A Breather
Oct. 4, 2002
Thanks to last week's Algorithms midterm I've got a slight breather this weekend. That's one thing that is nice about exams: they only take 90 minutes, whereas homeworks take days. There is nothing due Monday (except the usual paper summary for networks). I'm planning on getting a head start on my next NS simulation, which isn't due until the 12th. I think I'm finally getting the hang of this whole grad school thing. I knew it would be easier once I could settle myself into a nice schedule and time management discipline. Plus, the weedout period is nearly over.
The weedout period is a UIUC phenomenon which I did not anticipate before starting here. It seems that UIUC has no limit on the number of classes you can drop during the course of your stay. This encourages students to take classes far above their level and ability, so professors like to make the first few weeks of classes as difficult as possible, in order to get those students to drop as soon as possible. I like having the freedom to drop, but I'm not sure I like the trade-off. At least things should get easier from here on.