Julie’s News from Maryland

No, not for the GOEs.  I won’t get those grades for another couple of weeks. I’m still working on not feeling anxious about them. I think I’ve rewritten almost all of the essays in my head at least twice since finishing the exam - not like that really does me any good.  I’ll let you know those grades as soon as I get them.

Today I got my grades from last semester.  They are as follows:

• AT1: Ascetical Theology - A
• CH2: Medieval and Reformation Church History - B+
• PT110: Growing a Congregation - A
• PT3: The Teaching Ministry (in Congregations) - A-

Not bad considering that I also did an internship in the Stewardship Office and had Field Education responsibilities each week on top of the four classes.  In fact, this is the best GPA I’ve had in any semester at seminary (3.73).  As much as I’d like to brag about that, I don’t really feel like my GPA is necessarily an accurate reflection of how hard I worked or how much I learned in my classes.  Each class has different requirements - some have exams, others just papers, and still others just projects.  I worked much harder for CH2 than I did for any other class and only have a B+, whereas I did very little actual work for PT110, but got an A.  As I’ve said before, grades in seminary seem arbitrary and sometimes quite ambiguous to me.