Day 7 (Saturday)
To use a Track and Field phrase, I “could not get out of the blocks”. The physical exhaustion finally caught up with the mental exhaustion. I managed to get another unit of Discussion Board posts and responses finished for my Systems Thinking class… but that was at about 11 PM, at work. The sad thing about that: I wasn’t playing any games, or watching much TV, or much of anything else that would have taken away work and study time; I simply tried to read, sludged through a chapter, look briefly at my Web Development content, and absolutely crashed at about 2:00, waking up in time to leave a little early for work. Kinda disappointed about that.
Day 8 (Sunday): CIT 300 Project Submitted
Thankfully, I didn’t have too much on the plate, going into the weekend: basically, wrap up any late and current homework (Systems Thinking was the exception) and possibly record an episode with J.R. for “Podicus Wrecks”, if time allowed (that episode will be linked tonight or tomorrow). The big assignment was my CIT 300 Group Project – the final versions of my PowerPoint slides, as well as any last-second editing that I saw for the other slides (I was one of 3 people giving everything a glance-over). I usually only have about 4 hours between when I normally wake up after getting home from work (1 PM, give or take) and when I have to leave for work again (5 PM).
I got my slides in fairly early. I started one of the 2 remaining SYS 300 papers before leaving to record for the podcast; at work, I did a little review for the CIT 300 and CIT 302 Finals but, with only a 4 hour shift, I didn’t dive too deeply in. The podcast episode – “Video Games” – went pretty well.
I’m glad that my bosses at TRIMARC let me get off at 10:30 Sunday night – I got to sleep AND review some this morning!
Day 9 (Monday – today): CIT 300 Final
I slept off and on until 10:30. That’s not terribly late but it’s the latest I’ve slept on a non-work night in at least a year, probably closer to 2. Needed that, in hindsight (I was a little grumbly about it this morning)!
Went to JCTC’s campus to review and take an Assessment, for a couple of hours before the Final. One of the things I liked about that class is that before some quizzes and any exam, you had to take a non-graded Assessment Test, to see where you stood. It was usually 20 questions, 30 minute time limit, and could be repeated (the questions changed each attempt), but the actual test or Final would not unlock unless you scored at least an 85%. If you missed you window to take the test because you didn’t pass the Assessment…. sorry about your luck.
I passed the Assessment (after a few tries of 80%). The Final was proctored, closed-notes, 2 hour time limit with one attempt, and 135 True-False and Multiple choice questions (each question worth 2 points); it was worth about 35% of the total semester grade. Combine it with the Group Project PowerPoint presentation yesterday and the group paper last week, and nearly 1/2 of the semester grade fell within the last 10 days.
I ended up with a 235/270 – an 87%. The Group Paper was a 37/40 – 92.5%, the PP presentation a 38/40 – 95%. Those 3 grades made up for the bad start in the class – I should end up somewhere between an 82% and an 84%: a ‘B‘.
*whew*
I think I am going to take a little break this evening then get back to reviewing for Tuesday afternoon’s CIT 302 (Web Development) Final later tonight; there are more foot shenanigans afoot (pun intended).2 Finals and a Project down; 1 Final, 2 Papers, and a big Project to go!
The Nexus 