Second Time Lucky
Why does some of the warmest and most beautiful weather we've had since Febraury have to occur right in the middle of exams?? And why does it have to last DAYS at a time?? Beautiful weather almost never lasts more than a day or two in Auckland!
Oh yea, that's right, it's because university students have exams.
How could I forget.
My fifth and final exam is next Wednesday morning. I can't express just how much I'm looking forward to 12.30pm next Wednesday! As soon as that last exam's over I'm going to relax like I haven't relaxed in a long time. In fact I'm going to vegetate for a couple of days - doing absolutely nothing. Maybe I should plant myself in the garden. There's a good spot near the fence where I'd get plenty of sun.
My fourth exam is Friday morning. I'm also really looking forward to 12.30pm on Friday, because at that point all my major exams will be over and I'll have four days to study for a relatively easy exam. I won't be quite as relaxed as I will be next Wednesday afternoon, but I might get a bit of practice in. Fortunately this exam is open-book, so, while I am panicking over it, I'm not panicking as much as I have been for the past week and a half over the exams that I've now sat.
My third exam is tomorrow morning. This is my non-engineering course, French. I'm not looking forward to this exam, mostly because I'm not likely to do very well in it. I simply can't express myself in French well enough. I'll get the grammar fine, but the writing section I doubt I'll do well in, unless they give us a good topic, and the reading comprehension might as well be written in Greek. Fortunately it's only worth 30%!
My second exam was yesterday afternoon. I was pretty worried about it, but fortunately it wasn't too bad. It was maths, and there's only a certain number of questions they can ask in it - there aren't many ways you can say "solve this equation."
Unfortunately I wasn't very prepared for two of the four sections of the exam. One of the sections was Statistics, which I passionately and vocally hate! I don't know WHY they have to keep including it in our maths papers, when statistics has almost nothing to do with Engineering! Every year they manage to force-feed us with some more Statistics, just to ensure that at least part of our degree is entirely irrelevant.
The other section I wasn't prepared for was Modelling for Optimisation. Ever since college, I couldn't imagine a branch of "maths" that I could hate more than Statistics. Then I met Modelling for Optimisation. It is the stupidest, most pointless, time-wasting drivel I have ever had to study!! It should belong in a Business paper or a Management paper, not in Engineering!
While Statistics is about as fun as watching paint dry, Modelling for Optimisation is about as fun as throwing up the morning after an awesome party, but without the horrible taste. You could argue that because I never drink enough to throw up, I wouldn't know how bad it is to throw up after a party, but I do know - I know because I do Modelling for Optimisation.
So I didn't study for that section of the exam at all.
My first exam was last Friday morning. I had an entire week to focus on just that exam, but it wasn't enough. I know I failed it, and because it was worth 70%, that means I failed the entire course. The only way I could not fail is if they do some MASSIVE scaling. It would have to be pretty big because I reckon I'll be getting a solid D.
It's annoying that I'll have to repeat it next year. So far quite a few of my friends in Engineering have failed papers and had to repeat, but I've always managed to get through with nothing lower than a C (or higher than a B). Not this time. This time I'm the one that fell off the bandwagon. Fortunately I doubt I'll be alone. At least it's always easier the second time around.
So that's my exams in an acornshell. I can't wait until they're over.
Oh yea, that's right, it's because university students have exams.
How could I forget.
My fifth and final exam is next Wednesday morning. I can't express just how much I'm looking forward to 12.30pm next Wednesday! As soon as that last exam's over I'm going to relax like I haven't relaxed in a long time. In fact I'm going to vegetate for a couple of days - doing absolutely nothing. Maybe I should plant myself in the garden. There's a good spot near the fence where I'd get plenty of sun.
My fourth exam is Friday morning. I'm also really looking forward to 12.30pm on Friday, because at that point all my major exams will be over and I'll have four days to study for a relatively easy exam. I won't be quite as relaxed as I will be next Wednesday afternoon, but I might get a bit of practice in. Fortunately this exam is open-book, so, while I am panicking over it, I'm not panicking as much as I have been for the past week and a half over the exams that I've now sat.
My third exam is tomorrow morning. This is my non-engineering course, French. I'm not looking forward to this exam, mostly because I'm not likely to do very well in it. I simply can't express myself in French well enough. I'll get the grammar fine, but the writing section I doubt I'll do well in, unless they give us a good topic, and the reading comprehension might as well be written in Greek. Fortunately it's only worth 30%!
My second exam was yesterday afternoon. I was pretty worried about it, but fortunately it wasn't too bad. It was maths, and there's only a certain number of questions they can ask in it - there aren't many ways you can say "solve this equation."
Unfortunately I wasn't very prepared for two of the four sections of the exam. One of the sections was Statistics, which I passionately and vocally hate! I don't know WHY they have to keep including it in our maths papers, when statistics has almost nothing to do with Engineering! Every year they manage to force-feed us with some more Statistics, just to ensure that at least part of our degree is entirely irrelevant.
The other section I wasn't prepared for was Modelling for Optimisation. Ever since college, I couldn't imagine a branch of "maths" that I could hate more than Statistics. Then I met Modelling for Optimisation. It is the stupidest, most pointless, time-wasting drivel I have ever had to study!! It should belong in a Business paper or a Management paper, not in Engineering!
While Statistics is about as fun as watching paint dry, Modelling for Optimisation is about as fun as throwing up the morning after an awesome party, but without the horrible taste. You could argue that because I never drink enough to throw up, I wouldn't know how bad it is to throw up after a party, but I do know - I know because I do Modelling for Optimisation.
So I didn't study for that section of the exam at all.
My first exam was last Friday morning. I had an entire week to focus on just that exam, but it wasn't enough. I know I failed it, and because it was worth 70%, that means I failed the entire course. The only way I could not fail is if they do some MASSIVE scaling. It would have to be pretty big because I reckon I'll be getting a solid D.
It's annoying that I'll have to repeat it next year. So far quite a few of my friends in Engineering have failed papers and had to repeat, but I've always managed to get through with nothing lower than a C (or higher than a B). Not this time. This time I'm the one that fell off the bandwagon. Fortunately I doubt I'll be alone. At least it's always easier the second time around.
So that's my exams in an acornshell. I can't wait until they're over.
posted by David | 5:32 pm
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