Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Midterm Grade Report

"It appears from your grades that you are experiencing difficulties which, if continued, could compromise your academic standing. Let me encourage you, therefore, to make every effort to find ways of improving your academic work. Your advisor, this office, and the university counselling personnel are available to help if you wish. Please do not hesitate to seek such assistance".

Margaret E. Kastner, Ph.D.
Assistant Dean, College of Arts and Sciences

My closest thing to a D in college, ladies and gentlemen. What happened to the freaking genius who always aced math classes? Spare me the sarcasm. I got a D in my statistical modelling exam. As much as I can blame the teacher, it is as little as it is my fault that I got a D in the exam. It wasn't that the exam was extremely difficult. It was just the way the the marks were allocated. Some 2 line answers were worth 10 marks, while some 7 line answers were worth only 15 marks. It didn't make sense to me. But most of all, the material in the course is seriously taught poorly. I was told by the professor that the class average was lower than my grade. What the hell does that mean? The average is a fail? I am not even angry or frustrated. I feel ridiculed. Alright, I did get a B- in Real Analysis, but Jesus Christ! It's Real Analysis. How does that compare to stats modelling? I don't know. I need someone to freaking convince me not to drop this course. I don't even need this course at all. But I am not one who gives up... and it's not that I don't work hard enough. I've never worked so hard since JC days. Man....

Saturday, October 7, 2006

You Know You're a Mathematician When...

Disclaimer: This is not a joke about mathematicians

Just last week, my Cultural Anthropology professor gave us a list of about 50 words to study for the exam. We were required to pick 5 words out of the 14 that he will choose from that initial 50 and define them. You know you're a mathematician when you spend your study time calculating the minimum number of words you need to study to be 90% confident so that know at least 5 words. It is obvious that to be 100% confident you know at least 5 words, you just have to study 41 words. What? It's not obvious? OK, for those of you who are slower, studying 41 words meant that you miss out 9 words. Assuming that ALL 9 words you did not study were in the professor's list, the 5 remaining words in his list would definitely coincide with yours. Of course being 100% confident is not the most efficient and practical thing to do from a statistical viewpoint. So 90% is good enough. For those of you lazy bums who choose not to work out the answer, and are dying to to know what is the minimum number of words that need to be studied...

Well, I never calculated it. I don't know if I am a mathematician.