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30 June 2023, 7:17 PM

Another semester finished in a blink of  an eye. With that also ended this ‘killer subject’  Mass Balance as per  my seniors. I still remember the first day of Mass Balance, while waiting for the class to start I came across one of my senior who told me Dr Azizul’s class will be very hard and difficult to score because Dr Azizul is very strict. But she also told me that he is very good in teaching and that was all I needed. Without getting intimidated,  I took its as a challenge. Before the class started, I look through UTM e-learning website to see if there’s anything up there about the course. I’ve never seen a class schedule that systematic and organized. That left a deep impression on me and I knew I’m in good hands. As the class started, Dr,Azizul gave us an introduction on the course and how the assessments are going to be for the rest of the semester. He also explained about what is chemical engineering and what kind of future employment options we have. I realized that this course is going to be one of the most important subject for my future in engineering. I was scared but the fact that I had one of the best lecturer comforted me that I can succeed.

            Firstly, I learned a lot about the different chemical processes carried out in a chemical plant but mainly on the separation processes such as distillation, liquid-liquid extraction, evaporation, absorption, adsorption just to  name a few. I realized that I will need deep understanding on all these different types of processes in order to answer the questions.  For the first week, i thought I have understand the topics so far well but then reality hits. In the first quiz, I  drew the block diagram of a distillation column with two inputs and two outputs  while in fact there should be just one input. That made me understand how difficult this course is going to be and how much understanding is needed.

            In the seconds week of the class, Dr Azizul divided us into groups of four so that we can collaborate more with out teammates while attempting difficult questions. One thing that Dr Azizul emphasized on our group is our communication. My team including me were always doing the questions alone and not communicating with others. That was something me and my teammates tried to polish throughout the semester. We were given a group assignment on solving  two questions on multiple units calculation . For the first questions we were required to present it in a WebEx meeting as the class was online. Our group created a WhatsApp group where we discussed about the question   and the slides for the presentation. We divided the parts among ourselves and presented in the class. Multiple unit calculation with recycle and bypass was a weak point of me as I was constantly confused and making careless mistakes. This was very clear when my team and I attempted the second question. We were constantly making mistakes over and over and after a online session with the lecturer, we finally realized our mistake. For the second question we created a video of us explaining how to solve the question. As before,  my team and I divided the task and did out parts for the video in Microsoft PowerPoint.

            Soon enough   the first test was just around the corner. I did a lot of past year questions and exercises from the notes and textbook. Fortunately,  I was able to get 58 over 60 in the first test. I was over the moon with my marks . Even though I lost two marks in a very careless way, I took it as a lesson so that i will not repeat the same mistake in the second test. After the second test, most of my friends were arguing that they did not had enough time to complete all three questions but i managed to finish them on time which made me think positively about myself and my result for test 2. But when the marks were given I was devastated. I was confident on getting high marks but I ended up with just 43 over 60. When looking through the paper, I realized what made me lose that many marks. While rushing to answer the questions, I didn’t read the question well that asked to round off the values to three decimal places. Without reading that, I gave my answers rounded up to one decimal place which made the answers to be different. I was disappointed in myself but I  didn’t lose hope. Test 3 has also ended and I have high hopes for it as I was managed to solve the questions relatively well and discussing with my friends we have obtained the same answers. While we still  has not gotten the marks for test 3 I’m pretty  confident about it.

            Since the first week, Dr Azizul always gave us quizzes every week . Although it was difficult to revise the chapters before every class because of the hectic schedule, I realized that the quizzes served another purpose apart from being just for marks. The quizzes served as a benchmark for me because when I get low marks on the quiz, I can know that I need more revision and practice on that particular topic. Apart from quizzes, we were also given multiple individual assignments and group assignments. These assignments were really helpful as they were a good revision and practice questions for me  because the given problems resembles the kind of problem that will be asked in test.

            And finally the mini project. When the problem for the mini project was given, I was really shocked by the length of the questions and how hard it was to understand the question. Since, we were given a long timespan of almost one month and had no test during that time, it was a lot easier for us to spent time on the project. First my team and I did the calculation by ourselves then we compared the answers between ourselves. It was a relieve when all of my team members got the same answer as I did. Then came the next most difficult and new part. We were required to draw the diagrams and solve the calculations in Microsoft Excel. Even though, we have used Excel before, it was for a much easier problem than this. My team and I discussed and used the Internet to search for the ways to use Excel to solve the problem. Because of my great teammates, we were able to finish the project one week earlier. From this mini project, I had the opportunity of using Excel for material balance calculating which will be a bigger part in my future and also polished our team working skill.

            In a nutshell, this course was a big surprise for me as I was able to enjoy the studies which is the direct opposite of what my seniors said. This will not be possible without the guidance of Dr.Azizul and I want to express my heartfelt gratitude towards him. I will remember all the teachings and guidance he gave me so that I can succeed in my life as a chemical engineer.