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SAZMIN SUFI BIN SULIMAN_02_SKKC1113_REFLECTION JOURNAL
26 May 2017, 11:58 PM
Mass balance is the most tough course I ever take and I will take it in this semester 2. This course is a core for chemical engineering and i as a chemical engineering student we need to learn and score it. I already know about this course last semester from my senior and they say this course just a few student only get A and some of my senior’s classmate need to repeat this course because they get below 40% which mean below D+. I was told if we fail this subject we need to repeat in upcoming semester and we can’t take energy balance in semester 3. All those talks made me feel afraid that I will fail and need repeat this subject in order to get my degree certificate. This is the pressure for me to keep studying to pass the exam. 50% for the carry marks and 50% for the final exam in this course. All this thing become worst when I did not take study early when I have time in semester 1. I need to make a survey , refresh and enhance my basic skill due to face the mass balance and this will take a lot of time to understand and refresh what I learn in semester 1. I admit it this chemical engineering is my dream since I in secondary school and I would like to be a pipeline engineer and I need this course to make me to be a pipeline engineer. Even mass balance is a tough subject I need to learn and pass this subject because “if you really want to do something you will a way, if you don’t you will find an excuse”.
I would like to talk about the quiz that I face along this semester. My lecturer’s name is Dr Azizul Azri Mustaffa and he is a strict person and also a kind man. Honestly, I have my quiz every week after we already finish up our chapter lesson in his class. This quiz force me to study mass balance in order didn’t want to get zero in mass balance’ quiz. Truthfully, all those quiz help me to understand well about specific chapter I didn’t know well. But it was my bad I just only open my book a day before the class. The question of the quiz is not so difficult but I still can’t perform in the quiz. It was my mistake I didn’t study well before the quiz. I feel bad for myself because didn’t score the quiz because all this quiz show how far my learning progress and how far my brain can work. And those mark of my quiz shows that I don’t understand perfectly about the topic. Next, I was glad I was in section 2 with Dr Azizul because I have a quiz every week because some other section they don’t have quiz like we did and this is a good chance actually for me to enhance my understanding and force me to keep studying the mass balance. Furthermore, quiz help me to gain percent in carry mark.
Next, is the mass balance’ test. We have 3 tests and just mass balance course got only 3 tests compared to other courses. It was a curse to me because one test consist of 4 questions part A and part B and both section consist 100 marks. That mean 25 marks every question. What I can say the test was so difficult and I can easily can lose my mark just because I cannot understand the sentence and didn’t write my basis statement. The question is short but the statement to be understanding was so hard and take time to understand it. I didn’t do well in my first test and second test because I don’t understand well about the adsorption, distillation and evaporation. I don’t even know how many inlet, outlet, composition of the process because I can’t even understand the statement given. Even they give us the translation in Bahasa Melayu but I still can’t understand. My weakness is to draw the flowchart. The flowchart are so difficult to draw and this force me to take a lot of time to draw it while I just have 2hr or 1hr 30 minutes to finish all 4 questions. Test 2, I thinks test 2 the most hardest test I ever take before. I don’t have enough time to solve all the question and I left it behind. I event don’t ever get the final answer for all the question given. I feel stress. When I get the paper back, as expected my mark was so low below the average. This really make me down and feel want to drop this course. Furthermore, about the test 3, honestly test 3 is totally my mistake. I didn’t study well for test 3 because I have my family problem before the test. But it was an open book test and all the formula re in the book. I do a lot of mistake when I realise I spend a lot of my time in question 1 to solve it and finally I didn’t manage to solve all the question especially question 3. I was so sad because I didn’t manage to solve it. Question 3 is an easy question, just because I was so rushing and didn’t have time so I didn’t get any idea to solve question 3. It was so sad I can’t ever solve all the question. And the mark of my test 3 is quiet low.
Next is the mini project, I was told by Dr Azizul to complete the project a month before but my team decide to start the project after mass balance test 3 which is a week before the time to submit. We need to use excel in order to accomplish the mini project. When I read the question and statement, I feel like what actually the question want. It really hard to solve it because I can’t even understand the question and statement. There are so many unknown that our team need to solve it. First my team draw the flowchart and make the boundary. Our team take 3 time to try and to accomplish this mini project. We sort our task in order to solve the unknown because there are a lot of unknown given.
The conclusion is I was glad I learn this course because this course can lead me to be a successful pipeline engineer. Even this course are so difficult but worth it for me. I must do well in my final examination in order to pass this course. Upcoming semester is energy balance time and I must prepared early before semester 3 started in order to enhance my basic and preparation to face energy balance which is quite tough subject in semester 3.
24 November 2017, 11:33 PM
Hi,may i ask how do you prepared yourself before you even taking the subject the next semester?
Im so glad to came across your reflection,because i myself also felt the same but with mechanical subject,it was so hard and makes me want to give up,but eventually this one particular subject will not be the only one to be evaluated.
Thank you :)
22 May 2018, 9:56 AM
Hi, honestly i'm not really a well prepared person. Not for all things but for certain things. So as a preparation for taking the subject for next semester, i would at least ask some of my course seniors about what we will learn on that subject. Besides, i will try to search about the subject itself. So basically it just basic way for me to prepared for taking the subject for next semester. In addition, on the first day of class, i will try to convince myself to be interest on the subject that i took. I guess that's all that i will do to prepare for it. I'm sorry if it does not really help. :)