I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Antici... pation

Well, not to leave you all in suspense, last night's test went well. We use scan-tron forms, which frankly I hate with a burning passion. See, I'm normally one of the first ones done. So I go back over the test, making sure I read the questions correctly, that my writing is legible, didn't make simple mistakes, etc. However, with scan-tron (fill in the circle kind of forms) it's a real pain in the tush to do that. So, while I wasn't the first one done, I was second or third. Then again, I also intentionally went slow.

There were only four questions I didn't have a quick answer for. One was an answer of "yes, well, the process you mention doesn't specifically need Oxygen, however the process before this, of which this process uses the function/by-product, does require O2. So for this answer, it really should be "no", but if O2 isn't present, this process won't be engaged because the previous process couldn't work, so it's "yes." (So that's how I ended up answering the questions, and for those of you in the need to know, the question was about Chemiosmosis, which itself doesn't require O2 to function, however the Electron Transport Chain - and by extenuation the whole cellular respiration - does require O2 as a final receptor to keep the 2e- flowing down the receptors and pumping H+ into the intermembrane space in the Mitochondria, of which then Chemiosmosis uses ATP Synthase to allow the H+ back into the innermembrane space and makes a tremendous amount of ATP - your cell's major energy carrier - in the process).

We should have our grades today (or that was the plan). As soon as I see them posted I'll update this post with the final. As of now, with a total possible points in the class at 770 (I thought it was 760), I have earned 669.5, which gives me 86.9%. The two grades missing are the second article/paper (20 possible points) and the final (100 possible points - with 110 questions or 10 bonus points).

edit Christ on a pogo-stick, it's now past 1pm local. We took the test on scan-tron so it could automatically be graded. Technology. You know, faster? (yes, I know, I have my own thoughts about how tech has actually slowed us down). So, still no news on the grade front.

edit 07-01-2010 3pm Finally posted our final exam. I scored 107 out of 100 (those bonus points). So without the paper being scored (but included in the overall GPA calculation), I have a 100.84%. I blame my over intensive studying early on in the class to help get all the info through my thick skull. If we cut the crap of "bonus points" (ie. divide the total points acquired by the total possible points), I have a 97.3% before we include the second paper.

2 comments:

Dr. Phil (Physics) said...

When I was in college, a lot of the computer center users were still doing batch jobs with cards. A friend of mine pointed out that the speed of the computer was limited by the time it took for an operator to stop reading their book, go to the printer, separate the jobs and put a rubber band and the printout around the stack of cards, then put it in the slot.

You've obviously not included the time it takes to will you to pick up a scantron form, make a master, and then walk all the papers over to the scantron machine -- then record the grades.

Limiting steps always trump speed. (grin)

Dr. Phil

Steve Buchheit said...

I believe that's what's called "lag time."

And yeah, I should know better, but I want the speed technology was supposed to bring us. Instead we just seem to be waiting in a different set of queues these days. And we seem to be waiting longer.