Better to Be Lucky than Good?

I will not pretend to understand it.

I have had incredible difficulty with chemistry this winter. Seems the more I thought I understood, the worse I performed on tests and assignments. Going into the final, I was struggling to maintain a 3.0. I needed to knock the final out of the park to be comfortable with my grade.

The final test was split into two parts. I was confident in my completion of the take-home part. I worked with four other students on it, and got some much-needed help from the director of the chemistry lab. As I took to the online portion in the computer lab, I felt sure about my answers and understanding. There were only two multiple-choice questions I felt I needed to guess on, and those had been reduced to a 50-50 shot. When I clicked on the "submit" button, I felt my score would likely be in the neighborhood of 90%. I would be OK with my quarter grade. Curious, I clicked on the "show score" button, and my heart sank.

"Score: 50/100."

Ouch. I do not remember the last time I outright failed a test. I've gotten some poor, barely passing scores on material I had not covered adequately, but seldom drop below 80%. And I do not think I have ever failed a class. I have had to drop a couple of classes for various reasons, but my grades were always passing. Usually with very high marks.

I was certain that I was going to have to change my major. One is unlikely to be accepted into a forensic chemistry program when one has not passed chemistry.

Last night, I checked my grades to see how bad the damage was.

Japanese: 3.6 -- Not bad. About what I expected.
Calculus: 4.0 -- I knew that going in. All I had to do was get a passing score on the final to secure that 4.0.
Chemistry: 3.4 -- Beg pardon? I was expecting a grade point of about half that.

I have no idea what happened. Nor am I going to question it too deeply. Perhaps there was an incredible curve, or she gave me someone else's score. I don't know. Nor do I care.

I passed, and do not yet have to reevaluate my academic plans.