rakkauden ja epätoivon laulu

I can get a "with Distinction" notation on my B.Sc parchment if I have a 3.5 GPA over the last two years.

Because my Sociology grade isn't in yet, I've done the calculations and I need at least A- to get comfortably into that range (or at least B- for the customary "3.45 rounds up to 3.5").

I think it should work out. I didn't do terribly bad in that class, and if I was able to manage a B in psych, anything can happen. :-)

And now 3.5 over the last two years ;-)

Winter 2009
Course Code	Course Name	Grade	Avg	Credits	Points
CHEM 433	Structure in the Solid State	A-	3.3	3.0	11.10
GERM 212	Intermediate German II	A	3.4	3.0	12.00
MATH 241	Geometry	A	2.2	3.0	12.00
PSYCO 258	Cognitive Psychology	B	2.7	3.0	9.00
SOC 301	Sociology of Gender	B+	3.3	3.0	9.90
			Total	15.0	54.00
				Term GPA	3.6

A+ (4.0) | A (4.0) | A- (3.7) | B+ (3.3) | B (3..0) | B- (2.7) | C+ (2.3) | C (2.0) | C- (1.7) | D+ (1.3) | D (1.0) | F (0.0)

Again there's a fancy letterhead-looking sheet of A4 paper in a fancy letterhead-looking envelope with some other sheets of regular A4 paper with words printed on them.

The fancy letterhead-looking sheet doesn't have the squiggle signature this time because there's a new person in the position to sign it now. It's a certificate of my finished Finnishness (ahahahahaha bad pun), or rather, an official letter stating that I did these courses and that these other sheets of paper are my official transcript of my grades. With the official blue ink stamps and such. Simple. Practical. Efficient.

Finnish courses are graded on a scale of 0-5 with 5 being the best and a 0 being a fail - I knew I had a 5 in crash-course-in-Finnish since I had found a completely Finnish-language email to that effect in my temporary jyu email account. And I put forth such an admirable effort in the intro-to-interculturalness-type-stuff class that I'm not surprised that I got a 5 in that too. I only got a 4 in omg-zzz-let's-see-what-Nils-is-up-to-instead class, but somehow I get the feeling that few people got a 5 in it, given how boring it was and how it was really BS in our essays.

Yeah, that's the only excitement in an otherwise crappy day, in which the zipper on my pencil bag broke, I did the wrong page in my book for German homework, and an elevator door closed on me, causing me to spill my entire lunch (which I had *just* bought 5 minutes ago) on the floor¹.


kyrasantae: and woo i have 10 random european credits.²
gemigemi: :) I noticed
kyrasantae: ...
kyrasantae: RANDOM, I TELL YOU!!


__________
¹ Which really doesn't seem so bad anymore once you realize that a typical take-out meal in Finland costs around 6-7€. That's nothing compared to $5.50 for this wasted lunch. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the taxes. It's such a strange (and unfounded) feeling of affluence after coming back.
² That's only 1/18 of a bachelor's degree. Gosh, they make it look so easy.

I don't expect it to be *quite* as good as last time, though. This is starting to look pretty good, though Chem is very much the make-or-break one because it *was* a really difficult course that whose lecture material went a little more over my head than it should have. W00T

Winter 2008
Course Code	Course Name	Grade	Avg	Credits	Points
CHEM 333	Inorganic Materials Chemistry	B	2.7	3.0	9.00
EAS 100	Planet Earth	A-	2.8	3.0	11.10
GERM 112	Beginners' German II	A	2.6	3.0	12.00
PHYS 211	Thermodynamics and Kinetic Theory	B	2.8	3.0	9.00
SOC 367	Knowledge and Human Society	A	2.9	3.0	12.00
			Total	15.0	53.10
				Term GPA	3.5

A+ (4.0) | A (4.0) | A- (3.7) | B+ (3.3) | B (3.0) | B- (2.7) | C+ (2.3) | C (2.0) | C- (1.7) | D+ (1.3) | D (1.0) | F (0.0)

Or I think that's what it is - anxiety. I've long attributed it to some odd consequence of my diet, but I'm definitely getting the feeling that it's from freaking out.

Let's tally all this up:

Extra-curricular Activities

• I dropped 4 hours per week of extra-curriculars this year, only to put back a definite 3.5h/week (if I get hired for SafeWalk) and up to possibly another ~1.5h to 2h/week (on a more on-and-off/casual/as-required basis)
• I already have an on/off 2h/week committment to Asian Students on Kampus (I skip a number of their events - such as movie nights - for 'too much Christianity' reasons)
• This music club stuff. _{UF extra commentary}
• I also decided to get involved in the residence government, since it's a consensus-based, non-hierarchal body and that means there isn't a 'ladder' to climb before one actually has any power. This is the 0.5h/week from the 3.5h figure above (~1 hour meeting every other week). But that's just meetings. I volunteered to work on the monthy newsletter and I might come up with some silly ideas for events like a lip-synch/air-band show and then end up having to organize those too.

Academics

• I have class starting at 8AM four days a week and one of those mornings is a chemistry lab
• Both of my chemistry lab courses are extremely anal about their respective dissimilar lab book formats
• I've been asked to keep my mouth shut about German grammar until after the midterm exam :(
• ZOMG101 (the GLOBAL WARMING!!!!!!!!!11eleventyone! class) is still a total mess to me and my friends - we have those 30-page journal papers to read and we still have no idea what the prof is going on about and he won't put up his lecture slides in colour, which totally ruins most of the charts and maps and diagrams on them, and his guest speakers give presentations that are 10000000 (ten million) times more interesting, informative, and factual. Uhhuh. What am I supposed to actually KNOW for the exams?
• There are three more class periods before our first English paper is due and my prof still hasn't actually managed to show us how to do a 'close reading'/analysis of a poem. I know that while the traditional study of literature is about hypothesizing about what the author of the work may have meant through the text its social context (wait, isn't that comparative lit?) - which would make a paper about a 'close reading' a bit of a research paper - my take on what a 'close reading' is is much more personal - how do I interpret the poem personally - thus illustrating the enduring appeal of the work as, well, literature. Anyway, if she doesn't get through that in the next period (tomorrow), I'm booking a nice, long office hour with her to figure out what I need to write about and how to go about it. She can't expect us to know how to write such a paper already; this is a freshman-level English course.
• German may be my shoo-in for one A in each of my terms this year, but I gotta keep the rest of the grades up there too. Not only is this year my LAST and FINAL chance (LETZTE und ENDGÜLTIGE Gelegenheit; VIIMEINEN ja LOPULLINEN tilaisuus _{okay that took far longer than it should have}), I want to try for a 3.2 (B-just-shy-of-B+) so I can get a $1000 scholarship.

Life

• I gotta cook for myself amidst this whirlwind of activities
• My RA is wondering how I'm getting along with integrating myself with the floor/house. It's not working very well, mind, given that I appear to have been stuck with the party wing of the floor. I'm not a big fan of the spontaneous events that happen around here like parties (don't tolerate drunkenness), poker night (don't play casino games), loud conversation (I wanna sleep, k?), soccer (too much running), and loud music (ugh, techno/dance); I prefer quieter pursuits such as just studying in the same room or the occasional conversation while cooking or maybe chess/board games. The organized events are a little better - I still get a little bit of the outcast feeling and claustrophobia from the larger group, but they are supposed to be organized with a schedule of events and a sort of plan for the proceedings so at least SOMEONE will know what's going on and they have also filled all of the appropriate paperwork, which means that they are usually events at which alcohol is not allowed.
• I gotta keep on top of this "going to bed at appropriate times, provided the rest of the floor is not peeving me off with their partying and loud music and playing frickin' soccer in the hallway at midnight" thing, or it's gonna affect my academics. Again. (See point above about the last chance thing.)

Will fill in as they come in.

Fall 2006
Course Code	Course Name	Grade	Eng. Course Units	Grade Points
CH E 312	Fluid Mechanics	D	3.5	3.50
CH E 374	Computational Methods in Engineering	W	(3.5)	N/A
CIV E 270	Mechanics of Deformable Bodies I	F	4.5	0.00
MAT E 340	Materials Thermodynamics	D	3.0	3.00
MAT E 357	Fundamentals of Physical Metallurgy	D+	3.8	4.94
STAT 235	Introductory Statistics for Engineering	D	4.0	4.00
		Total	18.8	15.44
			Term GPA	0.8
Winter 2007
Course Code	Course Name	Grade	Course Units	Grade Points
C LIT 202	Literature of the European Tradition II	A	3.0	12.00
MATH 253	Theory of Interest	B+	3.0	9.90
PHIL 250	Ethics	B+	3.0	9.90
PHYS 230	Electricity and Magnetism	B-	3.8 (Eng.)	10.26
SOC 225	Criminology	B	3.0	9.00
		Total	15.8	51.06
			Term GPA	3.23
			Aggregate GPA	1.92

That empty Term GPA box needs to be between 2.8 and 3.4 for me to keep on being here. ≥ 3.4 gets me into Science. (Strictly speaking, the range is actually 2.64 ≤ x ≤ 3.29, because it's rounded to two digits.)

Edit: Oh so close...

I mentioned here that I was getting a copy of my essay for the English final exam. Well, my prof had forgotten about it, and gave me a copy today after I reminded her. Remember the context; it was a couple of days after the Second Sundering (is this starting to sound a bit like Ansalon?), and I was mulling over switching to chemistry.

(There may be typos from my transcription.)

( A friend is considering transferring into Engineering at the university. Write an essay to persuade her to reconsider. (at least 500 words) )

Written in about an hour and twenty minutes, I got a B+ on this paper, which is, if I remember correctly, the highest grade my prof gave on the final exam (I don't think I was the only B+ though). Not only that, it's written in some of the most legible cursive I've ever used on an exam.

Woot, it's 1000 words - 200 more than I estimated.

Updates as they come.

CME 265 (4.5): B = (3.0 * 4.5 = 13.5)
MAT E 256 (4.3): B- = (2.7 * 4.3 = 11.61)

Looking a bit brighter... though with at least one F coming in, there's still no way I would have gotten past the 2.2 (full year) competitive average to get into Science. This means, however, I shouldn't be on probation next term... as I know I have at least a B in English. Hmmm... I suppose I could still slack, though. It may also mean I can take science classes fulltime. But I'll have to confirm with the advisor about those.

MATH 201 (3.5): D = (1.0 * 3.5 = 3.5)

Okay, what the fuck just happened? I hardly answer a single written question on the final and get this?! Must have fluked out on the multiple choice or something. Now I gotta redo my schedule for the fall - I'll talk to the advisor as soon as all of my grades are in and discuss whether I can take science courses.
I have a feeling I may have fluked out with a D in thermo too.

WHY!?!?!?! I don't know if it should be tears of joy for passing or tears of disappointment for not putting in the paper for admission to Science.

At this rate I'm probably not switching to chem anymore. It just wouldn't be worth the extra two years (due to credit considerations).

SOC 366 (3.0): C+ = (2.3 * 3.0 = 6.9)
ENGL 199 (3.0): B+ = (3.3 * 3.0 = 9.9)

CHE 243 (3.5): C = (2.0 * 3.5 = 7.0)

OMG, HOW THE FUCK DID THIS HAPPEN?!?! (The professors did have a tough time putting the marks on a curve, though.) Now I'm just...completely speechless.


Total/average thingy: 52.41 / 21.8 = 2.40




Last update 15. May 2006, 1645h

I wanted to post this earlier, but I was too exhausted. I woke up from a 5 hour nap to a call from my parents, asking about my exam this morning and the transfer process.

Thermo"dramatics", indeed.

Written this morning before the exam:

===

- Do not cry, my child, it will be over soon.

- But this last fight, what of it?
Must I still battle on?

- The world will go on turning without you.
Your friends will live; they will remember you.

- There's no use fighting, is there,
when in doing so I will die,
and in not doing so I will perish?

- This battle is not the one to win the war.
Wars are never won. All they do
is take people like you to heaven.

- Then I shall fight!

- It may be better to stay behind.
You are nearing the end; you will find
your place with your comrades in time.
For now you should rest. Be at peace.
The poison will leave you and the pain will be gone.

===

I listened to the people around me write enthusiastically on their papers... it's the last exam of the exam season and people are understandibly eager to get it over with. It's a long one too, three hours compared to the usual two (or 2.5, for math).

I didn't know how to do too much on the paper. I could do a few things, but not too much. Optimistically, I pulled off maybe 30% on that paper. It's worth 55% of my final grade. Nuh-uh. I don't see a D waiting for me on the other side.

I sat around, doing some estimated grade calculations on the back of a formula sheet.

Whether I pass or fail this course, I'm going to be on academic warning. Not only that, I'll be *squeakingly* close to the cut-off point for requiring to withdraw for a year... Academic warning means I have to take a certain course load next year (which will be less than engineering course load, of course...anything is less than an engineering course load), and have to maintain a GPA above 2.0/4 (equivalent to a C).

It shouldn't be a problem when I'm in chemistry, because I want to do chemistry specialization (instead of the general major/minor route), and that requires a 2.3 (C+) to stay in the program (otherwise you have to drop back to the general route). Plus I've always done well in Chemistry. I got a B and a B+ in intro chem last year, and another B in organic chem this year even with the final exam blankness.

Well, it's over now. Just the last little hassle of getting the transfer paperwork in on Monday and I'll be free again.

I'm thinking of incorporating the above, uh, creative writing bit into a new fantasy story/novel or something. I've never been terribly good at carrying a storyline, but maybe if I just write without thinking of a plot, something will happen... and I've been away from fantasy writing for so long (since the Sundering six years ago), the Awakening has made me feel that I miss it a little.

I took the weirdest gamble on my o-chem exam yesterday. I hadn't been to class since the midterm and knew absolutely nothing about reaction mechanisms, except for a little bit that I picked up through reading the background material for my labs.

Last week I went to a "final exam review session," where a grad student did tons of example questions, mostly on the aforementioned reaction mechanisms that I know nothing about. I didn't really learn anything, since it was being assumed that I already knew the basics of them.

I read through my prof's lecture notes (which are really good) and desperately tried to memorize stuff.

Problem is, these reaction mechanism thingies...it's like doing integrals or playing a musical instrument. To really know how to do them, you gotta practice, practice, practice. And I didn't have the time for that.

I looked through my prof's sample exam paper (he used to teach this class at Ohio State and he still has some of his old course websites up and you can see some of those sample exams there, just to see what I was up against) and went to bed at 6AM Tuesday morning, setting my alarm for 9AM.

I didn't wake up until 11AM. My exam was at 2, and I desperately wanted to go through the notes again. I only got through a quick peek, and still had no idea what was going on.

So now I'm writing the exam, it's out of 350 points since it's 35% of the course grade, and I'm freaking out because there are about 3 questions on the exam that are just "propose a reaction mechanism for _______" or "show how you might synthesize _______ from ________," and some pages of "draw the primary organic product of these reactions." I wrote down guesses for the latter, did the other manageable parts of the exam, and went back to stare at the reaction mechanism/synthesis questions.

And stared.

And stared.

Stared some more.

Read the questions again. There was one of these mechanism questions that was worth 25 points each, and two that were 15 points each.

Looked at the page with the 4 "name this compound" (IUPAC system) questions and the 1 "draw this compound" question.

"Name the following compounds (10 points each, total of 40 points):"

"Draw the following compound (10 points):"

Free points!?

I estimated how many points I had so far on the exam, assuming that about 70% of my guesses were correct (or something like that - I was being generous) and I got a total of about 220.

Passing this exam was not going to be a problem. Passing the course was not going to be a problem.

I attempted half of the 25-point mechanism question and left the remaining mechanism questions blank. And walked out 1 hour 45 min into a 3-hour exam (not that it was a really long exam anyway, 3 hours was way too much time).

The final grades were posted today before noon (wow). I really had been generous to myself in my estimate, I actually received 202 points on the exam (that's just below the mean, 213, and the median, 208).

So now I have a 71.2% in organic chem, but it's the letter grade that matters, and I don't know the conversion or scaling, and official letter grades haven't been posted yet.

Utilizing some fancy HTML, we get this:
( Fall 2004 )
( Winter 2005 )