Upper division courses are a nightmare

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MSBKyle
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23 Feb 2017, 5:37 pm

So I am a little over halfway done with college, and now I am starting to take upper division courses. They require a lot of work, organizational skills, reading comprehension, and structure. I lack in those departments. This one class I am taking we have to do so much. My professor is expecting us to put so much time and effort into this one class when pretty much all of us have other classes to focus on. We have to write an annotated bibliography of 15 sources, a book review, a historiography, and a final 8-10 page paper. On top of that, I have 3 other classes. I don't have good critical thinking skills or organization. I have ADD and it is very hard for me to stay focused and complete a task. This particular class is making me want to change my major or drop out of school. Even if I were to choose another major, I would have to take classes similar to this. I do the work, but this professor makes you re-do something if it is not the way he wants it. I'm not good at following directions, I don't have good reading comprehension skills, I don't have good critical thinking skills, I am terrible at staying organized, and I have no structure. I've never really wanted to go to college, I'm just going because that is what my family expects of me. I've never figured out what I wanted to do and I have very few interests.



AardvarkGoodSwimmer
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10 Mar 2017, 4:07 pm

Yes, it sounds like this one professor is expecting way too much for a single class. All the same, you want to kind of half-ass it and turn in an acceptable paper.

And if you think this is lowering standards too much, let me challenge you with this:

The better doctors skim medical journals online and read part of something if it catches their interest and very, very occasionally read pretty much the whole thing. There's such a volume of material that the doctor can't do more than skim most of it. And dive in only if something really catches their interest. And these are doctors who are leaders and who other doctors look to in order to decide what's important and what's not. The doctors who are less good, don't even skim, maybe put off by perfectionism and this feeling of a huge task.

======

Yes, play the card of the drop deadline if needed, but maybe try a couple of things well ahead of that.



ZachGoodwin
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13 Mar 2017, 2:03 am

Put the goal of having a successful career on the side, and instead focus on having a successful college class.

The career will be there, but you need to focus on your coursework, and have it as a main priority.

I wanted to be a successful film director, but focusing on that, and not letting it fade away in obscurity along with the dating life, and the life of being a father at a young age. I wanted those things to be looked up to, but it is not a positive to worry about it right now.

So, what I am deciding to give my mind more hear room is to let go of those worries, and those arrive at the right time and place, and stop being defensive about the timing of everything.

OP, I hope you give yourself to worry about, because that brain can be very sophisicated, but you need to let go.