gee pee ay ... and then some

A's and B's and thankfully no C's.

three point six two

only to drop after the final grade for COMM 1240 goes through the system

B+ in the course i'm finalizing my program in.

that's all the information i'm willing to divulge without bursting into tears.

PSYCHE>>>

i will not cry about my grades.

i'm going to be a broadcaster one day, and i know this.

i'm going to graduate in less than one year from today and i'll be proud of myself.

what the hell is a GPA anyways?

(i'm rambling and i'm good at it.)

COMM 1247 and COMM 1248

Extended Broadcast TV Production and Documentary/Filmmaking

it's a beautiful thing, the last semester of university

it is one santa claus down the chimney away

it's around the corner

barely ten days into The New Year

the year of 2012

its a two-year program and i wish it was four

there's so much more to learn. there are so many brains to pick in that faculty.

The Faculty of Communications Studies, my home.

T-Wing

T119

you'll find me there every day for another four months straight.

kicking and screaming and scared shitless

you'll need a card to get in through the doors, by the way.

(if you thought i was rambling before, just wait...)

the first time i heard about a GPA was obviously in high school

"you need a good GPA to get into university", they said.

"what the hell is a GPA and can i trade a Quarter of weed for a good one?"

no, sorry.

"you can, however, excel in five General Education courses (that might have nothing to do with your program) to boost it."

'GPA boosters' - they call these Gen. Ed. courses.

after taking six of these "GPA boosters" in the course of a year and a half at university, let me tell you about the "boosting" they offer:

General Education courses are boring; just as the name explains it: "General"

they boost your stress level with 12-page recommendation reports.

they boost your caffeine intake from the normal three-cups-a-day to five cups.

they boost your ability to scream louder and for a longer period of time.

and lastly, they boost your need to complain.

in order to survive all the General Education courses your program or diploma or degree requires of you, there are two things you need to remember.

1. if you cannot understand the name of the course, DNR (do not register)
2. if your professor is on RateMyProfessors.com, check him/her out (and possibly DNR)

you will despise a course that you have no interest in.
you will despise a professor who was rated two point six out of five.
you will despise that your GPA was not "boosted" by this shitty course you've been required to take.
and you will despise not having listened to my #1 and #2

the professor will make the difference. all the difference in the world (in the semester).
REAL-LIFE EXAMPLE:
knowing that i needed to complete one of three GNED-1401, GNED-1402, and GNED-1403 courses, i decided to see what was available.
the only class that worked with my program's schedule was for:
GNED-1402 Writing for the Professions
(according to my #1 thing to remember, i was safe.)
continuing...
Professor: KKK (literally, her initials)
and now for my #2 (go to URL bar and type in: http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/)

the first comment written about this professor:

"i wanna die to be in her class. If you are an international student, do not
choose her class. You will feel like living in the hell."

OKAY, so i'm not an international student, still sorta safe.

the first comment written about this professor in 2011:

"I dont think I have ever been as scared of a prof as I have of K. Good teacher, knows her stuff but also a hard marker. For her class, become good friends with the writing centre otherwise you will fail.. as she tells the class every class."

OKAY, not getting any better here... I can handle the scary part but nobody wants a prof who is a hard marker and who the hell wants to become good friends with the writing centre when your professor has her Bachelor's in English?

so what did i do?
i registered for this course that would apparently make me feel like i'm living in the hell.
and it wasn't awful. i called it the course from hell because KKK is a funny lady and a nice lady but she is a horrible professor. all she did was tell us that if she didn't like our work, we wouldn't be getting a very good mark. (does that mean our work is right or wrong, or do you care?)
every single day we were given at least one assignment (sometimes three). and when were these assignments due?
on the last day of classes. December 6.
keep in mind this course runs an hour and a half every day that starts with a T
and also keep in mind that she told us how she would be marking these daily assignments, the week before they were due:

0 missing = A
1 missing = A-
2 missing = B+
3 missing = B
4 missing = B-
and so on
and so forth
until you have 10 missing, then you FAIL

i've been so fortunate to have access to the technology, the state-of-the-art studio, and the brains of the faculty, that i have never experienced a horrible professor in university.

KKK (once again, yes, legitimate initials) is the worst professor i have had in university. and i havent been in university for all that long.
am i leaving out the possible fact that because KKK teaches students who most likely can't stand her General Education courses, she marks according to her personal interests? yes, probably.

but when you tell your students that the font they chose for their name on their own, personal resume was "weird" - you're not going to be nominated for Professor of the Year any time soon or ever, girlfriend.
KKK, you're a nice lady and your jokes are terrible and the way you always put the word "man" at the end of sentences did not make you fit in or relate better to us university kids.

REAL-LIFE EXAMPLE:
"there's no way you can separate two independent clauses with a comma, man!"

(not that this matters, but she does have a lovely Indian-American accent)

and at last...

The Moral Of The Story

what started out as a talk about GPAs turned into a whine-fest about my horrible General Education professor BUT you may have laughed once or twice if you have experienced similar situations with Gen. Ed. courses and professors in post-secondary school.

I love university. I love writing. I love reading and being around literature in general.
I do not however love the aforementioned professor, and this is OK.

if you want a "good" GPA, figure out what a "good" GPA is to you.
set the goal and go for it. there's not really a better way around it.
there are great ways to avoid getting a possibly "shitty" or "not-good" GPA
but it's up to you, kids.

the bottom line in this moral is,

when she tells the class that her initials are KKK, consider dropping the course and getting a W on your transcript, before you go through the course and get an F
so much for a GPA BOOST.
thanks I guess, but I already take my B+ vitamins before i leave for school in the morning.