I’m sure there are some of you out there who share my sentiments regarding final exams. (“AHHHHH! AHHHH!” *stab stab stab, slow deep breaths* “AHHHH! AHHHH!”) <\/p>\n
The story so far? AP Chem, Cisco Networking, CWLT, Physics. I pulled off the A in Cisco without much drama. Starting from a 93, I needed a 66 and got an 82. <\/p>\n
Chem was a little more trying. In case you don’t know, Chem is split up into two classes, Lab and Lecture. Both are six-point ‘A’s. My Lab grade dropped to a maddening 87.87 just before winter break. (An ‘A’ is 88.) It now all depends on the very last lab we turned in, which has been hastily christened our lab exam. I had a B, 84, in Lecture little more than two weeks ago after being brought down by a 75 on a Thermochemistry exam. (An ‘A’ is an 85.) An 89 on the Equilibrium test pushed me back into ‘A’ range. (It helped even more when it mysteriously changed to a 91 earlier this week.) I needed a 79 on the exam to keep that ‘A’. I was a little worried the first half of the exam. I had only done 30 of 75 questions in 40 minutes. Sol’n? Skip to all non-calculation questions. It payed off: 86.8. <\/p>\n
In Physics, a little miracle happened. And her name is Mary Kemp, hereafter known as Saint Kemp. While during winter break, I had an ‘A’ in Physics and a ‘B’ in Chem, I now had a ‘B’ in Physics and an ‘A’ in Chem. I was just a fraction short of the 85% A walking into the exam yesterday. I needed an 88.76 on the 20% exam to claw my way back to the ‘A’. <\/p>\n
But no. 80.00. The conservative forces were out to get me. (By “conservative forces”, I mean things like applied force or tension, not the GOP or Culture Campaign.) This makes for a ultimate grade of 84.06. I was somewhat inconsolable during the CWLT exam after finding out. It was not until noon today when I saw what Kemp had done. By adjusting the percent that the exam counted in comparison to the semester grade (among other things), the ultimate grade was the just-barely ‘A’ that the good Saint had the mercy and benevolence to grace me with.<\/p>\n
I still have no chance of being valedictorian but still, it’s nice to have a respectable class rank. Preferably something under 30 this semester. <\/p>\n
The CWLT exam was like most other Venegoni[1]<\/sup><\/a> tests. I usually do better than I expect on them. Usually, I only miss about 25-30 questions of the standard 80-question test. Today’s exam is 20% of our final grade, but I’m much more concerned about the essay due at 3PM on Friday that commands 15% of our final grade. I really should<\/em> have gotten a lot done yesterday, but I got pulled into the Wikipedia Vortex<\/a> for about nine hours. I know. I know. This procrastination helps no one but the Scholastic Bowl Team.<\/p>\n