h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A34318


I began writing this in the midst of final exams two years ago, added to it during last year's exams, and just recently wrapped it up with the help of some of my friends. I'm happy with it. I think it captures the feeling of a rather signifigant period in the life of your average college student.

I had it in the Writing Workshop for about 2 weeks, but nobody seemed to have anything more to contribute to it.

Comments, anyone?

Wow, I thought that my entire life was based around this sort of thing. It certainly has take a while to produce this little gem.

Regarding the article. Well its a good article. A very good article. However, i'm not to sure about the parts that refer to the guide.
I know that you cant speak in the "I did this" and "I think" prose, but i'm not sure about it. I'll try an find out about it for you

Yup, I think its okay

I'd like to ask everybody to please move over to the *other* PR thread for this entry, http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F48874?thread=143392. There's no need to post twice to PR and it's impeding the housekeeping around here, which is why this here thread will have to go to the sinbin.

err... forget that! It's my data base which ought to be moved to the sinbin . The other thread is in the Workshop and should go back to the entry, as it's now up for Peer Review.

Hi, Spoo Monkey!

My first reaction to this is that it is so very American that I think you should mention that in the title: 'Finals Week in an American College' or something similar.

The big surprise for me is that your 'finals' can be after every semester: in my university 'finals' were actually final: the exams at the end of the whole degree course. That meant they were a Very Big Thing Indeed - the one set of exams completely decided my whole degree.

Another very American thing is the use of 'school' to refer to university - in British and Irish usage, 'school' never refers to third-level education. While the Guide generally uses British English, I don't think this is any problem as long as you make it clear that it's the American college experience you're talking about.


Azara

whew!

ya scared me there for a second, Bossel.

hmm...

d'ye think it'd work more universally if I modified it a bit instead of making nationality specific?

The use of the word "school" is easily rectified. I'll change that right away.

What I could do about the perception of "finals" only occurring once, though, I don't know. I think that might be due more to the way a particular educational system operates rather than a national thing. I know we do things both ways over here in the states. Some universities hold them at the end of each year, some hold them on a semester basis - your experience is entirely dependent on which university you attend. You must have an equivalent at your school (hehe) - what is it called?

Hiya!

Oooh my 'finals' or part [enter letter here] exams happen every year (or in the case of my current year, every 6 mths). Hence I have an exam in 5 weeks time. So I think it might be more course specific than country specific.

I have a quarter inch thick pile of lecture notes on neuroscience to get through, plus other stuff.

So this is quite good, although since I can't drive, I can't take a Road Trip, but a Tube trip may be more feasible; although only to the edge of Zone 3 you understand

Good entry I will have to bookmark it for further use in about 6 weeks time, along with hangover cures too...

Stay ,
WD

hehe
thanks loads, Witty. I think your comment might have cleared things up a bit, too. I'm glad to know that it's not just US universities that have finals more than once per college career. Im so glad I don't have to do something like that before graduation.

Anything else?

I made a minor adjustment to the entry after giving your suggestion some more thought, Azara. I tried to make it more clear that "Finals Week" can (and does) occur on different schedules for different schoo- er, colleges.

heh

sorry, couldn't resist

Thanks again for the suggestion.

Thanks for considering the suggestion, Spoo Monkey!

I meant to reply to your earlier question, about what we called non-terminal exams, but saying 'actually, we just called them exams' sounded smart-alecky, which of course I didn't want It's true though: at the end of 1st, 2nd and 3rd year we had exams; at the end of 4th year we had our finals. Of course that was a long time ago!

Azara

hehe
hey, I'm the biggest smart-aleck I know, ma, so you're not gonna upset me much.

I was actually toying with calling it "Exam Week", but that doesn't convey the idea quite right. I figured that since it's a last, final effort to avoid studying, I shouldn't mention the word "exam" in the title.

Anyone else out there have a suggestion or a helpful comment?
I'm certainly more than willing to take criticizm, too.
Fire away, people!

Just one question. What's a Jell-O shot

Otherwise

um, well, I'll presume you're familiar with Jell-O, the colorful, jiggly, translucent dessert. If mixed properly, one can make Jell-O alchoholic by adding vodka to the water. This is difficult because the alcohol in the vodka keeps the Jell-O from congealing. Something about how water's freezing temperature is so high compared to alcohol. The cheaper the vodka, the more you can add. We've found a brand so bad (Bowman's Virginia Vodka - from the mountains of Virginia, where we're known for our, um, vodka?) that we've gotten it to a 50/50 mixture. It's yummy.

do you think I need to explain what Jell-O shooters are in the article?

Well, I've never heard of them! Is it purely an American thing?

For me, I'd suggest you add a footnote explaining the term. However, perhaps other people could comment on this.

I think I will add a short footnote, unless someone else objects.

allrighty, I've made the footnote. Thanks for the sugesstion, ZSF