Image courtesy of duchesssa

So late last week, I logged into WebCT to do my semi-weekly check to see if my qualification exam grade had been posted. It had been 6 weeks at this point, and I was starting to get tired of checking so often. I had basically spent the first month of the semester working overtime, then gradually picked up my studying time until I was basically putting in several hours a night. I sacrificed time with family and loved ones. I skipped running to stay in and study (or found I was too tired from working 10 hours, then going to class for 2 hours, and finally studying for 2 more hours). I neglected everything. I had one goal in mind, and that was to put every ounce of effort I could into getting an A in the class and passing the qualification exam. If I was going to continue flirting with the idea of pursuing a PhD, then I had to do this.

The end result was a Pass!

That’s right. Four months later, countless sleepless nights, and I finally had aquired myself 1/3rd of the requirement to advance candidacy. It may not sound like much to many of the graduate students out there, but let me explain. I am notoriously bad at taking exams; I get nervous, make silly mistakes, rush myself, spend too long on too few points, and ultimately panic when time starts running out. I am much better at putting forth the effort it takes to go from being an ABD than it I am at passing a few tests.

After being disappointed by landing 2 marginals and then being utterly crushed when the department changed policies and forced me to start all over, this was a godsend. In fact, Sunshine and I went out for a celebration and I felt no remorse eating a burger and beer at BJ’s Restuarant.

So this begs the question: what’s next? This summer, I was forced to take off due to a less than convenient schedule. I have only 1 more required course left, Analysis of Algorithms. I covered this material before as an undergraduate, but not as fast or with as high of expectations (>40 on the final probably will not qualify as an A). I’m looking at taking some electives while they are offered since they tend to be very sporadically scheduled. I’m looking at taking this course:

CS 6365 - 501 DATA/TEXT MINING COMPUT BIOLOGY
Hatzivassiloglo
Call Number: 13095

TR 7:00 p.m. - 8:15 p.m., ECSS2.412

CS 6365 Data and Text Mining for Computational Biology (3 semester hours) The course introduces data and text mining as practiced currently in the bioinformatics field. Major topics include: sequence alignment for determining similarity between proteins and genes; properties of similarities and distances; genomic, proteomic, and text databases in the real world; finding patterns (motifs) in genes and proteins; differentiating between valid patterns and noise; classification; clustering and its application to phylogenetic trees; and selected topics from text mining. Prerequisite: CS 6325. (3-0)

I lack the prereq, but that hasn’t stopped me before. I’m also looking at finding a thesis advisor, so I may start that up in the fall as well. As for the QE that I intend to take next, I think I will try the Artificial Intelligence course again in the Spring (2009), depending on what they will change with the program by that time (I’ve heard some rumors of more changes).

The main thing to remember, this test is good for 4 semesters for me, since I am a part-time Masters student (the clock stops when I’m not taking an exam). I will contact the department head soon and start planning my next step. Until then, I can rest easy knowing that a PhD at UT Dallas is still a possibility.

I had originally planned a much more tasteless title for this post, but in light of recent events, I had to change it.

So I spent the last few weeks feverishing working on my Database Systems work. I had a project due, an overly lengthy assignment due the following day, and the final exam the following week. As if that weren’t enough, I had decided this was going to be the exam I was going to give one more shot at, so I signed up for the qualifier. That was yesterday.

Let’s see, after I received an A in the Databases class, I took 7 days off total to study for the qualifier. I spent an average of 8 hours a day studying. I rewrote all of my lecture notes into a huge pile of flash cards, about 200 of them. Then I reread the book (2 and a half times total). Then I worked through all of the problems that had solutions available. Then I worked though other university exams. I found this treasure trove of tests for similar qualifiers over at Stanford. University of California at Berekely had a nice stash of exams as well (few mistakes though). I practiced working under time constraints. I polished my SQL skills though there are MANY ways to answer problems usually.

In the end, the exam was over before I knew it. 90 minutes was barely enough time to come up with answers, not to mention check my work for mistakes, which were bound to be made. Plenty of people were still there with about a minute left. I’m really hoping that other people had a hard time finishing, even though there were only 4 problems. I also found out there were several people (of the large 18 person group taking it) who had not just taken the course. They all had studied material from the reading list the professor said would not be on the exam (decided to exclude it and I asked him about it). I wasn’t too surprised about the questions, but I’m hoping the other students were.

The reason why I had to change the title of this post was because I originally was going to name it “Another One Bites The Dust.” Last week, I finalized my plans to make a surprise visit to see my grandmother, aunts, and mother in Kansas for their Mother’s day get-together. However, in the last few days, my grandmother’s health has taken a serious turn for the worse. She’s dying of many complications, but she is unable to fight off pneumonia right now. My aunts all decided to remove the oxygen supply and let her pass away. They took her off today and she is likely to pass within the next few days. Her birthday is on the 18th.

I might have to fly out a little early tomorrow, depending on my grandmother’s health. Meanwhile, Sunshine has traveled to the last of rising stars (LA) to be with her friend for graduation. I have the house all to myself and all I want to do is watch Detroit crush Dallas, again.