And in the darkness, there is often glimmers of hope.
I had my second organic chemistry exam on Friday night. I left the test feeling well, which scared me, because I'd left the first test also feeling pretty good about my performance. First test score: 73. That was a few points above the average. But I'm not an average student. I love chemistry...I enjoy chemistry! Not so much after my first test. Then there's the added fact that everyone said the second test was the hardest of her tests.
Okay, so by Monday I was thoroughly depressed, and was telling myself I'd just get through this semester. I told myself that I'd stop caring what grades i received. That was reinforced when I got a 63 on the organic chem lab midterm. Granted, we'd only gotten back one graded experiment and only had one quiz (on lab safety, which we never got back), so how the heck was I supposed to know what the test was going to be like? 33% of the test also covered the two experiments that our lab didn't get to do thanks to the hurricane. Yay.
Tuesday our teacher gave us the big talk about grades. She told us the ranges for the bottom of the "minus" grades (A-, B-, etc.) based on 9 years of historical data. A- has ranged from 78-85, B- has ranged from 65-73, C- has ranched from 50-60 (and D- would be too depressing to list.)
So, 73 would put me in the B or B- range. But that was before I found out about my grade on the second test....86! (The average was 60.) This is totally more like my expected performance. Averaging the two together, I'm at a 79.5. As long as I don't do too much worse on the third test and the cumulative final, I could possibly still get an A. (We get to drop our lowest test grade, so hopefully I'll be dropping that 73.) 6% of our grade is pure attendance, and I've only missed one day of class (which was right after the hurricane). I am definitely feeling relieved!
Okay, so by Monday I was thoroughly depressed, and was telling myself I'd just get through this semester. I told myself that I'd stop caring what grades i received. That was reinforced when I got a 63 on the organic chem lab midterm. Granted, we'd only gotten back one graded experiment and only had one quiz (on lab safety, which we never got back), so how the heck was I supposed to know what the test was going to be like? 33% of the test also covered the two experiments that our lab didn't get to do thanks to the hurricane. Yay.
Tuesday our teacher gave us the big talk about grades. She told us the ranges for the bottom of the "minus" grades (A-, B-, etc.) based on 9 years of historical data. A- has ranged from 78-85, B- has ranged from 65-73, C- has ranched from 50-60 (and D- would be too depressing to list.)
So, 73 would put me in the B or B- range. But that was before I found out about my grade on the second test....86! (The average was 60.) This is totally more like my expected performance. Averaging the two together, I'm at a 79.5. As long as I don't do too much worse on the third test and the cumulative final, I could possibly still get an A. (We get to drop our lowest test grade, so hopefully I'll be dropping that 73.) 6% of our grade is pure attendance, and I've only missed one day of class (which was right after the hurricane). I am definitely feeling relieved!