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Among my other end of semester statistical analysis, I decided to repeat my calculations relating time spent studying to prelim grades. The results from the first round of prelims (Spring 2014) led me to the conclusion that studying leads to worse grades.

Round 1

The second round of prelims not only followed the same general trend, but was even more mathematically convincing.

Round 2; note the R² value

I also took estimates of how I spent my time duing fall and spring semester of my sophomore year and made some more pie charts. If I chose my representative week correctly, in the fall Physical Chemistry I and Mass and Energy Balances were my most time consuming classes, followed by History of Science in Europe I, then Linear Algebra. That sounds about right, since History of Science had a lot of reading while Linear Algebra only had weekly problem sets that weren’t too horrible. Mass and Energy Balances didn’t feel like it took up a lot of time, but I guess it did between lecture, recitation, problem sets, and the occasional project. P-chem I had less class time, but more “why isn't Mathematica working?” time.

In the spring, Fluid Mechanics won the “which class is eating my life?” award, though Biomolecular Engineering and Physical Chemistry II were close contenders. Physical Chemistry Lab, a two credit class, still took almost twice as much time as Introductory Macroeconomics, a three credit class.

A more general analysis led to the calculation that there was a 22% increase in the amount of time I spent in course-related activities (lecture, problem sets, etc.) from 32.25 hours in the fall to 39.58 hours in the spring. I also managed to get about 2.75 hours more sleep during spring semester, but lost 9.6 hours of other activities. Which would explain why I sadly missed most of the pep band events in the last couple months of classes.

We’ll see what fall brings.

Study Less, Get Better Grades

First off, the answers to my St. Patrick’s Day math problems. 1) The probability that the leprechaun has drunk a gallon of beer is 1. The numbers on opposite sides of a normal six-sided die always sum to seven. 2) No leprechauns go home sober. The probability of flipping an infinite number of heads with a fair coin is zero. (1/2)^infinity = 0. 3) The game theoretically never ends because with a coefficient of restitution of zero, the ball doesn’t bounce. In actuality, the game ends when the leprechauns pass out, so the answer to the last question is “very drunk.”

Next up, my latest very scientific analysis definitively proving that studying makes your grades worse. I meant to put this up after my first round of prelims, but I was busy with f*****. [Note for anyone who clicked the link and was expecting something very different: 1) Count the number of asterisks again. 2) Get your mind out of the gutter.]

My first round of prelims was scheduled such that I had three prelims in seven days. I still can’t decide whether I prefer having that happen or having one prelim every week for the majority of the semester, which I did last semester. Anyway, the fluid mechanics (fluids) prelim was a Thursday, so I spent the weekend before the prelim getting ahead on homework for other classes (I admit I also worked a shift for Cornell Productions on Friday night and went to pep band for all of Saturday afternoon/night). I started studying for fluids on Monday. In between going to class, doing other homework, and other mostly necessary things like eating and sleeping, I got in almost five hours of studying for fluids.

After the two and a half hour fluids prelim, I had to go and finish my physical chemistry homework. I just had a few things to wrap up, so it only took two hours. I took Friday off, did other homework on Saturday morning, went to pep band on Saturday afternoon/night, and studied for p-chem mostly on Sunday and Monday. I ended up getting in about four hours of studying for p-chem.

The p-chem and macroeconomics prelims were scheduled for the same time, so I took the makeup exam for macroecon on Wednesday. That meant that after the p-chem prelim I went back to my room and studied for econ. By which I mean I reviewed a previous prelim for 40 minutes. Then on Wednesday I went to my six hours of class, followed by dinner, followed by the prelim. Notice I did not have time to study for econ on Wednesday. Notice that the only time I mention studying for econ is for 40 minutes on Tuesday night.

This is what happened when I got my grades back.

Note the trend of grades decreasing as more time is spent studying. Ignore that there are only three points on the graph. Also ignore the fact that each prelim was taken for a different class. Further ignore the fact that a lot of the macroeconomics material was a review of microeconomics, which I took last year. In addition, ignore the fact that each class has a different curve. The takeaway lesson is that studying obviously makes grades worse. According to the best fit line, I should study about -1 hour to get a hundred on my next prelim. It’s too late for fluids, but I still have p-chem and macroecon coming up after the break (in the same week . . . again).

Trick or Treat?

Halloween celebrations on the chemical engineering front included, but were by no means limited to a two hour mass and energy balances prelim and the hardest physical chemistry problem set of the semester. I also had an essay to write and there was another problem set due for people taking Networks. All things considered, it was a fun night for the chemical engineers. Except not.

I had actually not procrastinated horribly since I knew that I’d have the prelim and then have to finish two assignments afterwards. I was almost done with the p-chem problem set and I’d started the essay earlier in the day. Yes, I wrote the entire essay the day before it was due . . . don’t tell my TA. As I mentioned recently, however, nothing gets done quickly in Mathematica.

So after a day of classes, giant tree broccoli (I had steamed broccoli at two different dining halls that day and both times the broccoli was the size of my palm.), intermittent essay writing, eigenfunctions, and last minute studying, I arrived at the mass and energy balances prelim with my pencil, calculator, note sheet, colored pens, colored pencils, and ruler. Besides the multiple choice questions, I didn't think it was horrible (I may change my mind when I get the graded prelim back). I spent way too much time arguing with myself about the multiple choice questions, then went to check the rest of the test with about half an hour remaining.

I was going through the third question when for some reason I thought I should check the chemical formula for butane, just to confirm I had it right. I turn to one of the data tables we’d been given and look up butane. C_{­­­­­4­}H­_10­­. I look at my prelim. C­_3­H_­8­. Wait, what? My first thought: unprintable. My second thought: also unprintable. With twenty minutes to go, I had to rebalance my combustion reaction, then change pretty much every single number in the problem.

The icing on the cake is that I finished with a few minutes to spare, checked problem four, and I realized that all my units were wrong. Fortunately, I was working with ratios so the numbers didn't change, but there’s kind of a big different between 10 grams of a drug and 10 kilograms of a drug.

After all that, I got to go back to my dorm and finish my essay and wrangle some operators into commuting*. We were supposed to prove that the commutator between the x and y components (L_x and L_y) of the angular momentum operator was nonzero and equaled -ihL_z. After expanding L­_x and L_­y­, the book, and most internet sources would say something like “and after simplifying, this obviously equals -ihL_z."  Somehow, I don’t think that’s what my professor was going for. I finally found the technique I needed to fully expand the commutator into sixteen separate terms, fourteen of which I promptly crossed out because they equaled zero.

*Operators are rules that act on functions, like take the derivative of a function or multiply a function by three. If you have two operators named  and Ĉ acting on a function f(x), the commutator is the difference between doing Â, then Ĉ on f(x) and doing Ĉ, then  on f(x).

My Thursday night continued well into Friday morning. I think I got to sleep before my brother, but Chicago’s an hour behind Ithaca. Minor detail.

Overall, no treats on Halloween, but I insist that the first question on the mass and energy balances prelim was a trick. I didn't dress up for Halloween, but there was a discussion earlier in the week about me being an operator, because I wear a hat, just like operators. . . . Why yes, I do spend a lot of time with other ChemEs. Other costume ideas included being an equation sheet (for the mass and energy prelim) or a process unit. Hey, if we got the whole class to participate, we could reenact chemical processes. Who wants to be the condenser?