Chopsticks and History Class

For the record, I honestly think that Honor classes don't even begin to prepare you for college. When my honors English IV teacher told us that she was going to treat us like we were in college even though we weren't in her AP class, I thought I'd get a taste for the way classes would really be. Oh how wrong I was. She did take things late, she did give us extensions on deadlines, she did give us extra credit... People here will grab you by the balls and swing you by them if you don't read the material, if you don't take the quizzes seriously and especially if you don't seek help for your problem areas. At least I'm learning this early on in the semester instead of the end of it, which is good.

My history class is US History Since 1877 (because the US History Prior 1877 was full when I tried to sign up for it) is actually pretty okay. Sure, it's taught by someone in their fifties, sixties with white hair, a mustache and glasses (pretty much what you'd expect a professor of history to look like) but generally, he tries to make jokes and keep the subject light. He isn't the best lecturer for those of us who would like to take notes because he simply doesn't repeat things. He generally is just a rattling on and on without thinking about repeating years, statistics, names he hasn't written on the board, etc. After you get past that, I suppose some would consider it easy. My problem is that he gives quizzes (announced quizzes, there's one coming up on Wednesday on Chapter 17) that are five questions, multiple choice. Now, either I have a problem understanding the options given to me or I misunderstand the answers given to me to choose from. Or, which is probably the more likely case, I'm not able to compute the textbook. I read the sections, I look up the organizations and people and treaties and such that he gives us to study, but somehow either I'm not grasping what the text is trying to tell me or my study skills are sorely lacking. On this one, I'm voting for both the not grasping the text and my study skills.

Worst of it is, I read the sections then study the morning of the quiz over breakfast with Jordan. This last time, I studied the night before with Joel. You would think I would be better prepared for the quiz but no - oh, no. Jordan got a one hundred on his quiz, Joel's off to class now but since I helped him study before his quiz, I'm sure he also did better than me. I'm going off the fact that he was hugging me constantly after the quiz and calling me his hero and such. So why is it that I'm the one not getting it? I honestly don't understand. I guess it's like chopsticks. Some people pick it up easily, some you have to give the children's version of chopsticks to (where they're attached at the top instead of being separate?), and some you have to teach slowly. I suppose I'm the latter, which bothers me. So I'm off to study for my quiz on Wednesday and hope that the construction outside my window will cease. They seem to be tilling up the land for some reason unbeknownst to me... But everytime something goes -bang- I jump out of my seat like two feet in the air. Gives me a heart attack every time. Music isn't drowning it out which is bad...

I'll post more later probably if I'm not busy, which I don't think I will be but I do have to do my laundry today, running out of clothes. And I have a present waiting for me from my parents next I see them, a webcam and my old iPod fixed. Yay!