The title's putting it a bit over the top but... yeah. That's a pretty good summary. Things haven't been going great till now, and this last week that was particularly true. The last two days in particular I was a overwhelmed with work. I managed to pull of the Chemistry Lab report (decently) well. The physics I had to finish for Friday was disastrous. Our lowest homework score is dropped though so, amusingly, I still technically have an A in that class.
That's about to change next week, when we have our first Physics (and Chemistry) test. The Physics test is the one that's only worth 5% of our grade and, really, I'll be very happy if I can pull off a 40% on it. That means I only loose 3% of my grade in the course, and leaves a B+ average very much in reach if I can actually manage to start (and pull off) a complete turn around starting... now.
So. Apart from wanting that turn around, and possibly praying some, what am I going to do to get it?
The most immediate idea that comes to mind is to start going to the GEFAP sessions, which are basically undergraduate led study sessions AU has in place for courses like this. I have my doubts about how useful it will be for my particular situation (I don't have one, two, or three questions I need help with... I'm just /lost/), but it's worth trying. At the very least, I can raise/maintain a good homework average through it. Those are on Monday and Thursday nights. I should go to at least one a week. They're late at night though, and I have my early morning courses the next day, so.... I also should get my car's license plates fixed up. Biking is fun, but biking in the dark is less fun, and being stuck with 5 hours of sleep is simply awful.
I should also restart trying to read the physics textbook. Just... from scratch. We're only at the end of chapter four now, so it's still early enough that it's sort of reasonable to try doing that. I don't know how much of that I can get done this weekend, since studying for the Chemistry test is my priority. I'll try and get chapters one and two done, at least, over the weekend. I have a semi-decent grasp of that half, at least. It's difficult for me to read the book... sadly. I sort of just stare at it, and I've found it hard to help that. Maybe I can find a physics for dummies book somewhere to help out a bit on the side. Going to a bookstore could make a decent study break, if nothing else. And I need to go out to get those new car plates anyways.
After all this, I can go to office hours again. When I have some sort of a better sense of what my problem is.
That's the plan for now, and I'm sticking to it. In a few weeks I'll either have failed the course, or will be able to feel (justifiably) proud of myself.
