Alright. I completed another Wednesday. On this particular day, I woke up, made my lunch, and went off to my office. One of my students was supposed to stop by, but she didn't. Timbo came by and we discussed the stats assignment. I also finished grading the group projects my class did. I actually learned a few things reading the history portion. Not that I know everything, but I'm reasonably familiar with the history of various mathematical topics. Then I went to go work out, which was fun as always. It wasn't. I still don't like working out...
When I got back I tried to be productive and work on the MLC practice problems that Mr. Dean gave us. But I just got frustrated. Then I went to stats. Last stats class! I was a bit lost. As usual. But I tried to take really good notes because our exam on Monday is open book/open note. On a side note, this is turning out to be a really short post. Not much happened today though.
After class I took Dustin home and we played some video games. Kimmy texted me to say that she had stopped at Wal-mart but would be over reasonably soon. The three of us were going to some sub place that Dustin really likes for dinner. So he and I went back to my apartment and worked one of the problems in the mean time. When Kimmy arrived we went off to get dinner. It was really good. Then we came back, Kimmy gave me my Christmas presents, and now... here we are! I'm pretty tired so I'm probably going to bed soon. So good night!
12.07.2011
Day 197
Somehow these past two days seem to have taken about 2 weeks. It's been remarkable. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing... but it's a thing. Just yesterday I took my finance exam. Incredible. It feels like I did that ages ago. Like empires were created, prospered, and diminished in between now and that exam. Alas, we move on.
This morning I got up a little bit early to finish writing up my life con exam. I emailed an Excel file, but I also wanted to hand in some of the work. That took a bit longer than I had anticipated, so I got breakfast a little late. I took me an extra bit of time to get ready because I had to pack of snacks for class today. But eventually I got everything packed and left for school. Somehow I made it there and to class in 12 minutes. Usually it takes closer to 20. Part of this is due to my catching the shuttle right as it pulled up. Another part was due to my not having to stop at any traffic lights.
Anyhow, I got to class. I asked Mr. Frye if he'd finished grading our exams. He just laughed. I told him that we could cancel class so that he could have an extra hour to grade them... oddly enough he didn't take me up on the offer. After class was over I went to the computer lab to print of some stuff for class. Originally I'd gone to the computer lab on the fourth floor, but the printer was out of ink. So I had to go downstairs. I don't really like using the lab because the computers are on some weird network and the printing doesn't always work. But apparently the stars were aligned and I was holding my tongue properly because everything printed just marvelously.
Life con was really frustrating today. We did a couple practice MLC problems. I had no idea how to do them. That's not true. I had a small idea. We're just learned so many things and it's very difficult to remember all of them. Especially taking three actuarial classes at the same time. There are just so many things. ALL the things. Yeah, so I was pretty frustrated, but I know that I wasn't the only one. Just... bleh.
Anyhow. After that I went to go teach. And that more than made up for life con. Today was absolutely fantastic. I assigned a group project to do and today was presentation day. I brought in cookies and milk as a snack. Apparently Lauren (one of my students) had also brought cookies. So we had lots of cookies! I had assigned a group project (four people per group). Each group had to cover some mathematical topic in four areas: history, current applications, creative representation, and "explain like I'm five." The first group did their project on fair division and for the creative representation one of the guys brought in his guitar and played a song that he had written. It was amazing. I would post the lyrics, but I really don't feel like it would make much sense without being in the class. But it was really good. Another group did their project on Morse Code and one of their guys brought his guitar in and played a song that HE had written. It was equally fantastic. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. It was just terrific. Another group did their project on student loans and one of the girls in the group made a cake and iced it to look like a loan. The guy who was supposed to explain it to a five year old did a remarkable job. He explained loans like this: imagine that you (as a little kid) have an allowance of $3 a week and want to buy a $30 LEGO set. But you don't want to wait ten weeks to get it. So you make an agreement with the toy store owner that if he gives you the set now, you have to give him your allowance for twelve weeks after you finish building the LEGO set. So his analogy touches on getting something for the promise of future payments, deferring loans until after the completion of school, and interest (paying $3 for 12 weeks instead of 10 weeks). I was really excited to see someone do that.
After class I came back to my apartment, had lunch, and started filling out some information for Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance. Hopefully that means that I might have a chance with them... but we'll see. I'm not holding my breath. Then I started working on making the final for my class.
Around 4 I left to go back to school. Two of my students were unable to take the exam last Thursday, so they met with me around 5 to take it. While we were waiting for Jon, Savannah was telling me a little bit about the medical issues she's been having (hence her abundant absences and general ill-feeling). I guess that she has some heart condition (similar to but different form a heart murmur) that causes her heart to start racing at random. Like, in the bad way. So she was on a medication that helped control it, but I guess her body was growing immune to it...and her immune system was starting to die off. So she kept getting sick because her medication was incidentally killing off the immune system. She stopped taking the medication (as the doctor prescribed) and has been just having to deal with the heart issues. So for her it's a trade off of racing heart problems or the tiniest illnesses sending her to the hospital. She was very appreciative of my being flexible. I feel like it's part of my job. It's not her fault that she has this issue. I guess her parents aren't going to let her come to school next semester if they can't get this all figured out. On the way back from giving the exams I stopped by the Marathon station to get an energy drink. I knew I'd be working on stats for a while, so I needed a bit of a boost.
When I got back I made hot dogs and beans for dinner. Oh my goodness they were so good. So much goodness. I had forgotten how much I like hot dogs and beans. Such a fantastic dinner. Then Timbo and Dustin came over and we worked on stats for a while. Like...4 hours. Timbo left around 10 but Dustin and I wanted to finish. It was kind of tough, but I actually felt confident about what I was doing. I think this is the first homework where I've actually had a grasp on what I was doing. Even the proofs I was able to get, which was surprising. But yeah. That about sums up my day. And now I'm super tired and I'm going to bed! Good night!
This morning I got up a little bit early to finish writing up my life con exam. I emailed an Excel file, but I also wanted to hand in some of the work. That took a bit longer than I had anticipated, so I got breakfast a little late. I took me an extra bit of time to get ready because I had to pack of snacks for class today. But eventually I got everything packed and left for school. Somehow I made it there and to class in 12 minutes. Usually it takes closer to 20. Part of this is due to my catching the shuttle right as it pulled up. Another part was due to my not having to stop at any traffic lights.
Anyhow, I got to class. I asked Mr. Frye if he'd finished grading our exams. He just laughed. I told him that we could cancel class so that he could have an extra hour to grade them... oddly enough he didn't take me up on the offer. After class was over I went to the computer lab to print of some stuff for class. Originally I'd gone to the computer lab on the fourth floor, but the printer was out of ink. So I had to go downstairs. I don't really like using the lab because the computers are on some weird network and the printing doesn't always work. But apparently the stars were aligned and I was holding my tongue properly because everything printed just marvelously.
Life con was really frustrating today. We did a couple practice MLC problems. I had no idea how to do them. That's not true. I had a small idea. We're just learned so many things and it's very difficult to remember all of them. Especially taking three actuarial classes at the same time. There are just so many things. ALL the things. Yeah, so I was pretty frustrated, but I know that I wasn't the only one. Just... bleh.
Anyhow. After that I went to go teach. And that more than made up for life con. Today was absolutely fantastic. I assigned a group project to do and today was presentation day. I brought in cookies and milk as a snack. Apparently Lauren (one of my students) had also brought cookies. So we had lots of cookies! I had assigned a group project (four people per group). Each group had to cover some mathematical topic in four areas: history, current applications, creative representation, and "explain like I'm five." The first group did their project on fair division and for the creative representation one of the guys brought in his guitar and played a song that he had written. It was amazing. I would post the lyrics, but I really don't feel like it would make much sense without being in the class. But it was really good. Another group did their project on Morse Code and one of their guys brought his guitar in and played a song that HE had written. It was equally fantastic. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. It was just terrific. Another group did their project on student loans and one of the girls in the group made a cake and iced it to look like a loan. The guy who was supposed to explain it to a five year old did a remarkable job. He explained loans like this: imagine that you (as a little kid) have an allowance of $3 a week and want to buy a $30 LEGO set. But you don't want to wait ten weeks to get it. So you make an agreement with the toy store owner that if he gives you the set now, you have to give him your allowance for twelve weeks after you finish building the LEGO set. So his analogy touches on getting something for the promise of future payments, deferring loans until after the completion of school, and interest (paying $3 for 12 weeks instead of 10 weeks). I was really excited to see someone do that.
After class I came back to my apartment, had lunch, and started filling out some information for Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance. Hopefully that means that I might have a chance with them... but we'll see. I'm not holding my breath. Then I started working on making the final for my class.
Around 4 I left to go back to school. Two of my students were unable to take the exam last Thursday, so they met with me around 5 to take it. While we were waiting for Jon, Savannah was telling me a little bit about the medical issues she's been having (hence her abundant absences and general ill-feeling). I guess that she has some heart condition (similar to but different form a heart murmur) that causes her heart to start racing at random. Like, in the bad way. So she was on a medication that helped control it, but I guess her body was growing immune to it...and her immune system was starting to die off. So she kept getting sick because her medication was incidentally killing off the immune system. She stopped taking the medication (as the doctor prescribed) and has been just having to deal with the heart issues. So for her it's a trade off of racing heart problems or the tiniest illnesses sending her to the hospital. She was very appreciative of my being flexible. I feel like it's part of my job. It's not her fault that she has this issue. I guess her parents aren't going to let her come to school next semester if they can't get this all figured out. On the way back from giving the exams I stopped by the Marathon station to get an energy drink. I knew I'd be working on stats for a while, so I needed a bit of a boost.
When I got back I made hot dogs and beans for dinner. Oh my goodness they were so good. So much goodness. I had forgotten how much I like hot dogs and beans. Such a fantastic dinner. Then Timbo and Dustin came over and we worked on stats for a while. Like...4 hours. Timbo left around 10 but Dustin and I wanted to finish. It was kind of tough, but I actually felt confident about what I was doing. I think this is the first homework where I've actually had a grasp on what I was doing. Even the proofs I was able to get, which was surprising. But yeah. That about sums up my day. And now I'm super tired and I'm going to bed! Good night!
12.05.2011
Day 196
Every Monday throws me off. They feel like they're so much longer than they actually are. I woke up around 6 so that I could do some studying before my exam this morning. I'm glad that I did because I definitely helped get my brain fresh before taking it. I got to class around 7:30 and just re-read the section on Redington immunization. While I was there some girls came in to write some notice on the board about jobs over break. It seemed strange but I thought nothing of it...
I felt like the exam went really well. I finished in about 15 minutes so I went through it again. I know there is one on which I made a minor mistake (because apparently I decided that 5% of 1000 is 5, not 50) but otherwise I felt very comfortable on everything else. After it was over I went to the Atrium with Tim and Dustin, had some victory coffee, and talked about finance and exams and such. Some of the questions that there were talking about are just annoying. That's really all there is to it. They're just annoying. They have lots of moving parts and they want you to mess up on one of them. Oh well. I'll have about 8 weeks to study for my exam which I think should be good, especially since I just finished a class on it. So I have most of the basics down, now I just need to solidify everything. I should be fine. There are 9 practice exams so I'm going to take one every weekend until exam time. We'll see how it goes!
Life con was pretty good. We did some stuff with differential equations and Taylor polynomials for approximations of change in policy value. It is really interesting to see different classes worked into this field. I've seen derivative, integral, and multivariate calculus, linear algebra, differential equations, statistics, probability, numerical analysis, and later on I even spotted some graph theory. Some of the proofing methods and inequalities I learned in Real Analysis have been used in my stats class. It's pretty intense.
After life con I want to the gym. I hate the gym. But it's good for me. After the gym I came home and ate lunch. Then I proceeded to finish my life contingencies exam. When that was done I took a shower, called mom, and went to stats.
Today we talked about sequences of distributions converging to different distributions. I don't really even know what that means. So this exam should be fun. I need to start studying for that exam. It's open book, but I still want to study to make sure that I have plenty of information readily available.
When I got back from class I was really hungry. So I made some soup, answered emails from my students about the group project tomorrow, and finished working on the exam. I was going to do stats but ended up spending more time than I'd anticipated on the exam. Oh well. I'll do stats tomorrow and Wednesday!
But now it's bed time. Good night!
I felt like the exam went really well. I finished in about 15 minutes so I went through it again. I know there is one on which I made a minor mistake (because apparently I decided that 5% of 1000 is 5, not 50) but otherwise I felt very comfortable on everything else. After it was over I went to the Atrium with Tim and Dustin, had some victory coffee, and talked about finance and exams and such. Some of the questions that there were talking about are just annoying. That's really all there is to it. They're just annoying. They have lots of moving parts and they want you to mess up on one of them. Oh well. I'll have about 8 weeks to study for my exam which I think should be good, especially since I just finished a class on it. So I have most of the basics down, now I just need to solidify everything. I should be fine. There are 9 practice exams so I'm going to take one every weekend until exam time. We'll see how it goes!
Life con was pretty good. We did some stuff with differential equations and Taylor polynomials for approximations of change in policy value. It is really interesting to see different classes worked into this field. I've seen derivative, integral, and multivariate calculus, linear algebra, differential equations, statistics, probability, numerical analysis, and later on I even spotted some graph theory. Some of the proofing methods and inequalities I learned in Real Analysis have been used in my stats class. It's pretty intense.
After life con I want to the gym. I hate the gym. But it's good for me. After the gym I came home and ate lunch. Then I proceeded to finish my life contingencies exam. When that was done I took a shower, called mom, and went to stats.
Today we talked about sequences of distributions converging to different distributions. I don't really even know what that means. So this exam should be fun. I need to start studying for that exam. It's open book, but I still want to study to make sure that I have plenty of information readily available.
When I got back from class I was really hungry. So I made some soup, answered emails from my students about the group project tomorrow, and finished working on the exam. I was going to do stats but ended up spending more time than I'd anticipated on the exam. Oh well. I'll do stats tomorrow and Wednesday!
But now it's bed time. Good night!
12.04.2011
Day 195
And here is the grand finale to one of the most exciting weekends I've had in a long time!
This morning I woke up, got some breakfast, and looked at my life contingencies test for a bit. When I worked it out on Friday I did it all in Excel. Today I wanted to work through all the concepts by hand and then do the computations in Excel. So that's what I did. Then around 10 I went grocery shopping. When I got back I made leftovers for lunch while I worked on life con some more. Then I took a break to do some cleaning. When I resumed I started studying for finance.
For dinner I went to Greek's pizza with Jessie and Richard. It was really good. It reminded me of Myle's pizza up in Bowling Green. Very tasty. Then I came back and started studying finance some more.
Dustin came over around 7 or so. He and I worked on problems until about... 10:15 or so. Then I made my chicken for this week's salads... and now I'm going to bed! I think I'm going to get up early to read through my notes again and work a few more problems. So good night!
This morning I woke up, got some breakfast, and looked at my life contingencies test for a bit. When I worked it out on Friday I did it all in Excel. Today I wanted to work through all the concepts by hand and then do the computations in Excel. So that's what I did. Then around 10 I went grocery shopping. When I got back I made leftovers for lunch while I worked on life con some more. Then I took a break to do some cleaning. When I resumed I started studying for finance.
For dinner I went to Greek's pizza with Jessie and Richard. It was really good. It reminded me of Myle's pizza up in Bowling Green. Very tasty. Then I came back and started studying finance some more.
Dustin came over around 7 or so. He and I worked on problems until about... 10:15 or so. Then I made my chicken for this week's salads... and now I'm going to bed! I think I'm going to get up early to read through my notes again and work a few more problems. So good night!
Day 194
I'm pretty sleepy and my day was pretty monotonous, so this should be short.
I woke up this morning around 8 but didn't get up until 8:30. It wasn't time to be awake. After I finally got up I ate, took a shower, then started some laundry. I started to work on some grading, worked on that through lunched, and finished it up a little bit after. I downloaded the gradebook from blackboard as an excel file so I could manipulate it a little bit. After I graded the exams I found the mean score and immediately realized that a curve was necessary. I also created a study guide, but this time it's not a practice exam. It's just a list of things they need to know. Perhaps this will make them a little bit more willing to perform the necessary additional studying. I guess we'll see!
When I'd finished grading I did some finance. The stuff on duration is pretty straight forward, so I went on to do some problems over the recent stuff. It was getting pretty frustrated because the questions on the quiz and last year's exam seemed to be using the numbers arbitrarily and I really had no idea what I was doing. So after dinner Dustin came over. And within about 2 minutes he said just the right words that made sense to me. Then the problems seemed so simple! I'll review them tomorrow to make sure, but they seemed pretty easy.
Then he and I worked on stats for a couple hours. That was fun as always. This assignment is going to take so long... bleh. He and I got the first section done. Probably about 1/5 of it. We're going to work on it more tomorrow.
After we decided to be done we went to Dustin's apartment to play video games and eat snacks. It was fun. We started watching a movie but I got tired. So I came back. And here I am! I'm pretty sure tomorrow is going to be a repeat of today. Oh joy. So... good night!
I woke up this morning around 8 but didn't get up until 8:30. It wasn't time to be awake. After I finally got up I ate, took a shower, then started some laundry. I started to work on some grading, worked on that through lunched, and finished it up a little bit after. I downloaded the gradebook from blackboard as an excel file so I could manipulate it a little bit. After I graded the exams I found the mean score and immediately realized that a curve was necessary. I also created a study guide, but this time it's not a practice exam. It's just a list of things they need to know. Perhaps this will make them a little bit more willing to perform the necessary additional studying. I guess we'll see!
When I'd finished grading I did some finance. The stuff on duration is pretty straight forward, so I went on to do some problems over the recent stuff. It was getting pretty frustrated because the questions on the quiz and last year's exam seemed to be using the numbers arbitrarily and I really had no idea what I was doing. So after dinner Dustin came over. And within about 2 minutes he said just the right words that made sense to me. Then the problems seemed so simple! I'll review them tomorrow to make sure, but they seemed pretty easy.
Then he and I worked on stats for a couple hours. That was fun as always. This assignment is going to take so long... bleh. He and I got the first section done. Probably about 1/5 of it. We're going to work on it more tomorrow.
After we decided to be done we went to Dustin's apartment to play video games and eat snacks. It was fun. We started watching a movie but I got tired. So I came back. And here I am! I'm pretty sure tomorrow is going to be a repeat of today. Oh joy. So... good night!
12.03.2011
Day 193
Long day. Very long day.
I had finance this morning. Tim stole my greeting! Every morning say "Good morning, Mr. Frye. How are you doing today?" And he usually says something like "Well.... ok." But Tim greeted him before I could! But I still said good morning. I was quite surprised that we got our quiz back since we just took it yesterday. But we did. I did much better than I had suspected. I feel much better about the exam on Monday now.
During life contingencies Tim stole my greeting again. I was quite confused. But I was able to manage and continue on with class. We were able to ask questions before he handed out the exam. I asked him a question on something called the Asset Share, which is basically a way of figuring out the actual value of your current assets (instead of your expected value of the assets). It's a good thing I asked him because he gave a very helpful explanation... and a question about it was on the exam. So I was happy to actually know what to do. So then he gave us the take-home exam, we looked it over for mistakes or clarifications, and then we left. Something that I really like about his class is that he doesn't mind when we correct him. Even the things that really don't matter, like a minor notation that literally doesn't change anything. But he wants us to constantly check his work. He doesn't make mistakes on purpose (at least I'm fairly certain that he doesn't... it's usually pretty obvious when people make purposeful mistakes) but he wants us to really make sure that we check what he does. Part of this is to make sure that we understand the material. The other is because he wants us to practice being very precise and paying attention to tiny details. I also like that he gives us short stories from his time as an actuary. Today he told us a story with the moral of "When things seem to be going way too good, it's your job to figure out what bad thing is about to happen."
After class I went to get a hair cut. Then I went off to the gym to work out. When I got home I showered, got a little lunch, then started working on the exam. I worked on it for a couple hours, then I took a nap. When I woke up I worked on it for a couple more hours, then got dinner. After dinner I finished it up. Probably around 8:30. Then I had no other plans. I tried contacting 3 different people to see if they wanted to do anything tonight, but one of them already had plans and the other two were busy/didn't want to. So yay. I wanted to go home this weekend but I knew that I wouldn't be able to get the work done that I need to do. But I still wanted a break tonight. Around then Clifton came home, so I talked with him for a while. Apparently he thinks that my font size for the exams I give out is too small. I use 10 point font, but only because I want it to fit on 2 pages. Oh well. I think that I've decided to definitely give an in class final exam, but I'm going to change a few things. We're going to have a bit of a talk during our next class about preparing for an exam and what sort of lessons have been learned from the past exams. I'm still probably going to have to curve this exam though. But we'll see.
I just finished playing Team Fortress with Jared for a while. He and I are a really good team on there. Basically unstoppable. So it was fun. But now I'm going to bed. Tomorrow I'm going to work on stats and study for finance pretty much all day. Woo hoo. Night.
I had finance this morning. Tim stole my greeting! Every morning say "Good morning, Mr. Frye. How are you doing today?" And he usually says something like "Well.... ok." But Tim greeted him before I could! But I still said good morning. I was quite surprised that we got our quiz back since we just took it yesterday. But we did. I did much better than I had suspected. I feel much better about the exam on Monday now.
During life contingencies Tim stole my greeting again. I was quite confused. But I was able to manage and continue on with class. We were able to ask questions before he handed out the exam. I asked him a question on something called the Asset Share, which is basically a way of figuring out the actual value of your current assets (instead of your expected value of the assets). It's a good thing I asked him because he gave a very helpful explanation... and a question about it was on the exam. So I was happy to actually know what to do. So then he gave us the take-home exam, we looked it over for mistakes or clarifications, and then we left. Something that I really like about his class is that he doesn't mind when we correct him. Even the things that really don't matter, like a minor notation that literally doesn't change anything. But he wants us to constantly check his work. He doesn't make mistakes on purpose (at least I'm fairly certain that he doesn't... it's usually pretty obvious when people make purposeful mistakes) but he wants us to really make sure that we check what he does. Part of this is to make sure that we understand the material. The other is because he wants us to practice being very precise and paying attention to tiny details. I also like that he gives us short stories from his time as an actuary. Today he told us a story with the moral of "When things seem to be going way too good, it's your job to figure out what bad thing is about to happen."
After class I went to get a hair cut. Then I went off to the gym to work out. When I got home I showered, got a little lunch, then started working on the exam. I worked on it for a couple hours, then I took a nap. When I woke up I worked on it for a couple more hours, then got dinner. After dinner I finished it up. Probably around 8:30. Then I had no other plans. I tried contacting 3 different people to see if they wanted to do anything tonight, but one of them already had plans and the other two were busy/didn't want to. So yay. I wanted to go home this weekend but I knew that I wouldn't be able to get the work done that I need to do. But I still wanted a break tonight. Around then Clifton came home, so I talked with him for a while. Apparently he thinks that my font size for the exams I give out is too small. I use 10 point font, but only because I want it to fit on 2 pages. Oh well. I think that I've decided to definitely give an in class final exam, but I'm going to change a few things. We're going to have a bit of a talk during our next class about preparing for an exam and what sort of lessons have been learned from the past exams. I'm still probably going to have to curve this exam though. But we'll see.
I just finished playing Team Fortress with Jared for a while. He and I are a really good team on there. Basically unstoppable. So it was fun. But now I'm going to bed. Tomorrow I'm going to work on stats and study for finance pretty much all day. Woo hoo. Night.
12.01.2011
Day 192
Oh boy. What a day. I woke up a little early to make sure that my car had plenty of time to defrost. And it did. Little cars heat up quickly. I had some time before class so I went to go get some coffee. Then we had finance. For the first 20 minutes we learned more about hedging and minimizing risk. Then we had a quiz. I'm grateful that we get to drop the lowest grade. I studied for a few hours yesterday, but unfortunately almost all of the questions in the book involved drawing graphs. Which is great for understanding the concepts, but the questions on the quiz did not involve drawing graphs. I did anyhow because that's how I've learned the material, but it's hard to get precise answers from the graphs. So... we'll see.
In between classes I went up to the computer lab to print off the exams. I made a few last minute changes for the sake of clarity. When I was done I went down to the Atrium where Tim, Dustin, and Jacob were located. And we talked about... something. I really don't even know. I'm sure it was very important though.
During life contingencies we talked a little bit about the exam and then just about finished chapter 7. It's a very long chapter and I really haven't had time to read over the rest of the chapter or work any exercises. Thankfully none of this newer stuff is on the exam, but I really need to master it before the final. Oh finals. That's going to be awesome.
Speaking of exams, I gave one today. Yeah.... I hate exam days. Most of these kids try so hard. I know that some of them slack off (like the ones who don't come to class) but others try really hard to do well. They just have no idea how to study for math. Or they're just bad at math. It hadn't occurred to me until today but I might actually be doing them a disservice by giving them a practice exam. Because to me if I have a practice exam I know the types of questions that will probably be asked of me, but then I work lots of problems like that from the text book. But now that I think about it... I'm sure they aren't doing that. Which seems silly that I would even think that college freshmen were doing more than the study guide, but I genuinely thought that they might be doing additional studying outside of it. So for the final I might just give them a list of things to know. I'm also considering various options for the final. Maybe in-class open book, maybe doing the test in partners... I'll almost certainly be eliminating the "None of the above" option on the multiple choice. I may just give a regular test and explain that I have given them ample opportunities to bring their grade up and the week before finals is not the time to start being concerned. Whatever I end up doing... I'm sure I'll be changing it for the spring.
After that I went to my office for a little bit, ate lunch, and started looking at some of the exams. For the bonus question I had them tell me things that they had learned in the class that were math related and non math related. Some of their answers were very heartfelt. Quite a few talked about how they had never realized (since they're all college freshmen) how much work you had to put into a class to do well. This is an important lesson to learn. When I'd finished eating I went over to the graduate school office to ask about summer assistantships. The lady with whom I talked had little to say about them, except that there are not many. So I went over to the career center and they said that jobs probably will not be posted until around spring break. So... I'm not really in any better of a position than I was. Woo.
Then I came home and started grading. I got the multiple choice portion done by dinner time. Then I took a short break to eat and went back at it. I got about 10 test completely graded... and am almost certain that I'll need to curve the grade. It hasn't been that awesome thus far.
I took a break from grading, talked with Clifton for a while, then did some finance problems. After the homework assignment the chapter exercises don't seem so bad, which is good. And now I'm off to bed. I get my take home exam in life con tomorrow. I'm hoping to get that done tomorrow afternoon... but we'll see! Night!
In between classes I went up to the computer lab to print off the exams. I made a few last minute changes for the sake of clarity. When I was done I went down to the Atrium where Tim, Dustin, and Jacob were located. And we talked about... something. I really don't even know. I'm sure it was very important though.
During life contingencies we talked a little bit about the exam and then just about finished chapter 7. It's a very long chapter and I really haven't had time to read over the rest of the chapter or work any exercises. Thankfully none of this newer stuff is on the exam, but I really need to master it before the final. Oh finals. That's going to be awesome.
Speaking of exams, I gave one today. Yeah.... I hate exam days. Most of these kids try so hard. I know that some of them slack off (like the ones who don't come to class) but others try really hard to do well. They just have no idea how to study for math. Or they're just bad at math. It hadn't occurred to me until today but I might actually be doing them a disservice by giving them a practice exam. Because to me if I have a practice exam I know the types of questions that will probably be asked of me, but then I work lots of problems like that from the text book. But now that I think about it... I'm sure they aren't doing that. Which seems silly that I would even think that college freshmen were doing more than the study guide, but I genuinely thought that they might be doing additional studying outside of it. So for the final I might just give them a list of things to know. I'm also considering various options for the final. Maybe in-class open book, maybe doing the test in partners... I'll almost certainly be eliminating the "None of the above" option on the multiple choice. I may just give a regular test and explain that I have given them ample opportunities to bring their grade up and the week before finals is not the time to start being concerned. Whatever I end up doing... I'm sure I'll be changing it for the spring.
After that I went to my office for a little bit, ate lunch, and started looking at some of the exams. For the bonus question I had them tell me things that they had learned in the class that were math related and non math related. Some of their answers were very heartfelt. Quite a few talked about how they had never realized (since they're all college freshmen) how much work you had to put into a class to do well. This is an important lesson to learn. When I'd finished eating I went over to the graduate school office to ask about summer assistantships. The lady with whom I talked had little to say about them, except that there are not many. So I went over to the career center and they said that jobs probably will not be posted until around spring break. So... I'm not really in any better of a position than I was. Woo.
Then I came home and started grading. I got the multiple choice portion done by dinner time. Then I took a short break to eat and went back at it. I got about 10 test completely graded... and am almost certain that I'll need to curve the grade. It hasn't been that awesome thus far.
I took a break from grading, talked with Clifton for a while, then did some finance problems. After the homework assignment the chapter exercises don't seem so bad, which is good. And now I'm off to bed. I get my take home exam in life con tomorrow. I'm hoping to get that done tomorrow afternoon... but we'll see! Night!
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