First-Class Ass

Got the first of the results in today, Objects & Algorithms (C++) coursework: 86%

Quite happy with that, puts me in the “1st Class” bracket, not that it counts this year towards any grade (that starts next year). Pleased not least because C programming (in pure, ++, or # variants) will be the course of most potential employment/earning benefit. Other scores I know who did all parts of the coursework, whose code worked, etc., are 60% and 63%.

That’s just the coursework (which will be 70% of overall mark). I checked my answers for the O&A exam, I utterly knobbed-up one of the four questions. Was a “trace the code” question, I went lunatic in an early step, which fed through much of the rest of the answer. Bah! It’ll cost me a good few percent. Nothing to REALLY worry about (wasn’t a conceptual failure, should still get a good grade), but I’m annoyed because I was debating answering a different question instead of that one & should’ve got near-enough full marks for it. Something to bear in mind.

Am in the process of moving. Packing boxes for storage (handily enough there’s a new facility next-door to the University) and moving to Edinburgh for the summer. Have been (very, very kindly) offered rent-free accommodation. It’ll provide a mechanism to get out of my (modest) overdrafts and hoard-in some cash for next term. That’s if I don’t drink, smoke, pop, snort & blow it first.

How to celebrate, though? Mmm. I know. Let’s have some unrelated Sexy Star Wars!!

One of the ladies. And the Spartans.

Two Down: Thrice

First Pair Down: Had the second of the pre-exam maths exams; algebra, six multiple-choice questions with no penalty for a wrong answer. There is plenty in algebra I don’t get, but I am starting to get somewhere in it. Nibbling at the edges, as it were. We’ve moved on now to partial differentiation, aka the exploration of multidimensional curves.

Second Pair Down: For the first time I’ve managed back-to-back exercise classes. These are hour-long classes designed to challenge 20-year-old sportsmen (and women). Wednesday and Friday have two classes I like, one starting immediately after the other. I was the only one to do so. Had enough time between them setting the room up to change kit (new, clean, dry stuff helped with a second wind) then headed back in. In Holland I trained in three, two-hour blocks. Here I’m training in five, one-hour blocks. The training itself is brutal; the “sports-inspired” Body Attack©®™ is particularly harsh..

Third Pair Down: Look like we lost two guys from Stow College. Maths fright. It’s a shame, one spent two years getting to this stage. Neither of them put the hours in here. They’d convinced themselves the maths was too difficult (it’s not easy, but it is certainly within their capacity) and had stopped attending lectures and tutorials.