23rd February 2006 - Day 129

I woke up earlier this morning to go through the notes for one last time. After which, I went for lunch, and to the exam venue, where the professor was already waiting.

The Beisitzerin looks familiar. I can't recall where I've seen her. But I place my bets that it was during the Pfennigbasar. It's highly possible, since this module is offered by the same institute as the Hauptfach she's in.

The exam was terrible. I really couldn't understand what the professor was asking. She seemed to go about in loops phrasing her questions. It was really bad. The questions were so decievingly simple that I was thrown off track. Here's an example of my embarassment.

"Given that a batch reactor can sterilise milk at the rate of 1 litre/hour, how many reactors will be required to sterilise 10,000 litres of milk if we separate the amount into 5 batches?"

"..."

Ladies and Gentlemen! Can you believe it? The Kuching-Kurak with supposedly 5 semesters of Chemical Engineering Ausbildung actually got stuck at this question. And he had the cheek to admit it. Shameless!

*Buries head in disgust*

A primary school student who has been imparted the most elementary mathematic knowledge would have no problem answering that!

*Starts digging a hole into the ground*

I really blanked out at that point of time. A pathetic excuse would be that my brain is not in the "German operating mode" today.

When I asked her what a particular word meant, she took it that I did not know the answer to the question.

Well, the truth is, I think I've been trying to memorise everything. It comes to a point where I can tell the factors that may affect the performance of a membrane, but am unable to explain why, since I cannot find them in the notes.

To be fair, I vaguely remember that she explained the reasons why during the lectures. But I was unable to catch it, partly due to her speaking too fast, but mainly because I couldn't understand what she said anyway. Also, I did not attempt to ask her for clarification after lessons.

Like I said, I deserved it.

Not surprisingly, time passed very, very slowly while she had fun grilling me, with the Beisitzerin making more "-" than "+" on her checklist.

Luckily, there's the policy that exchange students only need to pass the exams overseas to transfer the credit points. Even if I get an 1,0 here, it's pointless too.

Be grateful that I passed!

I attended the lab briefing after the exam. There was a change of location but we were not informed. I still managed to find the place anyway, together with another 3 lost students.

It's going to be quite tedious. 15 experiments in 15 days. Lab reports to be handed in the next day before 1200.

I got the impression that the experiments here are a lot more dangerous. I'm about to find out soon if that's true or not.

Something interesting. I didn't know Grashof and Nusselt were professors at Karlsruhe. Carl Benz was a student here.

So, I should make an appointment soon for my last exam here.