Exam 1 = Personal Success...

So an update from the "day that technology revolted"... we got our exam grade back this morning and I got an 86! Yay, that is a personal success!! I know an 86 is not an A; however, if you are at all familiar with the caliber of testing that the professors force upon the students at UNC, you share in my enjoyment. For those of you not familiar with the tests that are given at UNC, you would know that anything above a 70 is great and an 80 is exceptional. So, needless to say, it has been a while since I received a grade this high in a science class and I am ecstatic and flying high like this little guy!!

It is just such a different feeling than the exams I am used to. At UNC I would study and prepare for an exam like no other. Then I would take the exam while pulling my hair out at the same time because I felt as though everything I had studied was nowhere near this exam and everything on the exam was pulled from space. Then I would inevitably get my exam back like a week later and receive my less than subpar grade. Mind you many of the times I would receive a 70 and be bummed, only to find out the class average was a 55. Wow that makes sense, huh? My conclusion between these differences in testing lie with the main motivation of the professors. At UNC, the professors are more concerned with not giving out too many A's in their classes because giving too many A's ensures that they as professors are not making the material challenging enough, OH nO, it could not mean that the students actually studied and prepared for the exam to rightfully achieve that A. They choose to focus on the grade distribution among the students in their class rather than focusing on whether or not the students are learning the material. So they choose the nit pickiest questions and try to include answers to make you stumble over your pencil.

Here, I have noticed that it is more about the quality of learning we are receiving rather than the grade we are obtaining. The professors are more concerned with us learning the information and that is evidenced through their lectures and testing style. I think in the long run it is more important to have a class fully comprehend the material at hand rather than have a class that has a bell curve grade distribution.

Now do not get me wrong and misinterpret my analysis as a bashing of UNC because that is not it. I love UNC and had a great undergraduate experience there and wouldn't trade my time as a Tar Heel for anything. However, now looking at it from a different perspective, I can tell that I am at a different institution that places a little more value on their students rather than their status quo.

Now as I step down from my soap box, I just realized that I have been living up here for nearly a month!! That is crazy, time really has flown by and hopefully this next month will fly by as well as I will be traveling down south the second weekend in October!!