Year Two: FINALS WEEK.

It is only Monday, but this week has been nothing but studying for final exams. Today I had my final exam for Work Energy & Conservation (Physics), and I think that I did well on it.

Tomorrow at 8 am I have my Calculus for Engineering final exam, and then at 3 pm I have my Perl Programming final. This means that I am going to have plenty of studying to do tonight, but then on Wednesday I don't have any exams scheduled. After Calculus and Perl Programming I don't have an exam until Thursday, and that final is for Electronics for Computer Engineers. I am thinking that I am going to do amazingly well on my Electronics final because I have had pretty good grades all semester. I think that my current grade in that class (as in, before the final) is an 84 or an 86, so this final probably won't alter my grade too much.

Out of all of my exams it is the one for Calculus that I am spending the most time studying for. I currently have a 78 in Calculus. That grade isn't too bad, but I hope to bring it up as much as I can with my final exam. I was only 7 points away from being exempt from the final in a class called Calculus for Engineering, so I am still happy with my current grade. The class is quite challenging, but I have really loved it. I love learning new things, and Calculus throws so many new things at me in each and every lecture, so I can't help but like it. My Calculus class was also taught by one of my favorite math professors here. Her name is Professor Sharpe, and she does an amazing job with teaching all the different math topics. I will eventually be taking her Applied Math course, and that happens to be the toughest math course offered at Vermont Tech. My other favorite math professor would be Professor LaCroix (pronounced la-croy). He also does a pretty damn good job of teaching math to people who are new to various concepts. :D

The photo at the top of this post was taken by our Resident Director for Old Dorm, Emma Schumann. Emma is a really cool person, and a lot of people look at her as not only being a friend, but also as being this cool mother figure to the students. She does a great job with making residents of Old Dorm feel right at home, and she was the one who organized the Old Dorm events like the barbecue and group photo that it pictured above. It is cool to have a photo of a lot of the residents of Old Dorm. There were 4 pictures taken. The one that I posted to this blog is the peaceful one because I didn't think I should post the one with people making different obscene gestures to the camera... as funny as that may be. :D

I am really looking forward to getting all of these exams out of the way so I can finally start my summer vacation. I have been trying to find a place to work for over the summer, but it looks like nobody is hiring. I have applied for Staples and Best Buy, but I plan on making a list of several other places, and then apply for those too.

Halfway Through Second Semester!

Image Taken from Vermont Technical College Facebook Fan Page

Hard to believe, but half of this semester is already completed! I am 3/4 of the way to completing my second year of college at Vermont Tech., and things have been going quite well. I know that it has been 5 weeks since I last updated my blog, but I have been super busy they past 5 weeks with studying Calculus for Engineering and Electronics for Computer Engineers.

I wouldn't say that I am kicking ass in Calculus, but I am doing well enough to where I am probably averaging somewhere around a 75. This really isn't too bad for me because math has always been something that I have had minor problems with. The big thing with me is that I seem to master concepts AFTER I have been tested on them, so my grades don't actually reflect my true knowledge of the material. I will take a test on one subject, get somewhere around a 75 or 80 on it, and then a week later it will seem like I have mastery of it! It is kind of a pain in the ass, but I don't let it bother me because the fact that I am learning the material is truly the important factor.

In Calculus we have looked at the various ways to take the derivative of functions, applications using derivatives, solving for tangents and normals, and related rates. For the majority of the class up to this point I was learning the material simply because I knew that it would come in handy for later courses, BUT I wasn't sure exactly how I could use my newly discovered mathematical abilities. Earlier in the week we started looking at "related rates" which is, as it sounds, two or more rates that increase alongside one another. An example of this would be blowing up a balloon. As the balloon inflates the volume increases, the surface area increases, and so does the radius at the center of the balloon. It is pretty cool stuff, and this topic is the first mathematical topic that I have ever been introduced to that actually gave me a sense of newly found power... I think that it is because I had countless ideas popping into my head as to what these mathematical processes could allow me to solve. I was thinking primarily along the lines of circuits because that is the subject within my major where I will be using calculus the most.

Electronics for Computer Engineers has been going amazingly well. It is easily my favorite class because it is perfectly focused on what my major is about. We have been learning how to make circuits that amplify signals, circuits that can add two values and convert to binary output, and how to make switches that toggle on and off based on the conditions we have them wired to operate with.

I have been studying some pretty cool stuff this semester, but the cooler the topics the more advanced they are. I am learning some amazing things, but at the same time my work is getting significantly more challenging. This will continue until graduation, obviously, but I am more than looking forward to it. Bring it on, college! I am ready to kick your ass! :D