I sit here waiting until approximately 0900 when the library opens and I can begin the last leg of the marathon that has been my studying for the Qualification Exam for CS 6378 (Advanced Operating Systems). I don’t really want to spend the next 9 hours in the library studying and trying to fill in the gaps in my understanding of said material. I just logged into the school’s WebCT system to find my final exam score, a paltry 56%, and then I logged in the Student Information Service to find my overall grade posted: an extremely disappointing B. At the midterm, I was the highest B in the class off of an A by only a very small measure.

So there it sat, staring me in the face like an F. As my wife put it, “at least I know what it takes, and hopefully that was one of the more difficult courses.” One damn letter off in the alphabet and the next 3 years of my grades will carry that flaw; I will be unable to graduate with a 4.0, at best a 3.91. I’ve never worked harder for a single course (I’ve even worked less for a full undergrad load and scored better) and yet I felt as if I could never surpass mediocrity.

The most frustrating thing about it is the tests were not so much about how well you knew the material, but rather if you could take that knowledge (assuming you have a mastery of said material) and apply it to some random hypothetical situation. If you were unable to deduce a clever solution to such a problem in the time allotted, it somehow meant to the instructor that you lacked the knowledge gained in the course. I believe that I knew the material fairly well and yet I was unable to demonstrate that knowledge because I am not clever? Even more frustrating is that he said his exams were more difficult than the QE. After looking at the sample QE questions, I don’t doubt that.

Speaking of the QE, there’s even material that the instructor did not cover yet is on the QE. The converse is also true. Thirty-some-odd hours later and the material is all starting to blur in my head. The QE sample questions seem to test my knowledge of the material and not some knee-jerk clever use of the material. Oh yeah, and the QE is open book for this section, which I still think will make the exam that much more difficult.

I can’t wait until this exam is over and I can play some video games and watch The Shield.