It is 2:30 AM, and I've just finished the second of my three finals. It was an online exam, open book open note.

Now, back in my Westminster days, the phrase "your final will be open book, open note" would generally cause me to laugh, or perhaps ask if I had mistakenly taken the remedial version of the course. Since I became a graduate student, I learned to dread this phrase. It meant that the exam was going to be full of obscure, asinine data and that I would be under an immense time limit. All three of my finals this week will have been open book, open note.

Incidentally, this last final had the advantage of being both available through the internet and concerning the more technical field of computer systems used in accounting. A trend I've noticed: while the internet is full of data, the more "techy" it is, the more likely you're going to find a lovingly crafted and summarized explanation of it on wikipedia. In those rare cases where neither the book nor my notes yielded a quick answer to my question, a google search or a quick run to wikipedia had a high rate of providing me exactly the data I was looking for. I don't want to sound too cocky until I see the score, but I'm confident I'll at least get the B I was aiming for in this class.

My other final, the one earlier today, also went better than anticipated. This was the one that I had really been dreading. I typed a rather lengthy & angsty post about the midterm in this class, which I was only able to get a 70 on. Seeing as that test was half my grade and this final was the other half, I need to perform as well or better in order to scrape by with a C, so I was having kittens right up to the end of the exam. And I if you've never tried to compute the alternative minimum tax owed because of an alternative minimum stock option while defying all laws of biology and nature by giving birth to a litter of felines, let me tell you that it is one complex task.

As the above paragraph indicates, this day has taken quite a bit out of me. But it is over, and tomorrow, while certainly no cakewalk, promises to be substantially less stressful. It's another tax class, but one that I've had markedly less trouble following. My performance on assignments up to this point has almost guaranteed me a grade no lower than a B, and a good final could nudge me up to the A range. I haven't had much time to prepare for this one, but it won't start until 7 PM and now that I've finished my other exam, it's the only priority left before graduation.

So the worst is over, and what's left will follow it shortly. Go me!