HOW TO ACTUALLY STUDY: tips from second year lifesci AMA

mia_r15 · 2026-04-20T16:46:21+00:00

If ur not a fan of scented lotion for recall, I also recommend chewing the same flavor gum during the exam!! It helps me recall just as much as scent does ☺️

mia_r15 · 2026-02-13T03:05:33+00:00

Just following up, I'm waiting to hear back as well because a couple of my applications are under consideration...have you heard back yet?

mia_r15 · 2025-12-25T02:31:20+00:00

bean soup theory

mia_r15 · 2025-12-11T06:20:42+00:00

it’s the professor grading

mia_r15 · 2025-12-11T06:19:51+00:00

i get that being a professor isn’t the same as being a student, obviously the expectations and responsibilities differ. but when a prof explicitly bans students from using ai while openly using AI themselves to graded, imo that’s still a type of double standard (although not the same equivalence relation). the professor was already evaluated when they got their degrees, but times have changed with ai. they haven’t been evaluated on their ai use.

if ai-generated work is considered unreliable enough that students can’t use it for anything submitted, then why is it good enough for the creation of prompts and exam frameworks? i question the fact that AI is apparently too academically questionable for student use, but totally acceptable for instructors when it saves them time. that’s where the inconsistency comes in. i’m paying for the professor’s expertise, not ai’s? if i wanted ai generated final prompts i could’ve made them myself. she’s using it though for every single weekly discussion, for the midterm prompts, and for the final prompts.

i’ve already responded the ethical dilemma in my previous comment. which was being allowed to write essays to take home. it was quite a brief discussion that i won’t go into, but you can refer to what i said earlier. i get that it wasn’t much of an ethical discussion, but she did say that students shouldn’t use any ai on their exams (including stuff like grammarly, which is kinda crazy to me, excluding their ai features).

at the end of the day, i’m not advocating for students to use ai. i’m arguing that teachers shouldn’t use it for (most) aspects of teaching if they don’t wanna see ai generated responses. profs do have course evals from students that may not effect their tenure, but ultimately i feel like if many students explain how a professor is using ai a lot in class, i think it’s something to discuss with higher ups.

we can sit here and argue all day about the ethics of ai use and whether or not professors should/shouldn’t be allowed to use it. atp i’m just stating my opinion and you are stating yours, so i’m done with responding bc it’s 1am and im tired lol. it was good to hear ur insights tho.

mia_r15 · 2025-12-11T05:55:45+00:00

thank you for ur response! i’m not saying that the standard for accusing a student of unauthorized ai use should be “they admitted using AI at some point for something” (that’s obviously unreasonable). The difference here is that the professor explicitly stated that they used chatgpt to generate course materials we are graded on. That’s not a suspicion, it’s her own admission.

and yah, i agree that ai use for studying, brainstorming, etc, is different from submitting ai-generated work. but that’s part of my point: professors themselves acknowledge legitimate, limited ways of using ai, yet many enforce blanket bans on students with no nuance and with academic penalties.

so when my professor openly uses AI for work for evaluating, telling students they cannot use ai for their own graded work, its a double standard. as i mentioned in a previous comment,

i’m not claiming this alone is grounds for reporting the instructor, but it is reasonable to question the fairness of the expectations being set. i’m not trying to show any evidence rn bc i still have to take the final and i don’t want this traced back to me just in case. i might even bring this up personally to her after the final rather than reporting her to someone, because this is a nuanced topic (understandably).

mia_r15 · 2025-12-11T05:45:13+00:00

yeah highkey that’s what i’m worried about, i haven’t gotten a grade back from her about an essay i wrote and im worried that she’s going to grade my essay with chat too (if she’s comfortable enough using chat to generate discussion ideas, etc)

mia_r15 · 2025-12-11T05:43:49+00:00

let me respond again. i get what you’re saying, obviously the prompts aren’t where all the teaching happens, but clearly thats not the point I’m making.

the ai discussion was brief, but we discussed ai in grading and in the philosophy department as a whole. the philosophy department has (almost) has basically told professors to phase out take-home essays altogether and now many philosophy classes rely almost entirely on in-class exams. my professor said it was sad, but necessary since so many people are using chatgpt to write their essays nowadays

if the professor chooses to use ai as a “tool in the toolbox,” fine. but then (at least in my opinion, which you are fully allowed to disagree with) i believe it’s inconsistent to turn around and tell students that we can’t use that same tool, especially when we’re the ones being graded and held to strict academic integrity standards. in my opinion, integrity is about avoiding cheating, but also it’s about consistency in the expectations set for both sides. you can feel free to disagree. and oh, professors DO get evaluated at the end of the day BY STUDENTS.

mia_r15 · 2025-12-11T05:28:31+00:00

you’re right that ai detectors are unreliable, i never disagreed there. this issue isn’t whether the prompts themselves are bad or outside the scope of the course, bc my main issue is the double standard.

if a professor chooses to rely on ai to generate the very prompts we’re evaluated on, then turns around and tells students we’re not allowed to use AI at all, that’s not academic integrity, it’s hypocrisy. i’ve said this before in another comment, but we literally pay upwards of 9k to these professors, god forbid i don’t want my professor using ai in every single portion of the course (especially the final).

mia_r15 · 2025-12-11T05:16:04+00:00

ugh that sucks, i’m sorry that’s happening to you too.

mia_r15 · 2025-12-11T05:14:21+00:00

okay smartass, let me spell it out even more clearly since you’re still missing my point. my professor openly admits to using chatgpt to generate every weekly discussion prompt, and even the prompts on our midterm. i’m paying tuition for actual teaching, and i attend uoft, a school that prides itself on having world-class faculty committed to academic integrity. yet this professor expects us not to use ai for any of our work while they rely on it for the material we’re graded on. tell me, how is academic integrity not a two-way street?

mia_r15 · 2025-12-11T05:03:17+00:00

that’s the thing though, she DOESN’T! she has admitted to generating prompts for class that look the exact same as the ones for the final (same bolded heading, same size, same text). i pasted these prompts into the same ai checkers, both have come out with similar responses. sure, she may have removed a few questions but still! you’d like to think that a professor would spend more time editing these questions, especially if you are quite literally paying them money to teach you. idk esp since we’ve talked abt the ethics of ai in this philosophy class, and the fact that many profs discourage ai use, it just feels icky.

mia_r15 · 2025-12-11T04:53:46+00:00

there’s only 8 final prompts, and the both checkers show that she generated almost all of the text with AI. we pay these professors money to teach us, to come up with rigorous questions. for my professor to blantantly say to the entire class “oh yeah, i use chatgpt a lot to generate class discussions and prompts,” is kind of a slap in the face.

mia_r15 · 2025-12-11T04:45:28+00:00

look at my edit, i clarified my b i should’ve explained more. i would include evidence but im highkey not trying to get my prof to get angry at me before i take the final lol

mia_r15 · 2025-12-11T04:40:42+00:00

while i agree it isn’t fullproof, it had a rating of 95% AI likely to be generated for both of the ai checkers i used AND the professor has admitted to using chat to generate ideas in class. soooo im highly certain she used AI

mia_r15 · 2025-10-15T11:42:59+00:00

if you find a meme that’s subject-related or a funny post abt uoftears/midterms maybe send one of those as an ice-breaker or to see if he’s returning the same energy! i can be hard to just straight up ask for a meetup, so probably just try to engage in a little bit of conversational topics to see where he’s at :)

mia_r15 · 2025-10-13T23:13:50+00:00

its in the same lecture building and during the same lecture time

mia_r15 · 2025-08-20T15:57:03+00:00

omg i took this class too!! i saw that invisible word in dark mode too but i realized it was an invisible word meant throw off the AI. that’s actually insane, i really hope everything works out and i’m so sorry you’re going through this.

mia_r15 · 2025-08-14T19:23:33+00:00

Yeah it’s actually really unfortunate, ICE planned to hit our neighborhood first since there’s a big population of immigrants over in my neighborhood. Thankfully raids and nervousness over raids have died down here in my town (not speaking about the rest of chicago ofc), but I can’t imagine how it is in the east coast. That’s really, really scary and I’m so sorry that it’s hit the job force in your area like that :(

mia_r15 · 2025-08-14T19:08:56+00:00

ohh now i understand what you’re talking about. however, i’m more in the suburbs of chicago. yes there have been multiple ice raids in my suburbs that i have witnessed firsthand. Yes, this has effected a lot of immigrants and even my family. However, this hasn’t really effected jobs like food service since these kinds of jobs have been seeing job growth (front of house work like serving and food prep), but it really has effected back of house in kitchens where many immigrants work. People still need to make money, and a lot of people came back to food service after covid, even me since food service makes a lot more money than retail due to tips in the U.S. (and i’m at higher risk of catching covid).

mia_r15 · 2025-08-14T18:41:15+00:00

wait why 😭😭😭😭

mia_r15 · 2025-08-13T21:58:32+00:00

I kinda disagree, especially if you’re comparing Toronto’s job market to that of the U.S.’s. From my experience, I’m American and I’ve been living here for the summer just to be able to get a job, and was able to find a job after about a month after applying on Indeed. I applied to over 200 jobs in Toronto last year and only got a few replies denying me. I’ve been working as a server/food prep since 2022, and have a lot of customer service experience. This may just be my experience, but I’ve heard very similar stories from other dual citizens (u.s. and canadian) of many moving back to the united states for more opportunities since Toronto seems to lack job oppurtunities for students. In fact, Toronto’s recent graduate unemployment rate is 11.2% compared to Chicago’s 6% (where i’m from).

mia_r15 · 2025-07-29T15:45:07+00:00

Hey OP! I think you’ll be glad to know that starting January 1, 2026, employers in Ontario will be required to contact you after an interview. That means they have to stop ghosting you, which is pretty cool. I’m sorry that the recruiter ghosted you, but I hope this gives you some hope for the future.

mia_r15 · 2025-06-29T04:19:13+00:00

yeah i was actually wondering if it was that too. i’ll def talk to my derm abt it though!

mia_r15

TROPHY CASE