Moving Too Fast!

This semester is whizzing by me in a flash. I feel like I am constantly treading water just to keep my head up enough to gasp some air. With 5 courses, I expected some increase in the amount of time I needed to keep up, but I think I bit off a bit more than I can chew! If I was taking courses like Astronomy and Psychology, I think I would be OK. But, I am taking English, Statistics, Astronomy, Spanish and Humanities. These courses are the last of the prerequisites I need to finally move toward my BS in Psychology. Still with a BS in Alternative Medicine, I was hoping to be in a Masters program, but I am having to do 2 years of preparatory courses for the Masters by getting the BS at UCF. I feel like I am so involved in getting prepared to do something that I sometimes feel I will never get to do what ever it is I am going to do when I am done with all this preparation!
In the mean time, the English course is a writing course, which has been surprisingly amazing for me. It has been an experience of honing my writing skills as well as learning many things I did not know about writing. I always thought I was a good writer. But, this course has humbled me and shown me that my writing was crying out for improvement. Alot of improvement. So, it has become part of my routine and it is going well. Spanish is the same as it always has been. It takes alot of work to learn a language. You have to get creative in how you retain it and create opportunities to use it. Most challenging, but I do put the time into it and I am doing well. Astronomy is wonderful, fun and pretty easy. I am a die hard Sci-Fi enthusiast. I have no problem loosing myself in the work, enjoying learning the subject and getting a lot out of the activities, homework, classes, etc. The movies are a great perk. Moving on to Statistics. I do not have to say much about this subject because most people I know disliked it strongly. I, however, know that it is a course that causes boredom and frustration to reach new hights, but, working on a positive attitude right from the start, I approached this subject as if I was going to enjoy every minute of it. Hmmm. Not sure if that is working, but, I am finding it extremely challenging. The subject matter has its own challenges for me, but the amount of work that I must do as I move through this course is astonishing. The chapters are to be read and studied. The homework given for each chapter must be done. No credit for getting it done. The on-line classes in video must be watched and the worksheets that are additional to the book must be done with them. No credit for getting this done, either. Then, there is the in class work sheet each week, which never seems to get done within the class time and must be finished at home. Almost each week there is a quiz for 20 minutes and you can't use your book, notes, homework, or anything to do it. Memory is fading in the setting sun and I can't remember all this stuff! I am so slow and it takes me extra time to remember information and I many times do not finish the quizes, resulting in a poorer grade than I should get. The exams are also during class without books, notes, homework, etc. So at the end of it all, not much can be done if I don't get the good grades during these two opportunities to get a grade. The quizes and the exams are the only things counted for my grade. That's alot of work for so little toward the grade. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the work required by this course, but I am keeping up OK. Just need a memory rejuvination so it works again!
Now, this ends us up on the final assessment of my 5th subject: Humanities. This course also requires much reading, posting or writing, essays, exams and this blog site as part of our asignments. By itself, the amount of work isn't as bad as statistics, but the amount of work is much higher than many courses I have taken. This course was not in my favorite's list either, but is a required prerequisite. So, I was not excited about it. However, keeping my attitude in check and making sure my initial introduction to the subject was positive, I determined that I would enjoy every minute of this subject, even if I didn't really want to. Too bad! Got to. So, with joy and anticipation, enthusiasm and excitement, I delved into the beautifully laid out text books and began to read and do the lessons. To my great surprise, I really do enjoy this course. I really do like learning about the humanities end of civilization. I thought there would be more dry facts, dates, places, events, etc. and I would struggle to remember them for tests. Instead, I struggle to remember things that I am really interested in. Just because my memory is useless, doesn't mean I can't enjoy the subject. It helps that I can use my books, notes, etc to do well on the tests. The writing is improving because both of these courses, English and Humanities, critique it and cause me to learn how to write better. I'm very interested in that kind of improvement. I think my writing is getting better as the semester progresses.
So, as overwhelmed as I am, I now will attempt to embelish this site with the highlights of my work in this course. Thanks for stopping by, checking me out and reading about my saga, the adventure of learning in academia.