Midterm Review; Three down 6 more to go…

I know, nine midterms total…how? Let me explain, I have two midterms for four of my courses and one midterm for Psychology. Three midterms to begin this week (not to mention two quizzes)… how fun…

First I started off with the Physics 107 midterm. = ( That midterm made me want to cry, not necessarily because it was too hard, it should have been a gift… but I am entirely certain that I failed it.

I love my physics class, I love it, love it, love it. The teacher Ian Affleck is amazing, he is incredibly knowledgable, an amazing teacher, answers questions in class, encourages class discussion, clicker questions, tutorials are great, makes us actually think about things, broadens our horizons, knows some of us by our first names, and even if sometimes I have no idea about what he is talking about… I could go on and on about how much I like the class !!! If you like that sort of thing, and feel comfortable taking on a lot of homework, take Physics 107…

Anyways about the midterm…the first thing that I saw when I got my paper was a pulley question on the back… a pulley question worth about 33% of the entire test (15 points in the entire test, 5/6 multiple choice, 2 written). A simple pulley question. A pulley question that you learn in grade eleven. No torque, no friction just f=ma…had we done pulley questions in the month of school? No. I hate pulley questions. For some reason I never intrinsically understood how to do them. Freaking out I did the five multiple choice questions which were not difficult, but my brain was not working and I know I got at least half of them wrong. Did the first written question and then stared at the pulley question some more… Knowing that I was doing the question wrong, I just went about it my usual way. I knew the answer was off and was supposed to be at least half the amount… but had no solid reason as to why I should divide it by some obscure number. It makes me sick. 33% and I don’t think I can even get part marks. I studied like crazy for the midterm, went over all the new material, did lots of practice problems e.t.c. None of the “new” stuff like spring constants, derivations of oscillating motion, 3D vectors, relativistic momentum appeared on the test. Yikes. I can’t even explain how disappointed I am in myself… ok enough rambling about that.

That night after the midterm I went home and crammed for my computer science course which I had been neglecting due to the Physics exam. I was awake until two in the morning trying to get a cow to bounce across my screen happily (have to love CPSC 110). Lab quiz on Tuesday was good, and I spent the rest of Tuesday practicing for Math.

On Wednesday I had a Math midterm, Chemistry quiz and a Computer Science midterm. At the start of the day I felt very strange, feeling confident about Math but certain that I would fail both Chemistry and Computer Science. I felt incredibly stupid and unprepared. How did I not realize that I had all those midterms coming up? Why didn’t I start studying for them way, way earlier? UBC First Year Science courses are notorious for being weeder courses… I do not want to get weeded. Wait a second, I am not even in science…. why am I taking these courses? Because they are interesting.

Fortunately my Computer Science midterm left me on a high. I don’t think I failed it which made me extremely happy. When I got back to residence I found out that I got 100% on the crystal structures problem set too, which made the night even better. To make the evening even, ever better, my RA had set up a movie night for our floor, so I spent the rest of the evening watching Despicable Me, feeling incredibly happy, and relieved that my hell week was over.

A couple minutes after midnight I was back, on the computer doing my Physics assignment when I realized that the last day to withdraw from my courses with a W standing was over. Too bad I thought, life would be so much easier with only four courses. I couldn’t imagine dropping any of my courses though… so it seems to me like I am in it for the long run! <3

… Finals are going to be sooooo stressful!

**** update****

So, I didn’t fail any of my midterms or quizzes (although after the Chemistry midterm today I might have…). Actually aced Math and Computer Science, which I was happy about (math midterm’s average was around 60%?!?). Physics I didn’t do so nicely on, but hey, I passed.