Finals Stories
Did you completely bomb a final? Miss a final? Do you think you destroyed the curve and want everyone to know it? What has been your most triumphant and biggest fail of finals?
Posted Jun 9, 2015, 11:14 PM UTC
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I'll start: The best "final" I had at UCI earned me an A- for the course. I've had solid A's for courses, but this one tasted better. It was for Judge Schumann's Constitutional Law class. I don't think the Judge is teaching Con Law @ UCI anymore, so here's the lowdown. The course was 100% case law out of this book this book. Students were expected to read 80-120 pages of case law per week and come to the first class of the week (Wed/Fri 7:30am) fully prepared to answer questions because the judge would drill the class using the Socratic method.
At 7:31am on Wednesday morning, it would be
*Judge*: Mr. uci-help...
*uci-help*: Good morning, Judge Schumann.
*Judge*: In Silverthorne Lumber Co. v. United States, a strong precedence was described regarding the admissibility of evidence. What was the standard and what did it describe?
*uci-help*: I'm sorry, Judge. I didn't get to that case.
*Judge*: Was the case part of the reading assignment?
*uci-help*: Yes, Judge.
*Judge*: <long pause> You will have the reading done by Friday because you will get the first 3 questions.
*uci-help*: I will.
So that happened for 7 weeks and then there was the "mid-term" (which the Judge advised you take as seriously as a final) which required each student to respond to a hypothetical case, find in favor of one way or the other, and cite every possible Supreme Court case to support both sides of the argument. I think there were 4-6 of the cases.
After that "mid-term", students were given a case to argue at the County courts with Judge Schumann on the bench. People either threw up, cried, or fainted after leave the court room. For a woman of such short stature, she can make you feel completely incompetent with just a stare from the bench.
After that, you can take your combined "mid-term" score and "bench" score to get your final grade or, against the Judge's advisement, you could take the final exam in an attempt to raise your overall average score. According to her, no one had successfully done so. I elected not to and ended the class with an A-. I think there were 2 or 3 other A/A- that quarter. I had never read so much for a class, studied so hard for a class, or felt so intimidated by anyone ever. But I left with a love of case law.
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[deleted]
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if prelaw that's amazing, the socratic method and case briefing was so useless after the first semester of property/contracts
It was for Constitutional Law in the undergraduate major in Criminology, Law & Society. It was C122, I think.
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Fuck ICS46
6
Felt like the midterm was harder
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It definitely was.
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Oh yeah I hated it so much. I hope the curve will be generous.
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I had to miss an important final today to go to the emergency room. So that was fun.
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I've never had to miss a final due to an emergency. I did fall asleep in the park after a double all-nighter. I asked my roomie to wake me up in an hour so I can go to my final in an hour-and-a-half. I woke up on my own 3 hours later. =\
My story aside, I hope everything is OK (now). Did you go to the ER for you or for another person?
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I had to go for me. I'm 9 months pregnant and have been in so much pain I haven't been able to walk the last 5 days. Today I need to contact disability services and see what I can do about taking the finals at home. I've gotten straight As this quarter. It'd suck to see it go to waste.
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9 months and taking finals? Dayam! You work it, girl! You get that shit done!
And Disability Services will take care of you. They're good people. They may not be able to help you take your final at home, but they'll help sort something out.
And hey, if you haven't decided on a name, consider "uci-help". It's fly!
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Lol! His name will be Julian, and he's due very soon. :)
The campus social worker is asking my teachers for an INC grade with the option to do my finals and final papers after delivery. It would save my ass! Fingers crossed. They must agree to it, but I hope they do!! Disability already knows I can't move, and my Dr ordered me on bed rest.
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My fiance unknowingly missed his art final. It was a GE in freshman year so he didn't feel the need to go. He was acing the class anyway. When the week before finals came around I had the stomach flu and he skipped the last day of class to take care of me. He shows up to the final on the scheduled day and time and no one is there. He waited around and nothing. He goes to the professor's office and the professor tells him the final was on the last day of class. The professor let him retake it in his office like it was no big deal.
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First year, first quarter: I'm taking a class where you have to read 3 books and end the year with a comparative paper. Super easy. It was one day a week. I show up for the first 3 classes and the 10th week class to learn about the paper we have to write. I show up for the 10th week class and everyone has their papers in hand to turn in. I walk out, shocked.
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ICS 6b with Prof. Hayes. Anyone else?
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Yeah it was brutal.
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it was definitely tough... I left like a good 30 points worth of questions blank. Seeing all dissatisfied students on piazza is kinda funny though.
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Dude, those posts trying to defend the class/the professor just crack me up.
He wasn't horrible, just not good.
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I was in there. I just need a 47% on the final to pass. Seems kinda odd that I took a bunch of shitty finals like ICS46, ICS 6B, and Math 3A
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Had ICS 132, 33 and, 51 today.
51 was such a joke. I love Harris.
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3 Finals in one day? Damn. What's your recovery plan?
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I actually love midterms and especially finals.
Passes the time easily since youre focused, and youre DONE afterwards. Lectures are boring, take forever to go through an hour and afterwards you have to worry about actually learning the material.
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Was 51 a joke as in it was easy, or was it a joke as in it was outrageous.
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The whole class was really easy with Harris.
80% of the grade was 4 group projects which didnt even take long. 10% midterm and 10% final.
Gave alist of things/problems to know. The tests were that verbatim.
5 of the problems on the final (9 total) were literally the example and hw problems in the book, wher eah of the answers was essentially writing down one letter or one line.
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Bio M122 was cake!!
If only the midterm were that easy
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I think I pretty much bombed my ICS 46 final. But then again I think a lot of people did. Brutal final and hellish midterm. Thornton tried his best but the subject is just terrible to teach for. I can suspect there's gonig to be like a 25% curve with a C being like 55% overall or something.
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What made it so bad? I'm taking it in the fall, and after everyone posted how diffiicult it was here I'm dreading it.
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A multitude of factors, which include the following:
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Low time for every project so people often went on overtime.
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Very difficult concepts and even harder exams (the average was about a 54% for the midterm).
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The professor often got swamped with people with office hours since pretty much the entire class sought his help. He wasn't able to fully help people due to the amount of people requesting help.
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I was on the shuttle to take a final. During finals, it's not uncommon to see people in less-than-hygienic states. There was a girl in a dress talking to her friend, and she said, "I have a final today, thought I might as well look good for it." I wonder if she did well.
I took a final next to some guy who smelled like he took a shit in his pants and then didn't shower for a week. He would also furiously scratch his head causing dandruff to shower whatever page of the test I was on. There were literally flies buzzing around him. I was one of the first ones to turn in my test and got a so-so grade.
I showed up to one final in a full suit. My roomies and I had been discussing the benefits of confidence and how one looks relates to confidence. I got a B- in that class, so I don't know how much sweating my ass off for 3 hours in June in a packed classroom helped.
Dress well, test well!