Done exams

I thought my Real Analysis exam was going to be the hardest one, but it turned out to be probably the easiest exam I have ever written in my entire undergrad. Several questions just asked for definitions or statements of theorems. One question was true/false, with no proof required. Two questions were nontrivial, but actually quite trivial because they appeared on the 2012 exam so I already knew how to solve them. Also, the exam has 39 marks total, but you only need 30 marks to get 100%.

Looking over past exams, I would say that there has been a marked decrease in difficulty over time. Not just for this course, mind you—this has been the case for most other courses I’ve looked at too. For example, this was certainly the case for CHM342 and CHM440 (both organic synthesis). PHY489 (high energy physics) didn’t seem to show any variation in difficulty. I’ve never seen a course for which the exams became harder over time. It’s funny how people complain all the time about how hard U. of T. is. Would they have even passed in previous years?? (The counterargument here, perhaps, is that the high school curriculum has also become more and more watered-down over time, so perhaps students in the past were more competent in college and could handle the harder exams. I’m not sure whether this is true.)

Anyway; wow. School is finally over for me… at least until grad school. Not to say that studying wasn’t satisfying… but maybe it will be even more so now that I have the freedom to set my own curriculum.

The next order of business is the ACM-ICPC World Finals, which are going to be held in Russia from June 22 to June 26. This gives me about two months to practice. But sadly, I’m unlikely to make good use of it. I know people can improve a lot in a few months; Tyson (my teammate in first year) is a great example as he got really good really quickly over the summer after high school. Unfortunately, I get distracted by Reddit on a regular basis. Coding algorithm problems just hasn’t been fun for a long time now; I love solving them, but coding is a pain. Also, reading ACM problem statements is a pain. I’m adequately motivated during an actual contest, but when I’m practicing by myself that’s a different matter… sigh. It’s too bad Richard Peng isn’t here to remind me to do problems :P

Advertisement