Semester Reflections

Since the semester came to a close last week, I thought I would write about all of the crazy circumstances that happened.

I had a few wonderful shockers this semester as far as grades. Remember my Russian art history class? Well, the very first day of class my strict, yet hilarious professor told the class that it was very hard to receive an A in her class. She said you really have to earn an A. This made me extremely nervous until I got an A on my midterm. We had a few writing assignments and I mostly got B's on them. So coming into the final, I had no idea what my grade was. I studied so much but after I took the final, I felt very apprehensive. I felt like there was stuff on the final that I didn't even think I needed to study. I thought for sure that I got a C on it. I was wrong. Last Thursday I emailed my professor to see what my grade was and she said I got a 99/100 on the final and an A+ in the class. WHAT?!!! Are you freaking kidding me?!? How in the world did I get an A+ in RUSSIAN ART HISTORY?! lol I was very.... dumbfounded hah! Anyway, I learned a lot about Russian history from about 1870's to the 1940's. Very interesting stuff, actually. I know that Dostoevsky wrote Crime and Punishment and Tchaikovsky composed The Nutcracker. AND I actually know how to pronounce these names ;) I think the reason I got a good grade was because it's easier for me to remember weird things, like the names of these artists. Isn't it much easier to remember a name like Rimsky-Korsakov (who wrote "Flight of the Bumblebee," by the way) then John Smith?? Well, I think so.

Another shocker was in my social psychology class. This class' grade was based solely on 4 tests and the final. The whole class was out of 500 points, 100 points for each test. No room for error here, kids. The first test I got an 82... not thrilled about that grade, but hey it was a B. Then, the second test I got a freaking 74... really wasn't happy about that one! My grade was sitting at a very low B. After that, I needed a game plan. Since I finally discovered after 2 tests that they were based on only vocab words and experiments in the textbook, I studied those hard. Hundreds of notecards later, I finally got a 94 on the last 2 tests. It was about time I got A's on those darn tests! So, now comes the final. I finally raised my grade to a high B, close to an A-. I figured it out that I had to get an A+ on the final to finally get a 90%(A-) in the class. Psshhh! Yeah right, I knew I was NOT going to get a freakin A+ on that final. So I thought..... I checked my grade 2 days ago and guess what?! I got the highest grade on the final which meant I got 100/100 on the final. WHAT?!!! So I ended up with an A- in the class. WHEW! By the way, in case you cared, 'high need for cognition' means that you enjoy deep-thinking. I, on the other hand, have low need for cognition :)

My other 3 classes (philosophy, math, and my library class), I did consistently well throughout the semester. I had and kept an A+ in my math class from the very first grade. My professor told me that I had the highest grade in the class during the entire semester. The library class included easy assignments about how to use the resources at the library. I did very well on the final project getting a 299/300 and my professor asked if she could use it as an example for next semester's class. I was a little surprised that I got an A in philosophy, however. Some days I either really didn't understand the material or I just didn't care about what was being discussed. Somehow, I don't really know how though, I got an A.

I hope it doesn't feel like I'm bragging about my grades. It's just that I've never gotten all A's before and to get them in college...? Wow, I'm just proud of myself. I studied hard and prayed harder. Actually, you know what, I think it was the coffee. ;)

Thanks for listening to my ramblings

Abby