Summer Plans

This summer my plans are centered around one thing: Qualifying Exam (a two day, three hours each day exam that decides whether or not I'm officially a PhD student). Of the six courses I took this past school year, five are covered on this exam. Anything that was in the syllabus or in the course textbooks is fair game - even if it wasn't taught in class. As a result, I have brought an additional desk into my living room, put it next to my kitchen table, and have brought out my two binders of class notes, a binder of my professor's notes, the six textbooks, old qualifying exams (without answers, but they still might be helpful) and all other materials needed for studying (pens, calculator, and post-it notes of course). In other words, this is where I will be hunkered down for the majority of the summer.

Sidenote: To my lawyer friends out there, I know this is nothing compared to what you are expected to know for the Bar Exam, so my apologies for complaining - this is just a lot for a stats/math person to learn!!

My other summer plans include Scrapbook Friday's - I'm going to take Friday's off to relax and work on my wedding scrapbook (I already have 10 pages done - all the pre-wedding festivities), so perhaps I'll have it finished this year! I feel somewhat guilty about taking a day off from studying, but I feel like it may end up being very beneficial!

This summer I'm also teaching Stat 100 (basic stats course) and I'm sooo excited! The course meets Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 3 to 5 and there are only about 40 students. This will be my first time to teach a course for a second time and I'm really excited!! Hopefully I will remember the pros and cons of lessons that I taught in the Spring and I will be able to improve on them this summer. The biggest pro of all? Little to no prep work is required! I basically wrote all my tests while I was in San Antonio, so all that's left is last minute tweaking (and then grading). I loved teaching this course in the Spring so hopefully it will go just as well, if not better, this summer!!

Smile: Hopefully my flexible summer schedule will allow me to keep up with people better. Feel free to call whenever - I'll probably always be in need of a study break!!

Extra Smile: It looks like some great shows will be on this summer, i.e. Project Runway and The Next Food Network Star!! Yay for summer entertainment!