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Frequently I see students memorizing and cramming as much information as possible before an exam and then trying later to mechanically regurgitate the information during the exam – and very likely the machine will break down. I like to think of exams and school work as a performance, some are in front of a live audience like exams and others are recorded like take home exams and homework. Its not how much you know about a subject or how well you can recall the material, its about the final product which will be created uniquely over the span of the exam. That is why no amount of preparation can ever be enough for an exam because in the end its all down to talent.

When you enter the class room for an exam, it should be like walking onto a stage. There’s nothing you can do except to trust that you can perform what you have practiced or that if you don’t remember something that you can improvise to a degree to which no one will notice. One should also never attempt to perform without an inspiration. Imagine playing the Four Seasons by Vivaldi without anything feeling – every movement would be as dull as the previous – spring and winter would for once be the same.

An exam is a performance: don’t take it, perform it.

There are 3 types of people who I horribly dislike and annoy me to the end of the earth in my computer science class.

• The Whiny They complaint about the silliest things. You know, if you just do it right maybe you would get more points. This is a science, meaning: EXACT. No, your answer which is slight inexact does not cut it it buddy!
• The Cheater These make me furious. If you are a senior and still cheat and have no clue what is going on in the class its probably a hint that you do not deserve the diploma. I really wonder what they will do in life. They probably think computer science means automatic income. Sorry buddy, that ended in 2000.

• The Kiss Up Sorry, no one cares if you know or ask stupid questions. Who computer science was discussion oriented? Buddy, leave kissing up with your pre-school teacher.

Professors always stress that you should go see them during their office hours and for the most part I always thought of that as being silly specially if you didn’t have any questions. But now having my own office hours I see what they actually were requesting: entertainment. Office hours are about the most wasteful things in the world if no one comes to see you. You sit and wait for people. Office hours aren’t long enough for you to actually get stuff done, and yet they are long enough to waste precious time in your day.

Every time I have office hours I crave for someone to show up. I don’t care for what reason, anything will be more entertaining than me sitting and staring at the wall. There is also something amazing if you do decide to show up to one’s office hours. They will remember that you came. And who knows, they might even be nice to you when they have to grade something. Let’s be honest, the grading of most things is the most random task one can do. It’s all about the mood and bias the grader has. And that is why everyone should go to everyone else’s office hours. Make people with office hours happy. Please.

This is probably one of those border line entries where I feel like I might say more than I should yet being a TA is such a cool experience that I can’t help but to write about it. CSI201 is the equivalent to a 101 introductory class to computer science. The class must easily have many hundred students of all ages and levels of experience and so, therefore, my lab which has 25 students is quite a handful.

May I start by saying that I never took a computer science course that had a lab and for that reason I have never seen what a lab should be like. I also never used the computers that are in the lab and that is also quite a ride. I took a lot of time, much more than I should, preparing for my first lab just so I knew what to expect. By the end of my preparation I felt fairly sure what was going to happen and how I would get things done in the time span of an hour.

Some people weren’t sure that I was the TA and hesitated entering the room but soon enough 25 eager to learn students walked into the lab. It feels so good to be a TA and yet be only a sophomore, it’s the prize for my academic success in many ways. Once everyone was there I introduced myself (not exactly in the best of fashions) and proceeded with my little lecture which quickly became chaos. It’s hard to give instructions to people who have such a diverse range of knowledge. Some know a lot and some don’t even know how to type which meant that for most of the 60 minutes I was flying all over the place helping people with simple mistakes.

I had no idea of what to expect, and it was all a surprise to me. I managed to cover a good 80% of what I had planned to cover and hopefully next week it will be more orderly. Next week I also have to grade their first homework assignment. That should be fun because I don’t know how mean or nice I should be in the grading. The grades will speak for themselves and hopefully I will be a fair TA.

Some talk too much because they have so little to say. I think too much because I have little to think about. Along side millions of thoughts that are going through my head the only one I seem to have some control over is my GPA. Up until now I have always been afraid of really calculating my GPA and the real chances of me being able to do the BS/MS Computer Science program. After 1 hour of math and possible combinations of grades I have discovered that it’s not so impossible for my GPA to go up enough for me to be illegible. All I need is the following.

• No grade can be below B+
• I require either
  • 3 A’s and 2 B+‘s (all 3 credit courses)

• 1 A (4 credit), 2 A’s and a B+

I have never had these many good grades in my life, but it’s the only way that I can even consider doing my masters. All I need at the moment are 5 good grades to cancel all the bad ones I have had in the past and from there on I only have to be careful and continue with a B+ average. All of this would be ground breaking for I have never done this well academically. On the bright side though, this is a lot easier to do than to try to find my college experience which at the moment does not exist and has no sign of existing. Sigh

Today I can proudly say that I wrote my name at least 40 times (plus addresses and what not). I actually have a bubble on one of my fingers.

So I went down to my advisor’s hobbit hole, since not only is it underground without any windows and full of trash (I mean valuable outdated things from computer science), but he looks like one, yes a real living hobbit. All he really needs is a pipe. So after an hour of conversing (at a rate of at most 10 words an hour, that’s with every other word being repeated at least twice) we got to the nasty subject that he, yes my advisor, has to fill out transfer forms. I can’t believe I am the first to ask, but he sure seemed lost. He took things way to literally, like thinking that because it said ‘Dean’ or ‘Counselor’ it didn’t mean him. He managed to divert almost all of the forms because ‘they weren’t meant to be filled out by him’. So… I called every school and asked about it, and they told me he was the man to do it. I don’t think he thought I would conclude that in under 10 minutes. Maybe I should bake him cookies to show my appreciation, because I would hate to have that job just as much as he is probably hating it.
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Maybe God does exist after all for I have been permitted to declare my Major despite having a fraction of the credits that I should have in order to do so. So what does this mean? Well, first of all, I get an actual advisor from the Computer Science department and one from the Philosophy department (since I’m double majoring one being a combined BS/MA degree) to guide me through the selection of courses. Another extra gift is that I will actually have two extra professors to give me letters of recommendation this spring when I will make my first attempt to transfer to a better school. Usually, at SUNY A., you have to be at least a Junior to declare a major, I’m a Freshmen.

All of this does make me think if it would be wise to transfer after all. In 4 years I could graduate with one major and a masters at the ripe age of 22. No other school, I think, could offer such an opportunity. And despite this school being at the lowest ranking in US schools, I will still have a damn good transcript at the end. So, who knows, maybe staying would be the wiser decision after all.