May 8, 2003

• Note to all who are scared about their statistics final/grade:  This is what Stefan, my TA, said about how the professors graded the math final (from an email he sent us)…

  
  

  I just want to give a quick answer to a question a lot of people asked

  
  

  me, so I think you are all interested in the answer:

  
  

   

  
  

  The question is: why is my final exam score so low? I thought I only

  
  

  missed a couple of parts, but I really have a low score.

  
  

   

  
  

  Here is an approach to answer this question:

  
  

  1) The grading was very strict (BUT: for everybody!), I can tell you that. There were one or a couple of points taken off if the error was just minor (forgot negative sign etc...) but if the mistake was revealing major misunderstandings, the professors had no mercy. For example, if you applied continuity correction in problem 6 (normal distribution), it hurt you score pretty badly.

  
  

   

  
  

  2) Again this semester: The wording of some problems was just horrible.  There was a fierce discussion between all TA's and the professors at the beginning of the grading (yes, it was obvious to all of us that the wording was bad - and for some reason we picked on exactly the same problems...), and we even ended up giving full score to different solutions for one problem. It's problem 2c (with the two letters G and T, and how many ways there are to choose 2 G's without regarding order...) (Here’s my favorite part…) I just don't understand how the professors can be so conceited and don't let others read over the problem they made up before they print it. But I used the opportunity of not being the only TA who is pissed, and I told them they should change something, so next semester, they will probably come to their TA's and ask if the wording of their problem is ok. Wow. Unity makes strong...Sorry it doesn't help you anymore. At least, if some of you got confused with this problem, you got credit of either one of the two possible solutions.

  
  

   

  
  

  3) The score might be lower than expected, but the ranking (and therefore the letter grade) might not be. Basically, almost everybody did worse than anticipated, and that's good news for you! So don't mind the actual score too much; the curve is gonna take care of this.

  
  

  On a lighter note…I GOT AN A ON MY STATS FINAL AND AN A IN THE CLASS!  WHOOP WHOOP!  And congratulations to DANIEL and MAI who also got As in the class. WE ROCK!  WE ROCK!  Who rocks?  WE ROCK!!! 

  
  

  Ahahahahahahah…my four days of studying straight sure paid off…

  
  

  Actually, I can’t help but feel that it didn’t.  I studied from Thursday afternoon until now (Thursday afternoon)…straight…stopping for only food, sleep, and bathroom breaks….For every grade I earned, I feel like I’ve lost something.  I missed two Tai Chi classes, so I’m way behind (they finished 24!!!  DAMNNNN!), and I’ve missed going out with my friends (no dinner yesterday, studied instead).  But I did gain something…a loud ringing in my right ear.  I blame stress, lack of rest, and constant music blaring in my ear.  When I study, I always study with my headphones on because I find it way easier to study listening to my music than hearing my roommates scream while they dye their friends’ hair.  I can tune-out my music (it has to be my music, not some stuff blasting from another room); I can make music into silence.  I don’t blame my roommates at all…but I wish sometimes they would realize that we are under “24-hour” quiet hours, not “quiet when you feel like it, loud at all other times.”  So…now I have this ringing in my right ear that flickers on and off, it’s the worst at night when I’m trying to sleep…it keeps me awake with its incessant tweeting…beeeeeep (stop) beeeeeep (stop) beep (stop) beeeeep (stop) beep (stop) bep (stop) bep (stop) beeeee…eeeep…you get the picture.

  
  

  My mythology final was pretty bad.  I gave this girl who lives across the hall the study sheet and my notes because I got the feeling like she never went to class.  I actually got really mad after that because it is not my responsibility to take care of her.  I would just have brushed it off if she was sick or something on the days he gave out the review sheet, but she actually asked me where to find the answers to the vocab, and if you just went to ONE lecture, you’d realize that the vocab words were those the professor defined during lecture.  Would it have killed her to go to class, any one of the TWO days that the professor brought the review sheet?  She wouldn’t even have had to stay the whole time, she could have gotten the sheet then left.  She’s nice and all, but I hate irresponsible people.  It makes me lose faith and trust in the world.  For we, the people, rule the world, and within us are the lazy and the ignorant…

  
  

  Luckily I have a cool-ass Mythology TA and she makes me feel good about my sad, sad, situation.  For instance, professor Vasunia usually makes us switch bluebooks with the person sitting next to us to make sure we’re not cheating.  I looked at the bluebook the guy next to me had, and it was all crumpled!  It looked like he ran it over with his car…again…and again…and again….I freaked out because I CAN’T WORK UNDER THOSE CONDITIONS!!!  So I run up to the “stage,” and tell Kathy (my TA) of my predicament…she tells me to calm down, and if I get a crap BB to flag her down and she will secretly switch mine for a new one…ahehehehehe…I actually ended up switching seats to the seat I sit in for lecture and the girl next to me had a clean book, so when we switched, Kathy and I gave each other thumbs up.  Oh, I f-ed up the essay portion…my exact thought was “where am I going with this…”  (mental vomit in horror, mental vomit in horror). 

  
  

  So yeah. 

  
  

  After I got home from that, I immediately started studying for my ITP final…that’s right kids, Loretta had three finals in three days.  Clap for her misfortune, everybody clap!  I actually almost died right then and there when I realized that I didn’t read two of the chapters…but I managed to pull through and my roommate and I went to bed by 11:00 pm, which doesn’t really matter for me b/c I have this sleep problem where unless I’m dead tired I will not fall asleep for at least 1 hour and my screaming ear didn’t help (TWEET TWEET).  So I lie there for 1.5 hours and when I’m really, really close to sleep (I can tell b/c my awake thoughts become really weird and stupid, like dream thoughts) this SUPER LOUD girl comes into the apartment and she is complaining about how her hair is turning pink or something and about how her friend wears only thongs…seriously…this is what I have to deal with the night before my finals…the horror.  I wanted to explode in my bed and somehow have the blast kill everyone who has ever kept me awake unnecessarily this past week.

  
  

  Do I have a rage problem?

  • 5:04 pm
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