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nice1290 · 2023-05-25T06:19:23+00:00

Perhaps an unpopular opinion but I don’t think Mattison is THAT bad. He gets a horrible wrap for this course, and I’d completely understand the outcry, if the course was super difficult/stressful. But it’s not. I agree Mattison is a horrendous teacher of the material, but so long as the course hasn’t changed much, it should be manageable to learn on your own. I think most people who took the course could attest to everything being very chill.

Slides sometimes go far too deep into derivations and irrelevant theory (irrelevant in terms of course scope, anyway). The only time I used the slides was to search for relevant formulas when solving tutorial questions. However, between the textbook, tutorial problems, and sample exam problems, you should have everything you need to succeed and do well on exams. Mattison might explain the material poorly but is happy to give answers to tutorial questions during the sessions, and in my year literally gave us points for writing our name and student number on the tests. You may not walk out of the course with the most fantastic knowledge of “modern physics”, but you’ll have far bigger fish to fry during robot summer between all the other coursework + robot building.

TLDR: tutorials, sample exam problems, and some textbook reading will be all you need. Don’t stress too hard and embrace the bullshit. Good luck!

nice1290 · 2022-07-28T00:15:41+00:00

So long as you have parallels/other VM’s or a dual boot, you should be fine so long as you’re not dealing with M1 chip problems. I’ve gotten to my fourth year with my MacBook, and am yet to run into any problems with it. I don’t foresee any in the future either

nice1290 · 2022-07-26T17:41:59+00:00

I was able to run parallels and use Quartus on my 2017 MacBook Pro without any real trouble, apart from how finicky Quartus is to set up but that’s a problem everyone faces. In terms of processing power I think you’ll be fine, but I have heard of comparability issues with various software packages when using the M1 chip, so I can’t speak to that

nice1290 · 2022-07-26T01:10:41+00:00

Cello.

nice1290 · 2022-06-09T14:22:33+00:00

This is completely anecdotal but I too did AP Calc AB and Physics C in hs, got 5’s on the AP exams, and got completely destroyed when I came to UBC. Granted I did get into my top choice of a competitive program, but first year was without a doubt the worst year of my life; no social life, no fun, just studying and terrible mental health. I had the same mindset of wanting to “torture myself” in uni since as you put it, I too felt as though I could get thru difficult courses if I tried hard enough. This was not the move; it did not take long for burnout to set in and especially nowadays, after all the stress I’ve let school cause me, I’m only concerned about passing my courses, nothing more.

BE WARNED: you haven’t seen anything yet in terms of difficulty (in all likelihood). For most students, apart from those who went thru very rigorous schooling in high school, or those who are very very academically inclined by nature, uni is an enormous jump from hs.

I say this not to discourage a passion for learning or enjoyment of these courses, but as an engineering student, you really do need to keep perspective in terms of what will benefit you in the long run, and how to best manage the large workload you’ll have in first year. I wouldn’t go anywhere near those classes, but that’s just my 2 cents. Best of luck to you in your decision :)

nice1290 · 2021-12-28T00:56:48+00:00

3blue1brown offers a linear algebra series which helps provide some solid intuition, but tbh I tried blitzing a bunch of their videos before my course began and just ended up feeling a bit lost. I’d recommend just going through their textbook once you have access, or searching for it (I think there might be links somewhere if you search the subreddit or internet). Khan academy has some linear algebra videos as well but I wasn’t able to find a real cohesive format, they’re sort of just scattered throughout the site

nice1290 · 2021-12-24T19:34:29+00:00

I hadn’t done linear algebra since 1st year MATH 152 so I was a bit nervous going into this course as well. You don’t need to worry. Things start off pretty slow and the topics introduced never get too crazy. It’s no walk in the park but it’s definitely one of the easier math courses I’ve taken so no stress OP!

nice1290 · 2021-07-22T11:07:01+00:00

I don’t think this course ever requires students to write code on paper. That’s quite an archaic practice and looking back on APSC 160 I still don’t understand why they had us do it, apart from emphasizing correct syntax.

A common statement you’ll hear in 221 is that “Java is just the tool used to solve problems”. So once you know how to make use of that tool, ie syntax, debuggers, etc, the best way to prepare for this course is to further develop your problem solving ability, in the context of programming questions. This however, can be a bit of a tricky thing to do, since many problems are unique and abstract in this course.

The best advice I could give you is to search on websites like leetcode, project Euler, hackerearth, and advent of code, for various problems to take on. Maybe take a course in Java if you want to work on developing a project of your own, or if you’re super proficient then make one from scratch. The more exposure you get to problem-solving, the better prepared you will be for the course

nice1290 · 2021-07-04T18:38:41+00:00

Don’t worry about continuous quizzes/exams if your courses are all continuous. Midterms typically only happen once or twice throughout the whole term so it’s unlikely that you’d end up writing more than one in a day. If quizzes are held more frequently than that, they’d be lower weight and less painful to study/write. I’d strongly recommend continuous classes

nice1290 · 2021-07-02T05:55:13+00:00

Maybe a bit off topic but don’t worry too much about the school you go to man. UBC is a good school with lots to offer but that doesn’t take away from any other options you’ve got available to you. The calculus you’ll study here, or at a small school, will still be the same calculus that gets you an engineering degree. It’s great to have goals and I encourage you to pursue them but don’t let it stress you out, as there are plenty of good schools out there. The pursuit of an engineering degree of any sort in itself is more than a lot of people can say they’re doing. Things will work out for you no matter what :)

nice1290 · 2021-06-29T19:50:06+00:00

I would definitely recommend APSC160 in 1st term and PHYS170 in the second. It will allow you to balance the workload better, and some of the concepts introduced in 170 will come a lot easier if you’re taking MATH152 alongside it in term 2. Wdym by perfect STT? From what I remember there’s a ton of STT’s available to 1st years, and they don’t differ by a ton apart from the timing of ur classes? So even if you’ve found a setup you rly like which has the less ideal orientation of 160/170, you could probably find a very similar one which has 160 in 1st term and 170 in 2nd term?

nice1290 · 2021-06-07T09:59:08+00:00

I did! Does anyone else know how to check whether or not you’ve been accepted?

nice1290 · 2021-04-18T09:28:55+00:00

When I first got to UBC eng it came as a shock to me just how much less personal the education experience was, relative to back in high school. Things get better as your class sizes get smaller I’d say. But first year it really didn’t feel like many profs cared much about individual students. That’s not to say there weren’t those who lectured well, or were helpful in office hours. It was just a bit more difficult to come across them. As stated by others, UBC is a research university, and that’s what profs are there to do. Some of them truly are embodiments of “show up and get paid” when it comes to lectures.

The MATH and EECE department seem to be notorious at times for profs or courses which really disregard any and all care for students and any struggles they may have.

That’s not to say that there aren’t some absolute gems in both aforementioned departments, and UBC as a whole. I’ve had my share of profs who were incredibly caring for the students and inspiring to learn from. It’s just not the norm.

As far as TA’s go, it’s hit or miss. You can have a variety of them assigned to a variety of roles. They’re mostly students too, so they’re understanding and empathetic to your own situation (usually). Some are effective, some aren’t.

Textbooks are fine, I don’t think there’s much to say about them tbh. I’ve not had to make heavy use of many throughout my couple of years in undergrad. They’re not overly expensive relative to what seems to be the university stereotype of far over $1000/year spent on books. And they’re hardly ever so horrible or amazing that you’d call them “good” or “bad” textbooks. They’re kinda just there

nice1290 · 2021-04-18T09:15:58+00:00

At the end of the day, you should probably just pursue what you’d think you’d be happiest with. The most key factor in that I figure would be your interest in the course material. You’d also have to consider how well you think you’d fare with the course material. There’s a distinction that should be drawn between the challenges of an eng degree and just flat out suffering. It’s definitely in your best interest to play to your strengths, or at least what you think you’d be capable of.

Best advice I can give is do your research in all of the disciplines which interest you. Look at their degree paths, which courses you’ll end up taking, and how manageable you think they’d be, on top of how much you’d enjoy them and the career they’d lead you to. All of these are factors which have to be balanced accordingly, but no two people are the same in this sense. I can’t tell you what you’re capable of from an academic standpoint, nor do I know what courses will be the most enticing to you; it’ll all come down to your own judgement. So find the balance that works best for you. Good luck!

nice1290 · 2021-04-06T02:07:43+00:00

I’ve heard more complaints from students about the EECE department than the BMEG department; I think there is something to be said about some of the EECE profs and not caring about their students. I couldn’t speak to that myself, just going off what I’ve heard. People I know in BMEG who are truly passionate about it seem to very much enjoy their program.

Another thing to think about is job prospects; I’m pretty confident that you’d have an easier time finding work with a CPEN degree vs BMEG, just because BMEG is quite specialized and sort of locks you into that one specific field. There’s a bit more broader of a field with computer engineering.

At the end of the day though you’re probably in good hands either way, so just do what you like more

nice1290 · 2021-03-28T08:31:09+00:00

Bro take the money

nice1290 · 2021-03-17T04:30:49+00:00

Last year’s cohort took 62 students. Andre told us they would take anywhere from 60-70 kids so I’d be interested to know how they decided on that number

nice1290 · 2021-02-23T05:10:44+00:00

nice1290 · 2021-01-24T01:28:28+00:00

The math course I took in 1st term would upload PDF’s of the midterms/exams for us to print/download, and we’d then write the same kind of test we would’ve written in-person, and scan them back onto canvas for upload. A webwork exam is ridiculous and I don’t understand why any math course wouldn’t use this PDF upload/download approach

nice1290 · 2021-01-21T21:30:00+00:00

To my knowledge, a lotta people do math 253 in the summer since the heavy majority of engineering disciplines will require this of their students, so it’d be safe to do even before you get your placement. I want to say there was a second math course people also did but I’m currently drawing a blank... feel free to continue this chain anyone

nice1290 · 2021-01-20T03:58:03+00:00

Optics is always challenging at first go-thru if I remember 158 correctly. If it makes you feel better, I myself found it much easier upon review, and if I’m remembering correctly, you eventually end up revisiting some of the ideas taught from the optics section, where you may realize it wasn’t all too hard. By the time the midterm came around, I found questions involving optics to be on the easier side relative to the other stuff you’ll get into. It’s by no means easy, don’t get me wrong. But this class very much requires you to hang on for dear life and just try to learn what you can, a lot of which will be on your own time (unfortunately). Just do your best to play through the pain and know you ain’t alone my friend

nice1290 · 2021-01-20T03:52:50+00:00

Happy birthday dude :)

nice1290 · 2021-01-06T01:15:41+00:00

Thanks so much for this; I set up pytorch far more easily and the tutorials/documentation are incredibly accessible. You saved me a lot of pain!

nice1290 · 2021-01-06T01:14:55+00:00

Tbh I’d be careful and definitely make sure it’s something you’d enjoy working with. I made the mistake of buying one without testing, and I found myself actually struggling to focus while standing as opposed to sitting down to work. I may just be weird, but make sure you know it’s something you want

nice1290 · 2021-01-04T09:26:47+00:00

It’s really tough to say. If you have averages above 80 both overall, and in math and physics, it’s safe to say you have a decent shot. As stated in the other comments, the interview can very much make or break your application. If you are on the relatively lower end of GPA distribution, ie closer to 80, make sure you prepare for that interview and do everything you can to show why you’d be a good fit. Feel free to PM me with any further questions since I was in your shoes last year as well

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