Return to the Land of the Living

I made it through another term.  Barely.  I’ve been done now for nearly a week, and I’ve been graciously making use of my brief opportunity to avoid contact with society to, well... avoid contact with society.  It’s been a while since I posted anything here, and I intend to bring everyone up to speed, but first, in the style of NPR’s Planet Money, I have a an indicator to share first.  For anyone who hasn’t heard the show, they always begin by sharing the “Planet Money Indicator” of the day, in which they first read off some arbitrary number, then tell you what it means.  The guy who presents the indicators has a reputation for always choosing indicators of bad things, as they usually have to do with unemployment or foreclosures or such, but if you’ve listened to financial news in the past 10 years that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.  Alas, I digress.   

Today’s Random Sequential Indicator is 0.4.   

That’s the GPA hit I took when I received the first B of my postbac education.  Yes, I got an Asian F in Calculus II this term.  Now, I know one B isn’t the end of the world, but if I said I haven’t lost any sleep over it, I’d be lying.  I’ve never felt more cheated out of a grade in my life, my 4.0 is dead, and I have absolutely no recourse.  Not once were course evaluations offered or even mentioned, and if I bring my concerns forward now, AFTER I recieved my grade, I would  just sound like a whiney student upset with his grade.  And I assure you that though that description matches, I have good reasons to be upset.

I know this must sound ridiculous: A postbac student who has already met the requirements to receive graduate funding complaining about a single B in a subject which is supposed to be difficult, in a course that was taught at a community college.  So I’ll stop—right after I say this: I can count the number of questions I got wrong on all of the tests, homework, and exams combined on one hand.  Tell me, does it sound like I understand 80% (a B’s worth) of the material?

I have good news as well.  First, a brief review:  I was feeling really nervous about ECE 221 (Circuit Analysis) at the beginning of the term.  I had never done anything like it before, and I hadn’t completed either of the prerequisite courses.  Story of my life, I know.  So I studied my ass off, and got 100% on the first midterm.  The material was new but not difficult.  Around week 7 or 8, I went into the second midterm with 100% on my tests, over 100% on my homework, and 100% in my lab section, and received a 72%.  That really shocked me, and so I studied my ass off for the final but only pulled a 78% on it.  Had you asked me a few weeks ago which class I thought I would get a B in, I would have said 221 for sure.  My calculations put me with an 85%, which is the sturdiest of B’s, really, but thanks to the miracle of everyone else failing too, I scraped by with an A-, which given the circumstances, I am completely satisfied with.

Finally, ECE 371 (Microprocessor Design) was certainly the highlight of the term in terms of both my final grade and my overall enjoyment of the content and assignments. Despite being tricky at times, it was very interesting and rewarding, and I enjoyed it a lot.  Also, the professor teaching that course is my advisor, so it was absolutely unacceptable for me to get anything short of an A.  I did very well in 371 from the start (including getting a 95% on a test that took place a week earlier than I was anticipating, due to faulty notes) so while I knew I would probably be getting an A, it was a real relief to see that it had actually happened.

All things considered, I ended the term with a 3.6, so I doubt my cumulative GPA is much below 3.9.  That’s it for my academic debriefing, more posts to come soon…