Finals and the holidays

[Catghost]

Well, pretty sure everyone here has at least some familiarity with finals. How are yours going? Any painful memories you'd like to share with us? When are you going to finally be free from their clutches?

Thankfully the class that actually had a final exam did it back in the middle of november. And it was essay based, which seems to be tremendously easier than any final I've taken before. My 3D modeling course required a giant final project that was due Wednesday, which we've spent that last 6 weeks on. And it literally took all of the lab time + twice that at home to get the thing finished. Safe to say I was about to throw my computer out a window at the end.
But it's finished, and rendered, and turned in, which leaves my final essay to do. It's already halfway done though, and once that's over it'll be another four weeks until I have to return.

As for Holidays, we haven't even made any plans. Guess we'll be celebrating Christmas at home, and possibly going to eat with some relatives. Someone go to the beach with me instead

[Apodyopsis]

Oh, the glory of finals.

I have a lot of assignments that are due this week. 2 papers, a final digital project, 2 (previously 3) lab journal assignments, and one final. I already took my Communications one, and aced it with flying colors. And I studied for it the night before.



I just got lucky, I think.

Anyway, I'm not excited about my GEO final, mostly because that class bores me, but maybe it won't be so hard. It's just a matter of doing all this....this.... stuff.

Meh.

Luckily it's over for me in a week or so. My last final is next Wednesday.

[Pikmin]

May I ask what will probably make me look like an idiot?..
I have a vague idea but just what are finals? We don't have them here, or if we do they're not called the same thing.

Looking forward to the holidays though, having some close family around and it's not gonna be long now before we get to find out the gender of my brothers fiancee's baby c:

[Strix Varia]

After you have studied in class for an entire semester, after reading all the books and doing all the assignments, after the instructor has instilled all the knowledge of a given subject into their students, it is time to show how well you have learned everything you needed to learn. To do that you will be required to take a test that covers everything that has been covered in class since the first day you opened your books. That might be a multiple choice test. Or a written essay. Or a research project. Or a practical application where you go out and make something.

No matter what form it takes, a Final are supposed to cover and reflect everything you have learned in that class over the semester. It usually counts for a large percentage of the class's overall grade. If you are taking five classes, they will all have Finals at the end. Naturally every instructor will think that their class is the most important and will not listen or understand why you don't have all the time in the world to focus on THEIR class's Finals. This leads to a lot of stress and work for most students. Near the end, some students find themselves emotionally drained and mentally distraught. But they were good memories. And I am sure that most of the people who have recovered will have forgiven me by now. After all, temporary insanity is still a legal defense in most states.

[Pikmin]

Iiiii seeeee....
I don't think we did anything like that, well... Might have. My memory is pretty crap and to be honest I skived a lot of my lessons for reasons as varied as a packet of skittles.

At any rate it definitely sounds crap :c I remember how stressful music college got towards the end of the years so I guess that's the closest I have to knowing about it.

*offers Americans Skittles*

[Apodyopsis]

I suppose it really depends on the instructor, or curriculum. My professors are not doing cumulative finals in my classes these semesters. Those are the types of finals where you have to remember everything in the entire class for the entire semester. Mine are from midterms to the the end. Which is about half the content, but still pretty exhaustive depending. I also have more papers/projects than finals, but I'm okay with that.

[Weaseldale]

Ahaha finals time mine start tomorrow and just. -cries- School itself has been pretty time consuming and I rarely get the time for to come on midorea anymore, especially as my computer takes so long to start up and blue screens so often it's not worth turning on most of the time unless I have to...

But. Finals. Every single class this year has a final, and they're all tests, and one paper for Sociology in addition. My Statistics final is tomorrow, Sociology is Tuesday, and Economics is Friday (at 8am ;_; after I attend the midnight premiere of Desolation of Smaug). Then Monday I have Organic Chem at 1pm followed by Physics at 6 and that is going to be horrible.

I don't really have horror stories... but I do tend to make dumb decisions and do things in the middle of finals week when I should be studying. Last semester I went to a weekend-long concert 3 hours away when I had two exams that Monday.

[Maeve]

Good luck everyone!

My finals are not so bad this time around. Or, like, they're not exactly "finals", more like long annoying project thingies, so it's not as stressful as the exam-style finals. It's part of the good point of studying art, I guess.

Anyway, I have an art history paper to hand in Tuesday evening, then some "prints" to present Thursday, some glass works for Monday, and some sculptures next Tuesday, along with an exhibition project, an artistic resume and an art history exam (that we do at home and print and give to the teacher that day). And after that I'm free to go bake cookies with my family!

[Catghost]

It looks like finals really vary around here. And for those with a heavy work load, good luck! We're always here for moral support.

Also sounds like quite a schedule, Maeve! Though the projects themselves seem pretty fun to do. Do you plan on posting pictures?

[KathiraNarae]

Hmm, I don't know about finals exactly but I do remember end-of-year exams for my GCSE's being fairly easy for the ones I liked and not bothering with the ones I didn't, but yeah, I would likely have snapped if my A-levels weren't modular. One exam for each of three subjects at the middle and end of each year is WAY better than one exam for each subject at the end of both years. As it was, the modulars could be viscious. I feel sorry for every Brit sixth former younger than me, since my year was the last doing modular exams. They had to switch to the one-at-end. Idiot governments...

[killerkitty]

Huh. We don't have finals here (well at least for now I don't), and the school year is divided into three trimesters (instead of two semesters?). I don't really know how things work over there. Instead, we have a smaller exam after each unit (or whatever you call it in english), which I guess is a good thing, because all that information you learnt at the beginning of the year is fresher in your brain and you can forget it quicker because a lot of it's pretty much useless in your life anyway.

In the USA, if I remember correctly, the six years before university are divided into two of middle school and four high school, right? How does that work? (Here we have 4 years of general stuff and then 2 years more specializing).

[Weaseldale]

Generally middle school is three years, from 11-13, and highschool is four, from 14-18. (For me) those were all divided up into semesters as well. It's general stuff all the way up until we graduate, although you do get to pick electives and whatnot.

We have tests/exams inside our semesters as well, but then there is a final at the end of it. Sometimes it's cumulative, and sometimes it only covers material that wasn't covered by the term exams. For example, my sociology class had two exams, and the final will only cover material after the second exam. However, my organic chem class had three exams and the final will be cumulative, covering the topics both from previous exams and any new material learned in the last week or two.

In high school all my exams (at least in the classes that had exams, some didn't) were cumulative.

[Apodyopsis]

I think it would be useful if we made lists of things we still had to do. At least for me. Might motivate me to stop checking this site so much and work. xD

1. Finish Intro to Lit Essay
2. Write & email COM PP info to group members
3. Write GEO lab journal
4. Write the other GEO lab journal
5. Finish Intro to Woman's Lit Paper
6. Continue Digital Project for WRD class
7. Print entire portfolio for WRD class
8. Study for GEO final
9. Do COM Group Evaluation/Outline
10) Present COM Speech

Okay, time to... do stuff. I think I got everything down... I hope I'm not forgetting anything. ^^;;

Edit: 1 & 9 marked off!

[Strix Varia]

You forgot eating and sleeping. But that's a common mistake. Many students forget about those things near the end.

[Saygen40]

I forget to eat in particular. Sleeping isn't much of a problem for me, though.

I have one more final tomorrow then I'm done for at least 9 months! Whoop! The enthusiasm to finish studying is dwindling very quickly.