I survived…

[rodo]

Feeling pretty shitty right now, though, and like I failed the algorithm part (I can’t for the life of me program on paper and so forgot like half the algorithms). But I handed in my documentation on Friday (80 footnotes, way more than I used for any paper in uni, even though they’re both the same length; got creative to squish the text onto 15 pages and hope nobody notices), and now I’ve got the three exams on one day behind me. Time to fall apart until about mid-January.

I hope for my health that I passed. I got a bad case of gastritis seven weeks ago that landed me in the ER and my stomach still hasn’t fully recovered. Since it was probably triggered by stress, that’s not exactly a surprise, but I need to get checked out for other causes now too.

Hopefully, after a bit of sleep, I’ll recover enough to get into a Christmassy mood, clean up the mess around me, and get started with my Yuletide Assignment.

Comments

[argentum_ls]

Congratulations!

[rodo]

Thanks!

[anehan]

Congratulations on your survival! May you have a restful time for the rest of the year.

... restful, heh.

[rodo]

I see what you did there... (we weren't asked about that, but instead about the structure of an ethernet frame, which I didn't know, but whatever)

I made it through, which is the most important part!

[anehan]

I... have no idea what "the structure of an ethernet frame" even means. o.O

[rodo]

It was about this graphic, basically:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_frame#/media/File:Ethernet_frame.svg

Yeah, the exams for becoming a software developer in Germany can be a) incredibly old-fashioned and b) WTF why do I need to know this this is what Wikipedia is for???

[anehan]

I definitely wouldn't have been able to answer that. To me, that's something for telecommunications engineers to know.

[rodo]

Yeah. Before the exam we were all like "at least no sysadmin stuff this time" (our first exam was basically all sysadmin stuff), and then this happened. At least they gave us options, so we probably all got the payload right, at least (because that's the one that's the longest and of variable length...).

I'm more worried about the other exam, though. That one was algorithms and SQL. I can do both just fine on a computer, but completely fail when I have to do pseudocode on paper because I forget half the algorithms.

[corvidology]

Congrats on your survival! ♥ I hope everything goes swimmingly for you! ♥

[rodo]

All I want to do is pass, so fingers crossed!

[anotherslashfan]

This is super late, but congrats!
My biggest exam yet is on the 14th and I'm very nervous.

[rodo]

Thanks! 14th of January? If so, that's a day before I've got my oral exam. It really sucks, having exams, especially when you're out of practice, doesn't it?

Anyway, best of luck!

[anotherslashfan]

Thank you!
December 14th, actually. At least it'll be behind me soon enough...

For me it's mostly that I've grown to detest the material so I hate having to go through it again. The required way of thinking isn't natural to me at all and I lack the professional background so can't rely on my experience to fill in the blanks.

[rodo]

Dec 14th... so you've got an exam on a Saturday? Wow, that's rough.

The required way of thinking isn't natural to me at all and I lack the professional background so can't rely on my experience to fill in the blanks.

I know the feeling. That was me with everything bookkeeping related. It's like the one language I can't learn because my brain just doesn't want to think like that.

[anotherslashfan]

Hope you passed! (I did, although I thought I hadn't.)
& Happy birthday. Hope it is a great one ♥!

[rodo]

(I did, although I thought I hadn't.)

That's great to hear! (And also how I felt about the written exams... you really lose all feeling for this kind of stuff once you've been out of the educational system for a while.)

My birthday is... well. I've still got a cold, but it's getting better.