For most of the semester I’ve been calling one of my courses “Math With Idiots”… which I deemed as such because of one or two folks in there who ask the most ridiculous “In the name of Paris, how did you graduate from HS without knowing that” sort of questions. Luckily most of the people, even the ones who ask questions, do not ask stupid questions.
Anyway… I have a propensity for not going to that class. I’ve actually been going pretty regularly for a few weeks, but I skipped Thursday because, well, I just didn’t feel like being in a classroom. Apparently we have an exam this coming Thursday. This came as news to me because we’ve had two exams and there are two exams on the syllabus. Silly me to think there wouldn’t be any more. So half-way through class he says something about “Thursday’s exam”… and I say “We have an exam on Thursday?” to which a nice young lady who sits a few rows in front of me turns around and says “You might know that if you came to class.” Gee, thanks for that. Actually, I think she was (mainly) joking or, if not, she at least smiled when she said it, so whatever.
Anyway, after class the girl who knows everything about number theory asked me if I was taking the exam. I used my mad skills of deductive reasoning to presume that, with the addition of the new test, we were also given an exam drop grade. So I, never one to miss a beat, say: “Oh, we get a drop grade?” Yes, indeed.
At this point I delicately removed my shoe, salted my foot for a little extra flavor, and put it straight into my mouth. “Hmm… well, I did get a 95 on the last test, I guess I could bump my grade a little.” This sort of statement did not seem to sit well with the folks sitting around me, some of whom commented that I should shut up, others added that they got fifty-somethings, and others still simply looked at me in a manner which said, roughly, “Hello. If there weren’t federal statutes against it, I might rip your throat out with my teeth.”
No, really… they’re all nice people… but I think they wanted to inflict bodily harm upon me. Not that this is an unusual sentiment.
But this does leave me with a dilemma… I can do one of three things…
1. Take my nice test average and not go to class on Thursday
2. Take the test on Thursday just in case I get lucky and get a higher A without studying
3. Go ahead and make time to study and make sure I get a grade that’ll bump my average a point or so.
I might also email the prof and see if I can drop my quiz grades instead… that would be incentive to show up and do well on the third exam. Hmmm…
Decisions, decisions…
you should go, just so that the people struggling with the class who happenned to hear your comments will realize that you’re pretty confident you can beat a 95. They should enjoy that. And since you should go, you might as well study and make the trip worthwhile.
yea.. since when did you ever shy away from a chance to prove how smart you are.
I’m pretty sure the nice young lady WAS joking…cuz I’m pretty sure she’s just as sarcastic as you…so who are the one or two in there that don’t know anything? Cuz I counted like, uh, 50…and I AM a math major, so that # IS correct…
Go, take it as fast as you can, then loudly anounce that you are finished with this easy test that was so far beneath you it was an insult to your intelligence.
Be careful about approcahing the prof about dropping the quiz grade. S/he might not take kindly to that. Take the test, hell go nuts and study a little. You don’t have much to lose and if you just don’t show it’ll ruin your grade karma [and you want to build that WAY up b4 the fall semester].
Make it a game-time decision. Don’t study. There are far more important things to do (and drink, chase, hunt, build, destroy, etc) than study for a test you don’t have to take. When you wake up Thursday morning, if you have nothing better to do, then go take the test. If there are some cool re-runs on the tube, stay home and have a drink.
If you study for this… you will be wasting valuable “study brain cells”. You don’t want to do that. I’m sure your brain is at mass capacity… so don’t knock out something you need so you can remember this foolish math class.
Is the teacher hot? Ask her if it can be an oral exam.
Just kidding…I know that UA only employs Asian males in the math dept.
I thought all the profs in ALL the Math Depts in the entire country were Asian males. A poll please. Raise your hand if you know of anything to the contrary.
Hmmm… I’d answer Teresa’s question… but for the fact that I’m not in the country in question (mind you… we do have quite a few female math profs some of whom may be asian and/or married to asian mail math profs… but I digress).
I have to echo the people saying to take the test, but take it as fast as possible and don’t bother studying.
I know if some smarty pants was bragging about their good grades, and then came and finished really quickly with a smug look on their face it would piss me off.
(So don’t forget the smug look.)
I love Ryne’s idea, I used to do that few times before.