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Re: OT: Plans 1-8 apparently failed
Bradford wrote:
>So, I guess my question is: if you were a student enrolled
>in this class, would you stick around to watch a movie that
>wasn't going to be on the final, when you might possibly
>have another mid-term at 8 a.m. in the morning?
I was the "worst" student in history, and just skated by on whatever would
allow me to get an A. If attendance was mandatory at the regular
screenings, I'd go, otherwise I'd netflix the movies and watch them as I
went to sleep.. If I was already there for a midterm, and another movie
was popped in for "fun", I'd give it 5 minutes to decide whether I'd stay or
go. Maybe less for Mr. Wood's 'masterpiece'..
My most panicked moment in my undergraduate engineering college career came
in the final weeks of classes. I'd forgotten to ever take Fortran, which
was a required Freshman level course for my five year engineering program..
My advisor noted this, and so in Spring Quarter (my last before graduation)
I took it. 399 jabbering freshman and me in an old-style auditorium. Read
through the syllabus, noted nothing that indicated attendance was mandatory,
so I decided to go to my assigned weekly lab of 20 students - one time. It
was to count for 15% of our grade, after all..
In that lab, we each had to write a banal 20 line program on the topic du
jour. All through my college career, I'd used Matlab, with a programming
structure similar to Fortran.. In the first 15 minutes of the lab, I'd
befriended Dennis, a freshman in class with me, and made arrangements for
him to turn in his homework twice each week; once with his name and SSN and
once with mine (honestly, a 20 line fortran program can't vary much from
person to person). In exchange, Dennis from me got a spare ticket to the
very sold out Smashing Pumpkins show - the final show of their Siamese Dream
tour.
I showed up to the midterm with nearly all of the diligent 399 freshman I'd
almost forgotten. Left, didn't think anything of it, just waiting it out
'til the final.
Finals week, senior year. Tumbleweeds were more likely to be seen rolling
through campus than engineering seniors. At our university, finals
schedules are determined by first class date and time at some odd schedule -
so when you register for a class, you know when the final is *supposed to
be*.
I walk in to the auditorium, no one. Panic a little. Get out the schedule,
double check it, panic more. Find out who the professor of the class is,
walk to his office, panicking more still. "Dr. Whateveryourname is?"
"Yes?"
"Uh.. Hi. Isn't there supposed to be a Fortran final now?"
"No, that was taken last week."
(Stammering) "Uh, well, you just can't move a final - you have to have
permission from the whole class, don't you?"
(Sternly) "Yes, we've discussed it each class since the midterm both in labs
and in assembly AND it's been written on the board in each of those. Have
you been going to class?"
(Sheepishly) "No, no. I wouldn't say that I've been going to class per
se..."
"Were your labs turned in?"
"Yes, I think so" (hoping that Dennis had not forgotten me...) I then went
into me being a senior and viewed Fortran as more of logic training for
freshman minds than a useful life skill at face value, that I'd used fortran
in high school and Matlab in college, and if he wanted to I could take the
test in front of him or he could make up questions if he'd like...
"How did you do on the mid term?"
"I have no idea... Did you post it?"
(Dirty look, followed by some rummaging through a gradebook) "Did you take
this midterm yourself?"
"Yes."
"Well, you got a 93. The next highest score was a 66. I'll give you a 'B',
and you don't need to take the final."
wahooey!!!
if you ever get close to a human, and human behaviour,
be ready to get confused, there's definitely no logic,
B
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