Finals and semester's end
So the semester is over. Finals I think went fairly well.
French has been a pretty average class throughout the semester with a lot of low A's and high B's, so I'm guessing it'll finish in the 3.4 range. The prof in that class was extremely easy on her grading. I could do half a homework assignment or less and she'd give me 90% credit. I think part of that might have been that she figured I knew the material anyway and let me go. I saw her start to grade my final really quick when I was leaving on Wednesday and she wasn't really even reading it, she just starting writing numbers. That bodes well, since I'm pretty sure I messed up the imparfait and passe compose essay at the end.
My Intro to Africa class I think as a whole was more illuminating than I thought it would be. It was a curious mix of extremely boring and very interesting, depending on what time period we were in that day. The fact that it was so boring made it hard to really pay attention, so I ended up doing a middling job on some of the tests, including the double sized final, where I found myself guessing more than I would have liked, but I'd still say that I come out in the 3.5/3.6 territory. Low for a Gen ed easy class, but sometimes it's the easy ones that are the hardest to get geared up for.
Civil War history was the big one this semester. It was a hard class that required a lot of reading and sudying, and only four grades determined my ending grade, a midterm, two papers and a final. I got a 3.6 on the midterm, two 4.0s on the papers (which are averaged together for 30% of the grade), and I don't know yet on the final. The final was like a perfect storm of questions that I knew the exact answers to. But it was a LOT of questions, and I'm not sure I answered them all as completely as I should have. We had to talk about the change in northern monetary policy, a discussion on the passage and composition of the 14th amendment, the partisan ranger act (which I sort of BSed), either a question on Grant or McClellan, and I chose McClellan because I remembered the specifics of the battles better. And a lot more than that. Luckily we got to do an extra credit essay before hand, which I think I did a very good job on (which means it probably sucked since I thought I did an awful job on the 4.0 papers he liked). But I'm hopeful for an A in the class. I think something in the 3.6/3.7 range is likely. It'll be only the second history class out of 6 now that I haven't 4.0ed in. The other class was a bunch of crap that had to do with attendence issues, but I'll be damned if I'm retaking a freshman survey course just for an extra point.
Next semester is starting to shape up already. I haven't signed up for classes yet because I haven't gotten a loan to pay for the semester I just finished, but I'm hoping to get that done tomorrow, assuming it goes smoothly. I'm taking another class with the same prof I just finished Civil War history with. It's basically a continuation, since that class stopped at 1876 and this one picks up at 1877. He's an awesome teacher, and I was planning on taking more classes with him, but not until the future. Sadly though he's retiring at the end of this year, so he said he'd let me in to the already full class. Other than that, it's looking like Intro to Japan (a class I have to retake that I don't really want to take) and Astronomy (another class I have to retake, but this one I'm excited about). I NEED a fourth class, and there are plenty of classes that I need, but it seems a great deal of them are already full. I need two philosophy classes, and an English class for starters, but they're all already full, and I've had poor luck getting into those classes in the past. My back up fourth class is a 300 level African history class, which will satisfy my requirement for a 300 level Africa/Asia/S America history class. It's modern African history since 1800, which I AM interested in, but the teacher is the one I just finished with in Intro to Africa who bored me to tears. I have a mixed opinion of him. I can't tell if he is an idiot, or if he really just hates teaching freshman classes and instead of constantly correcting his stupid students, he just let them be wrong. It's either that or he really doesn't know that they need correcting. And I'm not sure if I'd rather take that 300 level class or if I'd rather tackle something I know less about like Asia or South America. Sometimes I like to take classes that I already know a bit about, because it makes them easier, but sometimes I like to take classes I know NOTHING about just to fill in my knowledge gaps. The Africa class would be the first sort. So I'm hoping that I can get one of these English classes. I just know I'm going to HATE the class. I hate English class. They make me read books that I seldom actually enjoy and then write stupid papers that dissect that book and remove any element of fun from it. In hindsight I'm finding the only two "English" classes I enjoyed in high school were AP English and Advanced Comp, and that's because of the writing, not the reading. There are a couple classes that aren't quite your average literature class, but those too are already full. We'll see what shakes out when I can actually sign up next week. Financial aid will be a battle I fight next semester, but that's not something I can worry about right now.
French has been a pretty average class throughout the semester with a lot of low A's and high B's, so I'm guessing it'll finish in the 3.4 range. The prof in that class was extremely easy on her grading. I could do half a homework assignment or less and she'd give me 90% credit. I think part of that might have been that she figured I knew the material anyway and let me go. I saw her start to grade my final really quick when I was leaving on Wednesday and she wasn't really even reading it, she just starting writing numbers. That bodes well, since I'm pretty sure I messed up the imparfait and passe compose essay at the end.
My Intro to Africa class I think as a whole was more illuminating than I thought it would be. It was a curious mix of extremely boring and very interesting, depending on what time period we were in that day. The fact that it was so boring made it hard to really pay attention, so I ended up doing a middling job on some of the tests, including the double sized final, where I found myself guessing more than I would have liked, but I'd still say that I come out in the 3.5/3.6 territory. Low for a Gen ed easy class, but sometimes it's the easy ones that are the hardest to get geared up for.
Civil War history was the big one this semester. It was a hard class that required a lot of reading and sudying, and only four grades determined my ending grade, a midterm, two papers and a final. I got a 3.6 on the midterm, two 4.0s on the papers (which are averaged together for 30% of the grade), and I don't know yet on the final. The final was like a perfect storm of questions that I knew the exact answers to. But it was a LOT of questions, and I'm not sure I answered them all as completely as I should have. We had to talk about the change in northern monetary policy, a discussion on the passage and composition of the 14th amendment, the partisan ranger act (which I sort of BSed), either a question on Grant or McClellan, and I chose McClellan because I remembered the specifics of the battles better. And a lot more than that. Luckily we got to do an extra credit essay before hand, which I think I did a very good job on (which means it probably sucked since I thought I did an awful job on the 4.0 papers he liked). But I'm hopeful for an A in the class. I think something in the 3.6/3.7 range is likely. It'll be only the second history class out of 6 now that I haven't 4.0ed in. The other class was a bunch of crap that had to do with attendence issues, but I'll be damned if I'm retaking a freshman survey course just for an extra point.
Next semester is starting to shape up already. I haven't signed up for classes yet because I haven't gotten a loan to pay for the semester I just finished, but I'm hoping to get that done tomorrow, assuming it goes smoothly. I'm taking another class with the same prof I just finished Civil War history with. It's basically a continuation, since that class stopped at 1876 and this one picks up at 1877. He's an awesome teacher, and I was planning on taking more classes with him, but not until the future. Sadly though he's retiring at the end of this year, so he said he'd let me in to the already full class. Other than that, it's looking like Intro to Japan (a class I have to retake that I don't really want to take) and Astronomy (another class I have to retake, but this one I'm excited about). I NEED a fourth class, and there are plenty of classes that I need, but it seems a great deal of them are already full. I need two philosophy classes, and an English class for starters, but they're all already full, and I've had poor luck getting into those classes in the past. My back up fourth class is a 300 level African history class, which will satisfy my requirement for a 300 level Africa/Asia/S America history class. It's modern African history since 1800, which I AM interested in, but the teacher is the one I just finished with in Intro to Africa who bored me to tears. I have a mixed opinion of him. I can't tell if he is an idiot, or if he really just hates teaching freshman classes and instead of constantly correcting his stupid students, he just let them be wrong. It's either that or he really doesn't know that they need correcting. And I'm not sure if I'd rather take that 300 level class or if I'd rather tackle something I know less about like Asia or South America. Sometimes I like to take classes that I already know a bit about, because it makes them easier, but sometimes I like to take classes I know NOTHING about just to fill in my knowledge gaps. The Africa class would be the first sort. So I'm hoping that I can get one of these English classes. I just know I'm going to HATE the class. I hate English class. They make me read books that I seldom actually enjoy and then write stupid papers that dissect that book and remove any element of fun from it. In hindsight I'm finding the only two "English" classes I enjoyed in high school were AP English and Advanced Comp, and that's because of the writing, not the reading. There are a couple classes that aren't quite your average literature class, but those too are already full. We'll see what shakes out when I can actually sign up next week. Financial aid will be a battle I fight next semester, but that's not something I can worry about right now.