Mid-term exams in all four of my classes last week, as well as a deadline for a German skit dialogue, could probably have crowned me queen of the Stressed-Out El Groucho Society of Southern Kentucky. I was fortunate enough to have it all spaced out with the German test on Monday, the Economics test on Tuesday, the German skit dialogue on Wednesday, the Accounting test on Thursday, and the Anthropology test on Friday.
I spent three nights at the library the first part of the week and Thursday evening was spent at the office to keep the distractions of home at bay. Having the campus library stay open until at least midnight is a wonderful thing. By the end of the week, I was beginning to wonder if Spring Break would ever arrive. Acing the first three tests was somewhat of a balm to my soul, but that Anthropology exam…well, it has the potential to send me into a blue funk. I won’t know what my grade on that exam is until after Spring Break.
You see, at the beginning of the semester I thought that the Anthropology class would be an interesting class. The lectures themselves are sorta okay, but I have a hard time taking notes and the exams ask about these mundane details that I would never have thought to jot down in the first place. I’m hearing far more than I ever wanted to about certain primitive societies, including their interpretation of the game of cricket. This is all complicated by the fact that note-taking is not my strong point. I’ve had classes before, Western Civ in particular, that were rather disjointed, but I still managed to take notes to a certain degree, but this class seems to be an absolute impossibility for me.
I’m sure that the fact that this is the professor’s second year of teaching doesn’t help matters a bit. Either I don’t take to his teaching style or he has not yet perfected art of dumbing-down his material for entry-level minds. It’s probably a combination of the two.
I am comforted by the fact that a senior in the class has told me that this is the worst class that she has ever taken. She has been my saving grace. The exams are a series of short-answer questions that we receive ahead of time. Out of the fifteen he gives to us, there are seven on the test and we have to answer five. She goes through and answers them and then sends her information to me. It’s a good thing because I am incredibly handicapped in that class.
I’m not sure if this ends up being my worst class to date or if my literature class was the worst. At least in the literature class, most things are open to your own interpretation of stuff whereas this prof is looking for a particular grasping of concepts. He limits answer lengths and papers to a certain size and then docks points if you don’t mention something that he wanted to see in an answer, not taking in to account that there isn’t room for it.
My accounting class has really spoiled me. So far most of the material has been the basics—stuff that I learned 10ish years ago. My prof does not require any homework. Our grade comes from a series of quizzes and four tests. The fact that homework isn’t required is a great thing for me because I don’t necessarily need it to pad my grade, but some of the people in my class are not quite as fortunate. For them, the homework would probably be very helpful not only for the additional points on their grade, but the practice would probably help them immensely. The class is beginning to get a tad more difficult and dealing with stuff that I haven’t dealt with at work; therefore, I’m not as familiar with it. I guess Easy Street has to end at some point.
Microeconomics—now there is a kind of love/hate relationship. I really enjoy going to class and listening to the lectures. The prof is a jewel in his own way. The concepts are fascinating, but they are just elusive enough that if I happen to move my head at just the wrong time, I’m likely to lose the comprehension that I just had.
While I really enjoy the lectures, I dislike the tests equally. The only grades in that class are the exams, so a person lives and dies by the exams. The tests are all multiple choice, which is a good thing. I’m not so hot at applying the concepts, but he likes to make “all of the above” and “none of the above” options for answers. (It is my personal opinion—a good one, I might add—that options like that should be illegal. Trick questions should also be illegal.) The prof also likes to stick words like “necessarily” or “effective” in the questions that make a person wonder if he means something entirely different.
I liken that class to one of those 3D pictures that you have to relax your eyes to see the picture. Some people can look at the picture and see it immediately; other people never will see it; others will eventually see it if they look at it long enough. The girl that sits next to me is one of the latter. I feel so helpless when it comes to helping her. I have studied with her for both exams, and I think she flunked both of them. The girl on the other side of her flunked the first exam. She detected that I had passed it, so she wanted to study together for the second exam.
The three of us studied together and even went for a private session with the prof. The girl next to me performed badly again; the girl on the other side of her did much better. I really wish I could do more to help the first girl. I have a feeling that she is one of those that may never be able to get it.
A guy that sits in front of us is one of those maddening students that don’t come to class all of the time—neither does he study—and still makes A’s on his exams. Completely maddening.
My German class has become far more difficult that I anticipated that it might. When it comes to dealing with Comparatives, Superlatives, Nominatives, Accusatives, Datives, Genitives, etc., I begin to glaze over. I haven’t had a grammar class since grade school. Prepositions, adverbs, adjectives, nouns, verbs, direct objects, indirect objects, and so forth are so far in my past I’d probably need hypnosis to dredge them out of my subconscious mind. Oh, I still know what a noun and a verb is, but past that there is a distinct fogginess that hinders my recollection processes.
Since Kris is also in the class, I have to rely on her to refresh my memory. Thank goodness she taught that stuff to her kids in school (and enjoyed it even). We had a sentence diagramming session to try to help jog my memory. The stuff is still very vague, but it did bring back memories of us playing school years and years ago.
Kris and I are rather disgruntled that we have to first write a skit and then perform it in a month or so. I declare that the prof simply delights in the discomfort of his students. We also have to memorize and recite a poem in class…and I thought that I was done with poetry when I finished my literature class. At least my poem is only five lines long.
In my mind, I am completely done with this semester. Unfortunately, my syllabi indicate that I still have another six or so weeks to go. I am so looking forward to the end of the semester.
I’m a survivor. I will survive. (I think.)
