We had our chem I final this week. The perfectionist in me was annoyed that I didn’t do quite as well on the exam as I wanted to, but… I ended up with a solid A in the class, so guess it’s not worth losing sleep over! Whee-hoo! I can do chemistry, and it’s even interesting, who knew? Now off to enjoy two weeks of freedom before chem II starts up.
Good luck to everyone starting their spring semester!
A = perfection. Congratulations!
Congrats on the A!! Keep up the good work.
Kathy
Congratulations On your A!
That is fantastic I hope I can do that well when the time comes! 
Thanks for all your kind words, guys… it’s so nice to have this community to share these little events with. And thanks for the reminder, Mary, the final grade is what matters and I am extremely happy about it. Here’s hoping semester 2 goes just as well!
Thats great. Congrats and good luck with your next class. And a bit of advice don’t try to be a perfectionist. It may get harder as you start taking more classes, so you really don’t want to get yourself worked up.
In my post-bacc classes, I was the queen of calculating “good enough.” I generally tried to blow out of the gate with the highest possible scores early in the semester… and almost invariably found it difficult to maintain that level of intensity until the very end. But by building a nice cushion early on, I was usually able to calculate that I could get, hmmmmm, a 56 on the final and still get an A, for example. (I actually remember this from gen-chem 2 - and then faced a final exam so godawful that I honestly worried whether I got the @#$! 56 I needed.) I NEVER stopped studying or trying to do my best, but I did relax considerably and tended to go to bed earlier the night before the exam when I knew that I was “good enough” to do well.
I highly recommend “good enough” as long as you are aiming high. It’s a great mental health strategy.
Woo hoo!! Great job on the A ! So glad to see you did so well. How was the competition?
Mary, I love your “good enough” strategy. Blow away those early exams and give yourself a healthy cushion…
I realize that is exactly what I have been doing so far, glad to have a name for it, and I will plan on it as a strategy!
I must have been following that “good enough” strategy myself! I was able to get out of the gate with a good running start and even though my initial enthusiasm waned slightly (guess that’s inevitable, huh?) I was able to do what I needed to do to keep up the grade. I did the whole calculation before the final to figure out what I needed to get to score an A in the class and knew going into it that I had plenty of cushion
Thanks for the kind words, Liz. Competition wasn’t too bad. There were a few of “those” cliques, can’t ever get completely away from them, but at least they provide a source of amusement! And there were plenty of level-headed classmates. A spot for everyone I guess.
congrats on the good grade! That first step is so important. I’ve just purchased the LeMay textbook on ebay. 9th edition, I sure hope they’re not coming out with a 10th before summer!!! If the summer goes well perhaps I’ll see you in organic in the fall?
Glad to hear it R! I know what you mean about cliques… my EMT class was quite a soap opera.
I am going to an information session next week at your school, and I think I will try to take the second half of the Bio class. It means I would at least be doing SOMETHING to get this show on the road. Did your prof teach the class or was it taught by grad students?
I hope the info session is helpful. The health sciences director is also the gen. bio professor at the extension school, I believe, so you can get an idea of who would be teaching your class if you decided to sign up for bio 2.
Our class lecture is taught by the profs, however we have TFs as well, whose education levels varied. Mine was a junior at Harvard College, others appeared to be grad students or professionals. The TFs led discussion sessions and supervised the lab component and they were the point people for questions on homework, etc. The profs were open to the students as well, though, and would send out e-mails and encourage people to come by if they were having problems.
Congrats on your A! That’s awesome. You’re my hero too. 
1 down, 3 to go.
Love,
Stacy
Actually, one down seven to go, but thanks! One tiny step closer… 
Congrats…
Congrats! You’re doing great!
