About

Blog's purpose:

- My digital journal;

     This blog was made to be a digital record of my first year university experience- study strategies, the mistakes I made and observations on how to score a high grade will be written and reflected upon. This will serve as a foundation - in case I ever lose sight of myself, I'll always be able to return to my roots.

- Sharing/discussion of strategies/techniques;

     The upper percent of those with high GPAs are often reluctant to discuss their strategies, perhaps due to a highly competitive personality, superiority complex (denying their actual amount of effort), or simply difficulty in expressing the entire nature of their method (because they're being intentionally ambiguous, their techniques were developed specialized to themselves, or the technique is actually rather strange/difficult (ie: the methods of loci visualized on the surface of one's arm)).
PS: I've tried the latter.
Regardless, while I will write mostly about myself within this blog, one of my goals will be to bring up the various techniques I use and hope that they will help you. Further criticism is highly welcomed, as I'm no expert in cognitive athletics.

- Giving a realistic view of UofT's premedical program;

     The "avoid UofT at all costs if you want to get into med school" mentality is far too over hyped. I remember back to when I wrote my first biology exam, not only did I finish a whole hour early, I just laughed and asked, "Is this it?" as I left the room. Funny thing is the class average was 60 initially, but curved 5 up to 65. I scored 93 (post curve) on that exam. I know a few students with 4.0, more with 3.9 and even more with 3.8, all which are competitive enough for medical schools. The reality of how "difficult" UofT life sciences is, though, is a major topic I will later discuss.

- Improve my writing
  

Since experience is highly anecdotal and subjective, there are some points about myself which I want to highlight;

1) While I've done well at UofT, I was a disaster in high school.

The importance of this fact means that I had to learn much of my current techniques through trial and observation, understanding myself and had zero academic skill foundation prior to entering university. All I did was play video games (League of Legends), period. 

2) I entered the university as though it would challenge me beyond all that I've ever experienced.

I practiced memorizing decks of cards about a month before starting classes. As for the challenging aspect, it didn't quite live up to my expectations, but the point I'm trying to emphasize is that attitude is key.

3) I didn't chose the premed life (and am still wondering whether I should be called one).

Prior to this, I aimed to be a business student with a major in finance. However, my high school marks couldn't pull me through. In fact similar to 2, I was so disappointed that I just randomly chose the hardest program I could think of in Toronto without any initial intent of becoming classified as a "premed", and still slightly deny it to this day.

4) I have no affiliation with UofT other than paying them 6 grand a year. This blog simply reflects my opinion of the current state of things.