Cora vs. MCB54

As most of my readers are actually students I thought you guys might be interested in hearing about my experience of a Harvard lecture. I can assure you it was rather different than Cambridge.

So classes here don’t have names. They have abbreviations. This particular class was called: MCB54. Yeah. I don’t even know what MCB stands for. Maybe molecular and cellular biology. Or maybe mediocre cellular biology. Or music cellular biology. Yeah you’ll hear about the music in a second. So we walk to this place it’s quite far away, sort of like Downing site- Murray Edwards. Yeah I know. Far.  So we get there and omg the lecture theatre. Like. WTH. So it looks like a cinema. There are patterns on the wall that ressemble the Pathé Küchlin in Basel (sorry non-Baslers) (you know, these „feet“) the light is dim and kinda indirect and the seats. The seats people are the most comfortable i’ve ever sat on during a lecture. In Cambridge we are humble. We are poor. We sit on wood. These people, they sit on velvet. Actually they don’t but you get the general idea. My a** has never felt so great during a lecture. Also the combined effects of comfort and dim lighting just really make you want to go back to sleep. (In fact some people put their feet on the seat in front of them and attempt that, so it seems. Or maybe they are just very disrespectful.) And now we come to the music. So when I turn my attention to the auditory environment of the room i notice music. And then I see it: There are music videos playing on the screen. Like MTV. THESE PEOPLE ARE WATCHING MTV BEFORE THE LECTURE. It’s a crazy world. So yeah. Then the lecture started and it was ok. I mean, it was supposed to be about chemotaxis and he mentioned a few neat experiments and some very detailed signalling cascades but sadly he did not actually explain how chemotaxis works so yeah. Great. But now comes the fun part: 1 2 oder 3. For non-german speakers: who wants to be a millionaire. Or simply: the quiz. So the lecturer played some random video and suddenly everyone starts taking out these remote controls with loads of buttons. And then it comes: a lecture slide with a question. And there are four possible answers. And everyone has to press the button with the letter he thinks belongs to the right answer. It’s highly amusing. And really reminds me of the „Publikumsjoker“ in Wer wird Millionär. And then time’s up and the screen now shows the results. 55% have chosen C which is the right answer. And i cannot believe it. (not the fact that most people were right, I mean, it’s Harvard, they are kinda smart kids) Like, SERIOUSLY? A QUIZ? With REMOTE CONTROLS. Luis explains to me that everyone has a personal remote which is regiestered and certain classes require this and that it doesn’t even matter whether you get the question right or wrong. All that matters is answering it. It counts towards your degree. Like 1% or so. I can immediately see a black market of non-lecture-goers and lecture-goers arising: People could pay others to take their remote to the class so they don’t have to go themselves. Apparently you get into trouble if you’re exposed. Anyway. After the discussion of the results the class is over and we get up from those comfortable seats and make our wayto the next class. I can say, my a** has definitely never felt so nice upon leaving a lecture.