College Academics

The school year thus far has definitely been different than I would have imagined. The classrooms are mostly lecture halls and you never do worksheets as you did in high school. Pretty much what happens is you take notes and then you study a few weeks worth of notes then take a test. I find that really difficult because I like doing exercises that help me understand the material that I have just learned. As much as I hate to say it, homework is actually somewhat helpful. I used to loathe homework in high school but now it is a welcome thing. I enjoy getting to know the material more so by the time the test comes around I can actually pass it. I hate that feeling when your teacher gives you the test you feel that you are fully prepared for and you actually know barely anything on it so you end up just staring at it hoping that lightning strikes. On my first real exam in my Human Geography class, this happened. I now know how my teacher does his tests. He is one for details and the smaller concepts. Usually most teachers put the larger concepts on their test and that is usually what I study. This test had things on it that he had talked about for maybe a minute then moved on. I looked at the test and almost cried. I felt like I remembered him talking about things on the test but I couldn't remember the exact details. Needless to say, I did not do too swell on that exam. The exams in high school really just cover the basics and you just need to memorize your notes and the main concepts. I really do miss that. After only a month and a half of being a college student, I now realize how much I took for granted in high school academics. I thought things were hard there (Which in some cases they were) but you always seemed to know what was going on and what was going to be on the test and you knew how to prepare. In my governors school classes, we had midterms and finals to help us prepare for college classes since we were getting college credit. The only difference was that we actually did exercises to help prepare for these tests so what I thought college was going to be like and what it is actually like are totally different! I like it though. Especially the gaps between classes and not having to go for seven straight hours of nothing but work.