Proficient Is Sufficient
Midterms ended last Friday. The results are in and the news is positive. I need to work doubly hard in two classes if I want to guarantee a strong finish. Otherwise, proficient all around. And, as we say here at SOM, proficient is sufficient.
It's a tremendous relief to be done with midterms/finals. During that week, I got 1 hour of sleep on Sunday and Monday nights; and three hours on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. A little cold at the beginning of week turned into a terrible one by the end of it. With so little sleep and so much caffeine, my body didn't stand a chance in fighting off the illness. I managed to sleep a lot over the weekend though and am now as good as new.
While I would definitely consider this the most intense academic experience of my life, I did okay. I feel calm moving forward with the program and am confident in my ability to succeed here. These midterms were very validating.
P.S. One thing that I had forgotten about the grading at schools is how inconsistent it can be. You can have the exact same answer as someone else, but receive a different number of points. That drives me crazy; especially since it seems to be me with the lower number of points nearly every time. I hope the TAs are a little more generous with me come finals. LOL.
It's a tremendous relief to be done with midterms/finals. During that week, I got 1 hour of sleep on Sunday and Monday nights; and three hours on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. A little cold at the beginning of week turned into a terrible one by the end of it. With so little sleep and so much caffeine, my body didn't stand a chance in fighting off the illness. I managed to sleep a lot over the weekend though and am now as good as new.
While I would definitely consider this the most intense academic experience of my life, I did okay. I feel calm moving forward with the program and am confident in my ability to succeed here. These midterms were very validating.
P.S. One thing that I had forgotten about the grading at schools is how inconsistent it can be. You can have the exact same answer as someone else, but receive a different number of points. That drives me crazy; especially since it seems to be me with the lower number of points nearly every time. I hope the TAs are a little more generous with me come finals. LOL.
Another thing that bugs me is the "class participation" grade. This is used to justify giving higher marks to teacher's pets, even though other students scored higher on exams and were generally more familiar with the material.
Both of these things happen at all schools. So, it's nothing against Yale. It's just generally not very cool.
posted by Jerry Blank at 2:26 PM
2 Comments:
I can definitely relate to the grading inconsistency. When I was an undergrad taking my first semester of nuclear coursework, I was in a course called "Nuclear Engineering I." My professor, for whatever reason, didn't like me. I did relatively well on all the tests and quizes; well enough for a 'B', anyway. Well, when grades came out, I had a 'C+' in the course.
I compared my grades on all my tests and quizes with a friend who got a 'B', and I beat him on every assignment but one quiz. How, then, could I have gotten a 'C+'?! Well, this professor is in charge of our reactor on campus, and this friend worked downstairs at the reactor. So, they were kinda buddy-buddy. Nice.
The next semester, I took "Nuclear Engineering II" and got an 'A' with a different professor. Go figure. My final year, I became the Vice President of our nuclear society, and the professor who gave me a 'C+' was our academic advisor for that group. Because of my new position, he got to know me better, and my grade in his statistics-heavy "Risk in Nuclear Systems" course was a nice change -- an 'A'.
It's not right, but what can ya do?
Congrats JB on salling thru the rough sea of New Heaven....the whole b-school sleep pic is so scary...LOL :-)
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