duck-shaped pain

27 February 2002
Self-Evaluation Time...

Let's see�it's nearly halfway through the semester, and I spent some time today trying to figure out how I'm doing, grade wise, in school. I'm much more interested in this than I was when I went to school previously, because a) I'm paying for it, so I feel like I should get some sort of return out of my efforts, and b) since I'd eventually like to get into graduate school (and since I have a disastrous year at some other school to overcome), I'm all hopped up on achievement.

But the prospects are good.

I think I have As in every class I have. One I don't know about, since we just took our first test the other day and I don't have it back yet. But the rest have positive outlooks, although in some, I have a medium to low A.

In my Spanish class, I have 99 percent. Somehow. This is because only the tests count towards the final grade. Attendance doesn't count, nor do any of the numerous worksheets/busywork that she gives us each day.

In geology and geology lab, I have a low and a high A, respectively, thanks to the curve. No one seems to be doing particularly well in either one, but I'm doing better than the rest. I missed a few things on the only test we've taken in the lecture class, all from the one day I missed due to being deathly ill. This means that I should do better on the next one. And I'm surrounded by twitching miscreants in lab, who giggle uncontrollably over mildly humorous rock names (schist), which explains the curve.

Western civilization -- no idea. Should know tomorrow, but my feelings are good.

In public history, I have a 94 percent or something similar. Had you told me this when the class started, I would have been surprised, but after my semi-triumphant lecture on museum exhibit design two weeks ago, I've felt much better. I only got a 47 out of 50 points on the paper than went with it. Yes, that is an A, but I was disappointed that it wasn't a 50 out of 50. I didn't feel this way before, back when I was younger -- an A was fine. It didn't have to be a perfect one. But now I have this drive to be the best student ever, and missing three points is provoking a large Where Did I Go Wrong? reaction. [1]

In my other history class, I have a 95, I think. Pretty decent, although I was dismayed to get a B on the film review I did last week. Which can be attributable to me writing it really late at night and having an overall complex about thinking about movies.

Perhaps I'll chill out a bit next semester. But I was pretty concerned that I wouldn't do well, returning after a couple of years, that I think I've been trying really hard.


Unofficial good news today: the replacement for Evil Stupid Lady is going to be my friend E., as far as I know. I met her when she worked there last year, and she's actually a decent, interesting, nice human being who does the job well. I am very, very pleased. No more rude comments and finding my lunch stolen. No more office supplies hid in puzzling places. No more scary computer wallpaper of dogs dressed up like bumblebees. No more Air Supply CDs. So excellent.


Got two new (to me) CDs in the mail today: A Secret History by The Divine Comedy, and a used copy of my favorite Fall record, I Am Kurious Oranj. My tape of it finally broke and I was forced to upgrade. Not that I'm going to complain, since the advance in technology makes it much easier to listen to "Wrong Place, Right Time" over and over and over and over again, like nature intended.


[1] I think this is genetic. My parents were both overachievers in college. I talked to my mom about this last night, and she said that she did the exact same thing when she was in school. She had to get the highest grade in the class or she wasn't satisfied. Since she was going back to college when I was in high school, I thought this was insane (at the time). Back then, I was pleased just to get to school in time and ecstatic when I managed, once in a while, to turn something in on time.

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