graduate with a 4.0

Masters classes start in just over a month. Right now I am excited, but i’m sure the nerves will set in soon. There will be a slight lifestyle change, but I can/have to do this. First thing in awhile I have been excited and motivated for…

All my grades are in now and I did indeed get all A’s this semester! I was excited to see that my cumulative GPA (including my rather checkered past at community college) is now up to 3.547. But again, my goal is just to graduate having a 4.0 record at Sac State.

I’ll keep working towards this goal by doing well in my summer class and preparing for fall (by way of my other goal—‘read books for fall semester over the summer’).

Oh—and I did get that massage from my fiancee as my reward and it was fabulous. He rocks. I hope I can be as supportive when he goes back to school!

I took my final exams for John Milton and American Women Writers on Thursday. They were one after the other, so it was nearly four straight hours of essay questions. My right hand was worked to the bone! But I felt like I did really well. I started to lose focus toward the end of the second test, when I was the last person sitting in that room (I like to use all the available time), but I had a high enough A in the class already that I didn’t need to worry about perfection on the final. And those were my last two finals, so I’m officially done with spring!

Thursday was also a happy day for me academically because I got two essays back, and it turned out both were A’s. On my Milton essay, my professor wrote that it was “so good” that I should enter it in a scholarship contest next spring. And on my essay for her class, my American Women Writers professor wrote that it was the best essay she’d read all semester. I did feel that I did a good job on both of those essays, but I wasn’t expecting a response that great. It’s just another reminder that I do have useful skills… I just need to figure out how I want to use them and then develop the motivation and self-discipline to actually do it. If I can do this well in school, surely there’s some career out there that will work for me.

Also, the morning of those last finals, I had a studying experience that really made me realize, if I didn’t already know, what’s so great about being a dedicated student. I was studying Milton’s Complete Poetry and Selected Prose, scanning over the works we’d read earlier in the semester and writing down key concepts and what Milton said about them… liberty, reason, good and evil, etc. As I was doing this, I realized that I had come to a point where I really got it! I really felt like I understood what Milton was about, like I could really see the big picture that all his ideas and writings formed.

It was a great feeling because it told me that I’d really engaged in the subject, rather than just forcing some vaguely connected facts into my brain and trying to retain them until the final exam was over. I’ve taken that approach before and gotten A’s out of it, but I’m not going to settle for that anymore. My 4.0 at Sac State is going to come not from faking it but from giving my best effort in each class—and taking from it everything it has to offer.

And it looks like I’ll get that 4.0 this semester, after all! Two of my four grades posted yesterday, and they were A’s. And that included my Shakespeare class, which is the only one I had any reason to be concerned about. I’m almost 100% positive that the other two will be A’s, but I’ll keep checking just to make sure.

Completed my British Literature II final exam this afternoon, and I feel like it went extremely well (even though I didn’t do the studying I’d intended to do). The final is worth 40% of my grade, and I’m pretty sure I already have a high A in the remaining 60%, so I feel quite confident that I can chalk this one up as another step toward my 4.0!

And after the final, the professor (Dr. Toise—one of Sac State’s great English professors, by the way) thanked me for being in the class and told me he could tell I was a serious student and he appreciated that. That made me feel quite happy!

Despite my obsessive checking, the grade for my Shakespeare class still hasn’t been posted. I guess it did only end six days ago.

If I finish this semester with a 4.0, my fiancee has offered to give me a massage. And as he is a certified massage therapist, this is definitely a desirable prize!

I just finished my last week of classes—only final exams remain. I feel very confident about all three of them, but I’m going to do some studying anyway.

So I still really want that A in my Shakespeare class, and I have now officially done everything I can possibly do to get it! I turned everything in… I did the best I could with our final group performance (group projects are absolute anathema to this particular goal, if you ask me)... and I even did extra credit. Here’s how my grade stands:

(15%) Reading quizzes: A
(15%) Scholarly article summary/presentation: A-
(20%) Midterm explication test: A
(20%) Essay #1: A-/B+
(20%) Essay #2: ?
(10%) Group dramatic performance: ?
(+extra credit)

I feel all right, though not totally satisfied, with how I did in this class. I could have revised that first essay to an A… I just didn’t find the time and energy to do it. I could also have spent more time on my second essay, though I think I did pretty well on it. And I could have taken more control in my group and convinced them to meet and rehearse our performance… I think I could’ve made it go better than it did. Basically, I finally realized that if you’re a dedicated student and you have to work in a group, the best thing you can do is just take the lead right away, tell everyone what to do, and make sure they’re actually doing it (and fix it if necessary). Much as I don’t want to be that bossy person making all the decisions… I think that’s what I need to do. It’s basically the “if you want the job done right, do it yourself” rule. It’s either that or somehow get in a group with a bunch of other (capable) perfectionists.

I also learned a lot about Shakespeare and read six plays, and I’m glad I did. Ultimately, that experience is more important to me than grades… although that doesn’t stop me from wanting that perfect 4.0. I feel like it’s something I just need to finally do… to show myself I can.

I am officially valedictorian for my 4.0 GPA. :-) Even though they already chose valedictorians, school isn’t out yet. 10 days left to keep it!

I’ve always known I could be an A student. Unfortunately, I slacked off in middle and high school, and even when I got to community college it took me quite a while to get motivated and form better habits. I finally graduated last fall with an overall GPA of 3.487 (even though my last five semesters were nearly perfect).

Now I’ve transferred to California State University of Sacramento as a junior. I’m really motivated now, and I’ve got two years left to prove to myself that I can be a 4.0 student. It’ll be more difficult here because the “A-” grade is a possibility (at community college, anything above 90% was an A). But my goal is to get all A’s at Sac State. The only thing holding me back is and has always been procrastination, and I’m slowly but surely overcoming that.

As far as this semester, I think I’m going to make it! Only two weeks remain (plus finals), and I’m pretty much certain I’ll get A’s in at least three of my four classes. The only one I’m a little concerned about is my Shakespeare class. The professor is a bit of a tough grader. I’m trying to convince myself not to be too disappointed if she gives me an A-, but I think if I ace the two remaining assignments, it’ll be an A.

...to keep my gpa up! I’ve gotten a 4.0 so far… and I’m done with classes! Yay! All I have left now is finals :P. I’ve had super bad senioritis for the past year (perhaps longer…I tend to start early on these kinds of things :)) but somehow managed to make it through a ditzy teacher, a lecturer that sounds like the “Beuler? Beuler?” guy, and a tall guy sitting right in front of me in EALC342. I’m so happy that I got lucky and had friends from the past in each of my classes :). That really helped. And who could forget an awesome fiance (who also graduated with a 4.0…). Anyways, just need to stay focused for these last few tests, then so long USC!!!

6 weeks left. Senioritis has hit. I want to pull this off, but when it comes to doing work, I am just another apathetic senior.