Finals

It's finals week, or well, two weeks.  Last week brought my first two exams, Production Management and Thermodynamics II.

Production Management is a course that is taught by three different institutes at KIT.  Each institute teaches the class for a span of four weeks.  The three topics covered were logistics, manufacturing, and process management.

The exam on Thursday was an hour-long oral exam split with 15 minutes in each institute and five minute break periods between each.  I began my exam with IFAB, the process management institute.  My oral exam went something to the effect of this.

Professor:  What is the basic element of process management?
Me:  An activity.
Prof.: No.  Think wider.
Me:  A process?
Prof:  No.  More general.
Me:  System?
Prof:  Yes.  What is the basic element of a system?
Me:  Activity?
Prof:  No
Me:  Process?

I think I attempted to say process roughly ten times before actually being able to answer his questions.  The other two institutes went more smoothly (I dominated logistics.), and I received a 2.0, which transfers to Purdue as an A.

Thermodynamics on Friday was less of an exam and more of an exercise in futility.  The "exam" (if we have to call it that) was a two-hour written exam that was fairly similar to those given at Purdue with about 2/3 the time needed.  Before the "exam", I remarked to the others that I've never gone into an exam hoping for a 53% (enough for an A) and not been sure I would get it.  I haven't received my grade yet, but I'm fairly confident that I'll never have to take thermo again.  That's all I can really say.  Let's hope that they look favorably on my exam and give me an A.

Studying for my last three exams has been minimal with me going to Das Fest, Karlsruhe's annual music festival on Friday and just kind of lounging around since.  I'm gonna go study now.

Until next time, Alles Gute.