I am hoping I can try to get back to a "normal" (what's normal in grad school) after my exam in econometrics today. This exam was historically known to be a rather difficult exam requiring us to apply techniques very quickly, and this year turned out to be no different. I think the exam went ok, there certainly wasn't the pressure of the prelims, but I spent this last week going over past exams and rewriting my notes a couple of times so I can now recite the log likelihood of the heckman self selection model amongst many others. I find it interesting, though not really a criticism, that our exams require vast memorization, yet the professors use notes . Though at some level, it helps give an incentive to get a deeper understanding of the concepts I guess.

I remember in undergrad, my econometrics professor said, "If you want to know the proofs, goto grad school, because I am not going to show it here and I don't want to relearn them." Though that certainly wasn't the only reason I am going, I can certainly see myself in that position in a few years.

Well, in any case, a few friends and I are going to see The Departed tomorrow. I've heard great things about it and am certain Scorsese can do at least as well as the Aviator (not to mention Raging Bull, Casino, and Goodfellas).

-Trevor