Halloween

One thing that I really like about Berkeley College is that they use the latest technology. When I have math for example, the professor uses the projector, which is connected wirelessly to some kind of device that he can draw on. What ever he draws will be shown on the big screen as you can see on the picture.

The drawing device is like I said wireless so he can actually walk around in the classroom while showing examples on the big screen. This is very helpful, not only for the teacher but for us, the students.

I will take finance next quarter, and I will probably take statistics after that quarter. I am looking forward to that a little actually even though it is math because the same teacher I have now in college algebra, I will have in statistics.

The Halloween parade is taking place right now in Manhattan. I decided to stay at home because it is very crowded there and I was there last year. The subway gets crazy around this time because of all the people showing up.

I think that there are about two million people every year that go to watch the parade. It is definitely an experience to be there and I do not think there is anything else like it anywhere in the world.

I had to buy a new metro card today. I do not think I have mentioned this in my blog before but a monthly unlimited-rides metro card is $81. I think that it is pretty cheap actually. $81 will take you anywhere in New York City and you can use the subway as well as buses.

I will have a test in math this Monday. It is only a quiz, consisting of five problems but there will be a bigger test on Wednesday. The quiz is only to prepare us and I think that it is a great idea that really helps students to perform better on the tests.

I also have a test in consumer behavior. I will have to read three chapters for Thursday, which is when that test is taking place.

I am preparing for my trip to Sweden this Christmas. I am really looking forward to go there because I have not seen my dad for almost a year. My mom was here just about a month ago but I miss her too.

I will bring my fiancée to Sweden and I am really looking forward to show her around and tell her about places I used to go to. We will probably travel to Stockholm too to celebrate New Years Eve.

I am from the south part of Sweden so we will have to take the train there. I think it is a five-hour ride, so it is not that bad. I will take a lot of pictures and probably post some of them here. 

Good News

My math class was cancelled yesterday, which was my only class. That could have been good news if I would have found out about the cancellation before actually going to school.

I was supposed to have a quiz in math tomorrow but it has been postponed to Monday, since last class was cancelled. We are right now calculating linear functions and drawing graphs. It is not that hard so I am not suffering too much right now.

It was not all bad that I went in to school yesterday. I still had to go to the gym and I also had to pick up a book at the Manhattan library.

I found out today that my business law midterm has been postponed one class. That is great news because that means that I only have one test next week, which will be in consumer behavior.

Another good news is that my consumer behavior teacher decided to split up the test next week because he considered it being too much. Instead of having six chapters, we will now only have three.

It is still a lot of information though and we will have a test on the next three chapters the week after.

I also got back my test in microeconomics today. The average score was 73 out of 100, which is pretty low. I got 98 though so I am very happy with that. The mistake I made was a question in which I had at first put the right answer and then changed it to another one.

That was a little annoying but since I got a great score I really do not care about it that much.

There will be a Halloween parade this Friday in Manhattan so I will go there with my fiancée. It is always very spectacular and there are all kinds of crazy people there. The costumes that some people come up with are brilliant.

I am thinking about attending a football game. I have talked to a friend of mine and we both really want to go. The stadium is located in New Jersey but there are buses going there. A roundtrip only costs $10 so it is definitely affordable.

We want to go as soon as possible because Super Bowl is coming up and prices are increasing every week. We have been thinking about buying tickets for about $200. Since we will not attend many football games we thought that it might be worth it.

We will get great seats if we spend that much so that would be a really fun experience. 

Ice Skating In Bryant Park

The pond in Bryant Park is now open for ice-skating and I am really looking forward to go there to skate. I will probably go there today with my fiancée and we have our own skates so we will not have to pay anything for it.

I have not studied much this weekend because I do not have any tests coming up next week. I did type down my notes from my business law class though and they now count to about ten pages in size 10, which is a lot.

I had a really good time with my friend yesterday. We had decided to have breakfast together so I took the train to Chelsea to meet him. We went there about six months ago but they were closed that time so I was looking forward to go there again.

My friend told me that they had great fried potatoes and after tying them, I very much agree with him. We actually ordered a lot because both of us were very hungry. We shared a plate of three huge pancakes, had one omelet each, and some mini muffins and bread with strawberry jam.

I think that the United States has the best breakfast in the world. It is probably the unhealthiest too but I really do not care about that because I do not eat that kind of breakfast very often.

After having breakfast, my friend and I went to a bar to have a beer. It was after 12.00 PM so it was not too early for a drink. Chelsea is a really nice neighborhood in Manhattan. There are several excellent bars and restaurants so I really recommend people to go there sometime.

After saying goodbye to my friend, I had to go to a post office to ship a book that someone bought from me online. Most post offices were closed because it was after 1 PM and Saturday. There is, however, one post office that is open 24/7 in Manhattan.

It must be one of the biggest post offices in the world. It is located on 31^st Street at 8^th Avenue. Whether people have something to send or not, they should just go there to check it out because it is a beautiful building.

There were a huge number of police cars while I was there. I am not sure of what was happening but I have never seen that many cops at the same time before. It was not related to the post office because they were circulating around Madison Square Garden. I think that there might have been some sort of threat that they had to respond to. 

Weekend!

I had a test in microeconomics yesterday. I had not studied for it much because I felt that I already knew most if it since the first weeks have been a small review of material covered in macroeconomics.

I do not want to say that the test was easy but I did not have a problem with it. It was a multiple-choice test and many questions were similar to the ones I was asked in my class in macroeconomics.

The test covered supply and demand, the production-possibility frontier, opportunity costs, and some other things. I find it very interesting and I think I will get top score on the test.

I do not have any tests coming up next week but I have two tests the week after that. One test will be a multiple-choice test in consumer behavior and the other one will be a test in business law.

I assume that the test in business law will be pretty challenging because we have covered a lot of material from the book. We have, among other things, talked about contracts and damages and it is very interesting. I am sure that it will be very useful in the future in some way.

We will also talk about real estate. We have talked about it in some extent already because some of it was covered in the chapter about contracts. This knowledge is great to have since I live in an apartment and have a landlord so I know a lot more know about laws that I might be affected by.

I did not sell all my books in school this quarter so I tried to find another way to sell it. I found a website called www.half.com and they let you sell books online. It is a subsidiary to EBay and it is very practical. I have sold two books in a few days so I am very satisfied with that site.

I will go out to have breakfast with a friend tomorrow. My fiancée needs to visit a museum with her class so I thought that it was a good idea to do so. I have heard that the place we will go to have great potatoes so I am looking forward to go there since I love potatoes. I do not know what it is called though because I have never been there before.

I will meet up with my fiancée after that and we will probably go to Union Square to shop a little. We have been thinking about catching a movie tonight but we will see if we are in the mood for that later. 

Study Tips

I remembered that my math teacher gave me some study tips in the first class. It is really helpful for people that might have problems when studying math. The guidelines are not very advanced but they really do help so here they are:

There is no substitution for study – practice, practice, and practice!

Math is an activity, like an exercise program. To be a successful student, you have to work on math. That is, do problems nearly every day. If circumstances force you to skip a few days, you will find that you’re a little out of mathematical shape when you return to it.

As an exercise program, it is possible for anyone to become mathematically fit with some diligence and a good attitude.

Reading a math book is different from reading a novel or even a history book. You can take your math book with you on a bus, but you may not get very much out of it during the ride. To read a math book and understand it you need to have a pencil in your hand and work through the examples along with the author.

At the end of every paragraph, or even every sentence, stop and ask yourself if you really understood what you just read.

When you find a topic difficult, it is easy to become discouraged. Given enough time, most of the topics in this course will come together for you. However, it is not just the time you spend with your head in the book and a pencil in your hand.

It is also the time you spend watching football on television or playing with your dog. Some mathematical concepts need percolating time, a few hours or even a few days to sink in, regardless of how hard or long you work on problems.

The best advice is that if you find yourself becoming frustrated, put down your pencil and think about something else for a while. Let your subconscious work on it and come back later. However, get help when you need it.

Some of the material you knew before will have faded. Sometimes you should look back over the things you have already done, convincing yourself that you still know how to do the earlier assignments. Do this before you go on to the new material.

This is what my professor told me and other students and I really believe that it will help some people to improve their study techniques. 

Registration For Next Quarter

I got back my score for the math test today. I got 15 out of 15 correct so I feel really happy about that. I feel a lot more confident about the rest of the math course now and I really think that I will be able to get an A without any bigger problems.

My business law class started of with some political discussions today. It is not very uncommon actually but today’s class was very amusing. We talked about an episode from the show “Family Guy” that caught some attention in the news.

Apparently, Stewie, a character in the show, stole a Nazi suits from some Germans during the Second World War. When they zoomed in on the suit, there was a McCain, Palin button on it. We talked about if it was right or wrong but also if teachers should be allowed to wear buttons like that in school.

The connection to business law was that there was an actual lawsuit against a teacher that wore a political button like that. It was an interesting discussion and almost everyone in the class has something to say about it.

I got back my quiz from the microeconomics class today. I got 5 out of 8 because I did not know that there were three more questions on the back of the paper. I see it as if I got 100% correct though because out of the five questions I did answer, everyone was correct. The professor told us that the average was actually lower than 5 out of 8, which makes me feel a little better.

Registration for next quarter started this week. I almost forgot about it but I registered after my last class today. It is not possible to book an appointment anymore. Instead, people will go there and the first person showing up will be the first one to be served. I do not know if I prefer that system because I had to wait for two hours today.

Berkeley College is, however, growing so I can understand that it will be a lot more efficient to do it this way. I was also showing up pretty late today so if I would go there at a more appropriate time, I would probably not have had to wait that long.

Next quarter will be interesting. I will have principles of finance, international business, anatomy and physiology, and professional selling. I am not that fond of anatomy so I might switch that class to forensic science. I have to choose a science class though since I want to take a science elective.

I will think about it tonight and if I decide to change that class, I will go to the advisor’s office tomorrow to switch to forensic science. 

Math Test

I stayed home the whole weekend. I had to study a lot for my upcoming test in math and in microeconomics.

I used to have problems with creating equations based on questions, but the new teacher has taught me how to do it in an easy way. I feel a lot more confident about it now and I can thank my professor for that.

There were 15 questions on the test and ten of them consisted of pure numbers and equations, the other five were essay questions dealing with creating equations based on different problems.

The professor puts a lot of effort to the class, and he actually gives everyone a different test so no one will be able to cheat. Berkeley College’s small classes make this possible but the teacher himself is also very generous.

I had the test this morning and I was not very nervous about it. I studied for ten minutes before the class began so I was able to double check if I was ready or not. The test was not that hard and I think I did fine.

I went through the test one more time before handing it to the teacher and I think that everything is correct. My professor will probably post the results tomorrow so I am looking forward to see my score.

I also studied for my microeconomics test. My professor is great and he put up review questions on blackboard so that students can practice for the test. There are 20 questions posted and I got 19 out of 20 correct on my first try so I am very confident that I will get a good score on the midterm.

I am going to study some more for it this week but I will not work too hard on it. Just like macroeconomics, microeconomics is easy for me. The first midterm covers some of the things we talked about in the macroeconomics class too so that makes it a little easier for old macroeconomics students.

I also typed down my notes from my business law class this weekend. It took me about two hours to do that and I already have eight pages with size ten typed down. I am sure that the midterm will be pretty big so I think it is good that I am already repeating the things we have talked about. 

Bad Mistake

I had a very eventful day today. Unfortunately, it was not in a very good way. The day started off great with my business law class. The teacher is very funny and it is interesting to learn more about the court system in the United States.

Instead of talking about business law, we discussed politics and last night’s debate between McCain and Obama. It was not directly related to business law but it was still interesting to talk a little about it.

I did not open my mouth until a Swedish student claimed that we have an income tax of 26% in Sweden, which is an entirely underestimated rate. I also explained that people will have to count other taxes to get an understanding of how high the tax really is.

Berkeley College is a very clean and modern school so I was surprised when hearing someone scream after he saw a roach in the classroom. No one stepped on it so after that moment everyone was kind of tense and nervous, continuously looking at the floor.

I had a quiz today and I am a little disappointed with it. I thought the test contained only one page. Unfortunately, there were five more questions on the back of the paper. I noticed it after I turned it in so I asked my teacher after the class if I could fill out the missing answers. However, he did not let me, which I can understand.

Him and I actually laughed a little about it because he knows that I am one of the best students in the class. Fortunately, it was only a quiz so I will probably only lose 3.5 points. If I get all the questions right, which I think I will, it will also show that I have knowledge about it and that I mistakenly did not see the other page.

It was another volatile day at Wall Street today. DJIA was down approximately 400 points during the day but amazingly recovered and closed at 400 points up.

It feels good that it is weekend. I will have to study a lot though because I have two midterms next week. The first one is in college algebra and the second one is in microeconomics. I feel pretty confident about both of them but I want to review the math because I really do not want to disappoint myself.

I will also go to Central Park to have a walk with my fiancée. It looks fantastic during the fall and the air is very fresh. I will not bring my SLR camera, but I think I will bring a small compact camera to at least capture some of the nice environment.