This week is pretty bad so far, it is just one of those crappy weeks were everything seems to go wrong. Every time I open my mouth I just blurt out something that doesn't sound like me. So for the rest of the week I will keep to myself as much as possible in other words, trying not to shove my foot in my mouth (see picture below for diagram).
Next week I leave for Idaho for an interview. I really am hoping to get the job. Some days I think to myself, "WOW I could have a master's degree" the other/majority of the days I dread going to class and taking even more exams. I am tired of going through the grading process, of doing a lot of homework and getting great grades on homeworks but not so great on exams and having a crappy grade to show for all the effort. I have never been one to agree with the basis of grading in college. I think it is a bunch of shit to speak bluntly.
College is in semesters or quarters, so either 16 weeks of courses, or 10 weeks at a time. Typically a undergraduate student takes 4 to 5 classes per term. Taking 4 to 5 classes is not so bad, the workload (homework, projects, etc) can be intense at times. However, the way classes are graded typically comes down to only 4-7 hours of that entire 16 or 10 weeks. A typical 4 credit class requires 8-12 hours of homework/project time a week, so that accumulates to an average of 10 hours a week for 10 weeks is 100 hours. Then add in the time in class which is 4 hours a week and that is 40 more hours. Totallying 140 hours of which only 7 determine over half of your grade, time well spent? I will let you decide.
In a standard undergraduate class home works are worth about 10-15% of your grade, and many classes will have projects worth about 5% and if you are damn lucky 10%. So that leaves anywhere from 75% up to 85% of your class grade dependent on your exam grades. Usually if 85% of the grade is exams you will have two midterms worth 25% and one final worth 35%. Typically you can have about 1.5 hours per midterm and about 3 hours for a final. So 85% of your grade for one class is determined in 6 hours out of a 10 week course. Take into account now that most of the 4 or 5 classes you take all have exams in the same week. That is a lot of stress to take on in 3 weeks out of the 10 week course. Then if you have have 4 or 5 classes it is likely you will have more than 1 exam on the same day. Thus boosting your stress higher.
Now I will attempt to quantify stress of a college student. First, we need a control case to compare with. So let us consider a normal person of age 28 that has a wife and child with a middle income for both parents. Both parents have already gone through college and have decent white collared jobs. For each stress I will try to be liberal. High stress is 10 while a low stress is 1. I am considering a typical day for a healthy male here, so having a wife adds 6 points (newlyweds still). Working causes 5 points (remember he is not a drone to work environment yet). The child is another 4 points. Bills/taxes 2 points (believing they live moderately). Chores at home 1 point. Health worries 1 point. Car issues 1 point. Living environment 1 point. So in total a healthy male with a child and wife with a higher education and decent jobs typical stress level for one day is 21.
Now take a single male college student during exams week. Let's say he has a girlfriend that adds 6 points, in my experience guys with girlfriends are more stressed than married ones. Even ones who marry their long time girlfriend seem less stressed afterwards. No child so that is a 0 pointer. Working part time adds 5 points because it is taking away from time you could be studying. Bills/taxes 4 points, during exams week one starts to worry about everything in order to avoid worrying about the exam, somewhat like substituting lower worries for the higher worry. Chores at home -1 points, no one does chores during exams week and if you do it is a stress relief to not be studying. Living environment 5 points, let's face it apartment living/dorm living is not a nice quiet place to study. Health stress 3, exams week once again you substitute a lower worry for the higher. Car issues 0 points, if you have a car you are ahead in the game. Now the exam stress gets a big ole 9, while it may be extremely stressful it is not as high as a stress as you can get. So in total on exams week a college student has a stress level of 31. So next time you are talking to a college student saying oh these are the best years of your life. Just remember not mention that during exams week.
In other news I figure out how to post links on this thingy. The Dark Tower series I am reading is based off of Robert Browning's poem Childe Roland To The Dark Tower Came. You can read it by clicking on the link there. It is pretty dark, a lot of the events that occur in the poem are similar to events in the series. Browning said that the poem came to him in a dream from God, and only he and God knew what it meant and now only God knows what it means. Try that on for crazy. Anyways to see my obsession you can read this poem if you like. It is pretty good but Browning sometimes gets lost in the Shakespeare. The poem was also inspired by a scene in King Lear, by a song sung by Edgar while he pretend to be a madman. Browning tries to adapt of lot of the lingo but somewhat fails. Anyways it is there for you to judge.
Well this is getting pretty long so I will let you go for now. Anywho if you have read this far you should spend a few more seconds and LEAVE A COMMENT on this blog it would be much appreciated.
Love and kisses,
Rick
To leave you with a quote:
"I will show you fear in a handful of dust."
~T.S. Elliot
p.s. I no longer have faith in the academy awards.
p.s.s. If anyone wants to watch Stephen Colbert rip G.W. for 24 minutes straight here is the link.
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