Post-Midterm Blues

I can also call it pre-finals blues, I guess. But this is more of a post-midterm assessment than a pre-final one.

First, I got some of my results back from most of my exams. My marks are terrible - first time I got less than 90 on a subject I cared about. 89% in calculus due to thoughtlessness. 83% in spectroscopy due to my inability to explain things clearly to the TA marking it. 82% in CS because, well, I didn't really study and I forgot half of the "move-to-front" heuristic in unsorted dictionaries (not that I loved CS much anyway). I could've gotten perfect on analytical but didn't because I am an idiot and didn't check my answers carefully. Excuse: I had to run to an interview mid-midterm. And the prospective employer didn't like me, either. That wasn't fun.

I lucked out on linear algebra, and am now hoping for a nice mark in organic. At least I knew that CHCl₃ is chloroform, unlike some of my peers. Now if I didn't screw up the nomenclature and drew all my resonance forms right... (I promise that there are no pentavalent carbons. Really.)

On the more practical side, for some reason I always get around 90% on my physical chemistry lab reports. Odd how my university offers physical chemistry labs before any actual physical chemistry courses. My analytical lab experiments aren't progressing so well either. Only two weeks left, four (out of five, !) experiments. I swear all my equipment and reagents harbour malignant spirits bent upon my destruction - my crucibles take 4, 5 dryings to reach constant mass (it takes 2 hours out of a 3 hour period to dry and cool something for weighing), and my samples take 3 hours to dissolve when it should only take half an hour. I have a feeling the accuracy of my results would be terrible too, resulting in an unacceptable mark (since the lab is based entirely on result accuracy). EDTA titrations with Eriochrome Black T are evil, too - it is almost impossible to tell the endpoint exactly because exactly how blue is "blue" is completely subjective, even with a reagent blank to help.

This is depressing.

Unfortunately, my parents are apparently convinced that I am invincible in the academic area, meaning that I should maintain a +95% average no matter how many courses I am taking or how challenging they are. I am in major, major trouble this term. Expected average: 80 - 85. Hoping for: 90. *Sigh*. I don't think my employer will be impressed with this, either.

This is forcing me to take only seven courses in my next academic term. My advisor made fun of me on this, heh. Eight is just too much, but I'll have to do eight sooner or later so that I can graduate sort-of on time...

And now I am struggling with statistics assignment...it takes me 2, 3 hours just to solve one problem (of 6), mostly fiddling with R and other computer algebraic systems or rearranging probability density functions. It'll be well-nigh impossible if I have to do this by hand.

On the back burner: CS, calculus, algebra, two prelabs, one lab report, analytical chemistry assignment, marking, and last but not the least, finding someplace to live for next term, in a remote region, without actually visiting the place. I think I am developing a remarkable caffeine tolerance, too...keep falling asleep despite large doses.

I don't know what I'll do during finals. The Registrar, as usual, has managed to create a really awkward schedule that nobody is happy with: a cluster of exams in the first week, ONE exam in the second, and three exams at the last week, one of which is on the last day, last two hours of the exam period (as in, at night). Woo.

This would be a perfect time to say that the pressure has "Driven me to drink, by God! To drink!" (to quote a book). Except...God might not exist. More to the point, I have discovered that my system does not appreciate alcohol at all, sensually, intellectually, or otherwise, at any point in the enterprise. Well, at least I won't be turning into an alcoholic any time soon.

Hm...what positive things have happened this past month or two? Well. My finger isn't toast any more - I can play piano if I have the time to do that. And there's this really odd reaction that I might blog about - again, when there's time to upload the pictures and yak about them.

Now that my brain has vented its frustration, it's time to go back to statistics...

[Edited]
I forgot to say that the blogroll is now slightly less obsolete than before. Slightly.