Triple

“‘Not when you’re looking back at them,’ she said. ‘You wonder how they vanished so quickly.’” — Isaac Asimov, I, Robot

The Curling Wheel of History

A student that I once critically mentioned has not changed very much.

The Physics H classes recently did presentations on a STEM topic of their choice, marginally related to physics, and this student chose to do one on the curl of vector fields.

In the past, this student once asked a question about vector fields even though it was definitely only marginally related to the topic.

The student did not explain curl in a way that anyone would be able to understand, and that type of unconscious failure to learn to communicate with the intention to teach is just so funny. All of this knowledge, but no good way to put it out in the world.

I spoke with another student about the presentation and it was agreed that there was “no effort put into explaining the concept” and an excess of formulas which were not explained.

What I would do differently:

• Explain the basic derivation in 2-D using four arrows of different sizes (top and bottom pointing R, L and R pointing up)
• Describe the application of judging non-conservative vs conservative based on if curl = 0.

AP tests get a rest

I could not get any refunds so I am now taking some AP tests.

• English Literature
• Computer Science A
• Microeconomics
• Macroeconomics
• Physics C E&M (forgot to sign up for mechanics, +$110)

Preliminary Results

I did quite well on AP Lit and CSA, so I think I will get some 5’s. It’s possible that I got a full score on the CSA test but that’s really up to luck now. The other test-takers seemed to be counting on me to get a full score, but I’m pretty sure my subclass knowledge is not deep enough for that to happen.

Guide to APs

As a senior, don’t waste your time signing up for AP tests unless you plan on going to a college which accepts them for credit. Even in that case though, it may not be a good idea to skip over courses because the later ones could be harder without taking the prerequisite courses.

Also, for the younger students, there is no point in taking too many APs, just drop them if you are not interested. No one cares about the number of AP classes you take compared to someone else. Even if your classmate is taking 4 and you are taking 2, it doesn’t matter.

Mega-useless

Your exact GPA doesn’t matter that much as a factor. There is only a bit of correlation between the GPA of students and whether they get into the college they want. Of course, that is not the only reason that GPA doesn’t matter, but it’s the most convincing one for someone who is obsessed with college and grades.

Juge (pronounced “yuge”)

It turns out that there are actually an estimated 275 people who are coming to Caltech, which is the biggest class in recent history. So it turns out that yesteryesterpost was actually incorrect.

I guess there are also benefits to having more classmates, since there’s a greater probability of finding friends with similar interests. Perhaps we could start an amateur TF2 6’s team and play in tournaments. There are a lot of top players in LA like B4nny, so perhaps we could even invite him over for fun or work to host a tournament. Just some loose ideas.