JB School

Signing up for classes for next term has been a nightmare involving way too much time and way too many people. After much hullaboo and effort, last Friday I managed to get shoehorned into the Biology course I needed, but that required giving up my slot in Chemistry (no other openings) and rearranging my math and writing courses. When I first tried to sign up, the registration service would not let me sign up for much of anything, as my basic reading and writing qualifications had expired (apparently they do this after about 5 years). This wouldn't have been such a big deal except that A.) I had gone in and "fixed" this with a counselor last term after experiencing the same problem. B.) The advisors able to fix this were so backed up that it took a three hour wait to get in to see one. C.) Once I did finally get in to see an advisor and fix the requirements, registration services were up and down like crazy over the next week or so, meaning that when I did finally get signed up for classes, the biology course I needed was closed on all campuses, save for a few slots in various classes on Sylvania. Unfortunately, due to an error in the bureaucracy, there were no matching Lab slots for those lecture classes, so it was impossible to sign up for the class at all.

This past Friday they finally added a new lab section, which caused a number of students to shift around, opening a slot at Cascade campus. I swapped my schedule to jump into the new slot, causing the aforementioned loss of my Chemistry course. Given that they took the registration system down for maintenance on Friday at noon, I assumed that that was that, and that I'd just have a 13 credit term and have to take Chemistry during the summer. Eden asked me last night if I had anything left to turn in at my Biology final today, which I was 98% certain I didn't, but I logged on to the course webpage for paranoia's sake this morning to be sure. No assignment, but some wild hair prompted me to check registration services again. Not only were they up, but a Chemistry section I could use had an open slot again due to someone dropping! So now, I'm back to 18 credits, have all the classes I wanted to get done this term, and only need to go to classes on Monday and Wednesday at Cascade campus (the closest to my new digs, with working wifi in all of the buildings). I'm pretty happy about that.

Tonight's Biology final will be the last, and, in point of fact, will likely have absolutely no impact on my grade, as the teacher set things up to drop the lowest of three tests. Given that my lowest score on the other two tests was 89%, I'm pretty sure I won't do better, but who knows? We're required to take all three tests anyway, right? From my calculations, I'm riding somewhere between a high B and a low A based on my assignments and lab work I've gotten back, but there's enough wiggle room in the ones I don't have back that it could go either way. I guess I'm pretty satisfied with either grade, even though the A would be much much better for OIT - I've still understood a heck of a lot more in this course than I thought I would at the start.

Not so much so with Algebra. Honestly, I don't know what's happened to my brain in the intervening years, but math-wise I feel pretty stupid these days. Way back in high school I won a State Championship in Algebra. Right now, if the final I took on Monday works out the way I think it did, I'll have a C. Really not happy with that at all, but in reflection, I've struggled so much with this that I'll be pleased to be done with it. It's kind of odd - one of the things I liked about math growing up was that it had definite answers, and if I understood the principles involved, there was almost a Lego-style click in my head as I manipulated terms from one form to another. It made sense. Right now, I still get that click for some things, but others just don't work at all. They make sense in reviewing problems on the board and when using them for homework, but I can't seem to make them work on arbitrary problems. Makes me a little nervous for the upcoming Trigonometry section, but it'll be the last outright math class that I need for this degree, so I'll just grin and bear it.

In any case, this'll probably be the last post on this blog until I either get my final grades back or the new term starts up again on the 29th of the month. We're still posting pictures to the other blog and will probably have some new ones if we do the honeymoon thing (waiting to see about some car repairs on Eden's bug before making decisions). Feel free to stop by and wander through the posts there!