The semester from Hell.

The BBQ Pit
21

Let me speak straight how this sounds to me. You’re getting some stuff off your chest, because you aren’t happy with how things are going right now - and the course you plotted is seeming to take longer than you had anticipated.

Now you know how capable you are, so just make yourself up a plan and figure how to get this thing done. Cop any attitude about this being just school. Whatever it is, it is the job you have to do right now, and for the next several months. Put the effort into getting whatever extra credit you can, and tactically minimize any damage you are going to take. And figure out what you will do over the summer and fall to make up for any hit your GPA takes this semester.

Something is not working the way you are presently going at it, so see what can be changed. Sometimes change is all that is needed to get out of a rut. Just because the same thing worked up to this point doesn’t mean it will stay golden forever.

It IS tough, but you can do it. And you know it is worth it - the right thing to do. So quit whining and get to work!

22

Here’s what I wonder: is school harder than it used to be? I was in college like 20 years ago, and I don’t remember it being all that demanding. My impression is that people a lot stupider than AD, USAF put in a lot less effort and sailed through. It does seem to me like the world is a more hypercompetitive place than it used to be.

23

[QUOTE=Dinsdale]
So quit whining and get to work!
[/QUOTE]

I don’t think Airman Doors is whining at all. He sounds quite reasonable about the whole thing. If I had ever watched my semester swirl around waiting to be flushed away–wait, what am I saying? I have watched my semester swirl around waiting to be flushed away, and it’s pretty awful. I seem to remember freaking out pretty hard.

I read the OP a little more thoroughly this time around, and Doors, I’ll leave with with something else. You have more time than before, and that’s a good thing. Remember though that most changes are stressful to some degree, even the changes for the better. Change requires adjustment, and a big change requires a large adjustment. Not having to go to work for a little while might seem more stress-free and someday it might be, but remember that you now have to adapt to an entirely new schedule, and when I say adapt, I mean that your body, your mind, and your study schedule have to catch up to the change of scene. This includes more time with Aaron, more time in different environments . . . the list goes on. It’s not as easy at it sounds, even for a single 20 year old, and you’re in your 30’s with a family.

And as far as this:

Brother, I agree with you 100%, and I fucking work on a college campus. You forgot to mention that as much bullshit as your bosses dish out, the fact remains that they pay you. That’s always a plus in my book. I will reiterate that it sounds like you need a little time off from school. Read what I quoted from your OP five or six times and tell me I’m wrong. :wink:

OK, I’m going to step off my soapbox now. One more thing, though. Like I said above, I work on a campus. I’m an academic librarian at a large public university in a college town. My job brings me into daily contact with quite a few students as well as faculty, and this is not the first time, nor the hundredth I’ve heard what you said in your OP, especially the part I quoted above. I love students, and I love working with students, even the ones who piss me off. I say this, because if you ever want to talk about it, I’m more than willing to listen. Please feel free to shoot me a PM at any time, and we’ll see if we can’t hash this happy horseshit out.

24

Well, just when I think I’ve got it figured out something else happens. My music test tomorrow is no problem, I’ll do fine. But for my Political Economy (and Conflict) class I have the pleasure of simulating the position of Israel in an attempt to resolve the Palestinian conflict, like we can do that in 3 days in a classroom :rolleyes: . I have to speak for no less than 3 minutes, outlining our wants and needs, which in my case all are needs, subject to negotiations. The catch, of course, is that I am supposed to be part of a panel, with two other interested parties involved. So I write the position paper and ask for feedback. Of the 5 people I e-mailed it to, I got back a single response, and this person has nothing to add. So now I’m in the unenviable position of having to wing it and take the others along for the ride.

While that’s ordinarily no problem, the class is going to put a lot of time into this so-called simulation. This in turn indicates that the grade is going to be a big one commensurate with the time we put into it. What happens when the non-contributors don’t like what I say, or react negatively when we are supposed to be presenting a united front because they have no idea what I’m going to be presenting?

Group work sucks. I am going to be the sole spokesman and the primary strategist, seemingly by default. That’s OK. I’ll carry them. But man, it’s just one more thing.

As for the class that I’m bombing, an informal poll shows that no less than half the class is in the same position, so I’m beginning to think that my grade is not as bad as I might have imagined. Nevertheless, what sense does it make to make someone think that they’re bombing out for an entire semester if that’s not the case? Catch someone on a bad day with that crap and they’re liable to find out what the muzzle end of a shotgun tastes like.

Just a few more reasons why this semester eats it.

25

UPDATE: Will miracles never cease? I pulled out an A-, B+, B, B-, and in the class that haunted me all semester I managed to get a C. Hell, I almost got a 3.0.

Talk about your all-time second half comebacks. And to think I was worried…well, yeah, actually, I was scared shitless to look.

No rest for the weary, though. I have two classes starting on Monday. Those combined with what I have scheduled for the fall gets me gradumatated in December. So, with a fresh start, I aspire not to get into any more holes like I did this past semester. Yeah, that’ll last three days or so.

26

[QUOTE=Airman Doors, USAF]
UPDATE: Will miracles never cease? I pulled out an A-, B+, B, B-, and in the class that haunted me all semester I managed to get a C. Hell, I almost got a 3.0.

Talk about your all-time second half comebacks. And to think I was worried…well, yeah, actually, I was scared shitless to look.

No rest for the weary, though. I have two classes starting on Monday. Those combined with what I have scheduled for the fall gets me gradumatated in December. So, with a fresh start, I aspire not to get into any more holes like I did this past semester. Yeah, that’ll last three days or so.
[/QUOTE]

Congratulations, Airman! Give 'em hell! :slight_smile:

27

I knew you could do it, boyo.

28

Will you become a butter-bar after you graduate?

29

Happy touchdown dance thingy
(me no football nothings)

30

[QUOTE=usar_jag]
Will you become a butter-bar after you graduate?
[/QUOTE]

Nope. Too old, bad eyes, etc. There are too many better candidates for me to get commissioned. 5 years ago, maybe, but not now. I suppose I could put together a package, but I’m skeptical of my possibility of success.

31

[QUOTE=Airman Doors, USAF]
UPDATE: Will miracles never cease? I pulled out an A-, B+, B, B-, and in the class that haunted me all semester I managed to get a C. Hell, I almost got a 3.0.

Talk about your all-time second half comebacks. And to think I was worried…well, yeah, actually, I was scared shitless to look.

No rest for the weary, though. I have two classes starting on Monday. Those combined with what I have scheduled for the fall gets me gradumatated in December. So, with a fresh start, I aspire not to get into any more holes like I did this past semester. Yeah, that’ll last three days or so.
[/QUOTE]

I had one professor who graded sort of like the one you described upthread.

Every assignment I usually got 95-100 on, but the two exams (which were like 75% of the class grade) I got 60s on. I ended up with an A in the class, something he never revealed til the last day “around 70 is an A on the exams.”

He said he basically just used the exams to truly highlight how much we didn’t know, and to really slam us hard for not being able to apply things we had learned (this was an introductory programming course I took as an elective.)

He also explained in the final class that he used to never understand the paranoid obsession many of his students had with grades. He was from India, and he said the major concern going to school there was that you understood what was being taught. The idea of a “numeric grade point” just wasn’t something he thought was a good reflection whatsoever of “how much has someone learned?” So he didn’t put much concern towards it.

However, when a lot of companies started telling him they wanted GPA cutoffs to filter out applicants, he basically started giving everyone who he thought learned a good bit a B no matter what their numeric scores added up to, exceptional students got an A. The ones who he didn’t feel had learned anything, he’d usually advise they dropped the course before the cutoff date because he thought it was stupid to hurt someone’s chances of getting a job just because they struggled in one course.