EPTSo, i just finished my finals project, and i am now starting my masters degree..
I have some thought about my project that i thought would be nice to write down, and what better place than my blog?
I started my project 8 months ago, when i picked it i took a chance and decided to write on a subject (Quantum chemistry in metallo proteins) that i had no previous experience in. This caused alot of heartache as i had to pretty much read up on several classes without any real help other then the occational visit from my guidance councelor.
I really put alot into understanding the basics, and worked maybe 50 hours each week for several months on the subject. Aside from this i chose to write it in english, which is not my first language.
After the first months i started working on the more experiment based part (Optimization of the proteins) - generating results. Along the way i contiuously expanded my work and i kept including more and more branches, ending up with 4 or 5 times the amount of results that i had originally planned. In january where i had planned to write the entire thing, i realized i had too much to deal with, as i spent 2 weeks on the presentation of the results (150 pages...).
2 days before i had to turn in my paper i stopped sleeping, and just corrected my paper for 48 hours straight, this was not the best of ideas, because no sleeping makes your corrections odd. The thing turned out as utter crap - I had seriously bit off more than I could chew.
The weeks after my turning in the project, where I had to prepare a presentation, I got stomachaches every time I opened it up because of all the blatant errors I could find on just the first pages - this meant i didnt even read it through before today - the day of my presentation.
I pretty much just threw a presentation together and thought that i didnt really care what my grade was and i would be happy to just pass and take it as a learning experience.
Well when i left the examination room i didnt feel much better than when i entered, i thought my presentation went ok but the asked me some basic questions that i had a hard time answering, or so i thought.
After giving me my grade, they told me that my presentation had been great and that my paper was so-so (The idea, execution and results were good but the writing and form was bad).
I guess the moral of this story is to do your stuff in the last minute.
/Rant over.
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