Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Ouch, My Head Hurts

Study, study, study. Think, think, think. Just taking a short break. Honest.

I have a newfound respect for the Me of 10 years ago. She was really smart! She knew all kinds of stuff! She could come up with creative ways at solving problems! She remembered hundreds of theorems and rules and definitions!

The Me of 10 years later? Not so much.

I have had the joy of discovering that - not only did I forget most of the principles of probability - I've also forgotten the fundamentals of calculus. So while I relearn what a Normal Distribution is versus a Poisson Distribution, I've also got to relearn what an integral is, and what a derivative is, and what's so darn special about the letter e anyway.

(And don't be fooled. I have no idea what a Normal or Poisson Distribution is. No. Clue. But I'm starting to get the impression that I'm supposed to.)

The good news is, the test is multiple choice. And, there are no penalties for wrong answers. So even if I don't understand the question, I can guess. There are thirty problems, each with 5 possible answers. I've studyed long enough to know that the probability of me guessing my way to a perfect score is:

(1/5)^30 = 0.000000000000000000001073741824

Which, well, statistically speaking, is ZERO.

The sad thing is that word has apparantly spread that I'm taking this test. People who I hadn't even told are wishing me luck. That makes me failing this test just a liiiiiittle more public than I'd like it to be.

Oh, well. I can only do my best.

Diving back in for more...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

When in doubt, just pick C.
That's what I learned from "Summer School" anyway. (one of the most awesome guilty pleasure movies of all time, btw)

Sank said...

Good luck- Great couple of posts.