Danger Danger Danger
When I started this year, I told myself that all I had to do was keep on doing what I was doing for the past three years. I mean, I’ve thought I’d screwed up plenty of times before and end up with a 90. The only objective marks-wise would be to keep a 90 average. Besides, I only needed a 90 for Waterloo’s $2000 President’s Award. Well, it looks like I’ve failed. Time to start the blame machine.
Update — It seems that my fears may have been misplaced and premature. The situation looks hopeful again. Well, as of now, at least. The doom and gloom may end up being justified after exams, though.
Algebra and Geometry
Looking at my tests and quizzes, I think I’m going to end up with slightly over 80. I must say, that’s barely acceptable. The problem is that there were a few marks that I ended up losing because of some incredibly awful luck. That could have been an 85, which would have singlehandedly prevented this.
Update — Actually, I am getting an 85, according to the marking scheme, but that still could have been a 90 if not for said luck.
Chemistry
Last I checked, I have a 95. To be quite honest, I’m surprised I’m even that high up. Sadly, it’s one of the classes I’m depending on to pull my average up. I think I’m going to be in for some disappointment, since chem with De Guzman is very unpredictable.
Physics
I have no idea what I’m getting in this class. I’m going to guess that at the moment, it’s sitting at a low 90. I need this to be a mid 90 according to my calculations. As long as the remakes and exam go well, I should be able to pull this up to a high 90. The problem is Nguyen’s incredibly unpredictable tests. I have no idea what to expect going into a test, even though he tells us exactly what’s on it.
Music
There’s not much I can do with this one. In retrospect, I must remind myself that I need to use my purple tickets compulsively regardless of what my teacher tells me.
Computer Engineering
As long as I don’t do anything completely retarded or the rest of the class doesn’t suddenly become super smart, I can stay ahead and get my bonus bump. I might even be able to convince him to bump me up to 100 rather than 99.
English
English is really sorrowful right now. All of my hopes now lie with the Essays in the Wild project. I had hoped that my essay would rake in the marks. Unfortunately, MacDonell marked the essays out of 15. I have a theory that one is more likely to get at least an 80 if the teacher marks an essay out of 10 rather than 15. With a mark out of 15, the mark isn’t translated instantly into a percentage. A 7 out of 10 looks far more damning than a 11.5 out of 15. There is an exam in this class, but I’ll probably end up failing it like a fish out of water, flapping on the ground.
Calculus
This class is easy. That is one of the reasons why I hate, hate, hate it so much. I understand functions and limits and tangents and polynomials. In theory, I should be getting 132 in that class, since I understand everything in that class. But no, minor mistakes cost about five to ten percent off of my tests. Normally, everything would be fine after that. The problem lies in the department’s evaluation policy.
Basically, some lazy department head in the past decided that all the teachers have to do the exact same thing. What that means is that the teachers must have the same amount of assignments, quizzes, and tests. What is translated as is that if a certain other teacher doesn’t want to do something, then tough. No one gets to do an extra quiz or assignment because another teacher doesn’t want to go through the trouble of marking it.
There is no rational purpose for this. Every other in the school has marks determined from more than ten evaluations. Why do they think it makes sense to determine the worth of a year’s work in seven tests and one exam? This might be fine at university, but I’m finding that a lot of Grade 12 teachers forget this crucial fact: this isn’t university!
I don’t care if you want to prepare us for university. That’s fine, just don’t screw around with our marks. Hudson once mentioned to us that they’d get in a lot of trouble at West Hill because of the way they mark things. I’ve been so pissed off about how Calculus is turning out that I’ve had half a mind to contact someone higher up and tip them off about this.