100.63%

A bit overdue, but I just wanted to chronicle my amazing upset victory in Genetics. Contrast this post with my older post 89.984%. Yes, I am sure you are all wondering how my Final managed to bring my total grade up by eleven points. I'll tell you now that the final was worth 150 out of 600 points. I'm sure the more astute of you have already gotten out your calculators and realized that this number combination is impossible. The test simply isn't worth enough.

Well, it turns out that the lowest test grade in Genetics is replaced by your test grade. Since I got an almost perfect score on the Genetics test (159.5/150+10 EC), my lowest grade (80%, ugh) was wiped away like it had never happened! Ha ha ha! It was replaced with an over 100% monstrocity. Pretty cool, right? That's how I got over 100% on my overall grade when my pre-final grade was scraping the underside of an A.

Apocalypse Warning

You know what sucks? Disasters. Tomorrow is the Walk for Life, (ta-da!) but there are several disaster warnings going out in the area. We are purportedly going to get hit by severe thunderstorms, tornados, and zombies. Stay away from windows. Of course, this suggests that there may be some difficulty in walking for life along a pleasant riverpark walkway, since the riverpark walkways will probably not be very pleasant tomorrow. Sigh. We never have natural disasters around here. Why on the day of the Walk for Life?

P.S. Do you know who I do no pity. Dr. Shaw's Taxonomy of Vascular Plants' class has a hike scheduled for tomorrow. It would suck to be in that class during this semester.

Vulcan Trance

Good afternoon world. I just finished two super hard super critical finals and I'm feeling great. Last Tuesday I began my deep Vulcan trance that it is impossible to wake me from wherein all I do is meditate on my test subjects. You probably wouldn't understand because you are just an emotional human, but it is very important for getting good grades on tests.

I'm now waiting for the results of my finals to start pouring in. I already have two results to share. First, my Physics Lab Final, I got a 96!!! Woo hoo! That makes my grade an A! I'm so happy! My second bit of news is my Genetics test. I know what you're thinking: Hey! You took the Genetics test 3 hours ago! You can't possibly have it back yet!

Shows what you know. Dr. Kovach is probably the most efficient teacher I have ever had. Homework is always handed back really really insanely fast. It is incredible. And the amount of information she can pack into one lecture is mind-blowing. Also, I only have news on half my test: the scantron half. Understand now, humans? Anyway, when I was walking past her office after my Physics test she asked me if I wanted to see my scantron. I said sure. Here it is... 100%! Perfect score! HA HA HA HA HA! I'm going to bust into the heavens of A-dom! Woo hoo!

I mean, how logical.

The Blue Eye Blues

Today I'm writing a paper for my Genetics class. My Scientific Writing class is DONE! OH YEAH! So I don't need to labor over any more papers for that class but it now frees me up to do the five page paper (due tomorrow) for Genetics. Noooooo! I have to write about "My Favorite Gene." (Seriously.) I picked blue eyes. Who knows why. Here's an interesting fact for you: Although brown eyes are caused by a very long string of genes, blue eyes are all caused by the same mutation to the same gene in every person. That's pretty neat. It also makes it easy to write about. I pity the fool who selected a polygenic gene for his topic! Ha!

Oh yeah, one paragraph of the essay has to be why I picked the gene I did. Any suggestions that sound convincing?

89.984%

I still haven't got the grade back for my Genetics test, but I decided to calculate my grade for Genetics thus far. It is a B! A B! Noooooo! It is kind of depressing that it would be an A significant to any number of digits less than 5. Sigh. Oh well. This means that I just have to get an A on this next test. Unless of course I get a 90. Then I would have something like 89.9882%. I promise I won't go past the fourth decimal place.

Genetics Test

Oh yeah, yesterday I had a painful test. I think I got every question right, which helps deaden the pain slightly. There were two T/F questions that made no sense to me, but I asked Sam what she guessed on the questions and I said the same thing as she did so I think I got them right. Also, question C on the last question, the 5 point bonus question made no sense at all to me. Sam agreed. She had no idea as well. The question had three bacteria, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma. Alpha used DNA and conservative replication. Beta used RNA and disruptive replication. Gamma used RNA and semiconservative replication. The question asked which one of these could survive high temperatures. 0_0 Oh my goodness. My face is totally blank. What does the manner of replication and the materials that the bacteria is constructed out of have to do with survival at high temperatures? I guessed that DNA was more stable and therefore less likely to degrade. Sam guessed the same thing. Therefore, either we will be right or the teacher will look at both our papers and wonder how we invented identical nonsense. Please oh please be right...

Let-down!

The Genetics Test was put off until Thursday! ARGH! It seems like every time I'm ready for something, it is pushed back. Weather, bomb threats, unknown conflicts of time, everything seems to be against me! I guess this has just been a weird semester, I just hope that all this bouncing around isn't going to adversely affect my ultimate grade. Sigh.

Just three more weeks until Finals. Keep it together for just a bit longer.

Indestructible

Earlier today, I was studying Genetics and suddenly had this insane feeling that I was going to get an 100. It was the most incredible feeling. I think the only word to describe it is Euphoria. It passed after a short time, but it sure made me happy. The last time I felt this Euphoria was the day before my third Chemistry 122 test. I got a 99. I was really sad. I really wanted that 100. Tomorrow, I'm going to take the test and see how indestructible I really am. Woo hoo. This could get depressing. If a 99 makes me sad, what would happen to me if I get another 80?

Deadlines

This semester I have had the most fluid deadlines I have ever had. It is probably because of the two snow days earlier this year, though. Both my Tuesday/Thursday classes have been moving their tests, quizzes, and homework deadlines around like a game of whack-a-mole. My Scientific Writing class also has extremely loose deadlines, although I think that is the teacher's nature instead of extenuating circumstances. Dr. Davies seems to be the most stable, since his tests are always when he announces them to be, although he only announces them a week in advance.

Over and Done

It is an extreme relief to be finished with my 20-page literature review. It was due Monday, but the teacher decided to delay the deadline to Wednesday because so many people weren't done. After thinking about it for a few seconds, I turned it in. After all, it was finished. What was I going to do to it in two more days? Anyways, I can now chill. It will be nice to not have to know so much about teratomas. Ah. A few minutes ago Mom asked me if I had any thing I had to be working on. Besides for a Latin test tomorrow, a Grant Proposal due next Friday, a paper on the Use of Physics in Real Life due next Thursday, a Genetics worksheet due Thursday and a Genetics test on Tuesday, I have almost nothing to do. Ah, sweet blissful rest.

Thrown Under the Bus

Saturday is usually the day when I make sure that all homework for the next week is complete. Alas and Alack, this Saturday shall be, shall we say, otherwise occupied. Therefore, I'm trying to get as much homework done today as possible. I am fortunate that since Physics Lab finished on Wednesday I have no more Physics Lab type homework to do. Also, although I have two papers in the works, neither is due next week. Although it kills my heart to put them off, I fear I must for the sake of my sister. (ha ha, yeah right. Look at me, dying of procrastination!) There is only one thing due next week, that is Genetics Homework due Tuesday. I swear by my beard, I shall have it done today! And as Touchstone might point out, since I have no beard, I am not forsworn! Ha!

Advisement

Well, I have now been advised. I signed up for a time slot 40 minutes long, and I got out before I was even supposed to start. It was very short. In fact, he didn't say anything about any class I was taking except his own. He noticed that I had taken few 300 level biology courses (almost none) and explained to me that in his class you need a knowledge of all sorts of classes from the 300 level or else you won't understand the meaning of some of the words he's saying, and he typically gives sophomores D's and F's because they lack academic maturity, and people think it is such a good idea to take a non-lab class because they'd have to work less but they don't realize they have to work MORE, blah blah blah, etc. The usual kind of teacher warning: Don't take my class unless you are going to work for it.

Of course, I've never intended not to work hard at anything I've ever done, so I think I'll be fine.

Class Ladder

Well, here are a bunch of classes I'm looking at. I'll pick one for each time slot, hopefully. It won't be too hard because I don't really have any overlaps.
Monday Wednesday Friday:
8:00 - 8:50
Organic Chemistry with Mebane!!! Woo hoo!
9:00 - 9:50
Organic Chemistry with Kim Jisook... Not really, but I am not going to rule it out because Megan might be there.
10:00-10:50
Quantitative Analysis with Lynch, might be too much, but if friends are here, I'm not ruling it out.
11:00-11:50
Bio-ethics with Dr. Plaisted! Happy dancing!
Tuesday Thursday:
10:50-12:05
Biogeography with Dr. Shaw! And Megan! Hoorah!

You might have noticed that this is 14 hours maximum. Yeah. I'm still looking for another class. Of course, the only classes I have left to take are Biology classes and classes that fulfill Western Humanities requirements. If my friends take any classes that fulfill these descriptions, I'm in. Otherwise... 14 hours isn't so bad...

Registration

Today I resolved to find a registration adviser and sign up. Since I am trying to build relationships with the faculty so I'll have someone to ask for a recommendation letter for medical school, I decided to sign up for my Genetics Teacher's registration. Alas! Her entire Monday section was booked up. All that was left was Friday afternoon the week of the wedding. I told her I'd have to think on it and left for two hours. I came back and all the Friday slots were taken too. I have an extremely popular Genetics teacher. I sighed and decided to check out Dr. Shaw, because I'm taking a class from him next semester. He only has three names in half as many slots. Poor guy. I signed up for a choice time on Monday. Perhaps Dr. Shaw will be the perfect professor for me to build a relationship with because he has so few other students demanding his time.

P(Moron)

What is the probability that after you flip 7 coins, all of them will be tails? The answer is 1/2^7, which is 0.7% that all coins will show tails. When it comes to true/false questions, the probability is the same. There is a 0.7% chance that a student guessing totally at random will get all seven true/false questions wrong. The percentage should be even lower given that the student actually studied. Well, people, this just goes to show that you can't trust statistics. I got all seven true/false questions on the test wrong. Because I did fairly well on all the other questions, only losing 1.5% on short answer and 6% on the multiple choice questions, I pulled through with a B. I really need to learn how to tell misleading statements that sound true from factual statements that sound false.

P.S. DNA is negatively charged. Who knew!

Excuses

I'm back from Spring Break, which means I'll be blogging again. For all my dedicated fans who checked the blog every two or three minutes to see if I posted, I'm sorry. I really only blog when I'm stuck at school with nothing to do, like I am now. I am going to go to my Genetic Teacher's office to look at the test soon. The B I got has burned inside me all week long nearly causing me to go insane. I need to know what I did wrong so I will never do it again as soon as possible. It is too bad that the teacher doesn't hand back the tests though. Oh well. It would probably be unhealthy to do nothing but stare at a Genetics test beating myself up for as long as I wanted to anyway.

Retrospect

A couple of weeks ago I had two tests the same week: Physics and Genetics. Genetics test came back and I had a 92. The teacher was really happy and said that the average was a B and since she didn't believe in curves, nothing bad was going to happen to us. She reminded us that all the Mendelian Genetics stuff was review, so don't ease up on studying for the second test just because we did well on the first test, etc. The Physics test on the other hand was very scary. I received a C, but because the class average was an F, not only under 60% but under 50%, I got an A. Well yesterday, I had the second exam on both.

The Physics test was a cakewalk. Everything was so easy. I don't have my grade back but I think I did astronomically! (Get it!? Physics! Astronomy! Ha ha ha! Oh whatever.)

On the Genetics test, however, I suspect that I did worse than on the last test. Because it was multiple choice, I think I managed to use my test taking genius powers to keep myself from dropping too far, but we will have to see. For one thing, I didn't study numbers. For example, how many base pairs are found on DNA or how many nm long is each nucleotide. Those questions were kind of like history questions that said "In what year was Franklin Pierce inaugurated?" And you think to yourself, "Dude! I have that in my notes, but I didn't look at it once!"

But here's the trick. The question was worded like "If there are 1734 strands of DNA, how many nm is that?" And the answers were "1.734, 17,340, 173.4, and 7253." Now, since I knew that nothing in the world was convenient enough to be exactly 10 or 0.001 nm in length. I could tell what the correct answer was. I hope.

PS. DNA is negatively charged, True or False? I said False, because I am now covered just in case DNA isn't charged at all.

Anyway, here's what Dad suggested, when the class does well, the teacher makes the next test harder. When the class bombs, the teacher makes the test easier. This sounds pretty reasonable so I tend to believe it.

Brain Death

I just finished my second test of the day. When I was finished with it, my Physics test looked like a series of scribbles. (Which it was.) At least I feel confident that I didn't make too many careless errors. I'm going to have to get my test back before I know exactly how many algebraic errors were made, but here's an error that I caught: I did the right hand rule... with my left hand. Seriously. Wake up, Duncan! I'm so tired, it is not even funny. And I didn't even stay up past 10:00 last night.

And that Genetics test nearly killed me. There must have been a dozen questions that I took random stabs on. The best part about multiple choice tests is that no teacher can take away my points if I get them all right. The worst part is that they can't give me any credit if I get them all wrong. Sigh.

Squeaking By

I have all the midterm grades that I'm going to get back. It is scary: all my grades are right on the knife's edge. My Physics Test was offset by my homework and quizzes so I have an A. My Physics Lab reports have been for the most part too short so I have approximately 91 there. My Genetics Homework assignments have been high B's and low A's. My Genetics Test was a 92, so I have an A in that class too. Both the papers I've written for English class were B+, but because of all the extra credit I've done I have an A-. Right now I'm walking along the face of a very scary black precipice that is called 3.999 GPA.

P.S. Latin is a breeze. Hooray! Oh, but Dr. Davies cancelled today again. What the heck.

First Quarter

Well, the first battle is over. I'm a quarter of the way through the semester and I have achieved fairly good grades through a series of miracles. Here are some areas I still need to work on:

1. Turning reports in on time. (Phys Lab)
2. Making papers longer (Phys Lab + Science Writing)
3. More studying before tests (Physics, and probably Genetics too)

Now I'm going to delve into teratomas for my paper due next friday. Although teratomas are super awesome cool, some of the information on them is neither easy to read or easy to get a hold of. Oh yeah, the Armawhatzit chirgiwhatever was actually written by a second guy with the same name, Johannes Sceltetus. The Johannes Sceltetus who was the first doctor to document a teratoma wrote a paper called Trichiasis Admiranda, which means "The Amazing Hairy Monster." Unfortunately it is in Latin, there's no translation, and there are only ten copies in existence, most of which are kept in Paris. America has two: One is in Harvard and one is in the National Library of Medicine in Maryland, so it doesn't look like I'll be getting a gander at it any time soon.