University Life Reflection
Semester 2 begin my real university life. Why called real, because this semester I can enter the campus now. 20 March 2022 my second lectures start but I entered UTM JB campus on 18 March 2022 because I need to clean my hostel and get familiar with the UTM campus because UTM campus has 1148 hectares which is a very big area campus. The hostel that I entered was Kolej10 located in the east part of campus and it is the nearest hostel to my class. I used this time to meet my coursemates to make my university friends.
Although I had entered the campus this semester but all the lecturer classes still conduct online, only attended the physical class which required lab activities. Hence, the first half of this semester same as semester 1 lifestyle attended the online classes. The differences with semester 1 were I was at the university rather than at home. I could enjoy my university lifestyle rather than felt bored at home. In university, I could play and communicate with friends and also did some sports activities with friends. At home, it was difficult to study because there were many environmental obstacles that can affect your study mood. In UTM, there are two libraries known as PSZ and PRSZ. I always made study groups with friends in the library. Studying with friends can easily catch up with the knowledge rather than individual study.
After the middle semester break, the second half lecturer class was conducted in physical mode since the pandemic Covid-19 was reduced in risk. The lectures were more exciting than students because they finally can teach the students face to face rather than the computer. As a student, I was also excited about physical classes since I had never experienced the physical class mode in my university life. During physical class, it was easier to us communicate with the lecturer and be more focused on the class. The final examination of this semester also will conduct in physical mode. Unlike online mode examination, the physical mode is closed book which we cannot take any notes or books inside the examination hall. This time the final examination was not performed well because I got infected Covid-19 during study week (1 July) and totally did not have the mood to study. Luckily, I had always revise the lessons learnt at free time and I could answer all questions during the final examination. Finally, I got GPA of 4.00 this semester, I was surprised to get this result.
For the Club activities, although I entered the campus not all courses in UTM require their students to enter campus, they were still online at this semester. Hence, most activities were conducted online also. However, since there were many students already entered the campus, I became one of the committee of one event called Student Entrepreneurship Week (SEW) 2022 organised by the BIOMEHS club on 28 and 29 May 2022. This was the first big event organised in UTM after UTM reopened back for students since 2021. From this event, I gained many experiences from this event and opened my mind to my relationships through university life. Other activities as well as Semester 1, were mostly conducted via online mode.
On 15 September 2021, the day of UPU's results come out, I was excited to check which University and courses I got online. Before the result, I had guessed that maybe I do not have the opportunity to enter a research university in Malaysia but it was surprising to me that I can get UTM to continue my tertiary studies. I had checked that I get the Bachelor of Science (Industrial Biology) with honours in UTM Johor Bahru.
10 Oct 2021, the first day to enter University life but it was in front of computers. It is disappointing to me because I cannot enter the UTM JB campus on that day since the Pandemic Covid-19 was spread out at that time. Between 10 to 14 Oct, it was the welcome event special for new students entering UTM called Minggu Mesra Mahasiswa (MMM). It was the right time for us to cognate about the university such as background, management, rules and regulation, facilities, hostels, faculty and our courses. Not only that, but MMM also provided funny entertainment events to us such as singing, dancing, drama and drawing. Although MMM was conducted online I still feel that UTM spend much time in the preparation for us rather than boring or simply perfunctory to us.
16 Oct 2021, semester 1 lecturers class begin as well as MMM, the whole semester 1 lecturer were conducted online as well as a final examination. Hence, my semester 1 university life was staying at home and sitting in front of a computer for every lecturer's class. However, the lecturers were trying their best to conduct the class more interesting and funny for us although we cannot see each face of each other. There were also some obstacles in online classes which difficult to know the coursemates because mostly in class, the camera was turned off, only knew the name of each other. Also, the internet connection leads to problems of communication in class bet00aaween lecture and students. Since everybody stayed in different states, it was difficult to make communication and decision easily when doing the group assignments because everyone was shy to talk to each other on the online platform. However, there are many challenges during online platforms but I have still enjoyed my first university life although we cannot meet the coursemates each other. Also, I got good results in my Sem 1 studies which I got a GPA of 3.75.
Not only academics, but I also joined some club activities in UTM and took part in some talks or speeches that gave beneficial to me. The clubs that I joined in this semester included Mandarin Club, BIOMEHS and SVO. Due to online obstacles, there were no events in SVO since this club requires musical instruments from the university. In Mandarin Club and BIOMEHS, I learnt some soft skills for improvement to me such as making posters, leadership skills and managing events. For the talks, I had taken part in some talks organised by Faculty Science, hostels and other sponsorship which can give the knowledge to me for my future such as resume, financial, computing and research programmes.