My final is tomorrow. I was feeling a little stressed about it as I was getting the kids to bed, thinking about all the things I can't make SPSS do under time pressure and all the things I just don't know. I wondered if it was worth it to make a run to the library tonight, to work on a computer with SPSS and figure out the regression options for tomorrow. (During Thursday's lecture on regression I was hurriedly putting the finishing touches on my course project.)
As an undergrad I rarely got the grades I expected. I would pour heart and soul into a paper and find my TA was lukewarm; I would race through a final, unprepared, and do unexpectedly well. Some things don't change, I guess. I just checked the online gradebook and found that my professor posted scores for the two projects we turned in on Thursday. On the group project write-up, the one I was confident I would ace, I got the lowest score in the class. (It was a pretty narrow range, but I'm still shaking my head.) On the course project, the one I expected to be a sea of red ink after grading, I got the top score. And to my utter astonishment, he posted a note in the gradebook saying, "If your grade at this point in the semester is above x cutoff, the final exam is optional for you."
I don't have an exam tomorrow after all.
My first reaction was not to go and make a margarita (not least because we are tequila-less), but to study anyway because surely the final couldn't really be optional. At least, I thought, I should read the regression chapter because regression is important stuff. Elwood P. saw me staring off into space and said, "What are you thinking?" I told him, a little embarrassed, that I was thinking about reading my statistics book for my own personal edification.
He did not laugh at me; he nodded understandingly and said, "Regression is important."
I should change our name to the Most-Geekly family.
Now I am going to get off the computer and do something fun that does not involve reading statistics for giggles. It will involve popcorn, I think, and cozy pajamas, and if Elwood doesn't want to play a game then perhaps some fun and fluffy reading like The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Wheee!
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