some lights seem eternal
in this springtime of hope

finals, don't miss 'em

December 16, 2004
if you push me over one hundred thousand, let me know

Many of my reads and readers have finals this week and next. I miss final exams the least of all the facets of University life.

First, I hated finals because there are two schools of thought on what makes up a final. The first school of thought is that you make up for teaching a bird class by making your final wicked hard, and by no means comparable to the actual content in the class in temperament or content. I do not equate ugly surprises with challenging my intellect.

The second school of thought on making a terrible final was to make it easier than the actual class was, after building up to an academic crescendo that was at best, pianissimo. My other favorite is when the exams were just a last test, instead of a comprehensive assessment of the information covered in the course.

I also disliked the people who had not paid attention, done the readings, or bothered to attend lectures, labs or complete their clinical observations � but expected you to share the fruits of your hard work with them without question. I would do that for a friend who missed class for a legitimate reason and my definition of �legitimate� is pretty broad. Friends are never the ones who ask, it is always the jock that called you an egghead all semester.

My one of my roommates was into studying only at the last minute � something I wholeheartedly disagree with, chiefly because it kept me up late into the night with his noise � an important track on the Soundtrack of Despair. It did not bother me when James � my other roommate � did this because he studied all semester long so if he was pulling an �all nighter� you knew he really needed to do it.

I am one of those people who do not really study and does not need to. I needed sleep and entertainment, not more time spent in my books. I think that if you do not know it off the top of your head you do not deserve to pass the final for cramming it in there the night before. To me, at least, that is incredibly lame. It does not measure your learning or your mastery of the content.

The real reason this enraged me was that his inconsideration in where and how he studied disrupted my sleep patterns resulting in two side effects: nightmares of sleeping through finals, and actually doing it. This was exacerbated by his penchant for being the �snooze button cowboy,� you would be sleeping to be woken by his alarm, several times over the course of the two hours before you had to wake up, culminating in him shutting of YOUR alarm because he still wanted to sleep while you ignored it because you thought it was his, again.

Thank the Lord that my professions knew what a cretin he was and accepted that excuse both times it happened and I had the foresight to arrange to eat with people who would call if I had not shown up at the dining hall. Why did I stay roommates with this guy? I was used to him. I did not really feel like hunting down a new roommate at that point in life and I was secretly happy to be rid of him at the end of the year. I looked forward to being around someone new.


Good luck on your finals kids.

3:14 PM :: 5 comments so far ::
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