[1fastredsc]

I think i'm like the student you mentioned, maybe not as smart, but i do really well in all my classes then do something stupid on the final. From experience i think it comes from busting my a$$ during the semester then just burning out towards the end. To give you an example, one of our harder coarses in this dept is dynamics, yet i've had nothing but A's all semester. The professor was impressed enough to suggest that i go to graduate school and get into solid mechanics. Then on the final, three decent sized problems, and on one problem for some stupid reason, the radius of gyration is given, and instead of using the mass times k sub g squared, i stuck a 1/2 in front of it for no good reason. For some reason it made sense at the time, and as i'm leaving the exam it hit me and i feel like a moron. This should have been trivial and yet i screwed it up.
And i've done things similar in other classes throughout my college career so i can kind of sympathize with the student in question.