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Is this forum a thing? What is a rant


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Posted

Alright bros, lemme lay out the dealio for you guys:

Basically, I've got this crazy awesome scholarship through which I get buttloads of money for college. Buttloads. These butts are full. Of loads. I lose it if my GPA drops below 3.2. I'm also in the honors college, which at my school is a pretty big deal, because it's a great program. I get kicked outta there if my GPA drops below a 3.2.

I've been getting more and more frustrated with college stuff over time, for reasons I will mention soon. For now, know that I did the math, and if stuff keeps going as it's been going, my GPA will be 3.0, losing me all of these awesome things. Realizing this more than halfway through the semester means that everything looks horribly bleak, and it is a depressing and sobering reality.

Why is this like this? Lemme lay out a couple of reasons:

1. I'm not the best at schooling, really. I used to be that REALLY SMART KID who never studied for anything, and I realize that a lot of people were also that REALLY SMART KID who never studied for anything, but once I began learning things I didn't already know and for which I had to actually study and work, I did not lose that takin'-it-easy mindset. For my brain, school starts when I get to class and ends when I leave class. Consequence: extreme procrastination.

I know a lot of people procrastinate, but I've been doing it unhealthily since junior year of high school. I wrote my 20-page research paper over the course of three consecutive all-nighters. I got a C in U.S. history because I did not even do the homework. If there's a big assignment coming up, thinking about doing it makes me sad, so I don't think about doing it. So in COLLEGE, where you're expected to consistently do work at home proportional to the amount of time you're in class, I still wait until the last minute for everything, which naturally lowers the quality of all the work I do. A few weeks ago I did calculus homework for 14 hours with no breaks in order to finish in time for the test that morning.

SPEAKING OF CALCULUS:

2. My calc 1 professor cannot teach. It is the specific consensus among everyone with whom I have spoken that, though he obviously knows the material very well, he is garbage at explaining it. He writes proofs on the board without telling us what he is really doing or why he is doing it. It's really not even a matter of "Well, that's how university classes are different. You have to try harder and teach yourself and boop-de doop-di-dop," because the rest of my professors are actually pretty great. They're good at explaining the material and making it easier to grasp.

So after my 14 hours of calculus, I went into the test feeling pretty bummed and not very confident at all, and I got a 65. That was disappointing, so I thought, "Next time I'll just do a lot better." For the second test, I looked over the material, I studied, I did the homework more promptly, I went in there feeling nice and confident, and I got a 65. This is weird, because I think I know calculus at least well enough to get better grades than this. If you tell me to find a limit or a derivative or an integral or plot a graph or whatever, sure man I can do that. Related rates? Alright, bro. But nope, I guess. He grades tests pretty harshly, which I would be fine with if he would actually explain things in a way that didn't only make sense to him.

Alright, so we've got that figured out. I'm doing absolutely fine in my intro to C class, and I expect an A in there without a problem. I expect a B in my technical presentations class, just because I'm not very good at public speaking and that's where my grades seem to be going. If I manage to get my 65 in calc up to a C, my GPA will be 3.0. I'd have to raise it another whole letter grade to keep my scholarships and stuff. I'm taking one other class, but it's pass-or-fail, so it'll have no impact, which is a shame because I'm doing just fine in it.

My options, as I see them:

1. Somehow raise my calculus grade to a B, or raise my technical presentations grade to an A. Though these are possible, I honestly do not see them happening. At the same time, I'm willing to try, so if I'm not online or responding to things as much as I used to, assume I'm studying or working on something.

2. Find out the policy on my scholarship and stuff on withdrawing from classes, and see if I can withdraw from calc. I'm unsure of this, because if I withdraw from that I would no longer be a full-time student, in which case I think I'd lose it anyway. I don't know.

IS THIS A RANT? I don't know. I think it's me hating on myself, and how irresponsible I've been with everything that's been given to me. I can blame my professor as much as I want, but I know that if I were dedicated enough, I could have A's in all of my classes right now. I got a fantastic scholarship not a lot of people get a chance at, and the possibility of keeping it looks bleak at the moment. I can study and study and study and work and work, but I don't know if I can pull this off. Maybe.

THAT IS ALL

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Posted

1. I'm not the best at schooling, really. I used to be that REALLY SMART KID who never studied for anything, and I realize that a lot of people were also that REALLY SMART KID who never studied for anything, but once I began learning things I didn't already know and for which I had to actually study and work, I did not lose that takin'-it-easy mindset. For my brain, school starts when I get to class and ends when I leave class. Consequence: extreme procrastination.

I understand this so hard. ): I got near perfect on my placement test for English, but they require all the people at our school to take English 101 anyway, no matter what they get, so it's like, why even have the English portion on the placement thing? But the class is all homework and only meets once a week, and I am terrible with homework, because once I'm home, it's home time and not school time. Programming is easy enough, because you get to work on stuff while you're being taught. (in my case I just already know)

As for Calculus, we could be study buddies or idk. `-` Our teacher is generally really cool about explaining stuff, even if she goes a bit fast. I'm glad she's a really coolio teacher, and is a bit awkward and silly. (The drawback to this is that she says, "Right?" while explaining things on average 250 times per class. I did count this.) If you understand the concepts and it shows in your work, she'll give you pretty generous partial credit. Working down from tiny mistakes and everything.

Totally got Bs on things I should have got like Ds and Fs on, if the teacher was a crazy instant loss of all points for every tiny mistake teacher. I think the best thing you could do is confront him about it, and maybe be like, "Well, I came here to learn things in class, but it seems all you do is talk to yourself with the board. We don't know what you mean when you write this, because you never explain it, and I think our test scores reflect upon this. I understand the concepts well enough and I don't think it's fair that you do not at least give partial credit. I did not come to your class to learn exclusively from a book or get punished for not being perfect."

How many questions are on each test? idk, it might be better for your argument. But maybe if you like, got a consensus from your class and talked with him about it, you could get him to soften up? As long as he's not too proud or something.

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Posted

ughhhh, i feel you, bro. im basically failing E & M physics, or at least i failed the first midterm, and having just taken the second midterm, idk where i stand on that....

and i have the same problem as you :< school time being school time and dorm time is dorm time, and all these projects my major wants to hand out are gonna drive me nuts :<

try talking with your teacher, like saha said, the worst he can do is to say "no", but that scholarship thing is /harsh/ sounding, i barely scraped a 3.53 last year, when i needed a 3.33 to stay in the honors program :P which im most likely not gonna be in much longer, but all it is for me is a shiny stamp on my diploma, or something to that effect. I cant imagine having to keep it up for a scholarship :< hang in there, ganny

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Posted

Tests are 10 questions, some of them broken up into parts. If a question is only one part, he'll take off 5 points for a mistake, and 10 points if you get it just wrong. If it's separated into parts, any error in an individual part means that whole part's wrong. What's sad is that he's been teaching there for like ksdhfkasdf years (he's in his late 60's/early 70's?) and has already addressed that he will not be changing his methods when we confronted him after the last test. If you tell him you don't understand something, he's usually a nice enough guy to try and explain it again, but it's still just hard to follow. I'll probably start reading the book very, very closely, maybe seeking out the help of some others in the class.

If you withdraw from it, then maybe you can take a winter-only course later on. You'll still have a full schedule for this semester. That's what I am doing.

Can you elaborate on this a bit? .-.

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Posted

Yeah, I've had similar problems. I think I only needed to keep a 3.0, and I'm not sure what my exact GPA is, but it's still a far cry from the 3.9-something I had in high school. Because I have no study skills from high school and most professors are just bad at teaching. And they have tenure, so it's practically impossible to fire the bad ones.

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Posted

This thread has made me realize how much more I'd fail at college if I went.

Welp.

: (

Sorry that I can't give any advice, Ganny.

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Posted

Muffin I keep forgetting how old you are.

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Posted

He's 38.

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Posted

What a creeper, hanging around with us younger kids :o

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Posted

yeah, though good luck on the math book.....if you can understand all that jargon, you have my utmost respect.

what about your TAs?

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Posted

Coming from someone who lost his scholarship due to a technicality-

I know exactly how you feel right now. I was there, half a year ago, in your shoes. I was struggling keeping a 3.5 and I was taking a very heavy class load. Eventually I had to drop my Anatomy and Physiology class, which put me under the required 15 hours for my scholarship, which I promptly lost.

It gets better. I hope you don't lose your scholarship, but I promise, you can still make it in college and succeed without one.

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Posted

Requiring 15 hours is pretty GARBAGE. I'm having a lousy time with just 12

Also, SITUATION UPDATE: I buckled down and did some studying and cried a little more frequently, and I got a B in the course, earning me a 3.3 for this semester. Not kicked out YET. Thank you all for your supportive words, loves

I'd also like to thank one Nathaniel for his behind-the-scenes slave driving

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Posted

Words of advice: check that "rate my teacher" site.

Had a really really bad Calc 2 teacher last semester and a super fresh first-timer for Calc 3. They made me hate math. So. Much.

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Posted

even if i had a competent professor, id still hate calculus. physics, id be okay with. but not how they teach it here. luckily, i only have to take one more math class, and one more physics class.

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