Dear Black Girl, never give up

So this MPA program at Florida State University was almost the death of me. I started in August, 2020 (this was a pandemic baby).

I am not a fan of any advanced level math class and since they weren’t a requirement for me in undergrad I was unprepared for the chaos that was PAD 5701 Quantitative Analysis 😫.

This past October I failed my midterm. It was timed for two hours. I literally hate timed exams. I got so frustrated with how long it was taking me to work through the problems that midway through with less than 30 mins left I got frustrated and shut down my PC without finishing the last 10 questions.

38%. My first F. I don’t even think y’all know what a gut punch that was for me.

Even though I had done well on homework, quizzes and discussions up til then, my grade dropped to a D-. Because it is a required course, I need a B- or better to pass.

I reached out to Rev. Newton  who agreed to tutor me. I also watched all 3 of Eddie Davila’s LinkedIn statistics courses because come hell or high water I was NOT repeating this class 😒. BTW if you need help with anything statistics related Eddie Davila is your guy.

On December 1 my professor scheduled a zoom w/me. He asked what he could do to help me improve my grade. He assured me that other students had difficulty as well and therefore he decided to not time the final exam nor make it cumulative.

I told him I had already completed the 12pt extra credit assignment so if he could just let me finish the midterm I felt I would at least end up with a B- in the class.

He agreed to let me finish but said he could only give me half points. I submitted it to him that evening because every little bit helps.

I took the final the Monday after it was released. I didn’t expect magic but I knew I’d do much better than I did on the midterm since I could literally take ALL DAY to complete it because there was no time limit. I took breaks, worked out solutions multiple times etc.

It really didn’t help that my professor had been really behind in grading so I didn’t know how I was fairing on the midterm, extra credit or remaining assignments for the semester which ended December 9.

Y’all somethin woke me up at 6am this morning and I said well grades are due today so hopefully mine are in.

I nearly fell over! Not only was I able to pull my midterm grade up to a 72%, I got a whole B+ on my final!

I’ve never been so happy to see a B in my life. Needless to say there will be NO MORE statistics courses in my future. I have never been challenged like this and my brain still can’t make statistics make sense.

Five more classes til Capstone! Spring 2022 I’m ready 💻📚

So again I say, dear Black girl…NEVER give up.