the P.Pole

My three final exams:

• Statistics on August 3rd
• Business Law on August 5th
• Linear Optimization on August 12th

All in all, this has been a breezy summer term for me. That’s not to say that the courses have all been easy,  I’ve just been going at them as if they were. I should probably be spending all of the coming week reviewing for Stats and Law, and then spending the week leading up to Linear Optimization on that… But, there is Disgaea 3 and my Hi-Capa to play with, so I don’t know how well this will work out.

Note: Managerial Accounting, my fourth course, has no final exam this term. In its place is a group case presentation, and a report due on the same case. Not only am I only responsible for four courses this term, but only three final exams! Win.

I have been mulling the thought over in my head the past few days, and so far I’m still leaning towards my realization that I am not fit to be a student. I am not good at it. This does not mean I don’t do well for myself as one (I do decently and this is not false humility), I just don’t find it particularly engaging. I also don’t share the same sense of motivation as my peers for doing exceptionally well either.

To explain the image, I like building things. I very much enjoy designing badass stuff. I love the process of taking a bunch of raw materials, and infusing myself into them through work and application such that they take on form and function worth more than the sum of the parts. Contrast this affection with my falling out with “school” and all it stands for and you have a perfectly good reason to post a shot of my dear Phoebe’s nude body.

Back in high school (and even before), I played the role of a student rather readily and even enthusiastically. I enjoyed all my subjects and had great rapport with my teachers barring Olsheski the Unfit and to a much lesser extent, Quejada the Exiguous). I picked up  new information and facts, relationships and theories easily enough, and applied them as well as I could be expected to. And this was all fine and dandy, if not for the subject matter itself, then for the thrill of competition. Continue reading

Of paper and of money.

I have yet to encounter an instance where a book I buy this term is actually still used by the same course the next term (regardless of what some WLU professors will tell you). This means there’s pretty much no resale value, and you’re stuck with a $100+ book per course, per term, that cannot be resold and generally won’t be looked at again anyway. If you are lucky enough to find someone willing to take on an older edition (i.e. someone who sees through the thin veil that says the course is completely incompatible with its materials 4 months prior), then you may not share the same concerns as most students.

Already people are struggling to pay just for tuition, but having course materials costing almost as much as half of your tuition some terms, you have to start wondering just how hard publishers have to lobby their books. In this respect, I have much respect for the University of Waterloo course coordinators (at least for my courses). So far, I’ve yet to encounter any course the requires a book costing more than $100 that wasn’t:

• also available for free and legally through an online version
• not mandatory

The “How to Design Programs” book for the PLT Scheme courses fits this description.

The only text that “breaks” this mold is the “Calculus: Early Transcendentals” used in first-year. The book was something like $120, but considering that it was used in both first and second Calculus and proved useful in the third Calculus course, this book cost maybe about $40 amortized per course.

All other courses so far have been based loosely on cheap books (around $20 – $60) and generally have not been mandatory. This is largely why I have actually failed to purchase any course packages, textbooks, or otherwise shameless cash-grabs after first term of first year. Sure some course notes are helpful, but it’s proven that people generally learn better and remember more when actually writing, with pen and paper, during lectures. This is what I do.

What’s better yet, the course I’m taking at the University of Waterloo offer their course notes online, for free, in eco-friendly PDF format for download by any student. This is way more efficient that telling students to find and buy an actual book. Plus, the university itself has full control over what content and terminology gets included and used, rather than being forced to adopt the terms and pick and choose from the content included by the publishers of the textbooks. This is good, if you believe your course coordinator genuinely knows more about the course than a random collection of people out there writing books to maybe fit your course, along with many other courses out there.

I can’t prove whether this happens, but I seriously wouldn’t put it past the fine business folk at WLU, or maybe any other university. I think it happens something like a lobbyist agreement. Some textbook company decides to “make a deal” with a university or a high-ranking person at the university, in exchange for promotion of that company’s books. Suddenly the newest edition (not being sold in the used book store) is mandatory in a core course, and they must be brought to class (as proof of purchase?) for “participation marks”. I get it, we need them for class activities, but then sharing a book between people would be fine. It’s not.

It’s apparently an act of academic and legal misconduct at WLU if you do not pay $30 for the course package for Organizational Behaviour, containing a whopping five (yes, countable on one hand) pages of white paper with some printing and “more materials to come later in the course”. It’s also illegal to photocopy those pages to split the ultra-low cost of $6 per sheet of paper between classmates. They never did come later in the course (sparing maybe four to five more single sheets), and of course I never paid for this sham. At what point do we start putting the intentions of the institutions we are customers of in doubt? I am told our professors are genuinely interested in our success—and I believe this for the most part. I just have to doubt whether the universities themselves or the people running them actually care about academia, knowledge, teaching, and improving society through their business, or if they are just here to make a quick buck off of their quality professors and trusting students? Cowardice and greed.

I’m sorry, I’d rather take a 10% hit to my grades rather than be coerced into buying a book I can readily substitute with free PDF alternative texts—plus, I want to sleep easy at night knowing I wasn’t being manipulated into paying for whatever “agreements” were made behind closed doors. I’m perfectly willing to earn participation marks by participating, but if you make my ability to do so contingent on whether I’ve got $140 lying around to feed your under-the-table agreements, you can bite me. Losing a few marks here and there because of poor course design, I can live with. I just wonder why I have to.

If my marks are reflective of my learning during a course, then what the fuck does my wallet have to do with it? I’m already paying for the teaching and marking staff, and upkeep of your buildings and even development of new facilities I won’t get to use, so why are you making me pay for books when the same knowledge could easily be captured more concisely and precisely by our own professors for our own courses? So I can hope to get above 90%? Dickless.

WLU: take a note from Dan Wolczuk and his course notes for Calculus III, or just about any other course at UW. They are always excellent, professionally made, and free to students who just want to learn things.**

Basically, I don’t think it’s fair to handicap students who see through the shitty business model of the university by docking 10% off the top. This favors the rich (and/or just naive) over the average and grades will reflect this—sure, no amount of 10% participation marks will turn a C student into an A student, but it doesn’t need to if your C’s can become B’s and your A’s drop to B’s.

Oh yeah, and did I mention that actual textbooks use a huge amount of paper, toxic inks, and non-renewable energies to produce and ship? They are also a pain in the ass to store and distribute (given the rate at which they expire and become obsolete). I’d take PDF over paper any day.

** The closest thing from WLU that I have seen is the Business 111 and 121 course notes, and to be honest, the books were huge and filled with useful stuff. However, these books cost ~$70 (one per term), weren’t available in PDF format, and were filled with information more or less identical to the previous “editions”. The only major changes came with the numbers in questions, making them—surprise surprise—useless for in-class discussions, activities, and getting that 10% participation mark.

Tam, K. and Wong, C. (2010). Completed on the 26th of January, 2010, in response to this clearly inflammatory post.

The following was a conversation occurring online through the mailing system for my accounting course this term, brought to my attention by one Taylor M. F. Carson (kudos to you, Taylor, and enjoy your middle names if you’re reading this).

I found that same exam pretty hard, but I didn’t think it necessary to bitch about it online, through email, to every single person in the course, and making threats about appealing it. Anyway, have a read because it’s hilariously epic.

Note: I haven’t changed any of the actual text, except for changing the names of people and placing emphasis (in bold).

Original Message:

From: Frustrated Narc
Subject: 227 final examination UNFAIR?
Date Sent: December 17, 2009 7:34 PM
To: All Students

*****ATTN all students registered in 227****

A few of us were talking and were not happy with the content on the final exam and also feel that it was unfair.

Below is an excert of what we plan on sending to higher powers. If you feel the same, please reply to me with your name, section, and professor’s name.

Also please feel free to reply with any edits/additions that you think may be beneficial.

Thanks

Frustrated Narc & Random Girl

**EXCERT************************
Unfortunately, the course ill prepared us for the final examination because parts of the final examination were not clearly defined in class. I am disappointed that this course did not prepare its students for the final examination, especially as it is worth 55% of each student’s final mark.

To resolve the problem, I would appreciate if you could either schedule a new examination in April 2010 that is fair to what was taught in class, or at the very least to adopt a significant curve. Enclosed are the names of students who feel that the exam was unjust.

***************************************

Reply: Continue reading

I’ve finally gotten around to setting up a page for my music posts, all in one place here.

Soon I will be done with this world (of final exams!). Saturday evening, I will be tackling the final of finals, for Organizational Behaviour. I am not too worried about this exam, but that may be due to me not being particularly concerned about my final grade. I have done well so far from reviewing definitions alone, so guess what I’ll be doing tomorrow morning and evening.

5 results of my five exams so far:

• Statistics went very well for me. I finished with ample time left, checked over every answer carefully, both for my thought process and for my computation accuracy. I am so confident that I believe I potentially scored 100%, minus up to maybe 5% for small mistakes.
• Calculus went less smoothly. I am sure I got most everything on the exam, excepting two questions. One, I approached properly the first time, but reversed (the bounds on my integral in) my answer at the last moment because it seemed to make sense. The other mistake was due to misreading the question and approaching it too readily with a prescribed method when at a loss. I should have read more carefully. I’m thinking anywhere from 85-90%.
• Actuarial Science was quite good for me. I did not get the most rest the night before (one of those nights) so I was not at my best in the morning. However, I only lost focus for parts of two of the eight questions in total. I had not bothered with memorizing in detail the more obscure formulae, and our professor surprised us this year by asking for two of the most obscure formulae. I was stuck evaluating an integral that I formed (incorrectly) that cannot actually be integrated, and searching my mind for a random conversion property that I am actually not sure I ever noted in the first place.
• Accounting was by far the worst so far, but not unexpectedly so. I did not prepare much for this final since I figured it’d be a breeze, and parts of it were. Other parts, requiring more subjective reasoning and explanation, I am sure I did not do quite so hot on. It was an underhanded exam asking obscure and very similar questions that required too much reading into things for my liking. I did all I could and left without straining myself all that much. Five minutes of not getting something is as productive as thirty.
• Linear Algebra: 100%.

All that is left is the most subjective of my courses this term, Organizational Behaviour. I am doing well in the course going in, and the final is not worth nearly as much (45% of the final grade). I will review terms, remember names of theories and their researchers/proposers, and that will be that. I refuse to lose sleep over this, especially with the new Team Fortress 2 update coming out tonight.

Today I wrote my Statistics, Probability final exam. I feel very confident, and for someone doing very well in that class already, this should not be taken as a sign of arrogance (there are many others, take your pick).

According to my roommate Taylor, he has noticed that I seem to be quite moody today and, to a lesser extent, recently. He asked if it was my time of the month, and I asked whether he would like to settle the matter outside.

From past experience, I only get as described (that would be, dark, moody, etc…) over a very specific subset of things out of the larger set of Life. These would include (mainly):

• while seething over  some recent wronging
• during spells of feeling neglected
• when having trouble with girls

Now, let’s say that these three form a mean of sorts, an expected value, with variance being some expression in terms of my relationship status, proximity to other people, and how much duress I am experiencing at the moment of Great Upheavals. Possible values would thusly be varying reasons ranging from predominantly indignation-based (on our graph: left, for some arbitrary reason) to predominantly sadness-based (right).

Now, if each of these Great Upheaval events are distributed with identical underlying distribution models (I’d like to think of it in terms of some exponential distribution, where we consider only the wait time before the first event), then the Central Limit Theorem suggests that given enough observed Upheavals, the distribution of them all as a whole could be approximated by, you guessed it, the Normal Distribution.

This makes a lot of sense, since most everything in Nature tends towards some Normal Distribution model, be it the weight of individual penguins or termites per mound. Some say this is a quantifiable argument for God’s existence, but this more rationally explained by the underlying mathematics present. However, the elegance and perfection with which the underlying mathematics works out—now that is more like an argument for God’s designing hand in my somewhat educated opinion.

Also, the integral of e^(-x^2) from zero to infinity (mostly un-integrable by non-math nerds) works out to be the square root of Pi divided by 2 (i.e. √π/2) and this is where the Normal Distribution’s Probability Density Function is derived. Yeah, I know.  Calculus, meet Statistics.

I am also not feeling so great. Physically, very healthy. Otherwise, not in the best shape, as I came to realize today. I should probably seek medical attention wherever and as soon as possible.