I didn’t want to post on this until I was absolutely sure. But grades came in today, and I now feel comfortable saying–I’VE GRADUATED!

Heh, there was one terrible class that I needed in order to grad, and I was seriously worried about passing it. The prof would ramble on about stuff that happened to him instead of teaching the goddamn material. It got to the point where I would sit in class, wondering if I really need to take notes on playing bridge with his pals. It didn’t help to ask him questions to keep him on track. He would turn every question into an imagined philosophical debate which no one understood except for himself.

Thank goodness for the TA. He taught on Fridays, and would go over the homework until everyone got it. In my eyes, he receives all the credit for us understanding what we did of the material. Which wasn’t a whole lot, granted, but considering what I learned in the prof’s lecture (nada), it was something.

It could of been just me who sucked at this. But consider the curve: On my first midterm, I scored 68, and still got a B+. The second midterm was worse, and I scored a 55. And still got a B. What is this telling you people?!

In this class, we had homework due twice a week, two midterms and a final. The homework was 30% of the grade, and you would only receive credit for it if it was absolutely correct. No partial credit for getting the formula right or whatever. Out of that, I got about half of them right. The midterms were 20% each. B and B+, not bad, thank you curve. The final was worth 30%, and the prof made it clear that you had to pass this in order to pass the class. It was horrible–I studied until my brain began to leak clear fluid from my nose (that could have just been a cold) and still didn’t understand the concepts.

I think it’s rather sad when you pray that everyone else is having as hard a time as you, just so that the curve remains intact.

My prayers were answered.

Final grade for the course: B+. And here I was chanting my new mantra, “please let me pass so that graduation ceremony I went to wouldn’t be a sham, give me a ‘D,’ I don’t care, just let me pass, please please please” and so on.

Dad has the theory that the prof sneaked a peek at the class evaluation forms, and realized that if he failed everyone then it would confirm everything bad written about him. He needed that raise, and he was going to get it.

Personally, I think that the curve must have given everyone A pluses for the last test, and that jacked up the final score.

The things I took from this semester:

The curve is your friend

and

I graduated! Whoo!