Chey’s Lounge

I’m nearly certain I never wrote about my experience with AP Physics B in high school. I had an incredible teacher that offered .25 points to our average for the quarter for each extra help session we went to. I didn’t pay as much attention as I could’ve, but I believe I went to all but 2 sessions and I really learned a lot. The one thing I just couldn’t really grasp was problems that involved variables rather than numbers. I just went into the exam accepting that was just going to be my weakness. I believe there were 2 versions of the exam and I can’t remember, but for this one, it’s possible we chose our own seat. Do not quote me on that one. I got through the multiple-choice questions pretty easily. Then came the short-answer question. I guess I could be wrong, but I swear I remember there being 2 versions of it based on what I overheard people say. 

I just so happened to get the version where there were multiple free-response questions with variables. I think it was a life lesson, so much so I wrote my college application essay about it. At the time, the lesson I took away from it was that sometimes you can try really hard and still not succeed, and you just have to move on and be grateful for what you learned. I think these days I may come away with a different lesson. I went into the exam knowing I had one big weakness, and I didn’t do anything about it. I got a 2/5 on the exam, btw (got a 100 in the class for the 4th quarter though). I feel like I could get a 3/5 if I was given like 6 months to study for it. Isn’t it so sad how you can’t go back in time? I feel the same sadness about a final exam during my graduate degree. I literally zipped through the multiple-choice questions, and then I thought back to how well I did on the midterm, and I guess I didn’t give the greatest answers. I feel like the professor would’ve given me a better grade if I had written more, maybe not though, maybe I just was unlucky and didn’t get great questions for the short answer. By great questions, I mean maybe I didn’t prepare well enough for those topics.  Regardless, I didn’t do well, and I ended up getting an A-. It was the only grade I got during that program that wasn’t a straight-up A. Sad! Doesn’t matter at all in reality, I must admit. Heck, maybe it was good that I failed the physics exam. 

Not passing that AP exam meant I had to take at least one science class in college. I did get credit for the chemistry AP exam I took my senior year, so that was one out of the two classes needed to fulfill the general education science requirements. Come to think of it, it’s a little wild how close I could’ve been to not taking a class that affected me enough/had enough of an impact where I’ve already written a post about it over a decade later! The professor of the science class I took in college is the one I mentioned in Geography . Maybe it was all meant to be. Maybe I should take a physics class now. Maybe not… lol. 

One day I’ll figure out what to do. And if I don’t, well, hopefully I’d have at least tried a few things in the meantime. It’s funny I hope for that when in reality I have quite a great fear of trying and failing or looking foolish. I don’t want to be seen as silly, I want to be seen as a dreamer! I just am too nervous about the former to care about bringing the prior to reality in any semblance of the word. Speaking of reality, I have two sentences just sitting in my phone a few lines down that I have yet to incorporate into a post. It’s only been a few days since I’ve written them, so it’s not that insane. The sentences are, “How is reality changed by creating false realities? Or is it not?” I don’t know if the question makes a ton of sense. What I do know is it’s getting a bit too deep into the post to explore that question fully! When is a good time though? How do lies affect reality? Okay, okay, I’m ready to put it to rest until tomorrow.