Thoughts on Transferring

After going through all of the intricacies of the transfer process I’ve concluded that if I had it to do over again, I would definitely take as much as I could at the four-year school.  The process was just too difficult and ended up costing me classes that I couldn’t afford to lose.  I thought I was saving money but ended up costing myself money because of the lost classes.  I wish there was a more clear-cut process for figuring out which courses would transfer and as what.  If there was one for these two schools I couldn’t find it and their academic advisers didn’t know about it either.  I have seen some schools that use articulation agreements to directly map classes over to each other.  Typically, the schools I’ve seen with these agreements are closely geographically located.

In summary, unless you can get something in writing that states what a class will transfer as, I would  advise against trying to transfer it.

I can’t do much about those classes now.  But I don’t have to worry about transferring anything anymore!  That alone will save me a lot of time.

Grades In

Well, the grades are all in.  5 A’s and 2 B’s.. Not my ideal scenario.  The B’s were in accounting and statistics.  I really thought I would pull out an A in the statistics class. The instructor stated that my grade was an 88.7.   1.3 points were the difference between an A and a B.  The statistics grade is an especially tough one to swallow because I put a lot of time in turning that grade around, but I guess I should have concentrated on it sooner.  I expected the accounting B because of not turning in the final project.

On the bright side of things, all of the “B” courses will transfer in as a complete without penalization(or reward for that matter) for the grade received.  So it won’t affect my GPA at the four-year institution , which is still standing at 4.0.    next semester will real test that though. From now on all of my classes will be taken at my four-year school.

My final GPA at the community college: 3.825.  3 B’s and 16 A’s.  That statistics B is going to bother me for a while.

Still Waiting for Grades

Seems like I’ve already been out of class for weeks. I still am waiting for grades. There are two that I really would like to see; the statistics and accounting grades. Come on teachers! Hand out those A’s!

Done

Finally over.  I had one assignment for the Microcomputer Applications class that I kept putting off.  Besides that assignment I was finished Tuesday evening.  I had a little trouble getting motivated to finish that last one even though it was a relatively small one.  A little bit of time to breath now before starting up on the CLEP exam I need to take over the break.   I’m going to take at least one week off from doing any school-related work.

After that, back at it for spring!

Programming Project and Presentation finished

The project was more difficult than I thought. I did a poor job of diagramming out the process. A good flowchart would have saved me a lot of time and headache. Instead, I just jumped in and started coding. Not sure about the grade on the presentation or project.. Only one other person in the class completed the project, so I don’t feel so bad for taking as long to get it done. I really would not like to work on something knowing that I’m a grade behind the 8-ball already.

I learned a good deal about high-level Object Oriented Programming (OOP) through the work on this project, which is more than the zero knowledge I had before.

Two more assignments left:a Gen-ed final and a Microcomputer Final.

Necessary Evil

The accounting project just did not happen. When I looked at the amount of work that I had due this week I knew that I was going to be hard-pressed to get all of it done. I tried to triage the work in order of importance/relevance to the grade. In the accounting class I still had a slight chance of getting an A even without the project, so I decided that if I ran out of time that the accounting project would get cut. Due to some difficulties in the programming project at 12:01am Monday morning the programming project was still unfinished…. So I had to ditch the accounting project.

I don’t know what my final grade in accounting will be. My best guess is a B. I was really hoping for an all-A semester, but this transfers as a mere complete/not complete, so this won’t affect my GPA from the four-year school. Although I think that’s kinda cheating…. If technically had a 2.0 for the credits that transferred in, you could still end up with a 4.0 for the bachelors…

Anyway. It was tough to skip an assignment that had bearing on my grade. Poor planning on my part. I really could not have completed the accounting project in addition to my other work in time for class last night.

Procrastination wins another one!

Research Paper finished

That was relatively easy!  I got on a roll towards the end and after a final proofread, submitted the paper.  Which reminds me,  think of just how much paper going to school online saves!  Although I still print out at least one of my drafts to go over (it’s a mental block that I have when it comes to critiquing writing), I typically only do one, then email the final draft to the professor.  For the 30-odd students in this class, that’s a paper savings of over 120 pages….. Anyway, bit of a tangent there.

I’m a little further ahead than I thought I would be at this point.  I was up until around 12am last night finishing up some of the other stuff and I got a good start this morning.  I need to get the programming project knocked out, that’s the next biggest item on my list.  I hope the work continues to flow..  I’m going to grab an energy drink and get back at it. Programming project here we come!!

The Most Productive Time of the Year

If I complete all of the work that I have scheduled in the next 3 days, this will be, by far, the most work I’ve done in the shortest amount of time so far this year.  I shouldn’t get too excited though, because the reasons I need to work at a feverish pace include the fact that I misjudged several assignments and procrastinated on several others.  That whole DO IT NOW thing is never as simple as it seems.  Those three words, if followed, could change my study habits dramatically.  It might even change my life!  Anyway, what’s done is done, I’m behind already and the whining won’t help.  Here’s what Iwill have scheduled/done in a total of 1 week:

• Last Tuesday, Dec 8th: 1. Final Exam in Programming.  2. Homework for programming from previous week.
• Wednesday: 1. Simulation for Networking class completed. 2. Discussion board for Networking class completed.
• Friday:  1. Study for Comprehensive Final Exam- Statistics. 2. Discussion board topic for Microcomputer Applications.(150 words)
• Saturday Morning: 1. Comprehensive Final Exam- Statistics (yes comprehensive means enough to be underlined)
• Saturday Afternoon/evening:1. Research Paper draft.  2. Gen-ed “quiz” on three chapters.
• Sunday: 1. Microcomputer Applications Labs(these typically are just a bunch of reading, but can be time-intensive). 2. Research paper Final draft due. 3. Discussion board responses (2) in Microcomputer Applications. (This is that busy work that happens in online classes)
• Monday: 1. Accounting Final Exam. 2. Accounting Project due.(The accounting project was a big procrastination on part.. I thought I would have a high enough A to skip it, turns out I don’t.)
• Tuesday, December 15: 1. Programming project and presentation due. 2. Networking Final exam due. 3. Gen-ed Final Exam. 4. Microcomputer Applications Final Exam.  (The last two aren’t due on Tuesday, but I had scheduled them to be completed then.)

Should be  fun coupl’a days!

Finished With Statistics.. Research Paper Next

I’m glad that class is over with!!! I’m tired of worrying about it. I got a B on the final, I hope it’s enough. I ran out of time on the last question of the test.  I really wasn’t sure about how well I had done.. Thankfully, there weren’t any of the “curves” I mentioned in my previous post.

About halfway through the semester, when I was really having problems with this class, I set a goal of finishing with an A. I really didn’t think I could do it based on the amount of difficulty that I was having. Now, thanks to switching up the way I approached studying for the class, I think I might just hit that! I hope the professor posts the grades quickly.

The next item on the list is a 4 page research paper.  I’ve chosen my thesis,(that always seems to be the most difficult part for me), and I have a (very)rough draft done.  I really need to get this one done today if I’m going to stay on track.

Ready or Not

I’m sitting here outside the testing center getting ready to go in for the statistics final. I think I’m writing this to motivate myself.  Not sure how I’m going to do.   I think I covered a good bit of the material last night and this morning but this instructor has thrown a couple curves at us before.   This is a three hour exam, and I usually take the entire amount of allotted time.  I have to get at least a B!

Well, as we say in Crossfit:  3, 2, 1, GO!