Yet another Neurosis

Baby breathing, accidental death or dismemberment, etc. Now we can add grades to my list of neuroses.

In high school and for the college time I put in years ago, grades were not all that big of a deal to me. Oh, I liked A's, but B's were acceptable, and C's were tolerable. For the most part, I didn't have to work too hard for my A's and B's, andI didn't worry about it much.

However.

Yes. However. Thinking about it now, it actually seems odd to me that it wasn't a bigger focus of mine. I'm very competitive (ask anyone) and now, as I go "back to school" for a biology degree, I find that if I don't have that A, my day gets really bad in a real hurry.

Take, for instance, the Chemistry class I'm taking this sememster, Chem 111. Being the forward thinking, smart, impatient person that I am, and not wanting to take any more classes than I absolutely have to, since I can only take 1 or 2 a semester, I decided to skip the Chem 101 class that was suggested as a prerequisite to Chem 111. Actually, the prerequisites were *either* Chem 101 or High School Chemistry.

Ok, so I had HS Chemistry. Sort of. I got a good grade in HS Chemistry. What the *real* story is, is that our teacher got fired halfway through the year and sent to jail for having an affair with a student. So I really didn't have much HS Chemsitry. But hey, it's on my transcript, and I can figure this stuff out, right?

Fast forward to the second test, which I did not finish in the time allowed, and got a 63% on. (OK, I really got a 53, but everyone in the class missed one of the questions, so the instructor "curved" by adding the 10 points for that question to everyone's score)

Total panic time. I needed to find out just *exactly* where I stood with my grade. So I made up an excel worksheet that shows exactly what grade I got on each assignment, how many points possible, and all the "bonus points" I have. It tells me what my grade is today, what my grade is with bonus points added, and how many points I've lost (I can lose 100 and still get an A). It even tells me what my grade would be if I stopped accumulating points today and just accepted what I currently have.

For the course, there are 1000 "real" points possible. There are also 50 "bonus" points possible. As of today, with all items turned in and only the last bonus and the final exam to go, I have exactly 738.8 "real" points. This means that if I decide to skip the final, I will end up with a C for the class. Right. Like I'd do that. SO, to get an A with my "real" points, I need to get a 161.2 on my 200 point final. (that's a B on the final to make an A in the class)

I'm not entirely sure if the bonus points are added on directly, or if they will be added on in such a way that it might not affect a letter grade. The syllabus says "To earn an “A”, you must have 90% of more of the possible non-bonus points, 900 or more total points" I'm not certain exactly what that means.

Right now, I have 24 bonus points, with the possibility of getting 25 more today when I hand in my last bonus assignment, assuming I get all the answers correct on the bonus. If I can add those points directly on, that means I will only need to get a 112.2 on my final. That's a D on the final, to make an A in the class.

Hey, now that I write it out, that doesn't seem too hard. My problems are going to be balancing equations, and working fast enough to finish. I can usually get the right answer, if I have time enough to think it through, but my brain doesn't work at the pace the instructor thinks it should, so I really have a difficult time finishing the exams in the time allotted. The final will have 2 hours available to work.

The stuff I won't have to worry about much are the molecular structures and electronic configurations of atoms. That sort of thing was pretty easy for me, since I tend to think in 3D anyway. Unfortuately, that will be only about 25% of the test. :-(

Final's Tuesday at noon. Wish me luck!