# In which I pit me, and my Linguistics exam tonight **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 9, 2004, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-pit-me-and-my-linguistics-exam-tonight/278944 "2004-12-09T16:48:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-pit-me-and-my-linguistics-exam-tonight/278944/1 "2004-12-09T16:48:38Z")
Ling. exam at 7 o’clock, in the next building over. I’m sitting here in the library, hyperventilating. FUCK! What on _earth_ made me think I could do this?!? The chances of me passing this exam are worse than a wintry day in hell, on account of me being too bloody stupid to get anything through my thick skull! I’m going to go study some more and pray that does some good. Dammit, I _know_ I’m going to fail. ---
**Author:** ![dre2xl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/34f0e0/32.png) [@dre2xl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dre2xl)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-pit-me-and-my-linguistics-exam-tonight/278944/2 "2004-12-09T18:05:37Z")
Try. Study until the very last minute. Even if you fail, you’ll know that you did everything in your power to not to. ---
**Author:** ![lezlers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@lezlers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lezlers)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-pit-me-and-my-linguistics-exam-tonight/278944/3 "2004-12-09T18:09:57Z")
Yeah, I’ve got an evidence exam tonight at 6, I know how you’re feeling. We got a new professor this year who’s inability to teach the damn subject is now legendary (seriously, I’ve had both first years and third years tell me they’ve heard about him and how bad he is). We spent a good couple hours in study group last night discovering what rules he told us in our review session were _wrong_! Talk about having the cards stacked against you. All I can say is, study until you physically and mentally can’t study anymore, until it feels like your brain is about to shut down. Then you’ll know you did your best and can truly accept whatever grade you recieve. Good luck to us both!! ---
**Author:** ![AwSnappity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a3d4f5/32.png) [@AwSnappity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AwSnappity)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-pit-me-and-my-linguistics-exam-tonight/278944/4 "2004-12-09T21:04:16Z")
Linguistics is a hard subject. It’s so intangible. At least, it’s hard for me. I think the best I can do in my psycholinguistics class this semester is a C+. That’s what I get for getting a D on an exam. Awesome. I’m probably not helping, am I? Just _breathe_ and study. You can do it. And if you don’t, it’s just a grade. You’ll do better in other classes. Just don’t worry. Relax. And cram your butt off. ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-pit-me-and-my-linguistics-exam-tonight/278944/5 "2004-12-09T21:08:34Z")
Interesting. I have and Experimental Psycholinguistics take home exam that I have to hand in on Monday that’s making me want to projectile vomit. At least we’ll be embracing our crap marks together. ---
**Author:** ![The\_27th\_Evil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ebca7d/32.png) [@The\_27th\_Evil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_27th_Evil)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-pit-me-and-my-linguistics-exam-tonight/278944/6 "2004-12-09T21:20:03Z")
Study until your brain is about to ooze out. Then drink several cups of espresso, and study more. And don’t allow yourself to think about anything else until you walk out of that exam. ---
**Author:** ![Dragonblink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Dragonblink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragonblink)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-pit-me-and-my-linguistics-exam-tonight/278944/7 "2004-12-09T22:01:53Z")
What kind of Linguistics class is it? If you have any questions, you can email me. I’ll be at my desk all day, working on a Psycholinguistics paper and a Syntax exam. – Dragonblink, grad student in Linguistics ---
**Author:** ![cowgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@cowgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cowgirl)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-pit-me-and-my-linguistics-exam-tonight/278944/8 "2004-12-09T22:06:23Z")
you’re not at U of T, are you? _shudder_ that would put the fear of exams into _anyone_. Especially if it’s in Varsity Stadium. Best of luck ! (although I know you won’t need it, with all that studying you’re doing!) You’ll do fine ! ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-pit-me-and-my-linguistics-exam-tonight/278944/9 "2004-12-09T22:09:39Z")
I’ve got database management in a couple hours, then finance on Monday and Management Operations on Wednesday. It hurts so bad going in to the exam, but I kinda groove on the fatalistic relief coming out. ---
**Author:** ![Billdo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billdo/32/315_2.png) [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-pit-me-and-my-linguistics-exam-tonight/278944/10 "2004-12-09T22:17:56Z")
Good luck on the linguistics exam. Just to give you some encouragement, my college buddy Scott is the sociolinguist that is currently all over the news with the story of his [paper on the word ‘Dude’](http://www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/12/08/dude.study.ap/index.html). I’m on several of the college fraternity tapes that he has mined over the years for quite a bit of his work. In fact, a wise-ass remark of mine turned into a central point in his masters thesis. I hung out with him quite often while he was worrying over linguistics exams and papers, so I have no doubt you can make it through this exam. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-pit-me-and-my-linguistics-exam-tonight/278944/11 "2004-12-09T23:13:11Z")
You guys are all incredible. :o 🙂 😉 I have studied until my brain fell out, I have studied until I know a voiceless velar stop ([k]) from a bilabial nasal sonorant ([m]), until allomorphs and phonemes and complimentary distribution are as clear as bright and sunny day. It’s time to go to the building now. May God have mercy on my soul. 😉 _deep breath_ ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-pit-me-and-my-linguistics-exam-tonight/278944/12 "2004-12-09T23:16:45Z")
Had an AI exam yesterday (which also dealt with computational linguistics). It was the hardest exam I’ve ever taken. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-pit-me-and-my-linguistics-exam-tonight/278944/13 "2004-12-10T00:09:37Z")
Good luck Kythereia, know you are definately not the only one who feels this way about classes. You are like a person in Sub-Sahara Africa (my first time using the phrase sub-sahara on SD) saying “I hate starving”. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt, but you are surrounded by people going through the same thing who can sympathize with you, encourage you, understand you and give you direction if things turn out bad. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-pit-me-and-my-linguistics-exam-tonight/278944/14 "2004-12-10T07:14:51Z")
_many hugs to you all_ It’s over (as you may have guessed :)). Good _God_. I still remember the knot in my stomach, the sick queasy feeling as I got up. I know if I passed that, it’ll be a miracle. But you know what? I’m looking back and thinking, “You know, I’ve studied hard, worked hard, I’ve tried my best–this is all I can do, and no more.” If you’ve got a spare few lucky wishes, chuck 'em towards a girl in Toronto? She really does need them. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-pit-me-and-my-linguistics-exam-tonight/278944/15 "2004-12-10T10:46:55Z")
> [@Wesley Clark](#): > > Good luck Kythereia, know you are definately not the only one who feels this way about classes. You are like a person in Sub-Sahara Africa (my first time using the phrase sub-sahara on SD) saying “I hate starving”. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt, but you are surrounded by people going through the same thing who can sympathize with you, encourage you, understand you and give you direction if things turn out bad. Just to dampen the good vibes in this thread, I’m not entirely sure how the possibility of one person failing a university exam compares with the daily death of many by starving, disease or violence. I’m sure it was just a poorly-chosen simile, but those Africans don’t get the chance to re-sit life if they die. ---
**Author:** ![dre2xl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/34f0e0/32.png) [@dre2xl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dre2xl)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-pit-me-and-my-linguistics-exam-tonight/278944/16 "2004-12-10T11:21:42Z")
**Kythereia** good luck. I’m glad you made the decision to study untill the very last minute. 🙂 I’m a procrastinator myself–the only time the procrastination didn’t work was, ironically enough, in my very last project for my very last class, Computer Architecture. That project was 25% of the grade and 80% is a passing grade at the graduate level… so if I didn’t turn it in, I failed. I couldn’t start as early as I wanted (I wanted to start about 2 weeks before) because of deadlines in my contract work and my job. So I finally sat down to do it on a Friday, before it was due at midnight on Sunday. The first project was a cinch, easy 100%, and I even creamed the professor in my implementation versus his (“Hey, my JMP takes only 2 CPU cycles, your takes 4!”). The 2nd project didn’t look all that different, only that it required a few more functionalities and 7 different memory addressing schemes and both 8-bit and 16-bit registers and error codes. I was like, okay, cool. But. when comparing the memory addressing schemes versus the expected output, I quickly discovered that it was quite convulted. So convulted, in fact, that I couldn’t just use the same 7-case switch statement for all the functions. I had to essentially re-write the memory addressing schemes from scratch for every functionality. :smack: In other words, the actual workload was about _seven_ times as much as my initial assestment. I kept plogging at it from Friday afternoon to until 11:45 PM Sunday, when I was only about quarter done and no sleep and tearfully called Mom to let her know that I failed my class. She was very surprised–I’d never even gotten a C in my life. :eek: She told me to ask the professor for an incomplete. I refused, saying that I had plenty of time to do this (indeed, the project was assigned a full month ago, I only “started” working on it 2 weeks before, and the deadlines cropped up then). She told me to at least try. So, after a lot of sleep and after taking the final test (that’s right, the final test for this class was the very next day and I never even studied, thinking I’d never request an I). Even without studying, the test was relatively easy. I pulled a 70s or so on it. My mother was upset and told me to at least explain and let the professor judge for himself. So I e-mailed the professor and truthfully explained… not even requesting an “I”. He gave me an “I” and an extension. I wound up getting an 88% in that class. So miracles do happen. ---
**Author:** ![SentientMeat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@SentientMeat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SentientMeat)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-pit-me-and-my-linguistics-exam-tonight/278944/17 "2004-12-10T11:30:30Z")
May your quadruplicity drink procrastination, and your colourless green ideas sleep furiously. _ie._ drink, then sleep. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-pit-me-and-my-linguistics-exam-tonight/278944/18 "2004-12-10T19:58:15Z")
> [@The 27th Evil](#): > > Study until your brain is about to ooze out. Then drink several cups of espresso, and study more. And don’t allow yourself to think about anything else until you walk out of that exam. Snorting some snuff used to help me stay alert, too. What? ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2004, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-pit-me-and-my-linguistics-exam-tonight/278944/19 "2004-12-11T17:30:17Z")
> [@Case Sensitive](#): > > Just to dampen the good vibes in this thread, I’m not entirely sure how the possibility of one person failing a university exam compares with the daily death of many by starving, disease or violence. I’m sure it was just a poorly-chosen simile, but those Africans don’t get the chance to re-sit life if they die. I’m just implying that the suffering she is experiencing is not uncommon and not making a comparison between the levels of suffering, just the commonality of it in both situations.