All Posts Tagged With: "midterm"
Swamped with midterms?
Get your priorities straight.
I did something really stupid this weekend: I made a study schedule. My biochemistry midterm is tomorrow. The following week I have three more midterms, a lab report and a test. So I made a mini-calendar of the next two weeks, circling the days when I have a midterm.
I used a colour code to distinguish between each subject and listed the remaining chapters I had to read for each class, along with the suggested practice questions from the textbook and the relevant sections in the notes.
Then I created a detailed agenda, assigning a certain number of hours to each textbook chapter.
Now I’m ready. To study.
How do you challenge an unfair mark?
When a professor holds your marks hostage
During my first semester of university, I met with one of my professors to discuss a mark. It wasn’t anything official. The midterm had been handed back to the class, and I was surprised and disappointed by my mark.
The last page of the test had been an open-ended, essay kind of question. I’d expected my answer to earn a higher mark, and I wanted to understand where I went wrong.
After re-reading my answer, the professor explained where I should have elaborated more. The meeting was very short, and my mark didn’t change in the end, but I thanked the professor for taking the time to meet with me. I now knew how I could do better on the final exam.
What I didn’t know at the time: I was lucky to leave that meeting with my marks unscathed.
It was only after the fact that I suddenly remembered that section in the course syllabus. The part that explains how, if a student asks for a mark to be reconsidered, the professor reserves the right to assign an even lower grade than the one you started with.
I’m not just talking about a university’s formal appeal procedure, where a student requests (through a department chair or a dean) a review of their grade. Many of the classes I’ve taken include an individual course policy, something along the lines of, “If you request for a paper or test to be re-graded, you can end up with an even lower grade than you started with.” Right. So in other words, “Buzz off.”
It just seems wrong. If someone believes they’ve been assigned an unfair mark, and they ask for their paper to get a second look, why should the professor be sneakily taking hostages?
I’m sure that most of the time, the professor can give a perfectly fair, logical defense for the mark they assigned. But what if they made a mistake? What if they’re wrong? What if you deserve a higher mark? If someone thinks their paper deserves a better mark, why should their marks be held at gunpoint?
If I tell a cashier in a store that I think they accidentally charged me too much, and then I turn out to be wrong, should they have a license to then punish me for being wrong? You know, grab my wallet and take a couple bucks?
After all, if the cashier turns out to be wrong, I don’t get to penalize them for their mistake. I don’t get an extra five dollars back in change.
Maybe some students aren’t reasonable when they challenge a mark. Or maybe the fear is that without the threat of a negative consequence for burdening the professor and/or TA with having to take a second look, there would be a flood of second-guessers.
But why create a policy that treats every student as a potential time-wasting cry ass?
Stuck in post-midterm apathy?
How to make it through the home stretch
There’s only one week of classes left. I’ve got a chemistry lab, a biology lab, and a couple of history classes between me and Christmas vacation. It’s the home stretch.
But I’m stuck in Post-Midterm Apathy.
I only have to read a couple of chapters in my chemistry textbook, practice with my molecular model kit, and do some study problems to prepare for my organic chemistry final exam. There’s only one assignment and a test left in my religious studies class.
And then I’m finished.
But I just don’t have it in me. Thanks to five full courses, two labs, and two part-time jobs, I admit it: between September and November, I used up all my School Energy.
It’s times like this that I need to do some carefully planned procrastination.
Otherwise, I just end up siphoning off study time by doing stuff that isn’t really worthwhile. Like staring at the same paragraph in my history textbook for half an hour. Or checking my e-mail. Twenty times in a row.
Instead, I know I should allow myself a couple of hours to recharge, doing anything I want, guilt-free. And then my Study Efficiency will be back up and running for the next week.
Okay Halo 3, here I come.
Procrastination 101
I’m trapped in Midterm Limbo. Two weeks ago it was physics. Last week was health. Yesterday I had a chemistry midterm, and next week is religious studies. I’m surrounded by tests. I’m stuck in that special kind of inertia where reading another chapter of my textbook is the last thing I want to do, but [...]
I’m trapped in Midterm Limbo.
Two weeks ago it was physics. Last week was health. Yesterday I had a chemistry midterm, and next week is religious studies.
I’m surrounded by tests.
I’m stuck in that special kind of inertia where reading another chapter of my textbook is the last thing I want to do, but I’d feel too guilty to play my Nintendo DS, or read anything even remotely interesting.
I keep telling myself that a month from now, classes will be over. There won’t be any more labs, assignments, tutorials, or quizzes. Midterms will be a thing of the past.
But a month is sooooooooooooooooooooo long.
Self reports: only Sith deal in absolutes
Forget transcripts. Applications to professional schools should include a self-reported GPA
I’m in the middle of studying for my health midterm. I’ve noticed that a lot of the “facts” are based on studies that used self-reports.
Self-reports are great. They take away all that fussiness associated with reliable conclusions.
In fact, I say forget transcripts. Applications to professional schools should include a self-reported GPA. And never mind individual reference letters for med school. I should be allowed to self-report my extracurricular activities.
I could fill them in on all my accomplishments.
Like how I discovered the purpose of every single base pair in the human genome.
Designed an efficient and reliable energy system for the space station.
And single-handedly assassinated every single mosquito in Canada.
Actually, I want to perform a self-reported study of my own. First question: “Do you think people ever lie on self-reports?”
A 12 question exam? It’s inevitable.
This Saturday is my physics midterm. There are going to be 12 questions. It’s kind of scary when two marks make the difference between an 83 % and a 67 %. The difference between an excellent mark and a crappy mark. And with only 12 multiple choice questions, all it takes is one stupid mistake.
This Saturday is my physics midterm. There are going to be 12 questions.
It’s kind of scary when two marks make the difference between an 83 % and a 67 %. The difference between an excellent mark and a crappy mark.
And with only 12 multiple choice questions, all it takes is one stupid mistake.
The true value of the Internet
Up until last September, I only used the Internet for two things
Up until last September, I only used the Internet for two things: Ebay and Runescape.
But now?
Halfway through my second semester of university, I use the Internet to access physics assignments, and to watch tutorial videos for my chemistry class.
And if a midterm is looming, I can use it to cheer myself up.
