Wednesday, August 26, 2020

An Edible History Of Humanity Essays - Food And Drink, Agriculture

An Edible History Of Humanity Essays - Food And Drink, Agriculture An Edible History Of Humanity 57169051905000For this task, first read the selections from Tom Standage's An Edible History of Humanity, accessible on Blackboard. In light of your perusing, react to the accompanying inquiries. Your reactions must be composed, in Calibri or Times New Roman size 12, and be in full sentences. While there is no set length limit, every reaction ought to unmistakably state and clarify the appropriate responses. This task will be reviewed as Skills Demonstration. Date Due:_________________________________________________ If you don't mind append this sheet to the front of your reactions when you present your task! Rubric Organizing: follows headings for task, finished altogether 5% Reactions: Questions addressed altogether and with reflection/supporting point of interest varying. Reflects comprehension of the inquiries and the perusing 90% Sentence structure: clear, familiar language with few/no spelling or linguistic blunders 5% The Invention of Farming Food as Technologies What does Standage mean when he says cultivated land is as much an innovative scene as an organic one? Does cultivating spread from one point outward around the globe? Where and when does it create? The Man-Made Nature of Maize Standage features a few contrasts among teosinte and maize. Depict those distinctions and how they profited ranchers. How did early ranchers change a characteristic procedure of determination into intentional development of explicit attributes? In view of Standage's clarification, do you thing cultivated corn is regular? Oat Innovation Clarify how intense rachis, a change unwanted for plant endurance, profited early people, and how it turned into the predominant characteristic in around 200 years. For what reason was training terrible for plants like rice and wheat? Use models in your answer. Clarify what Standage portrays as an exchange off in human training of creatures, giving models. Allude to the guide on page 12. In light of what you think about early people, what do you think clarifies why maize was tamed such a great amount of later than wheat or rice? Underlying foundations of Modernity An Agricultural Mystery State what Standage calls the most mind boggling, and most significant inquiry in mankind's history. Standage contends that cultivating was not a freedom from the on edge hand-to-mouth presence of the agrarian. Do you concur with this attestation? Clarify your method of reasoning. The Origins of Farming Clarify and dissect in any event 3 contributing variables that prompted the move towards cultivating. For what reason was it unimaginable for people to return to a migrant way of life? Did Farmers Spread, Or Did Farming Spread? Characterize demic and social dispersion. Portray the archeological proof of demic dispersion. Depict the phonetic proof of social dispersion. How did the Khoisan of southern Africa progress from chasing and assembling to training? For what reason does Standage think cultivating was a mixture of the two systems? Man, An Agricultural Animal Is man misusing maize for his own motivations, or is maize abusing man? What does Standage mean by this? How did the change to horticulture sway the nourishments we eat today? Concentrate on the last section of page 27. Do you concur with the position Standage assumes the development of cultivating? Clarify your method of reasoning, including models from the content.

Saturday, August 22, 2020

Wide Area Networks, Observer Management and Monitoring Tools

Wide Area Networks, Observer Management and Monitoring Tools Theoretical In this report the ideas of various system the board standards will be investigated with the end goal of showing how Observer oversees wide territory systems. The report will investigate the issues with WAN and how Observer conquers these issues. Presentation Wide region systems are turning out to be unmistakably more intricate and far more extensive spread than any other time in recent memory, this obviously prompts some enormous issues for the system administrators of these huge scope systems. A large portion of these systems are tremendous in estimate and can undoubtedly incorporate a whole city, though a large portion of them are cross-country. This represents the first of numerous issues for a system director, they may not be in a similar mainland as a huge extent of their system. This utilizes organize the executives programming basic, for example, Observer. Utilizing system the board programming implies the system supervisor would not need to leave their work area to discover any issue in the system whether it was in the following room or most of the way over the globe. Artistic Review The most helpful scholarly content the creator discovered was from the new proprietors of Observer, the product utilized in this report. The new proprietors ViaviSolutions have distributed a white paper on usingã‚â Observer Analyser, their most recent form of the eyewitness suite as a security apparatus. (anon, 2014) The diary by Liu et al. (2014) gave a great deal of understanding into where wide territory systems are going, and their enhancement. It contains intriguing formulae for organize improvement utilizing the Gauss-Newton strategy for nonlinear least squares. This chiefly concurs with the primary content in this survey about the nature and make up of a wide territory organize. Ahmed Boutaba, (2014) proceeds to concur to a limited extent with the remainder of the diaries about the idea of a WAN yet proceeds to examine the way that conventional controllers can cause bottle necks in the system and that deciding on SDN (Software Defined Network) takes into consideration a quicker system and a more elevated level of value in general. Ahmedi Mitrevski, (2014) takes a gander at potentially the main genuine region of conflict with respect to WANs and that is the amount they cost. The general expense of actualizing and the month to month upkeep of a system is by all accounts the main territory where experts differ about these systems. Anon (2008). This course laid out the standards of system the executives that are considered as industry standard. Cahn, (1998). This diary takes a gander at the plan of WANs and their advantages, and this likewise concurs with the standards plot in the past articles referenced, including the uncertain idea of the costing of a system. It traces there are just three significant numbers while thinking about a WAN, these are the cost, either month to month up keep, all out set up cost or a blend of both, the unwavering quality and the reaction times, and proceeds to state these are on the whole straightforwardly relative to one another, as in on the off chance that you decrease the measure of cash invested the reaction energy goes up which cuts the dependability down. Dian Septama et al., (2015). In this diary there is loads of data with respect to giving a high caliber of administration, one of the principle zones a system director faces the greatest battles and can cause the greatest issues beside security. Feng et al.,( 2014) this diary investigates this present reality use of a WAN and covers the issues in utilizing conventional strategies against new advances which are settling on more mechanization and using projects and calculations to deal with the trifling everyday running of a system which opens up the human component to concentrate their time on increasingly significant errands. Geer,( 2013)this diary concentrates more on the security and current condition of the web, however fundamentally the web is only an extremely huge WAN thus its administration and security are pertinent here (Langer et al., 2010) this diary utilizes the case of a social insurance association using the quick and secure conveyance strategies for a WAN to move secret patient records and subtleties over the WAN to remote land areas, the principle model utilized is radiology pictures. These are presently advanced pictures and are huge in size because of the goals required to precisely utilize them for clinical conclusion. Malhotra et al., (2011) this diary recreates intently the test that was completed by the creator of this report, the fundamental contrasts are this diary explores different avenues regarding a LAN and utilizations OPNET to produce the use. Shin et al., (2007) this diary concurs with Ahmed Boutaba, (2014) and Feng et al.,( 2014) in to such an extent as they express that a system ought to be observed and overseen by a calculation dependent on the current SNMP structure. Tiropanis et al., (2015)this diary investigates the advancement of systems and their separate sciences and how these have developed, explicitly into web science and web science. Furthermore, how every one of these regions are developing in their own regions and how every one of them affects the others. Travostino et al., (2006) this diary traces another true use of WANs for the appropriation of virtual machines and how they can be used to register enormous assignments affirm the system rather than just utilizing nearby assets. Wang et al., (2014) this diary reports an investigation into the eventual fate of how security of a WAN could be actualized. It costs a thought of sending the validation key over the system safely yet not by means of scientific encoding to discourage busybodies however by quantum material science. The framework utilizes high recurrence lasers channeled down fiber optic links which are encoded by the transmitter and afterward decoded by a beneficiary, the encryption is encoded into the particular recurrence of the lasers engineering and photon length. Every transmitter and recipient contain complex observing hardware which screen the approaching traffic and effectively filter for Trojan pony photons from the channel. Onlooker and wide zone systems For the reasons for this report the creator made a recreated WAN to use the product Observer to execute organize the board. The system recreated three terminals arranged in three urban areas around the globe. The comfort was reproduced as being in London, one was in Paris and the other was in New York Fig 1: Showing Simulated Geographical Location of Console (Circled) Fig 2: Showing Simulated Geographical Location of Second PC (Circled) Fig 3: Showing Simulated Geographical Location of Third PC (Circled) When the creator had set up the WAN they opened Observer on every one of the machines associated with the virtual WAN. The machine reenacted as London was chosen as the machine to be the support to deal with the system as was designed to group the information produced by the system. The other two machines used the inbuilt traffic age instrument in Observer. In spite of the fact that the product produces traffic this is of a CBR style thus the information got is clearly reproduced yet with the end goal of this report this is satisfactory. The traffic generator in Observer accompanies a plenty of choices. The default alternative sends a little gathering of parcels through on a communicate channel (ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff) the creator modified this setting to produce the top talkers and pair lattice diagrams as on a communicate channel all the traffic had all the earmarks of being producing and got by the switchs MAC address which wasnt the case. The size of the parcel and the transmission le ngth were likewise modified to give a bigger test. The creator additionally attempted to produce irregular traffic which is one of the choices yet this appeared to have no impact on the traffic created as it was consistent piece rate style reenactment traffic. Fig 4: eyewitness running on first PC (Simulated area Paris) Fig 5: Observer running on third PC (reenacted area New York) Fig 6: Traffic Generation on second PC (Paris) Fig 7: Traffic Generation on third PC (New York) On the support PC spectator was running a few of its functonal windows, first was the top talkers windows. This window is used to recognize the staations on the system with the most noteworthy traffic volumes. This is especially usefull from an administration viewpoint as to screen the character of the system so as to keep up smooth activity, and recognize potential security dangers. (Anon, 2016) the top talkers screen gives an immense measure of data about the various stations joined to the system, including the measure of traffic created and got by the hub in the two parcels and bytes, its MAC address, its IP address . From this screen the system supervisor can screen all the hubs on the system and analyze issues as they occur. In the event that a hub out of nowhere begins creating a lot of traffic for no evident explanation the system chief can have onlooker set up a caution and even have it send a SMS message or email detailing the issue. This guarantees the system administrator can keep steady over all parts of the system paying little heed to time or area. On the off chance that any issues emerge the system director can send an asset from the specialized group to determine the issue quickly so as not to affect upon the nature of administration. Fig 8: Observer Top Talkers window with Paris PC chose Fig 9: Observer Top Talkers window with New York PC chose Taking a gander at the top talkers window recognizes that the two Traffic producing PCs were without a doubt the ones with the heaviest traffic stream, trailed by the swiches and center point that associated them all together. A system supervisor seeing this screen can screen all machines associated with the system paying little heed to topographical area, even remote associations are appeared and can be observed. (Liu et al., 2014) Another window on the reassure pc is the matched grid screen. With this device the system oversee can screen the pathways the system traffic is taking on the system. Through this investigation the system director can enhance the system through steering control. In the event that a specific switch is getting the

The Last Duel by Eric Jager free essay sample

This story is set in France in 1386. This story discusses how savage this time was. It additionally states how genuine wrongdoing allegations were taken. This duel is about an offense submitted eleven before months. The duel is to be between two men who were once companions. The men are to duel each other in light of the fact that Lady Marguerite isn't permitted to straightforwardly blame LeGris herself for this wrongdoing, since she is ladies. In the timeframe the story is situated in, ladies have not many rights. Woman Marguerite sought her better half for help. She solicited him to denounce LeGris from assaulting her while he was away on business in Paris. Her significant other turns into her hero to battle for her benefit. Woman, being a lady, is viewed as his property this makes the wrongdoing against him. Marguerite suffered pregnancy paving the way to the duel. Jager tries to give us how hard it was for Lady Marguerite to shout out about the assault. We will compose a custom exposition test on The Last Duel by Eric Jager or on the other hand any comparable point explicitly for you Don't WasteYour Time Recruit WRITER Just 13.90/page I think Eric Jager is an incredible essayist. His composing is incredible and enlightening. His fight scenes depict how impeding the duel is for the two aristocrats. This is additionally significant for Lady Marguerite de Carrouges, who might be singed to death if her better half is to lose. This story is introduced in two fundamental parts, both encasing sections. This is written in a sorted out manner. To begin with, the preface talks about the contention, the duel the two men are having. At that point, Jager returns us to mention to us what has occurred in the past paving the way to the hour of the duel. This story appears to introduce new data; it doesn't show that he is simply re-composing what others have just composed. The book satisfies its motivation to clarify how the equity framework functioned and how unfeeling individuals used to be. He has prevailing at in this manner; he shows data well and has made an extraordinary chronicled plot to show what the book is intended to do. This book is a decent verifiable book and I do prescribe it to the individuals who appreciate history. Eric Jager is a decent creator, he has some expertise in medieval writing. I suggest perusing his different books on the off chance that you delighted in this one. He has likewise composed â€Å"The Book of the Heart†, and â€Å"The Tempters Voice†. This are his more established stories contrasted with â€Å"The Last Duel† witch is one of his most current. I was not an enormous enthusiast of this book. It is very elegantly composed, yet I don't generally like recorded books. I do give Jager credit since it is the best recorded book I have ever perused. It is professional and brimming with data on the point. I didn't locate the subject intriguing so I clouded my perspective on the story some-what. This story is useful for its goals, to expound on evident occasions in medieval history.

Friday, August 21, 2020

Marys Knowledge Acquisition

Chapter by chapter list Background Knowledge Acquisition Physicalism versus Sensory Perception Conclusion Mary is one of a kind since she experienced childhood in a research facility like air. She was restricted in a room that has no hues. It was all high contrast for her. This incorporates the earth as well as her instruction. She was instructed utilizing high contrast materials just, no shading was permitted to enter her dismal world.Advertising We will compose a custom article test on Mary’s Knowledge Acquisition explicitly for you for just $16.05 $11/page Learn More The decision time came when she was at long last permitted to leave her high contrast room, and in the outside world she saw a stout ready red tomato. It was her first time to see one however back in her high contrast world she was instructed that a ready tomato is red. The inquiry that jumbles resesearchers is this: Did she learn new realities or is it only the obtaining of another capacity to envision? Founda tion A woman limited in a room without anyone else is an abnormal thing except if she was detained since birth. In any case, this investigation isn't intrigued to know why Mary had to be in a circumstance that appears to be uncaring from the start. It must be clarified that beside the outrageous confinement that she needed to experience, Mary was never given a mirror and she was in a sterile situation that kept her from harming herself, for example, being wounded or cut. On the off chance that this is a piece of a human test, at that point the specialists must be reached to stop this frenzy. Another approach to manage it is to oblige the conversation. Imagine for example that there is nothing amiss with this image and the most significant thing is that researchers and analysts are allowed the chance to concentrate how an individual the way toward learning. The inquiry raised before must be replied with an away from of physicalism and how an individual learns or get information. An a ttestation was made that on the off chance that physicalism is valid, at that point Mary need not leave her jail cell or lab so as to realize that a ready tomato has a shading and not simply high contrast. Sugggest can't help thinking that physicalism is the phenomonon of knowng something dependent on the intensity of recommendation or educating. Accordingly, in the event that somebody says that a heavenly banana when ready shows a yellow shading then naturally the brain can see the ready banana in the entirety of its greatness as a delightful yellow fruit.Advertising Looking for exposition on brain science? How about we check whether we can support you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Knowledge Acquisition Based looking into the issue concentrate there is verification to ruin the case of physicalists. They fought that everything that can be thought about the physical world is reachable through instructing and this incorporates encouraging understudies utilizing abstact ideas. For example the shading red can be instructed. Be that as it may, in the experience of Mary, she had no clue about the idea of â€Å"red† as a shading. It was her first time to see a ready tomato, it was her first time to realize that the sky is blue and so on. On the off chance that physicalism depends on the possibility that information procurement about the world and all that it contains can be accomplished by essentially understanding the three-dimensional traits of an item then this hypothesis is seriously constrained. The counter-contention to physicalism is effectively rendered in the dispute that not everythig can be learned by perusing and tuning in to addresses. There are numerous things in this world that must be knowledgeable about request to be comprehended and acknowledged in its totality. This essentially implies information securing isn't just done in the theoretical domains yet additionally in the tactile level. There are things that must be handled b y the five sense so as to be assimilated and made piece of the cognizant psyche. Physicalism as a hypothesis must be adjusted to incorporate different aspects of the physical world. It isn't just about shapes and sizes yet in addition about shading, surface, and even development. A vehicle can be impeccably depicted by a talented speaker and Mary could tune in to a discourse about vehicles and leave the stay with the full conviction that she find out about vehicles than the normal individual. Mary can leave that live with the certainty of a researcher persuaded that everthing that can be learned about vehicles was at that point shrouded in the talk. Out of nowhere Mary is driven outside the patio and just before her eyes is a glimmering red games vehicle with a dashing pony logo on the hood. She is welcome to ride with a race vehicle driver and as a traveler she was shown the utilization of a safety belt and educated to kick back and appreciate the ride. The motor was started up and in almost no time the vehicle went from zero speeding up to 60 miles for every hour. Mary was persuaded that there is more about vehicles than what she read in a magazine. Physicalism versus Sensory Perception Based on the possibility of physicalism it must be accepted that shading and different characteristics that can be seen in the physical world are barred in the information procurement process. Hence, this is the fundamental shortcoming of physicalism since it does exclude the truth of tactile perception.Advertising We will compose a custom article test on Mary’s Knowledge Acquisition explicitly for you for just $16.05 $11/page Learn More It makes one miracle why shading isn't a piece of the physical element of an item. In the event that this was remembered for the hypothesis of physicalism, at that point Mary’s information acquisiotion experience, while she was restricted operating at a profit and-white room ought to have been decided as flawed and fragmented. A t the end of the day the analysts ought to have promptly found the defect in their philosophy since it is absurd to expect to instruct somebody about reality concerning an item without permitting her faculties to turn into a piece of the learning procedure. The abstact terms that were tossed at her was lacking for Mary to have a reasonable and complete handle of what a ready tomato implies. Her educators could have utilized all the showing strategies accessible to man and teach her about the awesome characteristics of a tomato yet in the event that she was never allowed to grasp one, to contact it, smell it, lastly to taste it then her learning experience is fragmented. It ought not be an amazement for scientists to understand that her concept of what includes a ready tomato is unique or ailing in subtleties when contrasted with different people’s information level in regards to the said natural product. A progressively confounded approach to manage this issue is to evaluate it utilizing Leibniz’s Law. As per this law, two indistinguishable things forces similar characteristics. Utilizing this contention, sensations and the information gathered from utilizing it is especially not quite the same as the information gained utilizing mental discernment. It drives back to the contention that just portraying an article is a deficient advance towards all out understanding and complete energy about the thing depicted. It is in this manner simple to make the end that Mary gained some new useful knowledge. It was anything but a strategy of envisioning things. She was unable to envision something that she is oblivious of. For example, an understudy can be instructed to envision riding a plane. Presently, it isn't significant for an understudy to have had an encounter riding planes. Be that as it may, in any event the individual in question has a comparable encounter, for example, riding a transport. However, more critically this understudy should have a sat isfactory information base about planes and how it capacities. For instance the kid had seen a genuine plane flying on air. The individual in question could have had an encounter viewing a plane take off on TV and simultaneously observed a few recordings of what it resembled inside the lodge. The inclination and thought of riding a plane can along these lines be envisioned without a related knowledge. In any case, a zero information on related data makes it inconceivable for an understudy to envision riding a plane. All the more critically the fundamental information required must incorporate information picked up trhough the utilization of the senses.Advertising Searching for exposition on brain research? How about we check whether we can support you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Find out More Something very similar can be said of Mary. Regardless of how diligently the educators attempted to show her the idea of â€Å"red† as a shading, that it is diferent from yellow, blue, orange, and green, at that point nothing will enlist. For Mary, shading is a theoretical idea that resembles a variable wherein one can relate various qualities. She can envision shading yet just to the extent the size of highly contrasting in light of the fact that this is the restriction of her insight with regards to the physical world. Indeed, her brain was adapted to feel that everything comes clearly. End Mary gained some new useful knowledge. She had the option to get new realities. Her undestanding of a tomato was constrained thus when she came out of her highly contrasting room, her insight about a red tomato was redesigned. Before there was no shading yet now she can recognize that in the phsycial domain, living and non-living things are permeated with shading. This is an emotional evi dence that learning isn't constrained to soaking up realities about an article or a wonder however it additionally requires the student to encounter it utilizing the feeling of smell, contact, sight, hearing, and taste. This paper on Mary’s Knowledge Acquisition was composed and put together by client Damar1 to help you with your own investigations. You are allowed to utilize it for research and reference purposes so as to compose your own paper; in any case, you should refer to it as needs be. You can give your paper here.

Thursday, August 13, 2020

Guide to MIT Academics

Guide to MIT Academics Nearly three years ago, I published a post provocatively titled “CLAAASS,” now known as “Before you Register for Classes: Tools, Tips, and Resources. This post expands on CLAAASS to discuss MIT Academics in general. It is the first installment of the Guide to MIT (coming next: residential system), inspired by the recent comMITment of the Class of 2022â€"WELCOME PREFROSH!!! The sections of this post are: 1. Degree Requirements 2. Support Resources 3. Semester Structure 4. Grading System 5. Scheduling and Registration DEGREE REQUIREMENTS (for a formal overview, go to catalog.mit.edu) The  degree program currently consists of: 6 GIRs (2 Calculus courses, 2 semesters of Physics, Chemistry, and Biology), 8 HASS subjects (including at least one in each category of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, and 3-4 subjects in one department to attain a HASS Concentration), 2 REST subjects (introductory, though rarely easy, Restricted Electives in Science and Technology, which many STEM majors automatically get through their required coursework), and 8 PE points (usually 4 quarter-long PE classes). Your chosen major(s)/minor(s) requirements, which, depending on the department, can be quite flexible. Some majors require a senior thesis. Note: at MIT, you can have at most two majors and two minors. Beyond major requirements, you will need to take a certain number of electives. The units required depend on your department, and can be taken in any discipline. Also included in the requirements are the following subject designations: Lab everyone is required to complete a lab course within their major, including HASS majors. For example, in 17.803 Political Science Laboratory, we learned statistics and the R programming language, which we later applied in an original research project. CI-H/CI-HW Communication Intensive HASS courses, youll need to take two of these, recommended one per year in the first two years. CI-Hs are pretty regimented courses which have standardized requirements across all HASS departments: about 20 pages of writing, including one essay rewrite. CI-HWs are similar, but devote more time to teaching you how to write. Some pro-tips for CI-H/CI-HW courses: attend class and/or recitation because failing one component of the class, such as attendance, means failing the whole class. Also, the courses are often capped at 25 people so the good ones fill up quickly and you need to register for the wait list and attend the first class. Good news: youll get priority as you get older, and also if you become affiliated with the department through a major, minor, or concentration. You should also check in with the professor in the second week of the semester to see if spots have opened up after the initial rush. CI-M a communication intensive course within your department. Youll learn how to present and write stuff relevant to your major. Two of these are required. An additional computational thinking requirement is being considered, along with other potential changes to the first year, so stay tuned. SUPPORT RESOURCES (Note that this is a partial list of resources based on my experience at MIT. For a full catalog of Wellness Support resources, visit studentlife.mit.edu, and talk to your friendly neighborhood upperclassmen on campus.) S^3 (Student Support Services) is the office to go to if you are struggling due to illness, personal issues, or stress in general. Deans at S^3 will help you negotiate extensions and give you general tips on how to get back on track. Note that each S^3 Dean interacts with students differently, so there is no pressure to stick to the first person you see at the officeâ€"if you feel like your Dean is not advocating for you as well as you need, you are encouraged to talk to someone else! You can get connected with S^3 easily during their daily walk-in hours  or by scheduling an appointment  in advance. Some dorms, such as East Campus, also have additional after-hours S^3 walk-in hours right in the dorm! SDS (Student Disability Services) will help with ongoing health issues, anything from a broken arm to a chronic medical condition such as generalized anxiety disorder. Once your doctor from MIT Medical or Mental Health, or an outside provider, provides documentation to SDS about your condition, professors are required by law to make reasonable accomodations for you. Your SDS Dean will work with you to determine what accommodations you might need (e.g. for anxiety, you might be allowed to take exams in a separate room, and/or be given more time to complete your exams). You will then work with your professors to figure out if those are feasible for the class you’re taking. Note that you are not required to disclose your condition, whether long- or short-term, to anyone outside SDS. Dean on Call: a lesser-known and underutilized resource that can be quite helpful for when you have an emergency after hours, right before an important assignment is due. I didnt realize how invaluable an after-hours resource can be until I accidentally studied for the wrong final exam last year, and called the Dean at 6am in a panic. He helped me figure out what to do, and I didnt fail my exam! Deans on Call are volunteer staff that work in different MIT offices during the day, so you may get someone more or less knowledgeable when you call, but its a helpful resource either way. It also shows professors that you are being responsible by reaching out to an advocate. Office Hours: all professors will hold open office hours for students. If your syllabus indicates a set time for office hours, that means that your instructor’s door should be open for you to ask for help on anything from a pset problem to something you were wondering about the professor’s research. Personally, I wish I’d taken advantage of office hours more, as many of my friends have. Last semester, a professor told me that office hours is the perfect time to satisfy one’s curiosity about the subject matter, whether you’re struggling with the material or not. TAs and Tutors: especially in your mostly-freshman GIR courses, you will get plenty of resources besides faculty to help you with your work. Larger GIRs will often have additional tutors that they can provide for you, if you just ask. When I came close to No Recording the Chemistry GIR, my TA reached out himself to arrange a meeting so I could get caught up, and it saved my grade! Though maybe I wouldn’t have needed the last-minute scramble to learn if I had taken advantage of the tutoring resources even earlier. Ask your TA, instructor, or class director, what resources are available. Some will be offered by the class, and others will be provided by outside offices, such as the Office of Minority Education (OME), which is open to everyone. If youre taking a class in Course 6 Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, you can also take advantage of the student-run tutoring service at MIT HKN. Writing and Communication Center: the WCC  experts are there for all MIT students to help with class writing and communication assignments. If youre struggling with a paper or want to run through a presentation, you can take advantage of this free service, which comes highly recommended to me by friends. Other important people: Advisor: you’ll be assigned a faculty advisor in your freshman year, and another one in your department once you declare a major (some departments will allow you to choose your advisor based on interest). No faculty member is required to advise, and freshman advisors especially are excited to help students! I have personally heard a professor agonize over how to best help his advisees struggling in their freshman fall. Remember that when you meet your advisor: he might just be your best advocate and support person, both academic and emotional. GRT (Graduate Resident Tutor): there’s at least one on every floor of each residence hall (more than if the GRT has a partner, spouse, and/or child). Your GRT is a nearby resource for emotional support and conflict resolution. They are also often a great first stop when you’re not sure who can help. SEMESTER STRUCTURE Students generally take 4 classes a semester, and often supplement them with UROPs, jobs, and extracurriculars. Certain music activities, such as MIT Symphony Orchestra, also carry credit, as do freshman advising seminars. Most classes are 12 units of credit each, which implies a 12-hour commitment per week, including lecture, lab, and/or recitation. Generally, classes wont actually take up 12 hours, at least most weeks, but some can take even longer than 12. For example, a weekly 6.00 problem set can run up to 20 hours, while some of my classes have taken 3-4 hours a week. For project- or essay-based courses, expect an influx of work midway through and at the end of the semester. These periods are known as Hell Weeks. Some seminars or music activities are 6 units of credit. There are also classes that count for 9, 18, or more units. The year consists of two semesters of 14 weeks each, plus an additional Independent Activities Period (IAP) in January, during which students can take classes on anything from bartending to becoming Bill Nye, do externships with alums, attend fun events or lecture series, or just bum around at home or on-campus. GRADING SYSTEM (for full grading policies, visit web.mit.edu/registrar) The max GPA is 5.0, so you get a bigger number for your work. Also nice: an A- = A+ = A on your transcript. Freshman: in the fall and over IAP, you’re graded on P/NR, which means that, if you get a C- or above in a class, your transcript will show a P (note that this applies to ASEs as well). If you get below a C-, you will “no record” the class, which means the grade will not show up anywhere outside MIT’s internal system. In the spring, you’re graded on A/B/C/NR basis, which means exactly what you’d expect. Your GPA does not officially “start” until freshman spring. Note that, unlike in later years, you cannot opt out of P/NR and A/B/C/NRâ€"all freshmen get graded this way. Sophomore: although the blissful days of NR are over, you can still designate one subject per semester under Sophomore Exploratory grading status. This status allows you to essentially scrape the subject from your external transcript until the following semester. Sophomore Exploratory is usually used to try new things without worrying about a bad grade. Junior/Senior: you can designate one elective subject per semester as Junior/Senior P/D/F. This option cannot be applied to GIRs or classes within your major and minor, and so is typically used for electives. SCHEDULING AND REGISTRATION (for more, visit web.mit.edu/registrar) Registration Day: every semester begins with Reg Day, which is typically a time for advisors to meet with their advisees in person to discuss scheduling. An in-person meeting is not required, however, as the registration system is online. After freshman fall, you just need to finalize your schedule online by the end of the first week of the semester. Add/Drop:  although registration feels final, it’s quite easy to change your schedule. Add Date is usually five weeks into the semester, and I’ve added classes on Add Date with instructors’ permission (though you shouldn’t wait that long!). Add Date is also the deadline to change grading status for your classes, which is an option beyond freshman year. Drop Date is much later, which is unique to MIT. It’s May, and we just had our spring Drop Date last week, about a month before the end of the semester! Even after the Add/Drop deadlines have passed, you can negotiate with your professor, advisor, and Student Support Services (S^3), to submit a Late Add/Drop Petition, assuming you had extenuating circumstances, such as illness, for the request. All the forms are now online (which is exciting because they weren’t my freshman year). Pre-Registration: essentially, pre-registration is a way for professors to estimate how many students will be taking their courses. After your freshman year, you will pre-register in the spring for your fall terms, and in the fall for IAP and spring. You can pre-register for as many classes as you want, and students often have 8 or more in their pre-reg form. Sometime around Reg Day, you will pare down those 8 to ~4. Pre-registration is also when you will enter the CI-H/CI-HW lottery, so you can know whether you get a spot in your chosen class, or an alternative, by the time you submit your official registration. Helpful Websites: If you enjoy planning your time at MIT, try courseroad.mit.edu, an amazing resources created by our very own blogger Danny B.D. ‘15. With CourseRoad, you can create multiple complete paths of your time at MIT, and easily track general and departmental requirements. If you want to plan your semester, try firehose.mit.edu, which is a new but already beloved resource for scheduling courses and extracurriculars. You can easily import your schedule into Google Calendar, pre-coded to exclude classes and activities on student holidays. Firehose also allows you to easily access course evaluations for the class (do this if you’re choosing an elective!) and, most importantly, see the average number of hours students actually spend on each class per week. Post Tagged #CI-H/CI-HW #GIRs #HASS subjects #MIT Mental Health #PE #REST subjects #S^3