One Down, Two More to Go

So I put in the finishing touches to my microeconomics take-home final exam. There were some questions that I were like “whoa, what’s going on here!?”, but after poring over every little detail, like the punctuation marks the professor used (joking); seriously though, after agonizing over it for about 20+ hours, I got it done, and I handed it in.

More like put it under his door. I went during lunch hour, and the professor wasn’t in, so I slid it under the door. I do hope that’s okay as in the exam not getting lost somewhere and me being totally screwed as a result.

Regarding the exam itself, I’m a bit unsure on some of the answers I got, but some, I’m pretty sure. There were some questions that I think I overdid, as in wrote out too many details; hopefully in the end, all will balance out and the professor will recognize the work I put in and mark accordingly

Our study group did work together on the exam, as allowed by the rules, but I was a bit reluctant to fully participate. Not that I didn't want to contribute, but I wanted to get it done on my own. There was this initial study session that I went to, where we talked about how to solve some of the problems. I compared that to how I would proceed myself and sort of went from there. But the later study sessions (regarding the take-home) I didn’t attend. I was hoping that I could finish it on my own, regardless of the final score*.

Which brings me to my point: the great thing about study groups is that it pushes you to study and do the work; but I feel, and it could just be me, that there are times when the stuff I “learnt” isn’t really mine, more like a “collection” of the group’s effort. So there are times, when material appeared that I felt that I couldn’t do alone, by myself. This “take-home final” was sort of a waking call as to how I should contribute to the group as well as maintaining, or more like, acquiring what I have learned.

It’s not that I don’t enjoy studying with the guys, quite the contrary, they are an awesome bunch. Hmm, could it be that they’re so outstanding that I feel a bit left out. Nah, they’re great people and I’m much honored to study with them. I just hope that I don’t rely on them too much. After all, come prelim time, it’s just me, myself and the test.

As for the remaining two finals I have, econometrics is tomorrow in the early afternoon, and macroeconomics is during noontime on Friday, and then I’m done. Then it’s winter break, a time to relax, have fun and be merry. Actually more like a time to finish the home improvement projects, or at least, the one that matters the most. But I hope I won’t lose my edge during vacation time, I’m vowing that I do some studying, as in review/revise the notes (of this term) after Christmas.

On the topic of home improvement, I got an electric thermostat by rite temp (yes, they have it in lowercase) which Kevin and I installed during the past weekend. It’s a 5-1-1 programmable thermostat (model# 8022C), meaning that I can have different temperatures, on different days of the week, at different times of the day. And I can have specific settings for Monday through Friday, Saturday and Sunday, not to mention a “Special Day” feature where at a touch of a button, all settings are over-ridden to the one of choice. It’s pretty nifty.

Kevin and I had a discussion post-installation on what optimal temperatures to set the thermostat at, and after three days (feels much longer, though) of living, I can definitely say, it’s WAY TOO COLD. Oh well, at least it saves on heating cost.

*It’s not like the final marks don’t matter, but I put in the work, and almost all of it myself and I hope for something that is an accurate representation of that effort. If it’s a good mark, so be it; if not, then I definitely know something is wrong, and I must work double hard to rectify it.