#shitty student

Let me just start this by stating that summer semesters are rigorous in nature and although I didn’t have it as bad as those doing 6-week programs, the 8-week program I did for a core chemistry class was no joke. I am yet to get my final mark back but I calculated all my exam, quiz, lab, presentation, etc. scores and am sitting at an 89.95% (I will cry so hard if he doesn’t round that to an A) for that particular class. Barely getting an A was not where I expected to be when it was all said and done but that was where I ended up. Before that I took 15 units in Spring 2016 and did quite badly only passing 2 of my 3 original courses. Before even that in Fall 2015 I took 3 courses and passed all of them with flying colors. Prior to this in the Summer of 2015 I took 2 courses and again passed all of them with flying colors. There is a spiraling trend and not the good kind prevalent in the last 2 semesters and before moving on and into Fall 2016, I need to think about some of the mistakes I have made in previous semesters (especially this last summer).

~ procrastination

~ false sense of superiority when compared to community college students

~ condensed/ intensive lecture hours (we were in class from 5:30-10 pm 4 days a week; MTWR)... so I barely showed up nearing the last 4 weeks of class

~ summer slumps (my thought process was as follows: “I deserve a break”, “It’s okay for me have rest days” (turns into a rest week), “One more episode won’t hurt”, and the list goes on and on and on. 

~ post-work sessions (after being at work from 7:30 am to about 5:30 pm I did not look forward to driving 30 minutes west to attend a 4.5 hr lecture/lab... it was much more tempting to just head home and cook/eat dinner with my boyfriend and relax with an episode of something stupid)... this boils down to unrealistic scheduling of work/school which was a MAJOR problem of mine in Spring of 2016 and led me to drop multiple classes (a problem I had never had experience with before but am wiser about now)

~ poor time-management (the ‘summer slumps’/procrastination issues fall under this one and is self-explanatory)

~ poor day-management/ unproductive use of class time (i.e. not packing water/coffee/snacks, not getting enough sleep, not bringing notes/laptop or other class required materials, etc.)

~ encountering material for the first time in the class (not being prepared; I am a firm believer in going over/taking notes on the material being presented prior to it’s presentation- this leads to unproductive uses of class time ^^^)