>I only took one 8 AM course during my last (and
>successful - I haz degree!) university experience.

Heh, mine was Statics (the branch of classical mechanics dealing with forces applied to structures that aren't moving), a couple of springs ago. I did very well! But I'm not entirely sure how, since I don't really remember taking it.

The best part of Statics was that, since there are no classes before 8 AM at the University of Maine, the room was open beforehand. Before the first exam, Prof. Dvorak casually mentioned, "Optionally, I'll be here at seven if anybody wants to get an early start on the exam."

I thought, Optionally, fuck that, showed up at 8, and had the test about half-finished when the class period ended at 8:50. Lesson learned! Optional doesn't mean optional to Prof. Dvorak.

(Somehow I got an A in that class anyway, despite barely passing the first exam on account of I hadn't done 60% of it. Like I say, I'm not sure how now.)

I'm scheduled for the sequel to that class, Dynamics (you can guess what that's about), this fall; same professor, but it's in the afternoon, so I'm going to guess he's not going to be able to pull that same trick with the exams... but one never knows. Maybe his exams just take someone with my plodding math brain two hours to complete, which would mean I'm basically fucked. :)

(As an aside, I like Prof. Dvorak, despite the nasty trick with the Statics exams. He was very good to me at a number of points when things got... complicated... during the year. That was the spring when I got the diagnosis that would ultimately lead me to spend most of the summer preparing for, having, and recovering from cancer surgery.)

>Could you possibly audit it, or take it
>pass/fail, in order to reduce potential risk?

Auditing wouldn't help, since audited classes don't count for purposes of computing part-/full-time status at UMaine, and the whole point of the exercise was to fill an enrollment hole. :)

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
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