Freshman's Manual
Mukhammadsaid & Yasmina & Sarvar
Greetings to the fresh blood and welcome to IUT! Congratulations with the beginning of your adventurous journey in Inha Academic Life. This year may seem to be a tough cookie since it starts during the uneasy circumstances. Hopefully, it will teach you patience, hard work, and self-development.
Contents
- Initiation
- SOCIE
- SOL
- Tips & Tricks
- Exams
- Grading Explained
- Academic Scholarship
- What to Expect from Freshman Year?
Initiation
What does Inha mean?
Inha is a morpheme formed by the first two letters "In" of Incheon and two letters "Ha" of Hawaii, USA. It is due to the fact that Inha was founded under the Korean-American collaboration. So, whenever someone asks you what does it mean, you know the answer (taxi drivers ask it often.)
Library
Our library is located on the third floor of A campus (as far as I remember, good old days). In the library, there are tons of useful books — academic and non-academic. You can take any with your student ID and enjoy. In addition, we have also several open-spaces on various floor, where you can study with your friends, if it's possible. If you see free chairs, this is an open-space.
WiFi
Connection
After getting access to the university WiFi, you will notice that some websites are blocked. Sorry, that's the small cost of free internet. Do not forget to end your session after leaving or using university computers because you can only have two simultaneous sessions. And don't try to access gaming websites and other non-educational websites.
Disconnection
If you want to disconnect to make free up a session for some purpose (believe me, it happens often), you need to go disconnection page, keepalive for short. This is it:
https://gw1.inha.uz:1003/keepalive?050a0e050c0a0102
Canteen
According to the last year's statistics, you will need 12 000-20 000 sums to have a full-course meal at IUT canteen. Feel free to bring your food and snacks, you can warm them in the microwave if you need. There are two canteens in A building (3rd and 4th floors) and one cafeteria in building B (3rd floor). Hurry up to get a place, sometimes students overflow and produce 'tiqilinch' in the canteens.
SOCIE
Here you will find the overview of courses for SOCIE Fall Semester. Put aside jokes about the pronunciation of 'SOCIE' — it is officially 'S-OH-OSHI' or "соуши".
Introduction to IT (SOC-1010)
Credits: 3
Textbook: J. Glenn Brookshear, Computer Science. An Overview, 11th edition
Introduction to IT is the main major course in the Fall Semester. Your instructor (professor) would probably be either Dr. Agostini or Dr. Abdullaev. Both of them are well-qualified, yet with their own approach to teaching and examination. In this course you will learn very basics: computer architecture, networks, algorithms, databases — just to get a taste of computer science.
Note that this is your major course, and even though the number of credits is the same as Calculus or OOP, it can play a crucial role in the ranking system (see Academic Scholarship).
Calculus-1 (MSC-1011)
Credits: 3
Textbook: James Stewart, Calculus, 8th edition
Calculus is the study of continuity, differentials and integrals, all their applications. Your instructor would probably be Dr. Dokov, an awesome professor in my opinion. Every week you will be assigned homework, a set of problems you can solve in teams (teamwork is appreciated). Basically, throughout the whole semester you will learn what you learned to pass the entrance exams.
Physics-1 (MSC-1021)
Credits: 3
Textbook: David Halliday et al., Fundamentals of Physics, 10th edition
College Physics may seem to repeat what you studied at school; at the first glance, since it is a college physics. You will be working with vectors, differentials and integrals, and the whole first semester is dedicated to Newtonian Mechanics. Not so hard course, because the exams are "lightened"; that is, they mostly overlap with previous year exam sets. I think for the last time you will study physics it is important to learn it well, isn't it?
Object-Oriented Programming (MSC-1051)
Credits: 3
Textbook: Harvey Deitel and Paul Deitel, C++ How to Program, 9th edition
During this course you will learn the programming basics using C++. Particularly, you will be learning the C-part of it, without classes and objects. If you are already familiar with programming, don't think it would be easy, take it seriously, because the exams are really hard. There is one lecture and one lab, where you complete some assignments per week. By the way, you will be taught from the very basics, from the printing Hello, World, so don't be intimidated.
Academic English-1 (GEN-1021)
Credits: 2
Textbook: Robert Freire and Tamara Jones, Q Skills for Success, Level 4, 2nd edition
Ever felt that your IELTS wasn't high enough? The university took care of it. In fact, there are four Academic English courses you will take, and I think it's very useful. Aim of this course is to improve your listening and speaking skills. A single lesson takes up to 90 minutes, during which you are free to debate, express yourself and gain teamwork experience. You will have to either print out a chapter of the textbook for each class or get the full version at the library.
Academic Reading (GEN-1020)
Credits: 2
Textbook: Catherine Mazur-Jefferies, Reading and Vocabulary Focus 4, 1st edition
As far as I can tell, you will be reading a lot of technical stuff in English. It will certainly make you more qualified student, and to enrich you vocabulary and comprehension skills, Academic Reading was added to your syllabus. Unlike other courses, there is only one lecture per week and it lasts almost two hours. So don't miss it, four absences mean that you failed the course. Same rules as for the Academic English: print it or get it (or skip the class).
Note: If you ever tried TOEFL reading samples — this is what to expect from Academic Reading course.
Physics Experiment (MSC-1031)
Credit: 1
This lab course occurs one time per week and lasts two hours. During this course you actually will be conducting an experiment, a physics experiment. At the second half of the class you are assigned to write a lab report. During exam weeks there are no classes.
Note: Grading is the toughest I've ever seen. My maximum score for the lab was 88 out of 100, and if you get more than 95, let me know.
SOL
Statistics-1 (TSF-1311)
Credits: 3
Textbook: Gerald Keller, Statistics for Management and Economics, 1st edition
Statistics 1 — informative course, where you will learn basics of statistics using Excel (take this course seriously, because the knowledge you will gain from Statistics 1, will directly affect your results of Statistics 2). If you are already familiar with Excel, this will slightly ease the course. Your professor will be Lee Joung Yong, a strict and exigent professor. During this course, you will have 3-4 official assignments and several quizzes (might be). The book on this course is almost not needed, exams will be based on the lecture notes (pay maximum attention to them).
Note: Don't even try to cheat or plagiarize someone's work, Professor Lee will identify it immediately!
Introduction to Economics (TSF-1350)
Credits: 3
Textbook: Paul Krugman and Robin Wells, Economics, 3rd edition
This course will cover only the basics of macroeconomics and microeconomics. Your professor will be Lee Joung Young, as in Statistics. There will be 1-2 home assignments (perhaps, there won't be home tasks at all), and sometimes there will be simple exercises during classes. I highly recommend reading a book that is used on this course for better understanding, because sometimes you can get confused due to lots of graphics. Although the book is highly recommended, don’t forget to note every example and graphic given by Professor Lee, because based on them, examinations will be conducted.
Business Mathematics (TSF-1320)
Credits: 3
Textbook: Gary Clendenen and Stanley A. Salzman, Business Mathematics, 13th edition
In my opinion, this is the most interesting course during the Fall semester, where you will get into the world of business — payrolls, invoices, stocks, bonds, etc. (small spoiler). These themes require a good understanding of percentages, additions, and subtractions, you won't need higher mathematics. All that you need to be good at this course is to solve exercises from the book (checkpoints, case studies, and tests after each chapter — the most important). And the last suggestion, at the end of each chapter, there are a couple of related formulas, and you better print them out, to learn them easier/faster. I am not sure about your professor, but previous freshmen were taught by Azizbek Marakhimov, an outstanding professor.
Note: If you don't have hand calculators, you should buy it! You should buy two — one is for you, second is for your friend)
Principles of Management (TSF-1340)
Credits: 3
Textbook: Stephen P. Robbins, David A. DeCenzo, Dr Mary A. Coulter, Fundamentals of Management, 8th edition
At first glance, this subject may seem boring to you (perhaps, to some extent it is), but Professor Azizbek Marakhimov will make this subject as interesting as possible, although not effective enough. What I want to say by this - is that no matter how interesting the classes are, they have a lot of water that will not be needed in exams. Therefore, start reading the book from the first lesson (quite interesting book), and before the exams, solve the tests (which will be published on one of the telegram channels).
Note: Due to some reasons, at the moment, Azizbek Marakhimov is away, and I can't say exactly, who will be your professor, but, I guess, no matter which professor will be, aforementioned tips will be enough.
Computer Programming (TSF-1330)
Credits: 3
Textbook: Paul Deitel and Harvey Deitel, Java – How to Program, 9th edition
This course is dedicated to the study of Java, where your professors will be either Abhijit Tarawade or Kirti Seth, both are well-qualified. Although each professor has his/her approach for teaching, without practicing (coding every week), it will be difficult to be in this course. Don’t drop studying at the beginning, otherwise, it will be hard to finish up the course. One of the most important tips — don't take the theory lightly, even though this is a programming course. Theory plays an important role both throughout the course and in exams. What distinguishes the two professors is how they provide teaching material. Professor Tarawade has very useful presentations (the theory part of examinations will be based on them, by the way). However, during Professor Kirti's lessons, you should listen carefully and note everything. If you have never run into programming, it's okay, Java course will be conducted from scratch. The course will include weekly lab assignments, quizzes, and projects.
Business English-1 (GEN-1311)
Credits: 2
Come on! Don't upset, if your IELTS score is low (as you may think) and don't underestimate the course if your IELTS score 7 or higher. The main goal of this course is to be good at using business terms (which will be found in other subjects, by the way, — everything is connected, yes). Of course, there will be grammar themes (which you had to study before passing IELTS examination), vocabulary as well — one of the main parts of the course. Besides English skills, you will be learning business mails, professional profiles, and the basics of negotiating.
Note: Don’t forget to bring books on every lesson, otherwise you won’t be able to attend the lesson!
Tips & Tricks
This chapter is a combination of helpful bits of advice for online and offline study. We can't predict the future, but we hope to see you at the university hall someday.
Beware
Attendance
Do not skip the lessons. Attendance plays a crucial role in your overall grade. Although 5-10% might seem not that severe, you will need those tiny numbers at the end of the semester. Moreover, if you skip at least 25% of the lessons — you will be given a fail (F mark).
Special note: If you get sick and physically can't attend the lesson (or risk infecting other students), please don't panic. Go receive your medical certificate and get well. You can still save your grades.
To Submit or Not to Submit
Beware of deadlines. 'Ustoz, iltimos tekshirib bering' won't work. A professor may consider accepting your work after the deadline only under serious circumstances (such as server failure or global power outage).
One more deadline note. Do not submit your work later than 30 minutes before the deadline. Believe me. Just don't.
Attendance Ethics
Better to come to the lecture an hour earlier than 5 minutes later. Some professors simply lock the door after the beginning of the lecture.
Language Barrier Temptation
Many international professors are working at IUT, and they commonly use the English language to communicate with students. However, do not tempt your fate by saying any bad stuff either in Russian or Uzbek regarding the lecturer or lecture. Do not chat 'secretly' during class time. Aside from being pathetic and unethical, you will be heard and understood by your instructors that are qualified enough to translate your words.
Cheating
Cheating is strongly prohibited, as it may lead to the failure of the course. There are tons of ways to disguise your dishonesty. Paraphrasing is not and will not be enough. Do not cheat. This scenario happens quite frequently: during the exam, where cheating is strongly prohibited, one may be tempted to peep at someone's work. If the proctor sees it, you are dead. And the person from whom you were trying to copy is half dead. You both will be warned which means -50% from whatever you score in the exam. Some professors don't even tolerate the warning, they just give F and that's all. Don't cheat. DIXI.
Finding a Seat
There are many open-space spots, where you can do your homework or enjoy your time with friends, but do not disturb others. Also, do not sit on the windowsills. They may look tempting and comfortable — but you better not. I swear, it's not worth it.
Social
Friends & Fate
Make friends! Unlike other universities, you will not stay in the same group for the remaining 4 years. You will be 'mixed up' each semester, so keep the good relationships with your course-mates — you're in this together.
Yeah, but...
University is not a concentration camp — you will still have free time! Spend it wisely.
Online Studying
More Productivity
You can speed up the lecture on online.inha.uz. Press Ctrl+Shift+J (open the browser console). Insert the following code:
$('video').each(function(){this.playbackRate=1.2})
Instead of 1.2 you can type in any speed (but 1.2 is often enough).
Unspoken Truth
Online study requires a lot of energy and concentration. Do all your assignments as soon as you can. Sleep and eat well.
Miscellaneous
Excel Power
Noob alert. Make an excel table for all your courses, if you want to keep track of your results. To do so, input the grading criteria in each cell and make an overall formula. It's easy, I promise.
Links, Links, Links!
eclass.inha.uz — Assignments, Scores, Grades
iut.edupage.org — Schedules, Groups and Professors
mail.inha.uz — Your Outlook Email
ins.inha.uz — Academic Results and Ranking
https://gw1.inha.uz:1003 — IUT WiFi
http://online.inha.uz/ — Online Education System
https://taplink.cc/iut__su — All links together
Exams
The quintessential part of student's life is, you get it, exams. In one semester two weeks out of sixteen are exam weeks.
Quizzes
To keep you fit, some professors hold quizzes, small exam-like tasks you need to solve in a short time. They make up an insignificant share in the total grade (usually, 10%), but remember about the butterfly effect and always be prepared.
Mid-terms
In the 8th week of syllabus, you will take a mid-term examination. You will be tested on everything you covered till the middle of the academic semester. Usually, mid-terms are easier than finals, and there is a high chance of overlap with previous year mid-terms. There was the case when one professor gave us 2017 year mid-term with some modifications. So, make a habit of taking all previous year exam samples; ask juniors or seniors about the exam samples — they should have one or two.
Finals
Final examination, as its name suggests, is held at the end of academic year and sums up what you covered. What you covered depends on professors — some include only material learned from mid-term up to finals (8-16 weeks), and few include overall material covered from the very beginning of semester; as a result, this makes finals more interesting. Ask professors about the topics, about the type of questions (multiple-choice or text-based, etc.). They usually announce all this information in the last class; however, if in doubt, ask.
Grading Explained
Grading Measurements
Grading measurements are assigned as letters, from A to F. Moreover, each letter corresponds to particular numerical grade:
- 4.5 - A+
- 4.0 - A0
- 3.5 - B+
- 3.0 - Bo
- 2.5 - C+
- 2.0 - C0
- 1.5 - D+
- 1.0 - D0
Average total grade you earn by the end of the semester is called GPA (grade point average). It is calculated by the following formula:
You may conclude that courses with more credits are worth accordingly and have more impact on your final GPA. In addition, there is a cool grade calculator (don't forget to say thanks to the author).
Relative Grading
There are two types of grading systems used in colleges and universities in the world: absolute and relative. The former must be familiar to you as it is used at schools; your grading depends on the points you earn throughout the semester (above 86 means you get 5 and so on). However, Inha University uses relative grading, or grading on the curve, which might seem weird to you at first.
Relative grading is a method of evaluating students' performance according to the predetermined distribution of grades (e.g. 10% of students get A+, another 10% get A0 and so on).
Relative grading is a method of evaluating students' performance according to the predetermined distribution of grades (e.g. 10% of students get A+, another 10% get A0 and so on). It follows that there is no threshold for getting a particular grade; all that matters is your relative performance in your class. If, say, the highest point one got is 81.0 among all students in the course, he or she would get A+. Seems unusual, right?
There are exceptions to this rule, because each professor has their own peculiar system of evaluation. Prof. Dokov gives A+ to everyone who gets more than 90 points, thus mixing relative and absolute grading. On the other hand, most professors have also their minimum threshold, and it varies from 30 to 40 points. You will fail the course if you couldn't manage to pass this threshold. Altogether grading remains relative, and it is very hard to fail the course consciously.
Academic Scholarship
General Information
At the end of each semester, the university awards most excelled students with Academic Scholarship according to their GPA. There are 10 scholarships for SOCIE department in each student year: first 4 places are awarded with full scholarship and the next 6 are with half scholarship. Full scholarship covers the full tuition fee for one semester, while half scholarship covers the half tuition fee for one semester.
What are the rules? One must have:
- Completed more than 16 credits in the previous semester
- GPA higher than 4.0 to be eligible for full scholarship
- GPA higher than 3.7 to be eligible for half scholarship
At the end of the semester, all students are sorted according to their GPA. The top of the top who made up the first 10 places would be awarded corresponding scholarship.
If you decide to chase the scholarship, be ready to lose some of your friends. Be ready to lose the major part of your social life, be ready for depression and sleep deprivation. But this is possible.
Jokes aside, now serious stuff. Technically speaking, you can receive Academic Scholarship every semester, which means studying for free or half free except for the initial payment for the first fall semester. And all this is provided by the university itself, no sponsors — no liabilities after the graduation.
Some subtleties
Your ranking will be available on ins.inha.uz after all professors graded students. Alas, this ranking is misleading and can't fully guarantee your final ranking. Here come additional rules for Scholarship Ranking:
- Total number of credits obtained in the previous semester
- GPA of courses that are Major-Required (such as Introduction to IT, Freshman Year)
- GPA of courses that are Major-Elective (such as Circuit and Lab, Sophomore Year)
So, if you got A0 from General-Required course, OOP, for example, and another student got A0 from Major-Required course, say, Introduction to IT, your ranking would be higher than his or her, even though both of your GPA are the same.
As I said, there are 4 students that can get full scholarships. You may wonder, what if there are more people that are eligible to get the full scholarship? Consider this example that actually happened in the previous semester:
1. S1 - 4.5 (gets full scholarship)
2. S2 - 4.41 (gets full scholarship)
3. S3 - 4.32
4. S4 - 4.32
5. S5 - 4.32
...
x. Sn - m
Students S3-S5 wouldn't get either full or half scholarships. They will get (2*Full + 1*Half) / 3 scholarship, which is around 82% of full. So, Full Scholarship may not always be full. If you track your 'opponents', be sure you took into account all subtleties.
Note: there is no predetermined percent of scholarship you get with some particular GPA. You may even get 33% of full even with 4.5 GPA (probably there are more than 7 students with GPA 4.5, who knows?). It all depends on your relative ranking among all students.
What to Expect from Freshman Year?
I've seen several people who were disappointed by the freshman year syllabus. The possible reason for that the syllabus is too general knowledge focused. This is why it is called foundation year in some colleges. Don't pin your hopes on becoming a software engineer during the freshman year! This is the biggest mistake one can make — putting high expectations. Freshman year is not intended to make you professional, it is intended to give you insight into your profession, so you can determine what you like and what do not.
Authors: Mamasaidov Mukhammadsaid & Ablaeva Yasmina (SOCIE); Irgashev Sarvar (SOL)