Midterm Time
Hello all. First off, let me apologize for that last post. I was in a crappy mood and that's all I could really blog about. I know the rain isn't the most interesting subject to read, but it gets stuff of your chest, you konw? Anyways, with that said, most alll of you (if you are in college right now) are feeling the strain of midterms, tests, papers, and other projects that require more than the average bullshitting. Not only are these tasks strenuous on the mind, but they can really effect the body as well. All-nighters are a no-no people. A test or a grade isn't worth your health, unless you are my roommate who constantly likes to procrastinate then pull all-nighters and then sleep the rest of the day. Translation, vampire. It has to be the only explination. Haha, although I'm only partially kidding, I think everyone can agree with me when I say that midterms suck, majorly.
I think it's important to look at the real "importance" of tests. Are they really all that great? Do they really challenge a person to display there knowledge in a positive way that would be worth a decent grade? From the student's perspective, hell no. Memorizing facts, figures, dates, and other worthless info just to rehash it on a piece of paper is a waste of time for two reasons. One, you probably end up forgetting 75% of all the information an hour after the test. Two, most tests test stuff that a parrot could say if you had enough time to train them. Plus, most people get nervous half the time, stress out, then spend too much time trying to calm down and inevitablly forget some important things that could have given them that B+ instead of the C-. It's true. Anyone who has ever taken a test can atest to that one. Another terrible part of tests is the time limit. I mean, in a real life situation, most people are given at least a day to work a problem or two, no 50 minutes. Once again, this just piles on more stress, more tension, more bad grades. Now for all of you people that like tests, I applaud you. It's shows you can work under pressure and/or you just know your shit well enough to answer anything the teacher throws at you. For the other 99% of us, test just suck, period.
However, without tests, how could a teacher evaluate a students performance? Participation is always a good idea, for the one or two people that actually raise there hands in class. Homework is always another way. But homework is kind of like a mini test without the time limit. If you think about it, say you didn't have tests, just homework. After you finished the homework, you'd just forget the info and move on to the next one. I'm sure some of the material would build on each other, but you'd forget those details. The best thing that I can think of are projects for three reasons. One, it actually evaluates you on a lot of material, or enough things that are important. Two, you don't have the time constraints. I mean, the project would have to be due sometime, but you get more than 50 minutes or more than enough to really think about the problem at hand. Three, you spend enough time on it that the stuff actually sticks. You put the theoretical part into applications.
Now, a class couldn't be totally based on just projects. But if there was one that heavily emphasized projects, I think that would be fun, or at least better than tests. Well, that's my rant. Hopefully it's a little more interesting than rain. I'm kind of struggling for subjects to write on, so bear with me. As soon as I have a really good story to tell, I will post it. Things have been pretty static here, except for the tests and whatnot. If any of you have any test horror stories, I would love to hear them. Our formal at Catilina is coming up and I need to find a date soon. Yikes! Hopefully things will work out.........well, I have more tests and papers to finish ; ) Hope all is well with you all. Until next time, ciao.
I think it's important to look at the real "importance" of tests. Are they really all that great? Do they really challenge a person to display there knowledge in a positive way that would be worth a decent grade? From the student's perspective, hell no. Memorizing facts, figures, dates, and other worthless info just to rehash it on a piece of paper is a waste of time for two reasons. One, you probably end up forgetting 75% of all the information an hour after the test. Two, most tests test stuff that a parrot could say if you had enough time to train them. Plus, most people get nervous half the time, stress out, then spend too much time trying to calm down and inevitablly forget some important things that could have given them that B+ instead of the C-. It's true. Anyone who has ever taken a test can atest to that one. Another terrible part of tests is the time limit. I mean, in a real life situation, most people are given at least a day to work a problem or two, no 50 minutes. Once again, this just piles on more stress, more tension, more bad grades. Now for all of you people that like tests, I applaud you. It's shows you can work under pressure and/or you just know your shit well enough to answer anything the teacher throws at you. For the other 99% of us, test just suck, period.
However, without tests, how could a teacher evaluate a students performance? Participation is always a good idea, for the one or two people that actually raise there hands in class. Homework is always another way. But homework is kind of like a mini test without the time limit. If you think about it, say you didn't have tests, just homework. After you finished the homework, you'd just forget the info and move on to the next one. I'm sure some of the material would build on each other, but you'd forget those details. The best thing that I can think of are projects for three reasons. One, it actually evaluates you on a lot of material, or enough things that are important. Two, you don't have the time constraints. I mean, the project would have to be due sometime, but you get more than 50 minutes or more than enough to really think about the problem at hand. Three, you spend enough time on it that the stuff actually sticks. You put the theoretical part into applications.
Now, a class couldn't be totally based on just projects. But if there was one that heavily emphasized projects, I think that would be fun, or at least better than tests. Well, that's my rant. Hopefully it's a little more interesting than rain. I'm kind of struggling for subjects to write on, so bear with me. As soon as I have a really good story to tell, I will post it. Things have been pretty static here, except for the tests and whatnot. If any of you have any test horror stories, I would love to hear them. Our formal at Catilina is coming up and I need to find a date soon. Yikes! Hopefully things will work out.........well, I have more tests and papers to finish ; ) Hope all is well with you all. Until next time, ciao.
posted by Joe at 11:04 PM
2 Comments:
broseph, a couple things, a. you don't have a date for your formal? what happened to the valentines day girl? didn't you woo her? haha, anyways, if there was no homework and only tests in a class, i would have like a 98% in every single class, i wish it was all tests and no homework or projects or class participation. and you're running out of stories to tell? what about you getting me drunk and taking advantage of my asshole? did you forget that one? anyways...ya that's all. I've grown to truly enjoy repyling to your blogs joe, haha, kthanksbye
joe, you think i am doing homework in thtose all-nighters, but i am really watching you as you sleep. don't worry though, i am not a vampire. i just have a mild problem with procrastination. yes, mild.
-the roommate
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