January 16, 2008
Remember this post?
Well if you do you know I had my first oral exam for my Vor-Diplom today. Of course all of you were wishing me luck one hour ago, right? If you did you might be pleased to know that it helped. Actually it went really well and to my surprise I left the room with a “sehr gut – (1,3)” which, for my international readers, equals an A-. At least I think it does, but how should I know? I’ve never been to the U.S. … contrary to a certain reader of this blog :p
December 19, 2007
I got my result of the math test today and I’m quite happy with it. I scored 40,5 out of 44 points and besides a 0,5 reduction for a formal thing I only had one stupid mistaked in the whole test which cost me three points. Solving a linear system of equations I subtracted one equation from another and basically forgot to subtract the part after the equality sign too. Talk about stupid 
But obviously there’s no need to complain and I’m very pleased with the result. Let’s just hope the final test will be just as successful!
December 14, 2007
Today we wrote our first test of the current semester. It’s result will only make up 30% of the final grade in this math class but it’s still quite important as a good result will allow me to focus a little more on the other exams at the end of the semester, including my intermediate diploma exam in media studies. I felt good about the test as I didn’t face any problems solving the trial test and weekly homework. And my feeling wasn’t off. I had no problem solving all tasks within time, although there’s one question I’m sure I didn’t solve entirely like it was meant to be… which doesn’t necessarily mean I did it wrong… I hope Unfortunately though the results certainly won’t be available before Monday 
November 15, 2007
Tomorrow there’s a special event at my university. The so-called Gauß-Vorlesung by the German Mathematical Society which consists of an award ceremony, two lectures and a greeting with champagne and snacks. The first lecture is about the interplay between mathematics and physics in history and the second one about modern use of mathematics in the life sciences. I’m not 100% sure yet but I’m likely going there, especially as it’s taking place in the old auditorium that’s only used for such special events. Let’s just hope it’s not too boring
Update: I decided I’ll attend it. It’s starting in less than an hour, wish me luck in finding the entrance…
Update 2: Found it! And it wasn’t boring either. The first lecture on history was held by an American who still had this funny accent, even after 15 years in Germany. The second one on the use of mathematics and computer science in modern biology was interesting too but a little long. There were just too many examples to comprehend them all. But overall it was a nice event, especially the free catering afterwards 
November 1, 2007
In the main lecture building of our university there’s a small cafe called Café Leonardo. Although their prices are going up at least once a year it still offers a convenient way to breakfast in case you didn’t have time / food at home. Unfortunately though they open at 8:45 a.m. but my bus already arrives at 8:30. This always left me with an awkward pause between arrival and breakfast which I couldn’t really use. 15 minutes is not enough to dive into a book (at least not the books I’ve got to read) or prepare for the next class but it’s long enough to get bored, especially as no one else arrives that early (the disadvantage of living outside the city). Of course I hoped for them to open just those 15 minutes earlier and this semester my “dream” finally came true. From now on I can breakfast when I arrive and have half an hour after that to prepare things for the next course. Yay!
October 26, 2007
It’s October and once again a new semester at university has begun. Last week the new courses started and I’m happy to say that all my professors have made a good impression so far and my schedule is tolerable, contrary to the last two semesters. Noteworthy courses are:
Project Management & Quality Assurance
This course is the last in a series of three about Software Engineering, the first two being System Analysis & Application Modeling and Designing Large Software Systems. Special thanks go out to my brother Martin who bought me Ian Sommerville’s “Software Engineering” for my birthday back in May which covers all those topics.
Documentaries
I’ll admit right away that documentary movies aren’t exactly my cup of tea. But this course features a practical part that goes along with the theory. We will actually go out and make our own documentary movie, based on our own idea. We’ll do the scripting, directing and cutting ourselves so I’m hoping my understanding of these crafts will benefit. This course is also being held entirely in English as there are international students from the U.S. and Canada participating. Apart from the positive influence on my English the collaboration with foreign students is an entirely almost new experience I’m looking forward to.
Besides the study itself one needs time for some physical activity so I signed up for two sports, handball (European, not American) and badminton which take place on Monday and Thursday respectively. Lucky as I am a player crashed into me (I’m a goalkeeper) with full speed last Monday and since then my right shoulder/breast area has been hurting whenever I use those muscles. I’m not exactly sure what kind of injury I got but there’s no visible damage. Let’s just hope it’ll be gone in another week…
