Just Got Grades Back for Summer Semester

[LAGC]

So I took both my Intro Chemistry and Precalculus finals on Wednesday. The end, finally, of this fast-paced, heavy work-load of a condensed 8-week semester.

Since I aced all my Precalculus homework and tests early on (helps that with the online homework you can keep re-trying until you get 100%, and 3 of the 5 tests were also online, with up to 3 total attempts, with only your best attempt counting) I didn't even study for the final, since I only needed 60% to still get an A. But once I actually got there, I found myself shell-shocked, not remembering some of the key concepts from earlier in the semester, taking too long on the middle-algebra shit, not giving myself enough time for the application problems and trigonometry questions, so I ended up guessing for quite a few of the multiple choice problems. I honestly feared I had failed it, in which case the best grade you can get in the class is a D, no matter how good you did on all the other course-work. But he just posted final grades tonight, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I somehow managed to pull an 88.5% out of that mess. Hallelujah!

And since I instead focused all my studying energy on my Chem final, I did pretty well on it as well, scoring 52 out of 60 on the standardized test. Which while that raw score is only 86.67%, since the national average on that American Chemical Society standardized test is only 28.6 out of 60, the final grade it is heavily curved, so I ended up getting an adjusted score of 117%, performing the best out of the entire class of 49 students! Good thing too, because my supplementary lab instructor was a real stickler for details, a very harsh grader for an intro-level course, and I only ended up getting 88% in lab, which is 25% of the total grade.

So here I am, two full semesters after going back to school full-time after a 10-year hiatus with the beginning of a 4.0 GPA streak. We'll see how long it lasts... I'm thinking if general Biology doesn't break me next semester, Calculus (proper) will in the spring, since I won't have the benefit of an online class which I think is a much easier (and forgiving) way to learn the material than a regular brick-and-mortar classroom, we'll see.

Since we only covered up to Chapter 17 in our Intro Chemistry textbook, I skimmed Chapter 18 (Organic Chemistry) and Chapter 19 (Biochemistry), and was fascinated with what I saw. This whole idea of molecules reproducing, all thanks to the complexity of carbon atom configurations. It just boggles the mind. It piqued my curiosity so much so that I decided to put off CHEM 111 (General Chemistry) until next year, and signed up for CHEM 102 (Intro Organic/Biochemistry) instead. The whole concept just makes you marvel at how life all began. This whole specter of a primordial ooze of inorganic chemicals, bombarded with heat and radiation that somehow led to the formation of the first amino acids, and molecules that could reproduce each other. Growing more and more complex over time, until the first primitive strand of DNA evolved, one big-ass super-complex molecule that could break apart and clone itself. It may not be as romantic as the idea of God creating us in his own image, but its still pretty freaking amazing in and of itself, if indeed that's how it all began.

I'm looking forward to many interesting journeys in science... I'm only mad at myself for putting off going back to school for so long, and not applying myself back when I was going part-time over 10 years ago. Oh well. All I can do is focus on the future now, and try to make up for lost time.

[AKM]

I'm only mad at myself for putting off going back to school for so long,

Were not you a little tied up doing other things?

[LAGC]

Were not you a little tied up doing other things?

Yes, but I still could have studied while I was down. I really should have taken advantage of all the free-time, instead of wasting away those 5 years sleeping 12 hours a day and reading a ton of science fiction books or playing cards during most of my waking hours.

Even if I didn't officially enroll in a mail-order college, I could have at least read through and studied many textbooks so that I could challenge quite a few courses once I got out.

So much wasted potential... I'll be 40 by the time I get my bachelors, 42 if I get my masters.

I'll just have to promise not to retire until I'm at least 80, just to put in a good 40 years honest work.

[AKM]

I give you credit for retaining your smartness. It wasn't that long ago that I looked at an online ASVAB Test and I thought I was looking at a foreign language.

[ltorlo64]

Congratulations, well done. About calculus, I think it is better to take it in an actual classroom. I tried to take it as a correspondence course and failed miserably. I had a bunch of sailors working for me take the same course while we were underway and the only way they passed was talking this one Lieutenant into teaching them the course. She had a PhD in Nuclear Physics and made calculus sound exciting. Everyone who went to her "classes" got an "A" in the class. Those that didn't had a much harder time.

[Altarboy]

nearly every man in my family is a doctor or an engineer. I just don't think my mind will wrap around calculus. You guys have my respect. I dropped out of college after two years. I guess that's why I hold a steering wheel for a living.

[imanaknut]

Congrats! Education is one of those areas where better late than never is very true.