I am so smart…S-M-R-T…

Another quarter done! The last day of my English/Humanities class was last Friday, and I had my Algebra final this morning. Amusingly, I’m actually feeling cautiously optimistic about the Math test — rather than being a comprehensive test, it was just over the last couple weeks of class. Those last couple weeks were covering the basics of Trigonometry and, rather surprisingly, I was actually catching on to Trig far better than I had some of the earlier stuff we’d covered.

I never could beat all the right equations for circles, ellipses, hyperbolas and the rest into my head, but for some reason, all the equations we worked with for sines, cosines, and tangents actually stuck. It helped a lot when I found a couple mnemonics for the basic trig functions — both ‘SOHCAHTOA’ (pronounced like it’s spelled, for Sin = Opp / Hyp, Cos = Adj / Hyp and Tan = Opp / Adj) and ‘Oh hell, another hour of algebra’ (since sine, cosine, and tangent are always referred to in that order, this phrase maps to [Sin] Opp / Hyp, [Cos] Adj / Hyp and [Tan] Opp / Adj) helped me keep those straight in my head. As for why or how I was able to keep the Law of Sines and Law of Cosines in my skull, I haven’t got a clue. Even the introductions to radian measure managed to avoid fading into obscurity before I needed to use them.

So, I’m hoping that once grades come out, I’ll end up with a solid A and B in Eng/Hum and Mat, respectively.

On that note, though, I did recently realize something that was a pleasant surprise, and I’ve meant to brag about mention to my parents. I double-checked my grades to date (not including this quarter), and found this…

TUE, MAR 20, 2007          NORTH SEATTLE COMM. COLL.                            
                         UNOFFICIAL STUDENT TRANSCRIPT                          
HANSCOM MICHAEL D                                                               
----- --------- --- ---                                                         
SEATTLE          WA 98---                                                       

 TERM     COURSE ID         -------- TITLE --------       GRADE      CREDITS    
 WIN06    ENG   101         COMPOSITION                    4.0          5.0     
          MAT   097         ELEMENTARY ALGEBRA              S           5.0     

 Qtrly:     Gpa Cr   5.0  Cr Earn  10.0  P/S Cr   5.0  Grpts   20.0  GPA 4.00   

 SPR06    MAT   098         INTERMEDIATE ALGEBRA           2.9          5.0     
          MUS   113         MUSIC IN THE U.S.              3.9          5.0     

 Qtrly:     Gpa Cr  10.0  Cr Earn  10.0  P/S Cr   0.0  Grpts   34.0  GPA 3.40   

 FAL06    CSC   110         INTRO TO CMPTR PROGMING        4.0          5.0     
          ENG   102         COMPOSITION                    4.0          5.0     
          HIS   101         WORLD HISTORY TO 1500          3.7          5.0     

 Qtrly:     Gpa Cr  15.0  Cr Earn  15.0  P/S Cr   0.0  Grpts   58.5  GPA 3.90   
                                      VICE PRESIDENT/DEAN'S LIST                

 Cum:       Gpa Cr  30.0  Cr Earn  35.0  P/S Cr   5.0  Grpts  112.5  GPA 3.75   
 Clvl:      Gpa Cr  25.0  Cr Earn  25.0  P/S Cr   0.0  Grpts   98.0  GPA 3.92   

See that bit, third line from the bottom? I made the Dean’s list! Okay, so for many people this wouldn’t be a big thing, but while I’ve never doubted that I’ve got a couple brain cells to rub together, good grades have never been a common occurrence in my life (something about having a disturbing tendency to ‘forget’ to do my homework during my high school years…).

I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep that up — as I said, I’m hoping for a B in my math class, so my GPA may very well drop a bit — but at least so far, I’m not doing too shabbily. Yay me!