CH302 Random Musings February 15, 2007—the post V-Day special 1. The exam 1 scores are back. The average was a 78% and I am really pleased with class performance as a whole. Combined with your performance on the first two quiz scores, you all are shaping up to be a stellar class of students. Listed below is the exam distribution and a ball park idea of what grade you would get in this class if you continued the performance shown on the exam. The basis for this is that people usually score higher on the quizzes than the exams which tends to bump a person’s final grade a bit, especially if I assign extra credit. One possible concern you should have is that this will certainly be the material that is conceptually the easiest and with the least significant amount of problem solving. The exams on advanced water chemistry and on kinetics and electrochemistry will likely be more challenging if history is any indication. Exam 1 grade distribution using the antiquated HW Service 70 to 80 | 333 80 to 90 | 33 90 to 100 | 3333333 100 to 110 | 333333333333 110 to 120 | 333333 120 to 130 | 333333333333333333 130 to 140 | 333333333333333333333333333333 140 to 150 | 33333333333333 150 to 160 | 3333333333333333333333333333333333 160 to 170 | 333333333333333333333333 170 to 180 | 33333333 180 to 190 | 3333 2. Even before the exam started I tossed two questions I deemed unfair—the quadratic equation problem would have favored students with programmable calculators and the equilibrium equation required that the spectator ions be removed, something I did not cover in class. None of the other e-mailed concerns about question passed muster and since all of the questions were answered by at least half the class, I am keeping the grades as they stand. 3. I have had several students e-mail to express their outrage that students continued to answer questions on the exam after they were told to stop. I also had two TAs e-mail to express their disgust that requests that students stop writing was ignored or openly debated, thereby impugning their authority in an ugly public display of anarchy in action. Before commenting further, I copy a piece of the exam procedure that I read allowed last Thursday---note the utter lack of ambiguity in what is written: Exam finish time 3:15 pm. You will be given fair warning that the exam is about to end so you can start guessing on questions you don't know. I WILL NOT TOLERATE ANYONE WRITING AFTER YOU ARE TOLD TO PUT DOWN YOUR PENCILS. Anyone who is observed to be writing on their exam after the exam ends will be assumed to be cheating and will receive a 0 for the exam and will face additional academic penalties. READ THIS AGAIN IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND. I WILL NOT TOLERATE ANYONE ANSWERING QUESTIONS AFTER THE EXAM STOPS AT 3:15 PM. I assume you get the point now that it is in red and 14 point font.5. I notice that quiz 3 is scheduled for February 27th. That should give you some breathing room to catch up in this class and others. 6. To give Neal a rest, I will be posting worksheet 5 this weekend. It is a nice collection of problems on all manner of water chemistry. 6. My office hours will be in my office until further notice (probably I’ll go back to the classrooms the week of quiz 3.) 7. Now for the obligatory pleas not to let your learning in the class slide. Continue to use the help sessions and academic communities so you can start to really learn equilibria. 8 . Getting an A in this class. Each of you is certainly smart enough to know the material and I would desperately love to see everyone in the class learn the material well enough to earn an A. I also firmly believe that the only thing standing between each of you and an A in this class is your effort and correct study habits. I can’t fix the effort, but I can offer suggestions on how to fix the study habits. If you want to talk about concerns with this class, or non-academic issues that are impacting you success in college, please come see me. Contact my assistant Judy at 471-6176 to make an appointment for us to meet, get to know each other, and discuss whatever is of interest or concern to you. 9. Public Service Announcements—one new, two old. • University of Texas Waterski Team Information meeting: UTC 1.104 FEB 20 & 21@ 8:00 pm Tryouts FEBRUARY 23-25 @ FRAMESWITCH SKI LAKE 10 am- 5 pm Come to one of the meetings for details and directions • ATTENTION ALL SWIMMERS AND WATER POLO PLAYERS: If you are a FEMALE swimmer or water polo player, come play water polo for UT! The team is encouraging anyone interested to come practice Monday through Thursday nights from 8pm to 10pm at the Texas Swim Center. Experience is not necessary. If you have any questions please contact Blair Brettman ([email protected]) or Rebecca Glaser ([email protected]). See you at the pool! • The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is hosting the 2007 Mr. Engineering Pageant as part of the annual Engineering Week (E-Week) competition. Male engineering students are encouraged to apply to be a contestant. Applications are due Friday the 9th by 3pm in the SWE office, ECJ 1.228. And while it is too late to enter the contest, the actual date of the event is February 22nd for those wishing to attend.10. Poetry. A couple of student poems about the first exam in 302 and a collection of love poetry by the greats. Your poetry will come the few Tuesdays—the loving first, the ugly afterward. A poem from last year after failing the equilibrium exam. At the start of the school year about six months ago, we were all learning chemistry extremely, very slow. But now that pace has changed, and its no longer review, for on that last equilibrium test, I scored a 122! For that one evil, satanic test, is one with which I must cope, because as far as exempting the final, I can kiss goodbye to all my hope. And then I thought, “Hey maybe, with extra credit my grade is saved,” then Laude announced to everyone, “THERE IS NO EXTRA CREDIT FOR YOUR CHEMISTRY GRADE!” As my smile turned into a frown, and my bubble began to burst, I thought to myself, “well, it can’t get any worse.” For nothing can be worse than taking the final as my only grade, and I can’t blame Dr.Laude, since this grave is one I made. The final is around the corner, and there are many things to yet be read, I won’t be able to sleep very much, I’ll just pass out near my bed. So fellow classmates,
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