Ah, but I regress

It’s only the first day of finals week and I feel like my semester is already over. That is, I finished linear regression today and I feel like a huge weight has been taken from off my shoulders. I am freed from the chains of unknown parameters, model validation, time series, and a host of other things. Really, I need to know these things. And really, they are very interesting. But having to learn them with such precision and so rapidly has been exhausting.

I woke up at 4:30 this morning, realized it was a bad idea, and slept in until 5:30. I sprung up, got out of bed, and studied the scriptures (which always gets me ready in a way nothing else can). Then, I launched into studying for the final.

We were allowed two 8.5x11 sheets of paper, covered front and back with formulas. After going through eleven lectures and hundreds of slides of material, I felt comfortable having only three of my four available sides covered. I think I just wrote too small to cover that much paper, honestly.

I arrived at the classroom about four minutes before Guifang administered the exam (so, 1:26 pm). When it began, I hoped beyond hope that it would not feel the same way the midterm felt (confusing, to say the least). Then, I looked at the first problem and thought, “Yeah, I can do this,” and then the same thing happened with each problem thereafter. It was definitely manageable!

Surprisingly, the very last thing I wrote on my formula sheet was one of the things I used the most, at least in the first of five problems. I remember seeing it on the slides only minutes before walking out the door and thinking, “That seems important.” I’m so glad I jotted it down.

Good study things

Some good things are happening in my studies. So far, I’ve stayed on top of my hour study of Exam P every day this week (and, I’m ahead of schedule overall, so at this point I’m studying stuff that I have scheduled for next week). Additionally, I’ve been getting to bed earlier than I have all semester, which means I rise earlier and somehow get more things done throughout the day. AND I created a study schedule for my classes, which helps me to maintain my coursework rather than try to catch up and get things done quickly right before an assignment is due.

Economics exam tomorrow. More later.

The impossible morning

Rich woke up at 9:30 this morning! He always wakes up around 7:30 or 8:00 and rarely at 8:30...but 9:30? I got up early and studied, and then I waited for my family to come downstairs for breakfast, but that never happened. Eventually I took a shower, which usually wakes Rich up, but still nothing happened. Finally, I had to do some things at my desk rather quickly before leaving for campus, which caused a stir and woke up Karen.

ME: You should look at the time.

Karen bent over the bed to check her phone.

KAREN: 9:23.

ME: Yep.

A pause.

KAREN: Whoa! 9:23?

I explained that Rich was not up yet and that I was waiting for them to come downstairs and they never did.

KAREN: I thought you were playing a trick on me and that you were going to say, “Just kidding.” 9:23?

A few minutes later, Rich woke up.

"Until the job is completed successfully"

I have a spreadsheet on my computer with a list of 57 goals that I am working on right now. Each day, I open the sheet and the program randomly generates one daily goal, which I then try to make a part of my life for 24 hours.

I smiled when I opened it last night and saw that today’s would be “I work hard until the job is completed successfully.” Today was exam study day, and I spent nearly the entirety of my waking hours working through homework problems and pouring over pages and pages and pages and pages of study material. Even then, I only got a little more than halfway through the material, so I’m going to have to get up really early Monday morning and get more done before my 11:30 am calculus exam.

So, while the job is not "completed successfully" at this point, I am confident that "I work hard" is basically an understatement.

It's a vector! It's a plane! It's . . . come again?

Calculus exam #3—the least stressful one yet. My main objective was to get through the exam more quickly than the first two, which I did...but I really need to be moving faster.

Janice and I chatted when I turned in my completed test. We went through each problem on the exam right then and there and she explained how I could maybe trim back my detail a bit. But the ultimate message she left with me: I need to step back and see the big picture. She said, "It sounds like you're good computationally, but you struggle to understand the why." We're going to sit down and go over some big picture stuff between now and the final exam and especially clear up some things from our most recent section, which I really had a hard time understanding. (It’s three-dimensional vectors and planes, by the way.)

Karen is, as always, supportive. She’s the best cheerleader ever. She texted me periodically today stating that she was praying for me. I get through each day because she has my back 100%. Easily the best companion ever.

Economics can kill

The economics exam was brutal. I could have prepared better, but it was also very difficult to know how to prepare since Dr. Findley doesn’t give study guides. Overall, I had a harder time learning the material. The first half of the exam was formula heavy, so it didn’t help that I constantly searched the textbook for what I needed to use. (I wrote the formulas on a piece of note paper so that I would have them ready...but I left that note on my desk at home. On accident.) I imagine my grade on this exam will be much lower than my grade on the first exam (95% after the curve). But at least I did the bonus assignment!

Prayer works on calculus too

I went to bed “early” Tuesday night (just before midnight, I think) because exhaustion got the better of me in preparing for my second calculus exam, which I took yesterday.

For some reason, practice problems did me no observable good. Whenever I turned to do one, I couldn't recall how to get started or what method to use. I poured over my notes, my instructor's notes, but nothing would stick. Halfway through a very frustrating morning yesterday, I had a green smoothie (because green smoothies make me feel better on exam days). And after a full morning of preparation with little to show for it in terms of retention, I left for campus.

Prayer works. After today, and after so many days like today, I can't say much about how things happened without saying something about the power of prayer. Nothing else explains how I completed that exam. It took 2.5 hours, and I stared at the paper for maybe 10 minutes before I very suddenly remembered how to do something, but I got through it. I completed each problem confidently. How in the world is that even possible?

I missed the two classes following my calculus class. Alek, a friend, shared his notes with me. Thanks, Alek.

Economically speaking, I'd like to trade my study for an A

Tomorrow morning is the first economics exam. After last night’s assignment, my overall grade in the class rose to 99.1%, which to me means I have learned the material and handled it well enough to be eligible for an A on the test. I studied for a few hours tonight, reviewing forgotten principles and their applications. I looked through the entire first four chapters of the textbook, and I feel confident that I know what should be on the test. Still, I don’t like the fact that the instructor himself said his exams are difficult and that the average grade on them is usually a D. At this point, I stay confident that I've done my best, and I do my best tomorrow.