Thursday, May 18, 2006
Physics and the end of my undergraduate career
This last semester I took university physics 2 (electromagnetism and optics) at Mesa Community College because ASU said I still needed one more science with lab credit before they were willing to confer a degree upon me, and quite frankly a 100 level science course isn't worth my time at ASU.
The only other classes I've taken at community college were Japanese language courses. I remember that while Japanese as a language was difficult, the actual class structure itself was not. I did homework "sometimes," and test preparation was virtually non-existent and somehow I managed to get B's for Japanese 101-202.
I'd like to start this off by saying that I did all of jack and shit for my physics class. I honestly did less than 20% of the homework. The total amount of time I spent for test preparation, final included, amounted to less than 4 hours for an entire semester. The time I did spent studying was not so much "practicing problems" as much as "glancing over and reading chapter summaries." I certainly don't make claims about being a brilliant mathematician or physicist that can just pull this shit out of my ass. Somehow, even though I did so staggeringly little work, I managed to pull a B. There was a time of genuine concern that I might get a D in this class and have to retake it over the summer in condensed, and ridiculously irritating, form.
Today I am investigating how to have these last few credits transferred over to ASU and then it's just a matter of registering for one fluff credit at ASU. The last thing standing between me and graduating with honors is my honors thesis credit which I've technically already done, just never announced on paper.
The only other classes I've taken at community college were Japanese language courses. I remember that while Japanese as a language was difficult, the actual class structure itself was not. I did homework "sometimes," and test preparation was virtually non-existent and somehow I managed to get B's for Japanese 101-202.
I'd like to start this off by saying that I did all of jack and shit for my physics class. I honestly did less than 20% of the homework. The total amount of time I spent for test preparation, final included, amounted to less than 4 hours for an entire semester. The time I did spent studying was not so much "practicing problems" as much as "glancing over and reading chapter summaries." I certainly don't make claims about being a brilliant mathematician or physicist that can just pull this shit out of my ass. Somehow, even though I did so staggeringly little work, I managed to pull a B. There was a time of genuine concern that I might get a D in this class and have to retake it over the summer in condensed, and ridiculously irritating, form.
Today I am investigating how to have these last few credits transferred over to ASU and then it's just a matter of registering for one fluff credit at ASU. The last thing standing between me and graduating with honors is my honors thesis credit which I've technically already done, just never announced on paper.
# posted by Chris/Stewy @ Thursday, May 18, 2006 
