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A status report on how things have been going for me academically:
Yesterday, in the last 10 minutes of my MATH106 class, we had a pop quiz.
The quiz consisted of one question:
I froze.
For the life of me, I couldn't remember how to calculate the comparative heights of Zoë and Sydney.
Total brain block!
The minutes ticked by, until class ended. Time's up!
I turned in a paper with lots of scribbles and attempted formulas, but not the right one.
And no correct answer. AAAAAAGH!
"F! F! F! F! Total failure!" I moaned loudly, as I handed in my quiz.
Ah, well. It's just one quiz out of dozens, worth only 10 points. Hardly a drop in the bucket. All the other quizzes I've taken so far have been 10/10 points, and according to the syllabus, at the end of the quarter, the lowest quizzes will be dropped from grading.
But still, my ego is bruised. I don't do math under pressure very well.
In hindsight:
Zoë's height = Sydney's height + 300%
Sydney's height (6") is 100%.
Zoë's height = 100% + 300% = 400%.
400% = 4.0
100% = 6"
4.0 * 6" = 24"
Zoë is 24" tall. (Zoë and Sydney are really short.)
*sigh*
On the upside, today we got our CSCI112 first midterm exam results back. I got 76/80 points, an 'A', which was the highest grade in the class! Yay me!
(Of course, I know most of the material already, this being a web resource creation and management class... but still!)
I'm also happy to report that, we're almost halfway through the quarter, and:
* I have not missed a single class! (Though I have been 5 minutes late to one, and I was tempted to skip it - BUT I DIDN'T!)
* I have not failed to turn in a single homework assignment! (Though in MATH106, this is a challenge, because it takes me so long to work through the assignments... and due to poor time management on my part, I didn't have time to finish a couple of assignments, turning in incomplete homework for a partial grade... and on one embarrassing occasion, I did the WRONG homework assignment, only realizing it 10 minutes before it was due, and had to rush through the assignment to get as much as possible done before the due time to receive partial credit. Fortunately, in this class, the lowest-scored homework assignments are dropped when calculating the final grade.)
These two things - skipping class and not turning in assignments - have always been the two biggest bugaboos of my entire academic career, going all the way back to Grade 1. I'm determined to not give in to the temptation this time!
ADDENDUM: 26-OCT-2006
Got the quiz back today. The instructor actually gave me 7 out of 10 points for the quiz, because it was clear from my scribbles that I understood how to do the problem, even though I wasn't able to come up with a correct answer. That's a relief! Chalk it up to test-taking anxiety.
Yesterday, in the last 10 minutes of my MATH106 class, we had a pop quiz.
The quiz consisted of one question:
Zoë is 300% taller than Sydney. If Sydney is 6" tall, how tall is Zoë?A simple, straightforward question.
I froze.
For the life of me, I couldn't remember how to calculate the comparative heights of Zoë and Sydney.
Total brain block!
The minutes ticked by, until class ended. Time's up!
I turned in a paper with lots of scribbles and attempted formulas, but not the right one.
And no correct answer. AAAAAAGH!
"F! F! F! F! Total failure!" I moaned loudly, as I handed in my quiz.
Ah, well. It's just one quiz out of dozens, worth only 10 points. Hardly a drop in the bucket. All the other quizzes I've taken so far have been 10/10 points, and according to the syllabus, at the end of the quarter, the lowest quizzes will be dropped from grading.
But still, my ego is bruised. I don't do math under pressure very well.
In hindsight:
Zoë's height = Sydney's height + 300%
Sydney's height (6") is 100%.
Zoë's height = 100% + 300% = 400%.
400% = 4.0
100% = 6"
4.0 * 6" = 24"
Zoë is 24" tall. (Zoë and Sydney are really short.)
*sigh*
On the upside, today we got our CSCI112 first midterm exam results back. I got 76/80 points, an 'A', which was the highest grade in the class! Yay me!
(Of course, I know most of the material already, this being a web resource creation and management class... but still!)
I'm also happy to report that, we're almost halfway through the quarter, and:
* I have not missed a single class! (Though I have been 5 minutes late to one, and I was tempted to skip it - BUT I DIDN'T!)
* I have not failed to turn in a single homework assignment! (Though in MATH106, this is a challenge, because it takes me so long to work through the assignments... and due to poor time management on my part, I didn't have time to finish a couple of assignments, turning in incomplete homework for a partial grade... and on one embarrassing occasion, I did the WRONG homework assignment, only realizing it 10 minutes before it was due, and had to rush through the assignment to get as much as possible done before the due time to receive partial credit. Fortunately, in this class, the lowest-scored homework assignments are dropped when calculating the final grade.)
These two things - skipping class and not turning in assignments - have always been the two biggest bugaboos of my entire academic career, going all the way back to Grade 1. I'm determined to not give in to the temptation this time!
ADDENDUM: 26-OCT-2006
Got the quiz back today. The instructor actually gave me 7 out of 10 points for the quiz, because it was clear from my scribbles that I understood how to do the problem, even though I wasn't able to come up with a correct answer. That's a relief! Chalk it up to test-taking anxiety.
