the P.Pole

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.

My exams for the coming weeks:

1. Statistics 230 – Probability (December 9)
2. Math 237 – Honours Calculus III, Multivariate Calculus (December 10)
3. Actuarial Science 231 – Interest Theory (December 14)
4. Business 227 – Intro to Financial Accounting (December 14)
5. Math 235 – Honours Linear Algebra II (December 15)
6. Business 288 – Organizational Behaviour (December 19)

If I am reading this correctly, I have three exams within the span of two days. This is going to be strange. Also, freaking OB is going to keep me here until the 19th, returning home on the 20th.

In other news, I got my fountain pens (thanks be to Natalie who brought them in from Toronto, as she went back home this past weekend). I’ve been doing some writing with them and they are indeed a pleasure to write with. So smooth and comfortable! Now, I am waiting for my dad to pick up a pair of converters for me this week—then I’ll be able to use my own inks! Hurrah!

Today, I wrote a test for Organizational Behaviour at Laurier. It went well. I went on to prove two theorems from Linear Algebra during my Accounting lecture (no wonder I have no idea what’s going on in that class).

Here’s an awesome song from Rock Band 2, Kansas’ “Carry On Wayward Son”. Do make sure to check the lyrics after the jump.

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Continue reading

My mom has gone to Hong Kong. I am currently at home, in Toronto.

• just finished watching the Vera-Couture fight on Spike, horribly disappointed in the match judging once again
• went to wings tonight with family and friend(s) at All Stars, and God of Thunder was Deity of Death
• grabbing season five of The Office (US) while at home, abusing the nids here
• feeling happy about finding a second of Amy’s secret present yesterday, so that now we each have one to enjoy/pair up with
• going to bed now, after a tiring day of breakfast with dad, hair cut, dental appointment, 30+ levels of Hell’s Gate in Tactics Ogre, and NO STUDYING FOR ANY OF MY TWO TESTS (Organizational Behaviour, and Financial Accounting) AND ONE MIDTERM (Linear Algebra) THIS WEEK, MLIA