Gearing up for finals, I knew I had four.

Four three-hour slots that would be spent hating my life and wishing I had learned more during the semester, as well as hours and hours of studying and cramming at the last minute... times four. Four finals sounds pretty bad.

My VHDL design class has a policy for exempting the final... but I just narrowly missed the requirements. My test average had to be a B or above (check), I had to be making a B or above in the class with all 3 tests averaged in (check), and had to make a B or better on all the tests (whoops... damn you test #2).

So I played the numbers game of making an Excel spreadsheet that let me plug in numbers for my final to see what my semester grade would be. With my average being what it was, and the final only counting 25%, I would make a B in the class if I made anywhere between a 68 and a 100. GREAT.

Anybody in college has experienced the phenomenon of selectively throttling their effort on the final. Basically... the probability of the last test raising your grade a letter should entirely determine the amount of effort you should put into studying. The situation in my VHDL class is a perfect example... when a C on the final will get me the same final grade as a perfect score would... why study my ass off?

I was continuing to dick around in Excel when I got an email from the professor revising the final exemption policy... and it was like music to my ears.

"You are eligible to skip finals if test average is 80 and no more than one test less than 80%."

SWEET.

And then there were three.