Evaluating

It’s been a few months of a rough “temporary” work situation, and I can feel it taking a toll.  I’m starting to slide into slow motion, taking forever to get up, to get out of the shower, to come in from the car, (Not for work particularly, I sat outside the library for a while and I love the library.), it just seems like so much effort to do whatever I’m going to do next.

As this goes longer, checking my online grades has gone from checking on a Monday or a Tuesday to see which of  last week’s assignments have been graded so far, to alt-tabbing over, and over again, to see that my 91% is still there. Grade checking ALL THE TIME. My teacher recently made a graph of student grades, without names, obviously, it’s a stats thing and not a public humiliation tactic, and I have the lowest A in the class.  I also noticed that the student averages make that reverse bell curve so common in adult ed.  (Why is that so common?)

Sometime I’ll write up a cost-benefit analysis of studying for this course, because I’ve noticed that after doing the assigned reading, and looking up a scientific term or two each week, I get a steady B+ on the weekly test. With additional hours of studying, making outlines and detailed notes, I can bring that up to an A-. So I’m either spending 2 hours for an 88% or 6+ hours for a 92%.  Maybe I don’t study in an efficient way (How DO you memorize and contextualize new concepts without an outline? Is there something everyone else knows how to do?) or maybe that’s the class working as intended, and that’s what builds the reverse bell curve in student grades.

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2 Responses to Evaluating

  1. Jennette says:

    When I started to really hate my last job I also started checking my books’ Amazon ranking several times a day. I thought I’d become obsessed with it, but as soon as I started working for myself I stopped checking it. I evidently was doing it out of boredom.

    Jennette

    • Meg Stivison says:

      Same thing, I think, and I’m hopeful my grade-checking isn’t a permanent state. I’ve just been feeling under appreciated, and tabbing over to see how great I’m doing in science class is becoming more and more essential to get through the day in a decent mood.

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