Rant Finals

[hanoverphist]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek

Saying study more or you should be studying throughout the year is negligent. Sure, if I had 1 or 2 classes a semester I would be able to do that. Having 5 classes a semester (3 credits each) doesn't allow for much free time in the college of engineering. Additionally, this is what? 17 weeks of material with 2-3 classes/week. It isn't something that you just "brush up on". Memorizing isn't everything you need an intricate knowledge of that material...

i carried 18-21 credithours every semester and managed to grad with a 3.85, taking care of my 3 kids that were under 3 yrs old at the same time. the only classes i struggled on the finals for were the ones i hadnt fully dedicated myself to throughout the semester. like that history class. wtf needs history to design games/ special effects?

 

[SsupernovaE]

Originally posted by: hanoverphist

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek

Saying study more or you should be studying throughout the year is negligent. Sure, if I had 1 or 2 classes a semester I would be able to do that. Having 5 classes a semester (3 credits each) doesn't allow for much free time in the college of engineering. Additionally, this is what? 17 weeks of material with 2-3 classes/week. It isn't something that you just "brush up on". Memorizing isn't everything you need an intricate knowledge of that material...

i carried 18-21 credithours every semester and managed to grad with a 3.85, taking care of my 3 kids that were under 3 yrs old at the same time. the only classes i struggled on the finals for were the ones i hadnt fully dedicated myself to throughout the semester. like that history class. wtf needs history to design games/ special effects?

Ya really, my worst grade in college was some stupid physical wellness course that was truly pointless.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: HardcoreRobot
you had the whole semester to study. there is no new content on the final.

Badda bing, this.

If your idea of studying for a test is 2-3hrs prep time right before it, ur doin' it wrong.

Originally posted by: venkman
CS finals should simply be....

"Make a program that does this very complicated thing, you have three hours to get a working program in my inbox."

Go Go Go!

This is probably accurate too.

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Furthermore, I am a CS major. What is the point of an exam!?!?!?!? When is an employer going to sit me into a room with a desk, slap a piece of paper in front of me, give me a pencil, and say write the code for this, this, this, and this and give some random definitions?!? All with no code references??

Different interviewers have different techniques. And some interviewers are just dicks.



Two of my tests were take-home finals.

Good: It means you get to use whatever resources you wish, except for another person who is not the course's instructor. Someone in my Advanced Machine Design class used MathCAD since he kept screwing up numbers here and there. I used Excel on one (I don't know much about MathCAD). I should've used it on another one, since I botched one number in the very first step, which screwed up 2 hours of work. (Converting from revs/min -> revs/sec. Multiplying by 12 gives a number, but it's very very wrong.)

Bad: Dear god take-home finals take a long time to finish.

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Saying study more or you should be studying throughout the year is negligent. Sure, if I had 1 or 2 classes a semester I would be able to do that. Having 5 classes a semester (3 credits each) doesn't allow for much free time in the college of engineering. Additionally, this is what? 17 weeks of material with 2-3 classes/week. It isn't something that you just "brush up on". Memorizing isn't everything you need an intricate knowledge of that material...

16 credits of senior-level engineering classes is even less fun.
Add to that a work-study job for one of my professors. Not one of those usual work-study jobs like the cushy one I once had, where more than half the time was spent doing homework and soaking up delicious government funds. This one was work all the time, sometimes with design work to bring home.
I never realized I had such masochistic tendencies.

We get two "reading days" between the end of classes and the start of finals week: Saturday and Sunday.

Originally posted by: Pacemaker
When I was in college I got "Lucky" one semester and had all 5 of my finals on Monday. I was taking tests from 7am till about 7pm with only a couple of real breaks in between, but at least I was done 3 days early.

ATOT: Where "getting lucky" involves an orgy of final exams on a Monday.

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek

Originally posted by: Leros

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek

Quit your whining. You had all semester.

I had three exams in one day.
9am -12 noon
2-5pm
7-10pm

Then I had 2 finals the next day.

... quit yer whining.

Engineering classes? No? Yea not anywhere near the same then...

-Kevin

5 electrical engineering classes, upper division

quit being such a whiny jerk

Oh I'm being a whiney jerk? You posted in MY thread saying you had it bad and for me, the OP, to quit whining? To me that seems like a jerk :roll:

-Kevin

I'm not whining. My schedule was fine. I was prepared for my exams no problem. I was just comparing my schedule to yours to demonstrate that your schedule was also fine if you had prepared properly.

You really need to grow up man.