I Did Survive!

First I was afraid.

I was petrified.

Kept thinking I could never pass

without a miracle.

But I spent oh so many nights

studying central tendencies and Z scores,

and I learned more.

I learned how to solve chi squared!

Yep, it's true. As Robin reminded me today, I did survive HR 5023 (Research in Human Relations.) It was largely a math class which focused on statistics for evaluating behavioral research. And I'm so not mathy. I took one college math course, and that was Intermediate Algebra - nothing hard core.

However, I will say this of my undergraduate math experience. It was largely self-taught. The University of Nebraska (at the time) had the intro math course designed so that at any given class time you could choose from three different instructors depending on your own personal preference or you could choose to spend your class time in a math lab. After falling asleep consistently in the instructor-led classes often enough to do really poorly on my first test, I chose the math lab option. So three days a week, I read the chapter that the instructors were teaching from and did the assignments myself. There was always a facilitator available for assistance if I got totally lost. But for the most part, I managed to teach myself algebra, which I am still quite proud of! And I must have done a halfway decent job, because I managed to recover from my abysmal first test and finish the class with a B+.

But enough nerd talk. Research in HR is one of the core classes for the program I'm doing through the University of Oklahoma's Outreach program (which caters to military members and dependents.) It is by far one of the hardest classes I've taken yet, and made even more difficult by the intense framework for the class. (The actual classroom instruction is only 6 days long. Everything else is completed before class or during our out of class time during the week of instruction.)

There were so many times I felt completely fried this week. It was total information overload, and I wasn't confident I would complete everything on time. But I managed! Not really sure how I did yet, but should now by the middle of the week.

The weird thing is, I really feel like I learned a few things, and I wasn't expecting that, too be honest. There were a few light bulb moments this week where I thought, "Ah ha! I know how to solve that!" Now if you asked me the same question a week from now, I don't know that I could do it, but for this week, I am pretty sure I could solve a confidence interval if given the appropriate data! And I could probably find a critical value for you, if absolutely necessary.

Take that and rewind it back!

Anyway, the important thing is it's over. I'm done. I've survived. I'm confident I've at least passed, although I may not have the A I wanted. At this point: meh. Three more classes to go and my comprehensive exams before I'm done. Crazy how fast it's gone. I should be done this upcoming summer!

In other news, Caleb is on his way to walking! He even occasionally walks from one point to another without any encouragement at all! How about that?!

And, just for fun, here's a picture of Tommy and I at his squadron Christmas party. I couldn't attend most of the party because I was in class till 9:30, but I enjoyed the hour and a half I did attend! If there's a dance floor and some music, I'm generally a happy girl. (As long as it's not country music! I just can't dance to that! How does one shake one's tail feathers to country?!)

And with that, I bid you good-night. I'm going to go read a book that is not required for anything except my own enjoyment!