I feel like I'm going mad again.

They look very well organised indeed. Good luck!

Thanks; I'll need it. ;)

Compared to this, the "evil stat exams from hell" from two years ago were a picnic.

Good luck. The funny thing is that the only time you will do it independently is at university. When you get out into the field you work this stuff out as a team

Thanks. Yeah, I know. And in REAL LIFE(tm), there are also things like SPSS... ;)

Oh yeah, you're doing it by hand aren't you ... yeah, run it is all through SPSS and chat to the staff statistician.

I think examiners are all just sadists who particularly like watching students jump through hoops.
You look prepared to me! Good luck

:(
I'm sure you'll do better than you think - you always do, but that's probably no help for right now

Thanks for the encouragement. ;)

The thing is, the whole thing is just one BIG mess that I can't seem to sort through.

Every time I think I understood something and solve one of the problems from previous exams and then look up the solution provided, he's done something _completely_ different.

Everytime I sit in a lecture/practice/tutoring lesson (held by the prof, his assistant, and his student worker, respectively), and we're going over something I thought I had grasped, they are using different formulas than they had given us before, resulting in there being about four different formulas for the same thing in my notes, and of course they do not yield the same results.

We were even given a (huge!) excel project file to complete which will be worth 15% of the exam on top of the exam's points, just so that more people have an actual chance of passing. I've worked on that for close to a week and I'm not finished yet; thankfully, I have four more weeks to turn it in.

The whole thing is just frustrating and the absolutely LAST thing I want is having to repeat the entire course (2 semesters worth of lectures, practice and tutoring sessions) if I fail this thing now or in fall (when the official exam is being held; tomorrow's exam is a "free shot").

it sounds as if you need a day off... clearing your head (if you can) will do you much better than anything else

sorry if that sounds patronising or if I'm teaching my grandmother to suck eggs, but because I *know* you're intelligent I think that what you've described above is more likely due to confidence than knowledge or ability - which I'm absolutely sure you have

Heh, you don't sound patronising at all, you might have a point. The result's still the same, though. If I get so nervous that I completely lose it, all the intelligence in the world won't help.

I really don't have time to take off, though. The exam's tomorrow, so I'll use today to do some more cramming and watch what happens tomorrow.

Considering that I need only about 30% to get the lowest passing grade, it is likely that I will _somehow_ pass, unless he really wants to lay the smackdown. Still, I've worked very hard for this, and I just want to get it the hell over with.

eek! best of luck and i hope you get to relax after the exam! looks like you need to! and deserve to! xx

Thanks. ;)

Not much relaxing is in planning, though, as I'm in the middle of moving out.

(back home for August, to Nuremberg from September - mid-April, back to Mainz in mid-April...)

You'll do wonderfully I'm sure. I have faith :o)

having sat lots of exams in my all too long career as a university student and then having gone on to mark even more exams as a university lecturer, the one thing I have learnt is that it is a lot harder to fail than it is to pass. You'll get there.

Good luck!

you still alive? it's over! at least for now. go forth and celebrate.

Oh yes, it's over. It was... different. I have no idea if I passed or not. Half of the entire exam was a problem where we didn't have to calculate anything, but rather come up with a study design to test for different effects in a hypothetical scenario, so the grading will be pretty subjective; my grade will depend on the corrector's amount of good will, I think. Meh.

The research design exercise will be a cakewalk. You've passed.

Let's hope you're right. ;)