lecturer was known for failing students and giving lots of Cs and Ds and Es and Fs. His reason was ridiculous when he said it in class, although he did something somewhat surprising during our exam. I won't judge until I see results, but his ways are nonsensical, let it be known.

2nd Semester, filled with a slow and steady build up to an explosive disaster.

My Laptop and Computer Village

I don't recall talking about the pain that is my laptop but I am certain I must have mentioned it prior to this moment. Slow and frustrating. After my screen decided to give up on me at the climax of last semester I got it repaired at a friend's dad's shop at Computer Village. 65K. Fine.

Early in the semester, Dr Ogboi came in for Software Development Techniques and Machine Learning (SDT & ML, two courses this semester). Told us we would need Visual Studio for C++, SQL, Java and Eclipse, PyCharm, MATLAB and R and RStudio. You can imagine what was going through my head, was I about to dive into suffering throughout the semester with the HDD in my laptop. The time had finally come to upgrade right? HDD to SSD, increase the RAM and all would be well.

The explosion began to build up that day, but I did not know. Got the SSD on a Friday the 10th of May 2024. That same day, I got to my house and my laptop started beeping. It told me to replace the hard drive because it was faulty. My brother followed me to Computer Village to following day. It rained, I don't want to tell this story, but we suffered that day and eventually got them to replace the SSD with another one that was working (so I thought). As we progress, I will fill you in on what this laptop did to me all semester.

April and May were just little outings here and there. Birthday, wedding, all of that. June was when the real activity began, but you can't attend everything, so I chose the ones to participate in: Youth Week, Fathers' Day and ULES Sports Festival. I left out ULES Faculty Week and Sodeinde Hall Week to make sure I was still getting academic work done.

Due to my failure to update during the semester, the timeline is foggy and I wasn't exactly recording these things as they happened so I'll just try my best.

Youth Week and ULES Sports Festival

I wanted to be present in both of these events. And they did not just happen in one day, so I had to be present at church before that week and also be present at training at training. Usually during the weekends. So in the earlier parts of the semester, a lot of my weekends were usually spent at home or a slice at sports centre. If I attended training, I would still study but if I went home something always happened that prevented my studying.

Till now, I don't know 100% but I am sure enough that the SSD I got is faulty. My Laptop crashed and crashed and crashed... I spent so much time reading up community help for Microsoft and Dell because of this issue. I would go home for one church program and be unable to study because every crash meant I had to reinstall windows or reset my PC, which always led to a loss of my apps or my files and so I would spend the entire weekend re-downloading my Windows and Apps so I would have them for the following week in school. This happened over and over again. What apps by the way? The ones Dr Ogboi had me download for his courses. Guys this was throughout the semester, I'm on holiday now and I am not free from it yet.

It seems funny because you would think once I found of the cause I would be able to avoid it, but this thing came in different shapes and sizes. It seemed like file transfer issue, battery issues, RAM issues, it just kept on crashing in diverse ways and so I could never place my finger on the actual problem which is why I believe it's the SSD. I informed the Computer Village guy, but I did not want to keep on going there, it was obvious these guys were dealing defective goods. After some time, the response was "Ha", WHAT?!

So for the youth week and sports festival, I could not do much studying to be honest. This was week one in June. And by the way, SEES absolutely dominated the ULES Sports Festival, and our kit was so beautiful, I had to buy it.

Father's Day

This was June 16 this year. I had been going home during the weekends prior to this one for preparations with the Royal Ambassadors. I was commanding the parade for this occasion. This weekend my laptop also crashed, which meant I couldn't do much studying or any at all because of the reinstallation. I should also mention that the reinstallation required quite an amount of data because some of the apps had to be downloaded from scratch all the time. Father's Day went well and because exams were just a month away with no sign of any postponement, I told my friend that was the last bit of activity outside of exams for me because I had a lot of covering to do so I wouldn't get caught lacking during the exams.

Everybody do "hmmm"

July 1, 2024 10:55PM

Just two weeks after Father's day, my last side quest for the semester, I did something:

WHAT?!?!?! When did I become a politician? Elections????? How did this happen? I opened our student portal just before the deadline for the election applications and applied to be the Vice President of SEES. #Kunle4VP. Why did I do this? I felt it would be a good experience and this was also part of my getting more involved in school activities. I didn't have long term plans for this, but I needed to step out of my comfort zone. I had been contributing here and there in the department, so I believed it was time to do even more. Honestly you could say I was just being an agent of chaos and be correct because someone was already vying for that role even from my class but I did not care at that point. I wanted to be VP. Big mistake ladies and gentlemen. I 100% should have stayed away from the portal that night.

The election period was basically two weeks. The first week I had a project to complete on Monday and I had tests every other day of the week. Week 1 was basically trying to get support from various levels and put plans and the campaign together so I could go all out in Week 2. Isn't this crazy? I had no plans and had to cook up a lot of stuff in such short amount of time. I knew I was running from a losing position, but I wanted to try anyways. I've been saying "I" so much but it's about me so haha. I did election stuff and I also did studying because how else would I pass my tests? Two of those tests I didn't cover everything I was supposed to cover and I lost huge amounts of marks in both because I couldn't attempt them at all. I was now fully in a remontada mode even before concluding all tests prior to the exams. Weekend of Week 1, instead of studying after volleyball practice, what did I do? I went to ISL to watch Year 1 and Year 2 SEES play football matches because I was trying to get support for the elections. How crazy is that?! I was now a real politician because what on earth was I doing there. I thought I was done with extra curriculars but see me for goodness sake. Unbelievable stuff. Week 2 of the elections was nothing short of an academic lack of focus. Fine, the election held on that Friday (and then Saturday, it got re-done because Unilag servers were too poor) and so I needed to go all out. Going all out meant wrapping up the campaigns, manifesto hearings and putting plans in place for the election day. This meant spending ridiculous amounts of time on election stuff and little time on preparing for my exams. Are we seeing this? Yes. Was I doing something that should be encouraged? Absolutely but you can do the right thing but at the wrong time or you just go about it in the wrong way. This was really close to exams, so a rapid-fire approach wasn't really proper to be honest.

For the record, I had really good plans because my team really believed in me and I in them and I looked forward to implementing those plans. I lost the elections. Later, maybe in the next post. I will do some reflection on how I really felt about these two weeks after my exams. It was now time to face exams once and for all abi, hehe nope. One more activity.

ARB Quiz Grand Finale

Yeah remember the ARB Quiz from First Semester, the Grand Finale happened on the day of the rerun of the election. Are you whining Vice Presidential Candidate???

It was on a Saturday. The hall was empty but that didn't stop us. Hearing from the ARB guys that day, I knew I had to be part of them from next session. I love this vision. So the Quiz, we had to replace one of our fresher starboys with someone from 2000 Level. The quiz was really bad for us (Computer Engineering). Everything went well in the preliminaries, but the final was a disaster. Electrical & Electronics Engineering was on fire by the way, they were unbelievable. So it's the final round (General Knowledge). Chai, I just tried to recall the exact comeback we made but I can't remember, this hurts. Oh well, we were dead last going into the final round. Electrical & Electronics had already won. It was Metallurgical and Materials, System, Chemical and Computer fighting for 2nd and 3rd. You could exclude us and be right because we needed to get all questions right and hope others failed theirs in order to finish in a position. We managed to do just that. Thank God, we left there with something.

Finally, it was just me and my exams. Reality hit me like nothing else. I'll conclude the semester in #23. Byeeeeee.

[kun-summacumlaude]

SUMMA CUM LAUDE? #21

Where do I even want to start from?

So this is the second semester of 300 Level. You guessed it, I did not update this even once during 1st semester. I don't even know what is supposed to be in this post. But last semester was something. So as at 23-04-2024 8:22PM I've seen three results. I tried to recall significant stuff that happened last semester and I think I've remembered all. Let's get into it.

So I took 10 courses and 1 GST (my final GST) this semester. Three 3 Units, Six 2 Units, and Two 1 Unit courses. One of my plans was to do really well, of course and to also participate in extracurriculars. That's why I enrolled in the Data Structures and Algorithm track of ECX 4.0 and I was determined to finish it because I've started so many things and not finished them.

The Labs

I had so many 9 labs this semester. And their reports were the absolute worst. One of the Energy Conversion lab reports, mehn! It was just too hard to put together. It did not make sense and the experimental results were terrible, but we had to write the report with it. "Overall, the lab was a success".

For one of the CEG Labs, on Portland Cement, I was there till about 9:21PM waiting for cement to set up to a particular point. I wish I could be more nonchalant about my lab reports but I can't because I'm not sure what the threshold is for getting an A in the labs so I just go all out with my reports. If they're only going to give out a few As, then I must collect. Eventually I'll mention the evil the reports did during my Christmas break.

Unfortunately, the timeline of events will be a bit messed up in this post, this is why you shouldn't forget to get stuff done throughout the semester. And this is something I'm working on, getting stuff done. Try as much as possible to work on a lot of things like this during your undergraduate days.

ARB QUIZ

So ULES now has an arm called ARB (Academic & Research Board). And ARB organised a quiz amongst the 10 "departments" in the Faculty of Engineering. I ended up representing Computer Engineering because no one else showed interest. I did not look forward to the quiz at all and I hardly even took out any time to prepare for it. It was 4 per department from 100-400 Level. But in Computer Engineering, no one in 200 or 400 Level volunteered and so we went with two freshers, me and a coursemate. On paper, we were the weakest team. Most departments had someone from 400 level and we were the only ones that fielded two freshers. I did not prepare but I was not willing to embarrass myself and so I had to try my best on the day. I can't really remember the format but there were about 4/5 rounds. Top 5 would qualify for the final next semester. Anyhoo, we could have gotten a total of 140 points, but we got 110 points. The next department behind us had either 80 or 90. GUYS, those freshers (Azeem and Temiloluwa) on the team are scholar's scholars. I was super impressed with the things they already knew at 100 Level. We could easily have gotten 130 but there was miscommunication in two answers. There was only one question we actually did not know the answer to. But, the job's not finished. It's left for us to go all the way next semester.

Presentation 313

Computer Organisation and Architecture. Dr Ogboi made us create two presentations. But we only presented one. I was so nervous because it was 10 marks. It was based on Computer Arithmetic. I had difficulty grasping the concept of division, the inner workings. So my plan was to actually skip that part while presenting. Unfortunately for me, a whole bunch of people had presented before me and he had exhausted questions on the easier parts of the topic.

At some point during my presentation, before I got to the division slide, he says "Explain Division" YOU SAY WETIN?!?!😭😭 I was like wow I've entered it. But I serve a living God, just before the presentation I tried to study division one more time and saw "Shifting and subtraction", so I compared it to addition and milked it. Ladies and Gentlemen, I escaped. He asked one more question about ALU which I could answer. I received an applause which means I did really well. We were only 8 or something. Thank God for that rescue.

Dr Amusan & Electronic Circuit I

This course. I've never seen anything like it before. On it's own, a huge challenge. Coupled with Dr. A. A. Amusan, a passionate lecturer. I saw things. I really saw things. So he gives a project, which I enjoyed even with all the stress. We were to design an Automatic Light Switch for Dark Rooms with Motion Detection. He grouped us 11 per group. God sent Ebuka my way, the real MVP. But this course was just difficult throughout the semester, I read the textbook over and over, I rewatched the lectures, solved questions multiple times, watched other YouTube lectures and rewatched class lectures and some things just didn't click even after all of this. Easily the biggest obstacle this semester.

Christmas

Christmas break was two weeks long. It was supposed to be the start of an academic remontada for me. Little did I know, lab reports had other plans. I spent like 95% of my break writing lab reports. It was honestly so frustrating. Those reports were tough to put together because the experiments were wickedly flawed. So I resumed January with little to no progress in my preparation for exams. After telling all my friends that by the time we're back, I would have completed one or two course. LMAO.

Birthday

Just a side thing, my birthday was nice. I took a three of my guys out and bought stuff for the office folk. Proudly and lovely sponsored by my grandmother. 10K did a lot that day. It was just a nice day, I was happy throughout the entire day, that joy and little activity for me makes a really great birthday.

Volleyball

One of my proudest achievements this semester. SEES Sport's Festival (or HOD's cup). I played for my class. I also played basketball, but we lost the semifinal to 400 level 18-8. There was only one actual basketball player on our team, but we did well. I made no baskets, but I also don't remember any air balls, not bad for my first basketball game since secondary school. (You know what, I'm going to ask chatgpt to adjust my entire post and just see how different it will be just for viewing pleasure). Now back to volleyball. Exhilarating stuff. I think we lost our first game, I wasn't present. But I played the second game, semifinal and third place game. The second game was against 100 level I think, it was a super quick win. We totally destroyed them.

Then the semifinal. We faced 400 level. They took the first set. Then at some point it was like they were running away with the second set. Gradually we gained momentum and the comeback was on. 24-19 to 400 Level and Zeezy (Zainab) was to serve. She served and served and served and served and we got four points in a row. The game is at 24-23, we need one more point for a deuce and 400 level is at match point. The rally is going on and all of a sudden we hear the final whistle. One of us touched the net and that was the end for us. I still believe God did not allow us tie the game because I could have died from excitement, it was unbelievable, I really had fun that day.

We're not done, on the day of the final, I was a referee. 500 Level vs 400 Level. Long story short, 500 level is at match point and I call the umpire's attention to a technical foul from 400 level and that was the end of the game. Right after that game, we played 200 level for third place. They swallowed us in the first set, someone on their team was like semipro. He served about seven aces at once, we were helpless. But we didn't give up, won the second set and third set. This was a beautiful moment for me because the referee that ended the semifinal against 400 level after we touched the net was a 200 level guy who was on their team (the semipro). So I had the last laugh against 400 Level and the 200 Level umpire. I keep on forgetting it's not referee. Oh it's referee o. Yeah so I get my medal which you can see, I was very proud of myself that day.

ECX 4.0 (Capstone Project)

I can't just do school and only school, so I did ECX. DSA. Classes were online and I only missed one or two. I tried my best but I didn't do a lot of the assignments. Most times I would struggle to get a solution and just leave leetcode for whatever school work I had but when it was time for my capstone project, I had to get it done. I chose two simple problems to solve and explain, that was our own project. My topic was the two pointer technique. The craziest part of ECX was recording my capstone project. I had a deadline but I had school work deadlines, I had to get it done on a particular day. I was awake around 2.36AM recording my video on my seat inside the toilet in my room because I didn't want the background noise from the fan. As you can see, I can be very determined to get something done. ECX was a nice learning experience, it really showed me I don't know anything but I'll continue to work on my DSA as I try to birth my tech career.

Extension

Of course, the much needed and much appreciated extension just before exams. Our VC, Professor Fols, gave us extra time and mehn, if she didn't give us we would have been in soup. Me I know I would have been in soup. It was three extra weeks but that three weeks still wasn't enough to cover every hole but I was in a much better position to take the exams. Something tried to swallow my time even during this extension but I cannot remember what it was. I'll edit this if it comes back to me. I'm not sure I've written any exams without an break or strike or an extension so far.

Exams

CPE313 - First paper. Honestly, I don't know what the plan was because there was so much to write and so little time. I spent about 70% of the exam on one question. If I had known, I would have written a lot less in the compulsory question. Right now, I can only trust God for favour because I've heard it's easy to get 69 in Dr Ogboi's course. Nothing will pain me more than 69. I prefer 60 to 60.

GEG311 - Chai! The lecturer gave us practice questions about 2/3 weeks to the exam. We thought he was giving us some sort of direction as we spent most of the semester all over the place. Unbeknownst to us, it was misdirection overflow. We all laboured hard to understand the topics in the practice questions, some of those topics we did not even do in class at all, but we took our time. And the exam came out and the practice questions were not of help. There were two extremely confusing slides, the symbols there we did not even understand, and the lectures were of no help. Some question came from that same slide, imagine. Lecturer could have just left us jeje, we would have studied the slides whether we understood or not. But he first sent us to Ghana for a programme that was to hold in Lagos. It was not funny at all because this course is 3 units.

EEG319 - This exam was alright. I went and forgot one of the topics because I didn't revise it, "I know this one" hehe. I didn't know it during the exam o. But I still wrote well. Thank God.

EEG331 & EEG335 - Somebody say WOW. WOW. WOW WOW. Electronic Circtuis I, WOW. This exam was HARD. Most difficult paper I have written to date. It was tough. He really tested the depth of our understanding and truly, many of us simply did not understand the course that well. First of all, as I collected the question paper, I was already overwhelmed. It was HUGEEE!! Physically huge. I was destabilised. Answer 3 out of 5. I did 3 and 5 to the best of my ability. Then number 1, I did 1c. But 1a I got stuck at some point and that was it, this hurt because that question was an assignment question which I solved early in the semester but I did not revise it. I knew what to do in 1b, but for some reason I did not write anything there. Chai. This was super tough. Can't ever forget this exam. Then right after EEG331 Exam, we wrote the exam for its lab. Imagine writing one exam right after a not so good paper and then this one isn't even any better. The way I was guessing that day. There was even one question, I didn't read it to the end before shading an answer. I hope the project goes well and the result is still an A.

EEG317 - God bless Engr Odekunle.

CPE311 - This C++, there's small problem this semester o. My code failed to run in both the test and exam but I submitted it like that. If I get an A, it's simply God and God alone. But see something, both lecturers told us that we would not do Classes and OOP this semester. But Question 1 in the exam was based on classes and it was compulsory. WHY? If they had just left us, I would have studied it. Is it my fault for believing the lecturers and not studying beyond the course outline? Not a cool move by them at all.

EEG332 - God bless Dr. Balogun.

CEG335 - God bless Dr. Abiodun. If you read, you will write something.

Nations of the earth

So now we've seen how the exams went. We have the fire nation, water nation, earth nation, air nation and cgpa nation. The cgpabenders are EEG331, GEG311, CPE311 and CPE313. These are the results that will most likely shape my sgpa and cgpa. They're the ones I need to see the most.

Construction

Exams have come to an end. Electronic Circuits I has not. We've gone through the fire for classes and assignments and tests and exams. Now it's time for the project fire. We've designed and stimulated, all that's left is to build. 3 groups. I'm in Group B, 86 of us in total. Of course a lot of people won't contribute to this part of everything, but we need it desperately for our grades especially after that horror show of an exam. And of course, I won't sit back and lose my grades so the work must be done. Ebuka the MVP is back again. He has some experience in this but not enough. Everybody has to learn on the job. This project was stressful because we were building down to the last minute. Our initial circuit design worked on Proteus but not in real life. We changed it but the new one was too complex and Ebuka and I didn't like it (Samuel's group's circuit design). So we were determined to get a new one. I can't remember this timeline but a day or two after, Ebuka tells me he has cooked a new circuit design, the moment I saw it I just knew it was going to work and IT DID!!!! Thank God for Ebuka. This particular phase was real character development for me. The deadline was coming closer but we needed to stay calm and get the job done even in the face of failure and we did that precisely.

The night before submission, Ebuka and Benjamin moved it to the Veroboard to make it permanent. Ladies and gentlemen, ko work o. It didn't work. "It's not working ke?😭" Omo we had like 14 hours for it to work o. So the following morning, I went to Ebuka's room at 10am, and he's like do we do it on the Breadboard and submit at 12pm or we desolder and resolder it correctly? I was like let's desolder it. This was a brave decision because a lot could have gone wrong (Orobosa in 400 level pointed out the issue by the way). So we desoldered and re-soldered and IT WORKEEDDDD🥳🥳🥳. Ebuka now had to go back home and I was not going to ask him to stay any longer, he had pulled much more than his weight on that project.

Now time to submit, Dr Amusan says he can't take naked veroboard, we have to enclose and return in 47 minutes. Omo. Ebuka has gone, who will do the hands on? It was now time for me to learn on the job. So I went to Benjamin's room, and there was another Benjamin there who had previously not contributed in any way at all. Ben 1 is working on the construction report while me and Ben 2 work on encasing the project. I had to learn how to use the soldering iron that day and in the end, everything worked as we needed it to work and we submitted. Samuel even came up with a good idea to make it more efficient in terms of sensing light. We submitted.

I went home and I could finally rest after a long semester of one thing to another. God is good.

Results

Today is the 21st of August, 2024. Second semester has come to and end but I'm only just updating this. On the 19th of July I saw all my results. Guys, not the greatest of semesters for me.

Now I can't update this with my true emotions at the time, but I wasn't wrong about the benders. I must start by Thanking God for EEG331. This course demanded everything of me and in the end, it worked out to the Glory of God.

10 CGPA Courses, 8As, 1B and a D. But my lowest performing semester yet with an SGPA of 4.55 further sinking my CGPA to 4.75. I really am not happy about this. Just two semesters ago it was 4.88. No one can tell me this isn't disappointing.

This is coming after second semester which also had a bunch of shaky exams, so I've done some reflection. My problems have always come from not studying everything there was to study. Leaving things to chance has always come back to bite me. Every single time.

Not much left to say but that B in GEG was just really sad because I hoped somehow, I would get an A seeing as others who also felt like the exam didn't go well got an A. CPE311, yes, the lecturers just lied to us for no reason but I should have gone ahead to study classes. After failing that exam, I realised it wasn't even so demanding. I guess some lessons just have to come the hard way.

The goal is a first class, so a 4.50 minimum every semester would work for me but I've put so much of the rest of my life on hold for school that I expect to do even better than that. That'll be that.

Thank God for 1st Semester.

[kun-summacumlaude]

SUMMA CUM LAUDE? #20

I did not get away with it.

Welcome back readers, in this post I'll be reviewing my results for the previous semester and talking about my expectations for the next. I don't have that much to say to be honest.

Year 2, 2nd Semester

To start with, I did better than I predicted on my academic status note but I should have done better. I'm extra conscious to not sound ungrateful but I'm just being honest with myself. The Academic Status:

This is 80% correct. Except for CPE 221 & EEG 226. Come and join me sing Hallelujah!!! After my submission error in CPE 221 I was super scared of carrying the course over but they overlooked it and I got an A. Thank you Jesus. Then EEG 226, the bane of my semester, I got a B! I give all glory to God because I don't know what I wrote in both test and exam. It was a 60 on the gbam. The sweetest kind of B. I'm really glad those two came out the way they did.

GEG 222

3 Units. The summary of this course is that I did not do enough. It feels like a low hanging A that I failed to get. Statistics was an easy course but it took a while to understand what was really going on. In the end too much time. It is extra hurt that I can pinpoint 7½ marks that I lost in the test. I got 64/100 at the end of the day. What cost me those marks in the test? "x × x² = x²". I was hopeful for a really good exam to cover up for the test but that didn't happen. I wrote the exam and it was just off. I've accepted it already but that WHAT IF just keeps on coming back from time time.

At the the end of semester, an SGPA of 4.63 is still me achieving my goal of at least 4.50 every semester, which is good. But it could be better. I want those fine margins to go the sweeter way. My CGPA has dropped from 4.88 to 4.81. We go again next session. Thank God for 200 Level.

Day two of putting this post together and I realised that I didn't even talk about the courses where I did really well. All my focus was on the Bs. I don't encourage this lack of balance, I'm going to work on that in myself.

Expectations for 300 Level.

Academically, I want a 5.00 and more. What is more than a 5.00? I do not know but I what I do know, is that I want a 5.00 and more. The goal is to just do really well. Not just As but convincing As. 70 or 100 is the same according to my CGPA calculator and I don't normally care but this semester I want to go for those high ones. Outside Academics, I believe there is a purpose for me being in UNILAG and not OAU, Or CU or BU, or ABUAD, you get the point. So, this semester and session at large, I'm trying to be more conscious of achieving that purpose on campus, I don't know what it is but that is where the Holy Spirit comes in. I shall be praying until I realise it. I don't just want to excel academically; the school life outside exams should also have some nice things going on for itself. I pray I get nice accommodation to start with, that would be really advantageous. So, the expectation is to just excel, duh. But I want to do even more for others, however I can. It's fulfilling.

On the increment of the school fees, the increase is huge, and the student loan might not be so accessible to those who need it because of the requirements. I kind of feel for our VC, first female VC and it had to be her that all of this fell on, but I feel even more for those who have to struggle more than ever before to pay their fees. I'm just going to blame FG; this is on them. So much poor governance over a lot of years has led to this. I believe the school will feel the impact of the extra fees with time, we have to. Really, those fees had to go up, everything in Nigeria is more expensive that it was when the school fees became 20K. It couldn't stay at that forever; the school needs the money. There will always be a division on this issue so I'll just end by saying that if they had increased as need came, then there wouldn't be need to do it astronomically, but I guess no one wants to be the "bad guy". And mehn, we need better leadership in Nigeria, how could our "leaders" watch things get so bad? Bring back shame.

Oh yeah resumption was moved from the 3rd of October to the 30th. Next time I post, I should have done about 3/4 weeks in the semester, by God's grace. Until then, bye-bye. (Every semi-colon in this post was suggested by edge, how do you use those things?)

[kun-summacumlaude]

SUMMA CUM LAUDE? #19

I am grateful to God for the completion of my second year in the university. 18 long months but it’s finally done. 

Welcome back my people, I have a number of things to include in this post, I’ve listed them so I don’t forget. Okay I just took a look at the list, and I don’t think I can remember what I was supposed to say concerning some of the things there. 

Actions Have Consequences

I was going to write about how I didn’t study during the election break, but I re-read that part of #18 and saw that I already mentioned everything. But now that the semester is over, I want to let everyone know that I didn’t really cover up for that one month. I tried hard, but the workload was more than I expected. I gave it my best but this time I won’t be so surprised if I don’t get away with it. In short, the feeling after my exams was that I could have been more prepared.

At this point I’m supposed to talk about how tough it was, but I cannot remember what “it” is. I’m guessing that was when I was really struggling with catching up on everything because exams were getting closer and closer, and I was just not ready for most of them. Guys, it was very tough. Before I go to extra-curriculars and other happenings I’ll talk about those little things that made the semester even more difficult for me. 

The little inconveniences.

The Office: I’m sure we all know about the office and its importance to me last semester. Well, a change in the seat position of my friend’s dad in the office was the end for me being able to study there and this was the beginning of my studying issues because I had nowhere else to go. I’ve already explained why the library couldn’t work for me. This was the reason I had to try studying on my bed in my room from 6pm and it didn’t work because I was always sleeping off. 

The “beam” for my bed: At some point last semester, the iron under my bed broke on one side and I used a bandage to hold it. That was okay for when I only needed to sleep on the bed but not this time around when I needed to study on the bed. I called the welder to get it fixed, it took this guy forever to show up. I don’t even know what he looks like because I wasn’t there when he came. Shortly after it was fixed, the other side of the same beam broke, broke as in separated from the rest of the bunk frame. I was back to square one. I called him back and he didn’t take ages to show up this time around. How did this beam affect my studying? Productivity on the bed went up by a lot when it got repaired. Studying was easier because there was something firm under me keeping me in the more comfortable position and I stopped sleeping. At that point, I began to regret not getting it fixed at the start of the semester. It made a huge difference. (God’s hand was in this though because a more comfortable bed means better sleep).

The essay: For the third time, that essay was a mess, and it made a mess. My lecturer was really bad this semester, but I still blame myself. Maybe this one is more than a little inconvenience though.

My stomach: I think I’m being a bit hard on myself and the reason is my stomach. There was a period where I was so fed up with how sensitive my stomach was. Every time I had the opportunity to leave my hostel early and study for a long period of time, I ended up having to wait behind because I needed to use the toilet. At some point I was only eating rice and spaghetti just to avoid this but that wasn’t enough. Shop 10′s ofada became my enemy this semester. After the second time, I never ordered it again, but those guys don’t listen at times and a few times I had to eat the oil and just the oil was enough to cause me problems. My stomach did not work with me this semester.

The Plank: this was one of those good little things God brought my way. I’m grateful for that plank, it made studying on the bed much easier. 

Now I’m meant to show you a cumulative curve, I don’t think I remember what I called a cumulative curve that day, it’s either my cgpa progression, the cgpa progression I use to set my goals, or I’ve totally lost track of what the cumulative curve is about. I’ll just show you both. The goal is to get at least a 4.50 every semester. So far, I’ve done well. I hope it’s 4/4 when all results are out for the just concluded semester. 

ULES & SEES Elections

Part of the plan for this semester was to be more involved. Well, I was definitely involved in the elections. Too involved even because tell me why there was drama within my department, and I was at the centre of it???

April 1, 2023: Yemi (Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Year 4) approaches me to be on her ULES VP Campaign team for the upcoming elections. I agree because at the time I don’t really care, and she came to me before anyone else (I was recommended to her by a close friend). So Yemi and I get to work along with the rest of the campaign team, my duty is to get her votes from my course mates and set mates. My friend and I are in charge of our set. Everything was going well.

May 10, 2023: My old course rep sends a voice note on informing me that Funmi (Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Year 3) is running for the same ULES VP position, and she would hit me up to get my support and all. Isn’t this great?

May 21, 2023: Funmi finally texts me 11 days after I was recommended to her about aspiration and how she would need my support. Obviously, I’m not trying to look like an unreliable person, so I tell her straight up that I’ve already given Yemi my word and that I was doing a first come first serve thing and how I didn’t give much thought to it (I am never taking that approach to giving my support again).

Funmi won’t not try to sway me her way, we’re in the same department and so she needs her department behind her, which is understandable but at that point my mind was made up and I wasn’t going to switch after working with Yemi for 7 weeks. I knew Funmi before the election period. I joined the ELD train because of her. Although I knew her from afar sha, the koko is I knew her. If I had known she was going to be in the race for any position, I wouldn’t have given my word to any other person. I was really hoping she would forget to text me so I wouldn’t have to tell her no but that didn’t happen. She played the department card, even my course reps and others in the department did but I was going to be a man of my word for this election.

The entire thing kept on getting worse because more people got involved and obviously things like this get messy and someone somewhere was cooking up rumours that I was running some sort of smear campaign and that was really upsetting because I did not do such, never said one bad thing about her and I actually like her. I already told her why I couldn’t support her, so I don’t know what that person’s issue was. Different people were talking to me and so I had to make it clear that I wasn’t running against Funmi, I was running for Yemi. Sounds dumb but I’m just saying my goal wasn’t that Funmi must not win, the goal was for the person whose campaign team I was on to win.

I had to begin to consider my own future aspirations and which decision would work better for me. At this point I felt like a politician. I’m more likely to run within the department before jumping into ULES. So how would supporting Yemi or Funmi affect me? If I chose to side with Funmi and sly Yemi, it would make sense because Yemi would be in her final year while I’m gunning for a position within my department in which Yemi has no influence whatsoever. But if I decided to go on with Yemi, it meant actively campaigning for another department against my own department and this could actually affect my aspirations for the next elections because if Funmi’s people decide to bring up my “departmental treason”, I might not get votes from that class. If I jumped straight into ULES, I could try to get votes from other departments but that’s just not the plan. It’s SEES then ULES. So switching sides to Funmi seems the better option politically.

At the end of the day, I stuck with Yemi and she won by about 150 votes or something. More than my pull, so no one could blame me for that loss. It was a relief.

EEG 226

Every other course with the feeling of underperforming, I blame myself but regarding this course I do not blame myself one bit. I tried my absolute best but the course did not get better with time. It actually got worse. I failed both tests, scored 2.5/20. I don’t know how many marks the exam will be. I don’t know if our essay will be considered, but it’s just looking terrible at this point. I don’t even see myself getting a B, it is that bad. Even trying to follow his YouTube videos was so difficult, it made no sense and even with all the cramming experience from before, I can’t cram every single thing. The exam wasn’t the remontada exam I hoped for. And the lecturer did not help one bit. I’m even tired but it didn’t feel good to study throughout a semester and be lost through all of it.

The takeaway from all of this is that you have to start your semester well (which I kind of did) but when the challenges come, it is important to handle them properly to get the best of out your semester. I didn’t and now I have to wait and see how it turns out. We don’t do anything to deserve God’s mercy, but He is merciful to us. I’ll be alright by the grace of God.

Before I end, I just want to mention that I attended the ULES Career Fair, I had only one class that day, CEG221 and so I had to skip it (I didn’t think it would hold because they said classes would end at 12pm). I guess the lecturer didn’t get the memo. So, the one class I skipped all semester the lecturer decided to give out bonus marks for attendance because the class was empty that day. Such amazing luck.

Goodbye and God bless :)

[kun-summacumlaude]

SUMMA CUM LAUDE? #18

I'm keeping my word, it's about 3 weeks since my last post and I'm already working on the next one.

Hello Peoples

So I've been telling everyone this is week 3 but for some reason I'm the only one that believes the convocation week (week 1) counts. Anyhoo, today is day 3 of week 2, and I've had only two actual classes. I should have stayed at home, but that's too late now.

Just to give a little update on how the semester started for me. I resumed last week (my own week 2) because I spent all of convocation on completing Breaking Bad. But last week I moved to anime, I thought being in school would get me serious again but that didn't work. What finally did the job was having my first lecture (online) but she was so serious about the class that I got serious right after that class.

The engineering student, Kunle, is back. *Sheds tears from suffering*. I already want to go home, I'm looking forward to the short election break. I hope it's like one week long. Jaja is as Jaja as ever and I want to go home for a breather. It seems I didn't fully recover from the intensity of the final push last semester until this week. I was so tired last week and I struggled to sit down and study for a significant amount of time. Feb 1.

Omo nawa o, February 16 today and I am very tired of school. Election break is three weeks long (God is good). I honestly cannot wait to go home, it's almost like I've pulled the student plug in me. My plan was to move with each lecturer as the classes commenced, this has worked well so far except in 3 courses where I have a lot of questions to solve. Last time I posted I hadn't seen any of my second semester results but as at the time I started this post I had seen about 1 or 2 but now I've seen 6.

Year 2, 2nd Semester SCL ?

6/6 As. Four to go, I'm hopeful. Super hopeful. Getting a 5.00 SGPA would be lovely. Regardless, these results are the Grace of God because three of those six As were a huge relief considering how the tests and exams went. I wanted to keep mum about the results until I saw everything but I want to take you through my emotions. Current mood: happy but slightly anxious.

Let me quickly return to present academics. After 6pm, it is such a struggle to study. Most of these past weeks I have slept off, achieving nothing in the evening and at night. 6pm I get dinner, after that I either go back to my room or the office and so far neither location has done the job for me. I really wish the library was 24/7 and allowed us take our stuff in. Currently , there's no toilet there, 9pm closure is way too early and not having my stuff with me inside is a problem. Sometimes you can't even charge your devices and all of my stuff is digital, doesn't work at all for me. I'm sure I've mentioned this before though, maybe in a much earlier post. I'll stop here for now, I really hope they release my the rest of my results before we go home for the election break. I want to know my cgpa while I'm grinding at home. Oh yes, my plan for the election break is to come back way ahead in all of the courses, so help me God.

Election Break

March 25, 2023. I returned from the election break on the 21st, the break about a month long. Nothing has changed, reading past 6pm is still a struggle, the four results left to see have still not been released and this most disappointing of all is that the only grinding I did at home was grind in my Clash of Clans. I'm even in a worse position now than I was before the break but I guess I have two months to get things in order. My election break would have gone well but I spent all four weeks worrying about how I was going to write a term paper on a course we hadn't had a single lecture on. That totally destabilised me and I lost all of my focus. An experience to learn from and navigate better in times to come because I'm sure another lecturer will give us a ridiculous assignment. That assignment was actually so ridiculous in hindsight, but I allowed it to have too much control over my actions during the break. To be fair to myself, I was very much invested in both elections and that itself was another distraction from grinding academically. I want to be in a good position academically so I can take out some time to participate in the next edition of ULES Games Festival so I'm ready to get the job done this semester by God's grace.

ULES GAMES FESTIVAL

We didn't have this last session because of covid, the strike and renovations for NUGA 2022. But this session it happened, and it just got concluded today. Metallurgical and Materials Engineering won more medals than any other department, congratulations to them. I only attended physically on the penultimate day but I absolutely enjoyed myself because I love sports. At some point I felt sad because one of my plans upon getting into university was to participate in sports. So far, I have done close to nothing in that area, and it made me sad, but I'll work towards it for 300 Level.

Academics

The next line of action is to assess the course outline and ascertain how bad things are, then improve on everything. I mean, what other approach is there to take?

I don't know if I should still wait for those results or just post. We'll find out eventually.

April 4, 2023

6.33PM, I'm at shop 10 eating my dinner when I open the class and see a text from Toki: "Results are out on lagmobile For those interested". Every rate in my body went up. To finish that food was a challenge, I kept on asking myself if I should check the results right there in shop 10 or wait until I got back to my room in Jaja. I eventually decided on the latter.

7.17PM, I open lagmobile to check my results. I quickly scanned through all the grades and didn't see a single B or C, at that moment it dawned on me. 5.0 SGPA!!!! SUMMA CUM LAUDE-ESQUE SEMESTER!!! It honestly felt surreal at that moment. I was like GOD! WOW! A 5.0 in a semester that felt so terrible for most of it, unbelievable scenes mehn. All Glory to God, because I cannot do such on my own, I would be a dirty liar if I said I could. I want to encourage you to trust in God when you pray, no matter how what kind of circumstances you're praying under, those things do no limit God. Today is April 8 but I'm typing like it's 4th, I just realised hehe. I'm reliving the moment; it was just such a good feeling inside of me. It's really lovely to achieve your goals, whew. More to come deo volente.

I guess that wraps up the first semester of 200 level, it was a lengthy ride to be honest. This wrap up is quite deep into second semester. Let me just mention that Dr. Ibhaze has come again, he gave us a test on physical electronics (EEG 226), 10 marks and we didn't know what to write. We can't catch a break with him, but I don't believe he'll use that test anyways, hopefully I'm not wrong (very hopefully).

For ease of calculating my cgpa, let me put the scores of each semester here. LevelSemester: TotalScore-TotalUnits Yr1S1: 66-14, Yr1S2: 78-16, Yr2S1: 100-20. CGPA moves from 4.80 to 4.88 (Huge!)

There's are so many social events going on in school at the moment, it's so easy to waste your time and then end up failing your tests. Dear reader, you cannot be everywhere. I won't say snub all events but be very picky with the ones you attend, select a few (very few o ejoor) and ignore the rest. You don't have that much time especially if you're behind in some courses. Don't set yourself up for struggle.

I'll end this post that has been pending for too long here, next time I'll probably have written a few tests, I pray I return to you with good news. Thank you and bye bye :)

Check the date I made this note:

God is good !

[kun-summacumlaude]

SUMMA CUM LAUDE? #17

Happy New Year!!!

I could have started this post with so many things considering I abandoned you all for close to a year. (8 months is closer to a year than you think). Honestly I’m sorry for the terrible inconsistency, once the strike got called off the rest of the semester happened so quickly, I had no time to do anything but school because I didn’t pick up a book for 6 months and all of a sudden, exams were knocking on the door. I was in soup.

Strike Recap

I took a data science course and built an improved version of an old web app I made for CS50. I did a lot of drumming and singing. That’s about it.

Back to School

So I just read my last post. I sounded so ungrateful when I was talking about getting a 4.88 just because it wasn’t the 4.93 I had hoped for. Plus I said everyone should study during the holiday, LOOOOOL. The current holiday I said I’m not reading anything o, even though the initial plan was to study. I’m enjoying Breaking Bad a little too much to study right now.

I don’t like how I can’t put things in detail due to my inconsistency. I PROMISE to do better this semester. First week back in school, we took our EEG213 test and before I submitted that day, I knew I was done for. I actually told my siblings I could get 5/20 and was hoping for a 10/20. After that I wrote a bunch of other tests and they were all better. Some were shaky but I didn’t feel hopeless after any other one. MEG211 was terrible though, it was Isometric to Orthographic projection and I used the wrong side as the Front. My lecturer barely came to class all semester and he never mentioned the rule for deciding your front elevation. A day before the test, he sent the slide for that particular topic to us and we followed the pattern in the slide, that was my undoing. There was a rule and not a “pattern”. My desire was to get all As but after concluding my tests, I wasn’t confident, only hopeful.

When tests were done, the only things left were exams. 300-500 Level started two weeks before 100-200 Level. The initial rumour was that we would write in January and I was happy but after concluding exams on the 23rd of December, I was so happy that didn't happen. Before exams, I saw the Unilag overnight culture in full flow. Also, the World Cup was happening at the same time. And the last issue, where to study. Last exam I was at a private hostel, I never thought about where to study but being on campus, it was a problem.

Studying in my hostel during the World Cup was challenging because as a football fan who stayed away from the screen at Jaja's Quadrangle, I couldn't block out the noise and of course I would want to know what was happening. That was one place to study, on my bed in the room. The second place was the office at Arts. During exams I just did not go there at all because it was packed, I'm not the only one that goes there and I'm down the pecking order if I'm being honest, it wasn't going to work. So I asked a friend in 400 Level Finance where he studied and he said AKT. AKT isn't bad, you just need a good spot but it wasn't going to work for me in the long run (I had to eat, toilet and all that. The distance was too much), I went there only two times. That's three place's now. A fourth place which never took off was my relative's office at Architecture, he was busy outside so he wasn't available. And finally, the last minute place I am really thankful for: The Faculty.

I don't know of it was deliberate but Room 115 was always free, it really mattered to me during the exams, plus they began to open classes for overnight which meant I could stay and study till 11pm which was how I liked to do if. Electrical and Civil classes but on weekends they were locked which gave me serious problems. Weekends were terrible and I had to manage my room. We Thank God in the end.

Overnight Culture

I am not a fan. Simple and short. I prefer to study through the day and sleep well at night so I can start my day in the morning, works much better for me. Lots of people study overnight and I just can't. Do what works for you, it's all self discipline. Overnight is also an avenue to deceive yourself. If you can't focus on your books around a particular person or people, don't try to study with them, you'll waste your time and regret it in the end. Important PS: Stop Littering! Overnight guys were so dirty gosh. And the classes had bins. Sad. I almost forgot. The scary thing about overnight was the consumption of Energy Drinks. The rate of consumption was crazy, I'm sure they sold thousands of bottles during exams. If you can't stay up at night to study even with prior sleep, help yourself by studying during the day. It was honestly scary to see because those drinks are sugar.

Examinations

I started my exams on the 17th of December, MEG211 being the first paper. It was 3 hours long, enough time in my opinion but I was under so much tension I made mistakes in three different drawings so I had to do all three of them twice. This affected my Isometric Drawing, I couldn't complete my Isometric Circle. It hurt but I had to move on because I had 9 other papers to prepare for. —Before I move on, it pays to study through the semester and not try to work magic through overnight. Put in the effort. — I enjoyed my sleep during exams, I didn't even use an alarm except for the last day because it was different from others. Two exams on Monday, one on Tuesday, two on Wednesday, one on Thursday and three on Friday (7am). EEG213, the bane of my semester was actually really great. The exam was one of my best papers. Hopefully the results match. Wednesday was crazy, we had Strength of Materials and Engineering Mechanics back to back. It was a lot of writing and drawing my goodness, but both exams went well. After Wednesday I relaxed a bit because I was done with the scary part of exams. Little did I know, EEG211 people were about to do me dirty shege.

So Friday the special day was special because we had EEG211 and EEG231 at 7am, you'd start one and do the other in one sitting. Being the serious student I am and wanting few minutes to prepare for my paper at 9am, I got to DLI very early that day. I logged in, did everything and started my paper. On the first page I saw questions on Sinusoidal Steady State Analysis (which we were not taught! It wasn't mentioned in class) so I skipped those questions and did the 9/15 on that page that I knew. On getting to the second page. I heard the Invigilator say "PART OF THE RULES IS THAT YOU CANNOT GO BACK". EXCUSE ME WHAT?!! Something actually left me the moment I heard that, it was like I saw the A flying away from me because I was so prepared for everything we were taught. I couldn't believe the Lecturers would take away the option to go back to questions you skipped in an EXAMINATION. We has 35 questions and 25 minutes, of course I wouldn't want to spend a second on questions I'm not sure of if there are questions I could answer in much quicker time. They gave us little time and took away our flexibility without informing us and I guess it was sweet to them, it made them happy because they all say they want us to do well but they act differently. What even made me more upset was the Invigilator saying "Part of examination is to read the instructions". Here me out, THERE WERE ZERO INSTRUCTIONS ON THE SCREEN. It was just login and start, nothing said about anything, we were set up real bad. And in the heat of it all, before I moved to page 3, it was 15-15-10. I checked all 15 questions to be sure I didn't skip anything, on getting to the third page, I saw that I actually skipped a 7th question. I couldn't believe I checked twice and still missed it. This whole thing flattened me. In the end I answered 28/35 questions, let's say it's over 60. That means I'm fighting for a 48/60. At this point I don't know how I'm going to get an A but I'll just continue to pray and trust in God. We had two tests, first was meh and second was good. I attended all classes and did all assignments so we'll see.

EEG231 was also a nonsense exam really. 40 questions and 20 minutes. Made no sense. I guessed a lot and I also have to just wait hopefully that this result also surprises me. Asides these two, the rest were okay.

Second semester starts in less than a week, I will be here preparing myself mentally while I complete Breaking Bad.

Turned 20 yesterday, Grateful to God.

I've attached a picture that shows my progress in how I felt about each course from time to time based on exam reading. The last ones were just before the exam. The ones with arrows shows a change after the exam. I've put two Bs there but I pray God surprises me.

Bye for now. I’m thinking one every two months. Don’t want to put up short posts every week you know.

[kun-summacumlaude]

SUMMA CUM LAUDE? #16

Hellos peoples, it’s been 4 and a half months since my last post. Things have happened, adjustments have been made, as usual. So I’ll be sharing some of those things in this post. Also #EndASUUStrike Please. 

Mirabel Aftermath (Jaja Duringmath)

At the end of the day, I left Mirabel without my mattress. What I know is that those who carry out works of wickedness will be punished either here or after life. Truth be told, I'm glad I left that place. Mirabel was killing me academically. The power was so so poor, I couldn't study well because the new room I was given was extremely hot and it was really dark once my torch and lamp died. The water situation was not helping as well. The power was not bad when I first moved in but the water was always like that. Unfortunately for them, I was no longer willing to be okay with that poor water supply because they had given me a reason to be unhappy with their service. What makes me glad I left?

Room B116 in Jaja Hostel, that's the answer to that question. God really answered my prayers. A 10/12 man room. And we've never been more than 20 in the room. The room is very spacious and it's on the stairs, away from other rooms. Honestly, I have been at peace. Not just the room itself but the people in the room, cooperative and no one misbehaves. It has been very peaceful. In #15 I didn't want to move into Jaja because of my initial experience but this one has been nothing but pleasant. Let me also add that the room isn't bad hot, it's big with lots of windows. I really Thank God for the room. It's much closer to the faculty and restaurants than Mirabel. I can firmly state that Mirabel edges only in being able to sit and study in the room. But this isn't much of an issue because I found a way around it which I will mention later in this post. For a while, finding a toilet good enough was an issue. Lucky me, my squatter who no has left Unilag finally found decent toilets the second floor. Staying in Jaja has definitely been much better than I could have expected.

Year 1, 2nd Semester Results

Heartbreak. I said I hadn't seen MEG121 and GST103. I got a B in GST103 and a C in MEG121. A Semester GPA of 4.88 and a CGPA of 4.80.

There is nothing more ridiculous than getting a C in MEG 121, I really wish I could get an explanation. I did every assignment, attended every workshop session, wrote every test. I met requirements to get the B they love to dish out. So where did the C come from? It's absurd but there's nothing I could do about it seeing as the department of Electrical, Electronics and Computer Engineering deliberately delays results just so students can't complain because they have been finalised. It's rubbish but we have to swallow it up since it is what it is here. My CGPA isn't what I hoped for but it is good nonetheless, I just need to work even more to maintain it.

Should we study during the holiday?

I'm asking this question because this semester really dealt with me for starting poorly. Part of starting poorly was doing zero revision or studying during the two months break from September to November. I had a very poor start to the semester, I was all over the place. This led to me being behind in every course. I spent so much time on certain courses but I was still behind e.g Signals and Systems (To be fair, he was moving so fast). My opinion on this question is a big fast YES! Let everyone create time to prepare for school during their holiday, two weeks is okay. You'll know something, you can dive right into the work without looking for pre-requisites. Doing little will always beat doing nothing. A decent strategy could be to designate one hour a day to studying past or future material, as far as relevant learning takes place— at the start of the holiday that is. Towards the end of the holiday, say 2/3 weeks to go, you can kick it up a notch. About 3 hours of studying a day or more depending on how serious you can get during the holiday. So yes, never stop studying, not even during holidays.

✌🏿Hmm✌🏿 Courses

Now let me talk about some courses in particular. EEG 213 (Signals and Systems), MEG 211 (Engineering Drawing), EEG 215 (Electrical Engineering Materials) and EEG 217 (Electrical Systems Graphics). Hmm.

EEG 213 is such a voluminous and confusionism course. There are one trillion properties you have to memorize to succeed in that course. (We're on strike at the moment and I'm still not done with the course). It truly applies every aspect of mathematics we had previously learned, serial terrorist of a course. Worst of all, our lecturer refused to farabale. He started so calmly, we were thinking oh this will be nice. Hehe, we didn't know what coming. Suddenly, he began pounding us during lectures with new topics and next thing he was talking about a test that would run like an exam. EXCUSE ME?!?!! No one was prepared for a test but to the glory of God and to the shame of humans, we escaped the test twice with the Matriculation date shifting, and then ASUU strike struck. The course is interesting to me. Although, lots of people find it boring.

MEG 211 is from the devil himself gan gan, I hate how time consuming that course has been. You can't even rush because you need to calm down and draw accurately. Fortunately for me, my lecturer has been somewhat busy so he hasn't given us assignments like my mates in other groups. I can't wait to be done with this course, it's killing me but I'm pulling through.

EEG 215 & EEG 217, the same lecturer takes both courses. He has never come for EEG 217 class but his excuse is that people are still getting admission so he doesn't want to start without them. Lmao, I'll take it sha but eventually everything will come crashing if I don't study during this strike because I've not started either course. And it's majorly due to the lack of class activity. It's so bizarre that even with 2 of my 11 courses being left out totally that I cannot keep up with the rest. If you're about to get into your second year of Engineering, prepare yourself o. You will work much more than in your first year. You'll be fine in the end.

Faculty of Arts

Earlier, I spoke of a way out of the studying in my room issue at Jaja. Seeing as dubbing centre was stripped of what made it a good place to study and Jaja having the worst reading room ever, I needed a place to study after school hours because they were locking classes at Engineering around 6PM. A friend's dad was a lecturer at the faculty of arts and he was very welcoming to us (the friends of the friend). I would stay at his office from 7PM-11PM doing what I need to do. Sometimes I would go earlier but I didn't need to go earlier because the faculty would still be available for use. This office has been one of God's gift to me this semester. Light + AC instead of sweating anywhere else. Beautiful beautiful.

Class of 202X

When will I graduate really? I should graduate in 2024 but as I've gone through Covid+Asuu, and now another Asuu strike in my first 3 years, it's looking like 2026. One day I will graduate. When I try to think about this whole thing it's just ridiculous. If this strike has to last one year to be the last strike, I really will not mind. I'm just trying hard to continue studying so I don't find myself in a bad place when we eventually return to school.

NUGA (Nigerian University Games Association) games happened last month. Uniport won (their birthright) and Unilag finished second. I didn't participate but I followed updates on all social media.

That'll be all for now. See you next time and God bless.

[kun-summacumlaude]

SUMMA CUM LAUDE? #15

200 LEVEL

I'm back in school currently. This time I'm not going to say I took a long break because I didn't. In my last post I said I would talk about my results once I saw all of them. I still haven't seen MEG121 and GST103, I don't know why. I might talk about my results depending on my mood as I write this.

SURPRISING START

It's day 3 of 200 level and I have only read one slide, in 1 of 11 courses. Hopefully I get my seriousness together today, currently at the department of Electrical, Electronics and Computer Engineering charging my laptop and thinking about starting a second course. The vibe isn't there but I really am reaching out for it.

Unilag hostels are closed till next week, we've been asked to resume and there's no where for majority of students to stay, so a lot of people will resume when hostels open up. Still waiting to be divided intro groups for one particular course, we've only seen lecturers for the MEG courses, I guess EEG people are still handling other things. It's just funny they've asked us to resume honestly. Some students who will get admission have just seen their WAEC results yesterday. But I understand the rush, the school plans to host NUGA Games next year and so they want the planned put calendar to work out regardless of collateral effects. I can't say this is because they want to recover lost time from Covid because Unilag has wisely accepted it's gone and it's never coming back and so all that can be done is look forward, so it's definitely the Games.

BACK TO JAJA?!?!

From Grace to Grass but God is everywhere. I'm going to be staying at Jaja for my 200 Level, except God has a surprise for me and I pray He does. On the bright side, it may be a 10 man room (eweeyy) but I'm a Bonafide. I got the bedspace this time around. In all things give Thanks to God.

I'm not looking forward to the life at Jaja at all, but I'll just make certain adjustments seeing as I have a whole laptop and other stuff to watch over this time around. My prayer is that my roommates are not thieves and that everyone gets what they need for themselves, I don't even want any alpha base visitations at all, I'm not built for such.

Another thing about Jaja is how it'll affect my study life, I have prayed and will continue to pray that my results will not be dependent on where I'm staying. Let it be uncomfortable, I will make my As by God's grace, so I'm not bothered about my school work getting affected, things will work out. All of my help cometh from the Lord.

WORK LOAD

Hm. I've not even started but I already know that 11 courses is going to be a lot, I really should get myself together very quickly, even if I don't start too well this week, I want to study with serious intensity from Week 2 till the end, I can't get As without putting in the work. I refuse to be left behind by my friends who have come to get their own As.

Right now, I’m trying to get started with EEG 211 but I’m not sure what to do and this Google Drive handed down is so badly organised. The 100 Level I just finished, our Drive was run by Seun, 10/10 in organisation so I am not used to this suffering. Due to by lack of knowledge on the courses and their contents, it’s even extra difficult to know what is what. Getting it in order will take a while but I'll surely get there.

DIRECT ENTRY STUDENTS

These guys are so studious 😭😭. Seeing them study while I'm lazing about has been intimidating. And since they know each other because they've had their own classes together and all that, it's like they're another school entirely. Eventually, I'll get to know the ones I get to know.

MIRABEL HOSTEL

I've decided to write about these frauds now because everything is still fresh in my memory. This hostel honestly doesn't feel real when I think about it. The lies and scams, oh my. So in May 2021, when we first resumed physically after the COVID lockdown, my dad came here to get me a room. We were told it costs 400K for a year, but since we didn't come from the start of the year, we paid 300K from May to December.

Before I continue the story, I just want to mention that the mistake we made was not getting a written agreement, we just never expected what eventually happened but we messed up considering how Nigerians are terrible people.

There was a Covid outbreak on campus, so we had to go back home and complete the semester online. We returned to Campus to write our exams, August 29- September 10. When I returned to school, the manager we met had already left (his reason was he didn't like how the owner was behaving towards him). So there was no manager for that period. Alright, after my exams my roommate and I went on holiday, but since our rent was to expire in December, we left some of our things inside the room: beds, toiletries, buckets, box, fridge. How I left the room:

Holiday is over, back to school eh. My roommate goes to Mirabel hostel before me, he even mistakenly took the key to our room home. Only to arrive there and find out our room had been given out to two people. EHN?? He said there was a new manager and the new manager said our rent had expired and that we paid for a session and not for the year (A bloody lie). My roommate had to beg to remain inside the room for the night because he got there around 7PM. At home, I told my parents and so my dad and I went there the following day.

Let's quickly try and process what we just read:

A new manager came in, opened a room, saw the belongings of two people who were on holiday and gave out the room to two new occupants with the other people's belongings inside it?!! Who on earth does that? It's wickedness, it's so crazy to think about. I asked my roommate of all our things were inside the room.

His table was missing

His box was missing

His gas cylinder was missing

My bed was missing

So my dad and I got there the next day in the morning. The manager just opened his mouth to say all sorts of nonsense, I was beyond disgusted. He was lying as if we were stupid or something. Imagine telling us you gave out our rooms because "we didn't come back". Are you okay at all? So I went on holiday but I left my things inside the room, I left my entire bed because I'm Santa Claus or something???? Helloooo??!? I was honestly so upset.

I asked him about the bed and where it was and this guy was playing dumb with me. Asking me "which bed?", My tone changed because I know he was lying. Literally only him and the maintenance guy have access to the rooms and he's acting like A WHOLE BED, will disappear and they won't know. If you are stupid, I am not. What has really annoyed be is that they've been acting like they didn't do all of this intentionally. They're acting innocent, dirty liars. This manager is actually such a liar, one time he told me there was no other key, and there is always another key. Just lies anyhow. Ew.

So the owner of the hostel come, that man too is like his staff, they're all the same. Dubious. He was in on this rubbish too and I know it. The hostel is just a scam and not worth it when you sit down to think about the benefits for how much it costs. Now rooms here about 550K, 700K. I'll come back to this. So he came and we confirmed our payment, he was like hoe did they give out our rooms, shiiorrrr. You mean you don't know boss man? Abeg x3. We sha talked and talked and he was like he agrees we should stay till December and he will accommodate us. What do you mean you will accommodate us? He said it like we were begging. We paid to be here and we will be here. Landlords don't tell tenants they will "accommodation them" as if they're not paying rent. It is their right to be in that house or whatever building.

They gave my roommate and new rooms, so we both had new roommates. My initial plan was to stay till January then move into the Jaja bedspace I got but I'm out of here once I'm ready to move into Jaja, this place is a mess. 550K, 700K for a room and at night, if there's no light, the generator that should come on from 8-12, won't come on at 8, or it'll have one issue, or Mohammed is just going to buy fuel, basically if there's no light, we're in trouble. I have a laptop that doesn't last forever, I need to study but obviously it doesn't matter to them because they run this place like a club. At night it's just a smoking lounge with music and table tennis. Another one that burst my brain is the dog. How do you leave a dangerous dog alone to be roaming the corridors of the room. Imagine I woke up and decided to go outside of my room which is normal, then I got attacked by the dog. I've seen enough. It's time to go. Jaja is terrible but there's light, I can charge my devices. Looking at price and benefits, 25K for Jaja >>>> 700K for Mirbael Hostel.

Pros of Mirabel Hostel:

It's close to Unilag's main gate

Just your and your roommate (Two man room)

Cons of Mirbael Hostel:

Poor water supply

Poor electricity supply

Your things are not safe because the caretakers steal from occupants. When you steal, what are you called? It wasn't just me and my roommate, another guy said they also stole his gas cylinder and haven't "found it"

Loud music every night and even in the morning sometimes

Toilets don't flush + no seat

The place generally works against your studying, especially that poor electricity supply

Till today they've not "found" my bed. Imagine. It get's more absurd every time I think about it. Okay, you said I didn't come back, I've not come back. Give me my bed. The same way they gave me that crappy flat bed that feels like a mat, is the way my bed was given to someone else and they're acting like they don't know about it. My name is on it for goodness sake, go round and check everyone's bed. The place isn't even that big. By now, if they've done that like they said they have, I would know if my bed is here or they've sold it. I can't even believe anything they say because it's all lies. I'm just so disgusted.

[kun-summacumlaude]

SUMMA CUM LAUDE? #14

If I don’t change my ways, I’ll start every post with “I took a break” or “It’s been a while”. Haha. I must confess, posting hasn’t been as easy I had envisaged. The academic workload is something to be honest. 

The semester has come to an end, so I’ll just give a recap of how things were towards the end. 

The rest of online school

In the last post, I said I didn’t know how to prepare for exams. On the day we were sent home, I told people we would get called back for exams. So I kind of held on to that. What I didn’t expect was that we would be called back to write Exams in CBT format. It took some time before it was sure because there were so many rumours all over the place but it made preparing for exams somewhat easier.  Classes remained the usual. I hope you know what I mean by the usual. Online tests were doing using the Unilag online test platform. It was definitely much better than last semester’s online tests. They got it right this time, at least for my own courses. Kudos to the team at CITS. How did I feel about the tests? GEGs were better than PHSs. All of this passed and it was time to return to school for the exams that would last two weeks.

Exams

How were exams? Exams were exams. Quite challenging. Very challenging. PHS123, Practical Physics. That exam was brutal. From 2 hours and 45 minutes in WAEC to about an hour and 15 minutes. I finished my practical but under that immense pressure, I didn’t answer one question properly. There might have been need to plot a second graph and I only plotted one. There was an instruction on how to make a table, I read the instructions but somehow missed that part. I just pray my result comes out good good. PHS121 and PHS122, if you’re reading this and taking those courses or will take them, please do not underestimate them. They’re 3 Units to add to the weight of the courses. Study them and study them well. Especially PHS121, it’s a tricky something mehn. The GEGs were all decent and MEG121, haha, we didn’t even write an exam. I guess they’re about to freestyle our grades again. May God’s favour follow my result. The exam lifestyle was kind of sweet. Wake up, write my CBT exam, return to my hostel, repeat. The best parts were the walks back to new hall with my guys after exams. I loved those.

Summa cum laude in 200 Level I have not taken a look at my course outline for next semester. But I know I have 10 important courses and 1 GST. That is A LOT!! So I won’t stop posting forever but I don’t really know how I’m going to improve on my consistency because it already looks like I’ll have a lot to do next semester but we’ll see. I’ll try my best, But my CGPA comes first.

On a final note, I’ve seen two of my second semester results but I won’t talk about any of them until I’ve seen all.

Good bye and God bless.

[kun-summacumlaude]

SUMMA CUM LAUDE? #13

Welcome back guys. My summa cum laude don dey get comma sha. Haha. So I’ve seen all of my results. I took an unnecessarily long break after that first paragraph. I’m here to update on my results from first semester and this semester so far. But first,

YEAR 1, SEASON 3

So I took another break, I need to pick a date and perform my duties. What do I mean by Year 1, Season 3? There was a COVID-19 outbreak on campus, students were asked to go home, lectures for the rest of the semester will be online. Campus was so clogged around the hostels that day, heavy traffic. I can’t blame Unilag for choosing to send us home because a Covid outbreak in the hostels is something the school cannot manage, it will spread massively. Seeing the number of students coming out of hostels made this even clearer to me. It was the only choice. Great Akokites have gone through a lot in this 2019/2020 Session; it has been extremely long and a terribly designed roller-coaster. 

Lecturers didn’t send Summa Cum Laude o

The last time I mentioned my results, I had seen 4/6 and was en route a 4.93 or a 5.00. THEN I SAW THE LAST TWO RESULTS. Two Bs. Yepapapa!!!! I can understand a B in MEG111 but I know for sure I actually got an A in GEG113, my score was 68, so so close. It hurt but I handled it well. As the final two results didn’t get the memo, my GPA currently sits at 4.71. This isn’t what I hoped for but it’s a decent start. As always, I need to work hard to maintain it. So help me God. The best I can get this semester for a CGPA is 4.86, which is much better but mehn, everything is weird at the moment.  I might have included more in this but the unnecessary breaks have definitely made me forgot stuff. Online school has been okay so far. I’m tired of solving questions and because I don’t know whether exams will be physical or online, I don’t know how to prepare.  That’ll be all for now, I’ll do better in the future, take care and God bless.

[kun-summacumlaude]

SUMMA CUM LAUDE? #12

IT’S BEEN A MONTH???

Things have happened in the past month and one of those events is going to cause a huge shift in the way my posts will be from now on. Let’s get into it.

I honestly should start drafting weekly so I don’t forget what I want to put on here.

First things first, and this is massive and exciting. Second week of resumption, I got accommodation off campus thanks to God Almighty and my Loving parents. This has completely has definitely changed my campus lifestyle. It has its own conditions and all but it’s a thousand times much better than squatting at Jaja. And the conditions are very suitable for me anyways. I say that like it’s a lot haha, it’s just that I have to leave Campus early enough so it’s not too late. Returning to the Private Hostel between 6pm and 7pm is perfect for me. When my dad and I first went there, I didn’t want to get the place but he kind of took that decision for me which I am very grateful for; I have no idea what I was thinking. Every time I pass by Jaja and that smell hits me, I thank God again that the place was paid for before I could say any nonsense, although I never saw myself saying no for real. I have a roommate that’s not a frustration machine which is very good. But my poor social skills are killing me, I played table tennis with the boys on Wednesday and it was embarrassing how bad I was, at least I tried.  Getting accommodation is a major shift because you can see how squatting dictated how my daily pattern in school before now. Well, I’m very happy that hardship is over.

Moving on, we already have strikes that disrupt things in school but you see that Strike + Covid-19 combination, it has been an absolute madness. Mop-Up exams for the Mop-Up exams for exams just concluded last week Friday, today is the 11th of June, 2021 by the way. Lecturers have been focused on the mop ups so we’ve barely had any classes in 5 weeks of schools. I think we had four this week. In the first month of resumption, I had one class, one practical and one workshop. In one month! Some crazy stuff honestly. It feels like we’re just cruising. I’ve been studying but measuring progress has been very difficult because you really don’t know where you should be. I’ve had two Applied Mathematics classes and both had assignments at the end lmaoo, I’m not complaining though.

More Great News: Results!!! Our results are finally starting to be released, and I know GSTs have been released for some time but they don’t count in my GPA, I’ve seen 4/6 GPA Courses now. I actually wanted to wait until everything was released to mention this but I’m not waiting to share this joy. I got As in all four of them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so so so so so so happy, all glory be unto God. And by God’s grace, the remaining two (Applied Mathematics and Workshop Practice I) will come out very well, so we wait to see what my starting GPA will be.

And finally, today we lost Dr Adekola O. Adewale, Sr. of the Department of Physics to Colon Cancer. He was the Coordinator for FSC115 which I took last semester. A considerate man from my experience with his handling of the course, he will be missed dearly. My thoughts are with his wife and kids at this time. Rest on Sir🕊.

[kun-summacumlaude]

SUMMA CUM LAUDE? #11

I wanted to call this a special but I decided not to. Today I’m going to be analysing why I wake up at 4am on campus because it’s just nice how so much goes into these little decisions. The last time I mentioned this, I said I stayed at the faculty till 11pm because I was behind and needed to study or fail. Looking at it now, that’s exactly what I would do even if I wasn’t behind in class. There are three factors involved and the most important one is “Taking my bath”.

Devices

I have my phone and a torch which I need to keep charged. We’re about 20 in my room so I don’t want to leave my phone out exposed overnight while it charges during my sleep because it could get stolen (Although no theft in that room so far). So while I stay late in the faculty, I charge my phone and torch fully before I head to the room to sleep. So this is one factor.

Studying

I’m a student, I need to study and study hard. I don’t like reading overnight and the reading room in the hostel is not comfortable. I also cannot possibly study in my room. How do I solve this? I stay at the faculty studying up until 11pm everyday because at the faculty, reading is comfortable and I can also charge my devices. This kills two birds with one stone.

Taking My Bath

The most important factor, taking my bath is arguably the only reason I actually wake up at 4am. Why? The hostels are overcrowded. If you don’t take your bath before 6am, you’re going to have to queue to get water to do that. It’s a terrible situation. The one time overslept, I had to queue for water for several minutes, I was late for my class that morning (I think I mentioned this before). By waking up at 4am, I get to take my bath without queueing at all and that is just what I need. So I study up until 11pm and by 11.30pm I’m probably asleep. I usually get about 4-5 hours of sleep. I try to push for 5 most times by leaving the faculty before 11pm. I said this is arguably the only reason because let's imagine there was no queue for water after 6am, I would probably manage the uncomfortable reading room till 12:45am and sleep from 1am-6am or even 2am-7am or even 1am-7am which simply means more study/more sleep and still wake up in time to prepare for class and not be late. Maybe I should have titled this point "Water Scarcity".

Right now nothing really happens between 5-7am which is quite annoying because I can't even use that time to eat. I usually pray and hover about then around 7am, I leave the hostel. Although, I went to the faculty around 6.30am to study one day. It wasn't bad. So that's all for my analysis, I don't just wake up at 4AM. It's mostly other things that force me to do that. Bye bye.

[kun-summacumlaude]

SUMMA CUM LAUDE? #10

Ekabo, today I will briefly speak about the exams I concluded about a month ago. Brief because school is resuming physically and I am very sad about it. I’ll also add the part about my results once it is released.

This post should have been put up long ago but I was holidaying haha. 

First thing, at some point, our tests were getting cancelled and rescheduled too much, sometimes it happened before, other times after, oh yes and one time it happened during the test. It was terribly annoying because exams were edging closer and we still had to focus on preparing for tests.

After this, the next issue was how late the exam time table was released. I think it was about a week to exams and I was like wow. 

Finally, before I go on to talk about how exams went and my current wait for my results. Our MEG Lecturers did the most ridiculous thing a the week before exams. I was disgusted. School resumed and from day one, questions had been raised about what would happen to MEG111, which is a practical course. The lecturers said absolutely nothing until it was a week to our exams. The second upsetting thing was that, we we’re running “Online school”, and they deemed it fit to give us an assignment that we had to write out and spiral bind (for some sections), to be submitted physically. Did they take into consideration that students were not on campus and some of us don’t stay in Lagos? It was just unbelievable and very backwards.

My Exams

I want to start by saying well done to Unilag for reducing the struggle. I always knew the general LMS issues would not remain general during exams and I wasn’t wrong. Unilag spent a few millions to get a proper working site for our exams and only a minority had issues during the exams. 

Personally, my exams were not bad, some were not as hard as others. My 3 unit courses were all challenging. Chemistry had to be the worst. I didn’t know it was 50 questions until I got to the 40th question. We were all used to 40 from every other exam. Thank God I usually skip and then return to the start. That was what saved me. On the bright side, I’m never doing Chemistry again. I’m so happy! I like Chemistry but I don’t want to do it anymore. Also, I started listening to Adele a lot around exams, she’s better than I thought. (Not sure if I already mentioned this or not). So that’s all for exams it’s not a lot.

I would post this now but I want to see my results first, if they’re not released before the new semester then I will post without it.

Peace be unto you, bye.

[kun-summacumlaude]

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#9.Video-2

And this is the video of me showing proof that all they asked students to do in order to get images loading was not working. I cleared cache, allowed cookies, loaded image, opened it a new tab and it still didn’t work. Which means one thing, the issue of images not loading is not about our internet or device or browser but the poor website. Everything but images on that site loaded. Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube, name it. So this marks the end of the entire 9th post.  Thank you and Goodbye.

[kun-summacumlaude]

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#9.Video-1

Just ignore the jolly music and focus on someone’s test. See how so many images are not loading. You simply cannot pass that and it wouldn’t be your fault at all. I didn’t mention this in my Original post but I had a friend who had 20 images not loading. Absolute madness. Even madder is that 20 images not loading was very common that morning.

[kun-summacumlaude]

#9.Photos

Above is my quiz navigation for the Engineering Calculus I Test. I only answered 2,3,4,6,8,9,10,19,21,22,23,24 and 25. Very messy. Below was the moment I realised I couldn’t return to a previous page and that I was in serious trouble.

More screenshots of my mates realising they were finished as well.

Exactly, Ugo and Dami. Why did he not tell us? I’ll never know.

The next two images are the solution to one of the objective questions that we were somehow supposed to solve in 48 seconds. Just take a look at this, who can do this in 48 seconds? Definitely not us.

I’m going to post a video but just to show you different forms of questions and options not loading. 

At some point we were cramming the names of these images just in case the questions showed up in the second text.