Grades, Gambles and Exams

I'm somewhat worried about Calculus and I may be about to take a very dangerous gamble...

So the situation is that I got a D on my first exam despite how hard I studied. I studied even harder this time and got nine points higher. So if I was on the border with the D, then I could have a C right now. But anyway, I calculated my grades as of right now. Currently I have (most) of my grades for everything but the final exam, which is worth 200/500 points. So I calculated my grade for right now, minus the final exam, and came out with a 63%. So, generally that's a D+, and the lowest I can get to "pass" this class (aka get credit and move on with my life) is a C-. I don't know how the professor's going to get the grades from the percentages so...

Ok. So that's the situation. Now here is my gamble.

Today is the last day to drop a class with a "W" (withdraw). It will not show up on my transcripts that I have either passed or failed this class - I just took it and withdrew from it. Doing this means that I would take Calc 21 next semester instead of Calc 22 (and I heard they're harder the next semester because the only people in those classes are the ones who flunked out of the class before) and I would have to catch up with Calc 22 or an equivalent over the summer or something.

So right now I have two choices: take a dangerous gamble and keep the class and study so hard my ears bleed and hope that I score high enough on my final to offset my grade and get me at least a C- (that would require a score of around 150/200 if my calculations are correct). Or I could drop the class today and take Calc 22 over the summer sometime.

Something in me wants me to not take the gamble and withdraw from the class. I was talking to my rank leader and she explained that she was in the same boat as me and had just barely passed with a C-. When I told her about my abysmal grade, she didn't seem too worried so I'm a little hopeful...



On the plus side I got a 74 on my Physics exam. :D My recitation professor says that the class average is probably around 76...so since my score is within ten points of it, I probably get around a B. :3 I'm so relieved. And the funny thing is that I got full credit on a problem where I had absolutely no idea what I was doing and was just using random formulas and hoping that I got at least partial credit. x) And a good thing was that most of the graders seemed really lenient and gave me a lot of partial credit. At one point they circled my answer and said that I used the right formula for the wrong value but still gave me most of the points. :)

So even though I'm really bummed and worried about Calc, I know I at least did decent in Physics. :/

Well. I better go off to start studying Calc so hard my ears bleed and my brain implodes.

~E

P.S. On a much lighter note (on the topic of math) the 97 has a funny chant that (I think) only the engineers in band (which is, actually about 90%) can say.

Someone (it can be anyone) : Hey Engineers!
Band: Hey what?
Everyone: e^x, dy/dx! e^x, dy/dx! Secant! Tangent! Cosine! Sine! 3.14159! Go Engineers! Go Engineers! Hit 'em with a log...naturally!