Kara's CSU Stan

Okay. This is how it goes.

One last final and you have to study. You have to study now.

You’ve studied a bit. Well, a lot really, but not enough. There is no such thing as studying enough except in classes that are so easy they don’t count as classes. They are semester fluff and even then you read over your notes a few times.

This class is not semester fluff.

You calculate exactly how what grade you need to get on this final for certain grades in the class. If you get 82% or higher, you get a B in the class. You would need 110% to get an A but regardless of what sports coaches might think that’s not really possible. Your need to study dips a notch: you haven’t gotten below 86% in any of the other exams, and it’s a cumulative final. 82% or above. You can do that.

You’re going to be fine.

But wait. No. That was a while ago. You don’t have the early material as solidly as you did when you took those tests. Quick–

No. Wait. You suggest and play a card game with your roommate instead. She has a paper due tomorrow. It has a title, so far. You lose the game.

Roommate has played DISTRACTION. You lose ONE HOUR. Your STRESS LEVEL evolves into PANIC MODE.

You skim over your notes one last time even though the professor wouldn’t let you type them and you ended up with two notebooks-full of notes you can’t read. Writing things down as she says them helps you remember, though; it wasn’t pointless. You hope.

It is getting late.

You look over the PowerPoint files you triaged into the “chaptersneedmorestudy” folder, because the whole semester’s worth of PowerPoints would take a while to even skim. And you don’t really need a review of gram positive versus gram negative at this point.

Chapter 11 was ridiculous. There will probably be a short-answer question on it. Again. You try to name a species from each group of proteobacteria. Alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon. Oh brave new world that has such proteobacteria in it! You can’t do it. Freak out a bit. Read the chapter again. Close your eyes and try again. Still can’t. Whatever. You make a list of the ones you know so you don’t have to memorize any new spellings.

Firmicutes are the gram-positive bacteria with low G+C content and Actinobacteria are the ones with high G+C content. You do not think you need to know much about the archaea–this is a bacteriology class, after all, not archaeaology.

You do not think that is a real word.

(you write a blog post)

There is no need to worry. You do anyway.

Now you will play with your rats and get some sleep. Tomorrow you will get up early and review powerpoints while breakfasting on bacon and eggs and black tea brewed strong.

You will do fine. And then it will be winter and you will take the GRE and have Christmas and New Year’s and another semester and more finals and then who knows. Hopefully somewhere it rains less.

Onward.