My goodness. What a day.
I got up around 6:15 to finish packing, make breakfast, and get all of my materials together before I left. The plan was to go to Investments, take the quiz, leave to go up to Fort Wayne, then study for a couple hours before my exam. And that's almost exactly what happened, so that was nice.
The exam was on IPFW campus (or whatever that place is called). I realized after I arrived that the email had not specified what building I was in, and only vaguely mentioned where to park. So I found a parking garage, parked on the third floor (in hopes that I no one would notice), and looked for some building that would direct me to the proper location. Thankfully the library was nearby, and one of the friendly staff was able to direct me to the testing center. So I found the testing room, made sure that I had everything in order, and then went to go study for a couple hours. As it turns out, there was a Subway in the basement of that building. I had planned on finding a Subway for lunch, so this made everything way easier.
After lunch I read through some notes, worked through some problems, and just kind of freaked out for a little bit. Eventually I just decided to get it over with and see how bad the damage was. After some rigorous insurance that I wasn't going to cheat (reading two different legal statements about how I promise not to cheat, the ramifications of me cheating, emptying my pockets, leaving my watch and everything else outside the room except for my calculators) I entered the room and began. Due to the agreements I signed I can't actually talk about any of the problems on the exam. But I can say that it was a just lovely time.
But everything went better than expected. After the exam was over, I filled out a questionnaire about my testing experience and preparation. I gave them a nice explanations of how things could have been improved (like being told how to get to the testing building) and a question that I thought was ambiguous. And then when I hit "finish" I saw my results page. And I passed!! I won't get an official score for about 8 weeks, but I know that I passed and I am ever so relieved. I'm very grateful for all the encouragement from everyone for the past couple months of my studying. It's been fantastic.
After the exam, I collected myself, learned how to breathe again, and then waited for Rachel to get off of work. When she was done I met her at her apartment, where we caught up on the past few months of life. Then when Trevor got home we went to Qdoba for dinner. It was good to see them, as I haven't seen either of them since their wedding. We talked about... everything. Weddings, work, college, Indiana... it was lovely. Eventually I had to go, which was nonsense. But it was getting late and snowy and I had to drive to Findlay. So off I went.
When I got home I saw that Mom had made me a congratulatory banner. Thanks mom :) So I caught everyone up to speed on how it went and everything. Then Kimmy got there a little after I did. And now... I'm tired. It was a long day. Time for bed. Night!
Showing posts with label Epic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Epic. Show all posts
2.11.2012
12.09.2011
Day 200!
Woo hoo! I made it to day number 200, and I certainly have celebrated it with a bang.
The awesomeness began in finance today. We got our tests back and I got a 97 on it. Woo! I missed points on the problem I knew I'd made a mistake on. I also missed one point on another question where I had to describe the "Redington immunization." But I was happy with my grade.
After finance I went to the GA meeting. We talked about some good stuff. Dr. Fischer gave us all some general advice that would be helpful. The biggest thing I need to work on for next semester is writing on the board. Since most of the students will only write what I write, I need to write more things and annotate them. I also need to box the important equations and concepts, number things that happen in order, and write more linearly. So maybe when I write a thought, use bullets or something to specify the beginning of a new idea.
During life con we worked through a couple of the problems from exam 3 that people had found to be difficult. Then we looked at some of the fundamental concepts from the first chapter and tried to really grasp the theory instead of simply acknowledging it. Everything I learn to be an actuary is contingent on the idea of conditional probability: knowing how likely something is to happen given that you know information about that event. For instance, what is the probability that someone lives to age 60 given that they live to age 40? How long will a car last given that it has 173,000 miles on it?
After class I came home, woke Kimmy up, got lunch, and started studying. I kept working through the old finance exams. I feel confident about the stuff from the first exam, so I worked through stuff from the second exam. I began to read through the chapters from the second exam and finally began to understand a concept that had previously escaped me. I always feel silly when that happens because it instantly becomes so obvious that I wonder why it had ever concerned me. Then I did some work on the final for the class I'm teaching. I'm really trying to do very basic, straight forward questions so that they don't get caught up on tiny details. I know that it won't work out that way, but I'm trying. For some of the extended response I may also ask questions along the way to help them get started, like having parts a-d of a question that all lead up to part e.
When I was done Kimmy and I had victory dinner. It was amazing. We were going to get Chinese, but when we got there the Little Caesar's next door smelled so good... that we got both. And then ice cream on the way back. It was absolutely fantastic. Oh my word. I have absolutely 0 regrets.
Then we watched Green Lantern. It was fairly decent. But I'm pretty tired now, so I'm going to go to bed. Good night!
The awesomeness began in finance today. We got our tests back and I got a 97 on it. Woo! I missed points on the problem I knew I'd made a mistake on. I also missed one point on another question where I had to describe the "Redington immunization." But I was happy with my grade.
After finance I went to the GA meeting. We talked about some good stuff. Dr. Fischer gave us all some general advice that would be helpful. The biggest thing I need to work on for next semester is writing on the board. Since most of the students will only write what I write, I need to write more things and annotate them. I also need to box the important equations and concepts, number things that happen in order, and write more linearly. So maybe when I write a thought, use bullets or something to specify the beginning of a new idea.
During life con we worked through a couple of the problems from exam 3 that people had found to be difficult. Then we looked at some of the fundamental concepts from the first chapter and tried to really grasp the theory instead of simply acknowledging it. Everything I learn to be an actuary is contingent on the idea of conditional probability: knowing how likely something is to happen given that you know information about that event. For instance, what is the probability that someone lives to age 60 given that they live to age 40? How long will a car last given that it has 173,000 miles on it?
After class I came home, woke Kimmy up, got lunch, and started studying. I kept working through the old finance exams. I feel confident about the stuff from the first exam, so I worked through stuff from the second exam. I began to read through the chapters from the second exam and finally began to understand a concept that had previously escaped me. I always feel silly when that happens because it instantly becomes so obvious that I wonder why it had ever concerned me. Then I did some work on the final for the class I'm teaching. I'm really trying to do very basic, straight forward questions so that they don't get caught up on tiny details. I know that it won't work out that way, but I'm trying. For some of the extended response I may also ask questions along the way to help them get started, like having parts a-d of a question that all lead up to part e.
When I was done Kimmy and I had victory dinner. It was amazing. We were going to get Chinese, but when we got there the Little Caesar's next door smelled so good... that we got both. And then ice cream on the way back. It was absolutely fantastic. Oh my word. I have absolutely 0 regrets.
Then we watched Green Lantern. It was fairly decent. But I'm pretty tired now, so I'm going to go to bed. Good night!
11.24.2011
Day 187
For those of you who are unaware, today was Thanksgiving.
I woke up to my alarm at 7:45 this morning because I wanted to have plenty of time to eat, shower, and help finish preparing for today's events. I was still pretty tired when my alarm went off, so I decided I would just take one more nice long blink..
Then it was 8:45. That was going to make leaving by 9 tough..... I still showered and ate and everything. In true Pagano fashion we left by 10. Part of that was my fault. Not necessarily from sleeping in, but from not cleaning up the dishes I used last night for baking. Mom needed some of them this morning so had to spend unanticipated time cleaning prior to the anticipated cooking. But we made it out the door and to Columbus without much further instance. Kimmy and I both took naps on the way down. It appears that napping is far more interesting that my Derivatives Market book. Odd....
So yes. Pagano Thanksgiving was fantastic as always. I pretended to be official photographer, even though I really don't know anything about taking pictures. But it was fun! As usual I mostly just say and talked with Nick, Colton, and Kimmy. During the meal Nick was feeling lazy so he paid our little cousin Guyatano a dollar to get him a plate of food. It was pretty funny. Nick also decided that Guy should sit at the awesome kid's table. It was pretty entertaining. Nick was trying to put all sorts of evil ideas into his head but I was the voice of reason and was able to make sure that only the truth was perceived. Naturally. Nick tried to convince Guy that "newer is always better." Clearly this just is false. Sometimes Nick is just full of the nonsense. After food we just sat around and chatted. Nick and I discussed math classes, which I know Kimmy loved. Then I went off to go take pictures. I talked some with Uncle Paul. He wanted to know if I was, in fact, engaged. No one made a formal announcement to the group so he just wanted to make sure that his source was correct. So he and I talked for a bit. Apparently Tyler (his son) is starting to look at colleges and getting recruited and such. So one of my tasks is to email him pictures of the baseball diamond at Ball State.
Then some of us played Apples to Apples. I won. Which is odd because I never win that game.
Then we left. I slept on the way back. Except when I was driving. I don't mix those things. When we got back I had some food, did some studying, and started to write the study guide for the class I'm teaching. I also did a little internet research to see where I should go suit shopping tomorrow. And now I'm probably gonna go to bed! Night!
I woke up to my alarm at 7:45 this morning because I wanted to have plenty of time to eat, shower, and help finish preparing for today's events. I was still pretty tired when my alarm went off, so I decided I would just take one more nice long blink..
Then it was 8:45. That was going to make leaving by 9 tough..... I still showered and ate and everything. In true Pagano fashion we left by 10. Part of that was my fault. Not necessarily from sleeping in, but from not cleaning up the dishes I used last night for baking. Mom needed some of them this morning so had to spend unanticipated time cleaning prior to the anticipated cooking. But we made it out the door and to Columbus without much further instance. Kimmy and I both took naps on the way down. It appears that napping is far more interesting that my Derivatives Market book. Odd....
So yes. Pagano Thanksgiving was fantastic as always. I pretended to be official photographer, even though I really don't know anything about taking pictures. But it was fun! As usual I mostly just say and talked with Nick, Colton, and Kimmy. During the meal Nick was feeling lazy so he paid our little cousin Guyatano a dollar to get him a plate of food. It was pretty funny. Nick also decided that Guy should sit at the awesome kid's table. It was pretty entertaining. Nick was trying to put all sorts of evil ideas into his head but I was the voice of reason and was able to make sure that only the truth was perceived. Naturally. Nick tried to convince Guy that "newer is always better." Clearly this just is false. Sometimes Nick is just full of the nonsense. After food we just sat around and chatted. Nick and I discussed math classes, which I know Kimmy loved. Then I went off to go take pictures. I talked some with Uncle Paul. He wanted to know if I was, in fact, engaged. No one made a formal announcement to the group so he just wanted to make sure that his source was correct. So he and I talked for a bit. Apparently Tyler (his son) is starting to look at colleges and getting recruited and such. So one of my tasks is to email him pictures of the baseball diamond at Ball State.
Then some of us played Apples to Apples. I won. Which is odd because I never win that game.
Then we left. I slept on the way back. Except when I was driving. I don't mix those things. When we got back I had some food, did some studying, and started to write the study guide for the class I'm teaching. I also did a little internet research to see where I should go suit shopping tomorrow. And now I'm probably gonna go to bed! Night!
10.17.2011
Day 149
What an exciting day I had today! It started off fairly early. 6:15 to be exact. This was the time at which I normal wake up. But not today. No, today I smiled to myself and turned my alarm off.
I finally did wake up around 8. At which point I had a bagel with apple butter. I was still hungry, so I had another bagel but with peanut butter this time. They were both really good.
After breakfast I took a shower. I spent most of the morning going between playing a game on my phone and doing some homework. I've been trying to study for my stats quiz on Wednesday. It's been less than stimulating.
For lunch Kimmy and I had grilled cheese and tomato soup. And watched How I Met Your Mother. And then watched some more. Then... I did some dishes. And some more homework. It was a wonderful afternoon.
A little before 4 we got ready to go run some errands and get dinner. We went to the shoe store so Kimmy could get rain boots, but they didn't have any that fit her. So no boots were had. Then we journeyed off to Hobby Lobby so Kimmy could get some charcoal for her art class. And we saw mom! Apparently you don't have to bring in a physical coupon. You should need to show the cashier the coupon from the website on a smartphone. That was neat. I did not know that before.
For dinner we went to Five Guys Burgers and Fries. It was so much goodness. Their hamburgers are literally a double stack of heart attack with juicy diabetes and cheese. It's the best thing in the world. And the fries taste a little bit like heaven. A very very salty heaven. Let's see. After dinner we went on a little adventure. Kimmy asked where we were going, but it was a surprise. So off we went. Eventually we got to a small church. I will not name this church, as the person with whom I worked to acquire said church did not get permission from the rest of church staff. The groundskeeper simply let me use the building under the radar. So I will keep it's location anonymous. But we got there. It was a really nice church. We walked in the front door and music started playing! What a surprise! It was "Once upon a December" from the movie Anastasia. It makes for a lovely waltz. So we did a waltz. And then the magical jukebox played "Zoot Suit Riot," to which we danced a nice swing. After it was over we went for a walk. Which was about 5 steps over to the altar where there was a nice little wooden box. So I grabbed the aforementioned box and opened it up for Kimmy. This little box contained a small piece of jewelry, typically worn on the fourth finger of a female's left hand. It was at this time that I believe Kimmy and I became formally "engaged." So that was pretty neat. Becky and James came out of hiding and got a few more pictures (which will hopefully be coming shortly). Becky and James pretty much made it all happen. They found the church when my other option didn't work, Becky took pictures, James got the music... and they both made sure I didn't go crazy from being too nervous. So thanks, friends. Also, Kimmy immediately recognized the company from whom I ordered the ring (Brilliant Earth) and she was very excited that I had picked them. Go me!
After all that business was over we went to go get ice cream at Cold Stone. I decided that buying my friends ice cream was the very least that I could do for all their help. After Cold Stone we went to Wal-mart and bought pumpkins for carving! Well... Becky and Kimmy carved. James and I sat and discussed economics and politics. We tried to understand the "Occupy" Movement, but neither of us really knew much about it so it proved to be useless. So we just started talking about video games. Then we got sent on an errand to get candles for the pumpkins. And butter. It took us a very long time to find candles (because we kept getting lost in conversation...then lost in the store). But we eventually found them and made it back.
Umm... I was tired so I came home. Talked with parents and told them about how it all happened. And then... I started updating my blog. After I updated Facebook to say that Kimmy and I are now engaged... well my computer has pretty much been exploding with people asking me about how it happened. I feel like a celebrity :)
But now it is bed time. Good night, friends! I will try to get pictures up soon.
I finally did wake up around 8. At which point I had a bagel with apple butter. I was still hungry, so I had another bagel but with peanut butter this time. They were both really good.
After breakfast I took a shower. I spent most of the morning going between playing a game on my phone and doing some homework. I've been trying to study for my stats quiz on Wednesday. It's been less than stimulating.
For lunch Kimmy and I had grilled cheese and tomato soup. And watched How I Met Your Mother. And then watched some more. Then... I did some dishes. And some more homework. It was a wonderful afternoon.
A little before 4 we got ready to go run some errands and get dinner. We went to the shoe store so Kimmy could get rain boots, but they didn't have any that fit her. So no boots were had. Then we journeyed off to Hobby Lobby so Kimmy could get some charcoal for her art class. And we saw mom! Apparently you don't have to bring in a physical coupon. You should need to show the cashier the coupon from the website on a smartphone. That was neat. I did not know that before.
For dinner we went to Five Guys Burgers and Fries. It was so much goodness. Their hamburgers are literally a double stack of heart attack with juicy diabetes and cheese. It's the best thing in the world. And the fries taste a little bit like heaven. A very very salty heaven. Let's see. After dinner we went on a little adventure. Kimmy asked where we were going, but it was a surprise. So off we went. Eventually we got to a small church. I will not name this church, as the person with whom I worked to acquire said church did not get permission from the rest of church staff. The groundskeeper simply let me use the building under the radar. So I will keep it's location anonymous. But we got there. It was a really nice church. We walked in the front door and music started playing! What a surprise! It was "Once upon a December" from the movie Anastasia. It makes for a lovely waltz. So we did a waltz. And then the magical jukebox played "Zoot Suit Riot," to which we danced a nice swing. After it was over we went for a walk. Which was about 5 steps over to the altar where there was a nice little wooden box. So I grabbed the aforementioned box and opened it up for Kimmy. This little box contained a small piece of jewelry, typically worn on the fourth finger of a female's left hand. It was at this time that I believe Kimmy and I became formally "engaged." So that was pretty neat. Becky and James came out of hiding and got a few more pictures (which will hopefully be coming shortly). Becky and James pretty much made it all happen. They found the church when my other option didn't work, Becky took pictures, James got the music... and they both made sure I didn't go crazy from being too nervous. So thanks, friends. Also, Kimmy immediately recognized the company from whom I ordered the ring (Brilliant Earth) and she was very excited that I had picked them. Go me!
After all that business was over we went to go get ice cream at Cold Stone. I decided that buying my friends ice cream was the very least that I could do for all their help. After Cold Stone we went to Wal-mart and bought pumpkins for carving! Well... Becky and Kimmy carved. James and I sat and discussed economics and politics. We tried to understand the "Occupy" Movement, but neither of us really knew much about it so it proved to be useless. So we just started talking about video games. Then we got sent on an errand to get candles for the pumpkins. And butter. It took us a very long time to find candles (because we kept getting lost in conversation...then lost in the store). But we eventually found them and made it back.
Umm... I was tired so I came home. Talked with parents and told them about how it all happened. And then... I started updating my blog. After I updated Facebook to say that Kimmy and I are now engaged... well my computer has pretty much been exploding with people asking me about how it happened. I feel like a celebrity :)
But now it is bed time. Good night, friends! I will try to get pictures up soon.
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