Note to students at semester's end...

[Impetrix]

It is not my fault you waited until the night before to do your video editing project.

It is not my fault the reservations for the video editing room we do reservations for is full for the night, given that every other student with a video project is trying to turn in projects at the same time.

It is not my fault that we don't handle reservations for the video editing room in the other building, and you may have to walk over there just to find it in use.

It is not my fault that your expectation we would show you how to do your work, and better yet "kick someone else off so [we] can show [you]", is sadly mistaken.

It is not my fault that you, sir, are an asshole. You'd get more sympathy if you had a modicum of tact.

I understand pressure. Hell, I'm two pages and very little research in for a 14-page research paper due Wednesday, I've done jack (including the reading) for a 10-page analytical paper on the class reading due Thursday, and I need to think of a freakin' TOPIC for the research paper due the 11th. Yet, somehow, I can do my job without being an ass. Strange....

[Soulstealer]

Oh god welcome to my world. I've started to loathe my fellow students and I need to write at least 9 more pages for my paper.

[ArenaBoy]

It is not my fault you waited until the night before to do your video editing project.

They can't be serious. I slack off but I never slacked off on my videos when I was in high school. It takes a long time to edit a simple 5 minute video. Hell, it takes ages to edit a 30 second clip. All I can say is that if you're hoping to accomplish editing the day before you better have 6 cans of Red Bull. a pot of coffee, and some Jolt ready/

[Soulstealer]

They can't be serious. I slack off but I never slacked off on my videos when I was in high school. It takes a long time to edit a simple 5 minute video. Hell, it takes ages to edit a 30 second clip. /

While I don't know much about video editing I do know slacking. I am one but not to the extent of some of the students, believe it they are that incredibly stupid.

[Chanlin]

This is exactly why I am glad I commute to school

[Captain Kidd]

Hehehe, the students here are going to be in for a nasty, nasty surprise tomorrow. We have signs up say that tomorrow is the last day the computer lab will be open; and I fully expect that hardly anybody has read them. I love my boss, he so looks out for us. He decided that the lab's only going to be open the days that classes are in session for lectures. That way we get to study for finals too. If your professor was kind enough to allow you to turn in projects during finals, great for you, but technically classes are over.

Woe, woe will be more than one computer science student trying to finish a late project only to find a locked door. Fortunate for them, there's at least one other lab on campus that will be open. Although, I hope they remember how to remote access the CS computers as those labs don't have what they'll need.

Dang, I almost want to kick back at the door with a beer cup of coffee and watch the fun. There's a desk there so I can study between laughs. Hmm, that just pushed me into the "evil" category didn't it?

[ArenaBoy]

While I don't know much about video editing I do know slacking.

Video editing is long, repetitive, and at times boring. You have to be very meticulous in editing.

[smileyeagle1021]

Dang, and I thought I was bad... I'm just putting "beastie" off until this weekend (it's due monday)... OK, so i'm not that bad, I'm over 3/4 of the way through (beastie is 8 pages of short answer, plus a "professional memo" analyzing IBMs finacials for 2005). And I know exactly what I will be doing this weekend... saturday I am loading up my laptop and my assignment, depending on how cold it is I will either bike the mile to the nearest TRAX station or take the bus to the station, then take the train to the downtown library and work nonstop until the library closes (they provide free high speed internet and plentiful study area... I particularly like the 4th floor area looking over 4th south)... I don't really know how this ties into the OP, but eh who cares.

[technical.angel]

Hmm, that just pushed me into the "evil" category didn't it?

No, just the "tech on CS" category.

We have a similar problem with our Equestrian students. They have to put together a video of their riding skills, but the class is taught by an EQS prof, and not the prof that teaches video editing. Basically, the students aren't really sure what they're doing, the video editing prof doesn't want them using his video editing lab. *WE* don't have a lab, which most of the students refuse to believe.

[Captain Kidd]

Well, semester's end, at least lecturing. As one professor put it, the long flight is almost over, the plane's coming in for a landing. It just has to get through severe crosswinds and land safely on an icy runway.

My lab director did get one thing wrong though. One of our guys is in the hospital, so I covered his shift yesterday (the last day of the lab being open). The director wasn't too worried about it. Being the last day of lectures, he thought the lab would be empty. HAH! It was crammed the entire time I was there. And most of the students were actually doing work, not surfing the 'net like usual.

Three finals, Mon., Tues., Wed, and the GRE the following Wed. Then I'm free for a month!

And no more general lab work for me, I'm officially a GA next semester, (pending the GRE, which if I don't pass they're going to hurt me). So I'll get to look forward to teaching a lab. Whee, going from random customers to a set number for 15 weeks at a time.

[technical.angel]

I got my fingers crossed for you, Kidd!!! Break a pencil!

[Captain Kidd]

Thanks!

[Hobgoblin]

You probably already know this about the GRE, but it never hurts to toss out a bit of advice for it, as it is one of those make it or break it tests:

Take your time on the earlier questions. I know it's a timed test, but the questions at the start are worth more than the final questions due to the nature of the test. It'll give you progressively harder questions to find your knowledge "ceiling" and then it will refine the questions to find out exactly how high that ceiling is. In other words, it will give a rough estimate of the height (initially) of around 12' (~4 metres for our metric friends) and then proceed to locate the precise height of 12'5'' at the end. I don't know where the transition to precision from general occurs (it's been a while since I took my GRE) but the idea is there.

And definitely, good luck. I love that you get your scores (for everything but writing) right away if you decide to keep the test results.

[Captain Kidd]

Yeah haw, computer-adaptive testing. Although, they're thinking about doing away with it and going with a more generic format. They're slowly incorporating it starting Nov. 1 of this year. Apparently I get to be one of the first to try it out . . . wonderful; I hate being first on stuff, that's when the errors and problems are typically found. "Oops, wow the failure rate was high, guess we better fix that. SOL for all those that failed though."

The changes mostly center on "fill in the blank" type answers for both the math and vocabulary sections that require the test-taker to fill in the blank directly, without being able to choose from a multiple choice list of answers. ETS currently plans to introduce two of these new types of questions in each qualitative or vocabulary section, while the majority of questions will presented in the regular format.

My chair's already on my case somewhat because I'm late in taking the test. Not my fault whines I. I wasn't going to take it until summer '08 because I wasn't going to be able to even apply for admission into the graduate program until fall '08. Then they changed the rules and suddenly I'm the one holding the short end of the stick.

[Geek King]

Apparently I get to be one of the first to try it out . . . wonderful; I hate being first on stuff, that's when the errors and problems are typically found. "Oops, wow the failure rate was high, guess we better fix that. SOL for all those that failed though."

Way back when, I was in the class the used to first try out those required tests (in most states in the US) for high school graduation. I nailed all four sections first time through, and thought most of the questions were pretty easy as a freshman in high school. 40-50% of the test group failed. Then they told everyone the state made them even easier. There were still significant failure rates. We're talking multiple choice, "Which of these four is your state flag" type of questions. Simple algebra. Four digit multiplcation. Reading comprehension. Not exactly rocket surgery...

Probably the same people failed that I would hear talk about reading like it was the worst possible thing you could do.