The Finals Thread.

[Gregness]

Okay, it's almost midnight now where I'm at, and I've got a Linear Algebra final at 7:30 in the morning. Tempting though it is to try and stay up a few more hours and cram in the last little bits of least squares solutions and spectral decompositions I'm gonna brush my teeth and get to bed. As it is I'll only be getting about six hours of sleep if I'm lucky (if I'm not, I'll sleep past my final!). The morning priorities will be breakfast and putting the finishing touches on my formula sheet, and rereading.

Then the rest of the day I get to study for my Computer Networking final at 7:30 the next morning (again!) and my Circuits I final directly after that (9:45). My last final will then be in Discrete Mathematics on monday at noon. I'm happy about that last one because I have a feeling that will be by FAR the hardest of the lot and I'll be glad to have the weekend to prepare.

so, kinda bummed that all my finals this week are at nearly the crack of dawn, but at least it's better than last semester when I had three different fucking hard finals in one day.

So, this is the thread wherein we talk about final exams and how much they suck (or, hey, you might enjoy them. Freak.).

[McTahr]

Intro Quantum Mechanics today (technically).
Calc 3 on Monday, as well as a lab final due that day.
I have to help my students prepare for a Chem exam by Thursday.
Differential Equations and then Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences on Friday.

It's fairly spread out, but each and every final will be fairly brutal.

[Nikose Tyris]

BMGT 210 [Business Management] - Sunday, 12 PM - 6 PM

It opens with the class divided into 4 groups doing presentations. My group has a shitty powerpoint about a Workplace safety law that originally only received a 40%. My group wanted to just present as is, and have contributed nothing. I've spent about $60 in printing costs getting the toolbox pdf printed up for handouts to the class and professor, and spent most of yesterday reworking the powerpoint to make it significantly less awful. When we present on Sunday I lined up a 3 minute speaking slot for each of my group to make sure we all participated - I finally got an email back from the "Leader" of these idiots saying that he didn't like my 'suggested' changes and that only he will be presenting, the rest of us will just be sitting down and doing nothing.

I'm going to lose marks because of this idiot and I'm strongly considering sabotage, since I'll pass with or without the exam. Not that I need to sabotage because he's fucking retarded.

BMAT 110 [Financial Mathematics] - Tuesday, Dec 14 6 PM - 10 PM

I've done this entire course without using the required calculator now. You've seen in my latest "Can someone check my homework" thread that it's pretty damn simple- that was possibly the hardest work he's handed out in that class. I'm not scared, bring on the exam. I will drink it with milk.

BLAW 100 [Business Law] - Wednesday, December 15 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM.

I have so far averaged a 48% on all the tests given. However, He's giving me 100% based on class participation, because I clearly KNOW my topics, I just have serious trouble while working on tests that I can't use the F.A.B. on. I also got 84% on my presentation in class about the Jarvis vs Swan Tours case. Provided I get enough studying in and pass the exam, I should juuuuuuust pass the course.

[Eltargrim]

Transition Metal Chemistry - Friday. Not worried. If I remember my perovskite, Ligand Field Theory, and reaction volume I'm set.

Instrumental Analysis - Tuesday. 20% final. I could not show up and still pass. A 75% gets me an A, and the hardest thing we did was the Nernst equation.

Electro- and Magneto-statics - also Tuesday. This course is going to bend me over, have its way with me, and then never call. 60%. Need to study my ass off.

Physical Chemistry - Saturday. I have studied a collective two hours for this course (an hour before both midterms) and I have the second-highest mark in the class. They seem to think that orthogonality and volume integrals in spherical coordinates are hard.

In short, 3 will go well, 1 will not.

McTahr, 1: ignore the chemistry students. How will they learn that they're on their own if you help them? 2: I took a mathematical methods course last year. I wish you luck. Is the ode course synergizing well?

[Wigmund]

Principles of Biology - this past Monday, made a B on the test.

General Geology - Today (Thursday) at 11am.

Intermediate Spanish I - Tomorrow (Friday) at 1pm.

Chemistry II - Saturday at 8am.

Unfortunately, I've been unfocused this entire semester between stress and trying to deal with depression and anxiety problems, I've screwed up.

I made a D in Principles of Biology despite making a B on the final, and if I'm lucky I might make D's in Spanish and Chemistry. The only bright spots have been the labs for Biology, Chemistry and Geology, and General Geology itself.

But, shit happens and I'm dealing with the mental problems. And it will be easy enough to retake the D classes later on. At least I'm not working at the damned movie theater anymore and this winter break (Dec 15th - Jan 18th) I'm gonna just relax and try to actually focus again. Maybe finally knowing what I'm gonna major in now (didn't decide until about two weeks ago) will help me focus. Kinda pathetic I didn't pass the Biology class though :\

[batgirl]

I just had my Pharmacology final on Tuesday. I got a 94%. My average for paramedic class thus far is a 95%. That is all.

Good luck to everyone on their finals!

[Hatake Kakashi]

MPC 095 - Didn't have a final. They switched up the format so that basically, you were graded on daily quizzes and bi-weekly tests. If you wanted to bring your grade up (if needed), you could retake two of the tests during finals week. It wasn't necessary.

Eng 101 - Didn't do a final. I'd racked up enough extra credit to just take the points and run. Still got out with a 4.0.

Educ 201 - Final was an hour-long meet-n-greet with some of the local teachers. We had a small potluck, asked a few questions, and went home. It helped that it was snowing heavily outside, so nobody was inclined to make a lengthy stay of it.

Educ 102 - Final was an oral exam. The class was divided into two teams who competed against each other. Aside from that? A 500-word paper answering the question: "What did you feel was the most important thing you learned in class, and why?"

I love having it so easy.

[TDK]

Chem 115 - Lab final today, class final next thursday

Philosophy - Monday

Calculus - Next tuesday

Engineering 101 - Final project instead. We were given a choice between a test and a project. My class voted for the project. They are idiots because everyone ended up hating the project and it was MUCH more work. The final would've been incredibly easy.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

For all those doing chemistry courses, put some joke answers in. Cause I mark those things and its boring as fuck. But there is always one student who puts in some sweet sweet answers and they are the best best answers. And chemistry exams are ripe for a jokeage.

[Eltargrim]

For all those doing chemistry courses, put some joke answers in. Cause I mark those things and its boring as fuck. But there is always one student who puts in some sweet sweet answers and they are the best best answers. And chemistry exams are ripe for a jokeage.

My physical chemistry midterm had about half of the answers in haiku, and the de Broglie wavelengths were relativistically correct. Would that count?

[Loyal]

No finals. Instead I had to write an 8-12 page essay for English, and we're currently in the middle of a project for a seminar wherein we need to make a Powerpoint presentation on the Dada movement.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

My physical chemistry midterm had about half of the answers in haiku, and the de Broglie wavelengths were relativistically correct. Would that count?

First part yes. Second point would get massive markdowns for being a smartass.

No finals. Instead I had to write an 8-12 page essay for English, and we're currently in the middle of a project for a seminar wherein we need to make a Powerpoint presentation on the Dada movement.

Have no slides, instead paint your slides on the side of a cow.

[Hanuman]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt_ro2aerQg

[Flarecobra]

My finals are next week. For Math 50 and Soc100, I have to go in for them. For my American Indian Studies class however, the Final is online so I got a week to do it in.

[Gregness]

As some of you have inferred, this thread is also appropriate for sharing progress on our suite of finals.

for me, just got out of Linear Algebra and I think I just hit a fucking home run.

Yeah, feeling pretty good right now. Gonna go play some Starcraft II then go study for circuits and networking.

[McTahr]

McTahr, 1: ignore the chemistry students. How will they learn that they're on their own if you help them? 2: I took a mathematical methods course last year. I wish you luck. Is the ode course synergizing well?

1: It's part of my job, technically. Otherwise I would just tell them to man up and Chem hardy hard.

2: Mathematical Methods actually lined up pretty nicely with both Calc 3 and ODE at various points throughout the semester. So many people told me it was a bad idea to take all three at once (especially Calc 3 and ODE) but ever since they started linking up together it's like I'm getting a three-for-two deal on studying.

[Karrrrrrrrrrrresche]

Took my math exam today, but I'm pretty sure I've failed the class anyway through a mixture of being in the wrong class and my teacher being...Well, when I went to sign up for the next term? With a counselor helping me choose what to go for? She covered his classes up and said "Don't go into his class." And her response to me explaining he'd been my teacher was that it explained a bit of why I'd done so poorly.

Tonight I get the English one, which I'm doing so well in with about a fourth of the effort I could answer each essay question with "BALLS OF STEEL" and probably still pass.

[PyrosNine]

Pyros is an english major nearly ending his tour of duty of English and therefore has no further need to take icky things like chemistry, or math, or science.

Okay, I have to take Physics, but it's Conceptual physics which is physics for people who can't fathom math. So my exams this week are all about stuff I've read, with my Social Deviance exam being yesterday, and today and tomorrow being 18-19th century English exams. So as long as I know my Pope, Pepys, Stoker, Dickens, Dryden, and Cavendish, I'm golden! What will really make or break me is my papers for those classes (not as good as I'd hoped, but this year sucked for me!)

But anyway, today I'm mixing up my studies with Assassin's Creed 2, as my exam itself is only in 4 hours and I know most all I need to pass.

Pyros worries only that I'm going to freeze in crossing the street that separates my dorm from my main college building (Pro-Tip: living nearest to your major's center buidling is the smartest thing you can ever do) because it is FUCKING cold out there, we had a late winter and it came back with a VENGEANCE.

[Wigmund]

Just got through my Geology final. I think I did fine on it, will probably get a B as a final grade in there.

I need to start studying for my Intermediate Spanish final. So later tonight I'm gonna copy all the relevant information from my textbook (somehow I actually learn a bit when I write stuff down, even if it's just copying from one thing to another), but even if by some goddamned miracle I get a high B or even an A on the Final I probably will have to re-take the class later on. Bluh.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

18-19th century... Pepys...

Considering Pepys was writing in the 17th century I think you might be in trouble for your exam.

[Flarecobra]

Pyros is an english major nearly ending his tour of duty of English and therefore has no further need to take icky things like chemistry, or math, or science.

Okay, I have to take Physics, but it's Conceptual physics which is physics for people who can't fathom math. So my exams this week are all about stuff I've read, with my Social Deviance exam being yesterday, and today and tomorrow being 18-19th century English exams. So as long as I know my Pope, Pepys, Stoker, Dickens, Dryden, and Cavendish, I'm golden! What will really make or break me is my papers for those classes (not as good as I'd hoped, but this year sucked for me!)

But anyway, today I'm mixing up my studies with Assassin's Creed 2, as my exam itself is only in 4 hours and I know most all I need to pass.

Pyros worries only that I'm going to freeze in crossing the street that separates my dorm from my main college building (Pro-Tip: living nearest to your major's center buidling is the smartest thing you can ever do) because it is FUCKING cold out there, we had a late winter and it came back with a VENGEANCE.

And why are you mixing your perspectives?

[Darth SS]

So far I've written Intro Econometrics and International Trade/Commercial Policy.

Intro Econometrics makes me want to cry like a small child.

ITCP went pretty well, I guess

Next up: International Conflict Before the Cold War. Doesn't that class just sound sexy?

[PyrosNine]

And why are you mixing your perspectives?

I didn't say I was a good English major...

But yeah, Pepys got added because my teacher argued that the era we were covering in class began before the actual strict time period (http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/users/m/morillo/public/18ctime.jpg), and included Pepys as an example of both slice of life and the "journal" form of literature.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

That's ridiculous! Like I have no problem with the principle but fucking Pepys? THe point of Pepys is that he gives us massive insight on the 17th century and all the crazy shit that was going down.
Your teacher is wacky dope!

[Doc ock rokc]

I got One final paper that is supposed to be 4 long minimum. THE test in math on Saturday. then the paper is due and my history final is on Monday and Poli-sci on Tuesday...with a FULL work scheduled ON TOP of all of that. literally after my math test I would have to drive from the collage to work in 45 minutes (which is near impossible considering all the shit I would have to drive though) and the Night before I have to work till midnight allowing me NO study time!

[CelesJessa]

Most of my finals are projects. Most importantly I have a short animation I need to finish, that uses the character that I modeled and rigged to throw something and knock over something using a dynamics system. I'm really close to being done, I just need to finish up and then render it.

Otherwise I just have some other projects and two tests.

[McTahr]

One exam down. Did well enough. Was just a couple relatively easy normalization problems for wave functions followed by finding the probability for them, and a bit of theory. Still so, so much more rage and hate and math to come.

[synkr0nized]

I am done with all of my finals!

since like 2005, spring 2008 if you count grad courses


Grading them... Well, I'm just glad to be an RA and not a TA. That's soooooo time consuming and boring. I would probably be all about whining in this thread if I was grading this year.


e: Oh, wait.
Can I whine about project proposals and NSF grant writing? We're in the thick of that right now.

[phil_]

My Perception class had these little gimmie points in the form of "quizzes" that we would hand in with out tests. There were four of these quizzes and the lowest grade would be dropped. Since you were guaranteed a 100, the real rule was "Do the first three and don't worry about the last one." I did the first three.

Question on the final today: From the topics outlined on Quiz four, explain some aspect of touch perception, making it clear that you read and understood the quiz.

"You got me."

Oh, and also:Transition Metal ChemistryThat's a class? Like, just the transition metals? For four months?

[Eltargrim]

Oh, and also:
That's a class? Like, just the transition metals? For four months?

This class basically only really covers the 3d metals. And that was plenty of material. Crystal field theory, ligand field theory, spectrochemical series, symmetry operations, the Jahn-Teller effect, spin-only magnetism, diamagnetism, paramagnetism, inner and outer sphere mechanisms, Tanabe-Sugano diagrams, etc, etc.

I mean, scaling it up isn't terribly difficult, but yeah, 4 months on 3d metals.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

The transition metals are the most imporant elements around. They common and make up a vast vast chunk of our catalysts- if you're working with catalysts they are pretty much going to be transition metals.

[greed]

My finals were a while back, got my results today. Got through 3 but fucked up my animal physiology exam something incredible (I got like 15% on it I think, I dropped from a nice credit average to 46% despite the exam only being worth 30%).

Luckily cause my mark on everything that wasn't an exam was high I get a supplementary in January. So YAY FINALS AGAIN! Or final, singular anyway. Still beats an outright fail though.

[Gregness]

Hey guys, hey guys, y'know what sucks? Forgetting the formula sheet for your final. My consolation is that it was actually super easy so I'm hoping for partial credit regardless.

[Wigmund]

Just got through bombing my Spanish final. Damn this section of Spanish for being the same damned stuff I failed in English class in high school (past/present/future participles and other such bullshit).

So yeah, this semester has been sucking ass. That's what I get for stressing out and avoiding classes.

[Eltargrim]

Transition metal chemistry was relatively easy. Finished in about an hour and a half. Only one thing that I had trouble with, and that was figuring out what to dope antifluorite Li2S with to make it a good Li+ conductor.

[Nikose Tyris]

Group accepted my reworking of the BMGT 210 presentation. Most of group is asleep all week long it seems. I am the only one who speaks english naturally, other three are... not as fluent.

Group grade speaking presentation.

I have added something to my workload- I am writing up all the speeches, too. This is my keystone credit- if I don't get this, I can't do 3 out of my 4 next courses.

[Wigmund]

Done with finals for this semester. Now I just have a couple days of work-study to get through and then it's a month of being a lazy piece of shit.

[Doc ock rokc]

got math final here in a hour or two...wish me luck

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Preface everything with all the axioms and proofs derived from these that you need to answer all yur questions. Markers will love it.

[P-Sleazy]

My finals were this just past week. but I'll list them regardless.

ACCT 730- Financial Statement Analysis

This test was essentially multiple choice and tested our ability to use ratios (which were given to us on a cheat sheet). We also had a final project due this week wherein all we had to do was combine the individual parts we worked on throughout the semester into one 60 or so page report and bind the whole thing into a nice format that he can read. He also told us ahead of time that the two options we had for this were a 100 and a 90. You get a 90 if it didn't look nice and a 100 if it looked nice. A for the course.

ACCT 505- Governmental and Non-Profit Accounting

This test by far was my most difficult. I spent two days studying this crap. Throughout the year my test scores were 68, 46.8, and 80.4 with a project grade of 94.8. After the second exam, the teacher gave me the option to drop the class with a W without penalizing me on my GPA. Welp...good thing too that I didn't take it cause I got an 84 on the final which gave me a 74 average, enough to pass the class with a C. Although, I went back to look at the test and see what I got wrong and I must say, I was impressed with myself. All year, I've been struggling with the multiple choice and I finally did good on that and made a bunch of dumb mistakes on the problems part.

ACCT 737- Systems II

This was just a project we had to turn in last week. Nothing big here. Got a B+ for the course.

Finance 762- Investment Portfolio Management

This was a pretty fun class, except the exam was a bitch. He gave us a two part take home exam. The first part was multiple choice which he had us timed to two hours (we had to complete through the internets which is how he was able to time us). The second part was an excel part which had 10 questions on it, but took 6 freakin hours to figure out what the hell he was talking about. Once figured out though, it was relatively simple, but you kept looking at all this stuff like "WTF?". I should be getting a B or B+ in this course.