So I just finished my first summer session (aka summer school) about a week ago. I was a bit disappointed with my genetics class because I messed up on the final. In my defense, everyone thought the professor was extremely bad at lecturing and just rushed through his unorganized power point slides. As I’ve mentioned before, I was actually retaking this genetics class. I took it last fall, but that was when I was going through really bad personal issues and my grades plummeted. I didn’t pass this class the first time. During summer session, with personal issues long resolved, I planned to get maybe an “A-“. But the final killed me and I ended up getting a “B-“. So that was rather disappointing, but in a way I am really grateful that I made up my grade for something way better and I don’t have to give up on being a biology major (if I didn’t pass the class again, I’d be in big trouble because I wouldn’t be allowed to retake it again but it is a required class in order to graduate with a degree in biology).

I also took the last of three organic chemistry classes and ended up doing well enough. “B+”. I had a very good chance at getting an “A” because I did way above average on the quizzes and midterm, but the final killed me (especially since it was on the same day as genetics) and I got exactly the average score on it. So I ended up with a B plus. But I’m still pretty satisfied with that, and overall I did pretty damn well for the organic chemistry series. (“A”, “B” and “B+”) Pretty proud of the “A” because I also took that class the same time I failed genetics last fall and barely scraped by with a “C-“. I retook that course the next quarter and worked hard enough to replace my grade with the “A”. So, slowly but surely (I hope), I am finally picking myself back up and my GPA is being revived.

Now, I just need to survive Summer Session II. It barely started last Monday. So basically I had Summer Session I for 5 weeks and then a 4 day weekend. Then I went back to school on the following Monday for Summer Session II. Isn’t that fun? lol. I am currently taking Molecular Biology and the second quarter of Calculus. Ew. After I finish SSII, I will finally get a long summer break…all two weeks worth before school starts again. But it’s okay. Because, well, last fall quarter I fell so hard, and now this is my chance to get back up before the next school year. I would much rather stay at home and do nothing, but honestly I’m getting terribly used to having to study, be on campus for 10 hours at a time and be stressed. When my two week vacation comes along, I’m going to appreciate it so much, compared to people who have been sitting at home for a full three months.

Well, since I’m already rambling about school, I guess I will continue! My initial plan for Summer Session II was to only take Calculus, so that I could focus on that class and have a bit of a break for the second half of summer. However, I learned that one of the biology professors was getting fired after this summer. And in my experience, I think she is a very good lecturer as well as very fair. So I wanted to take her for Molecular Biology before she was fired. PLUS, biology classes in the summer really are easier than during the school year. Yes, it’s faster paced at only 5 weeks total, but because of this, the professors give us a bit of leeway by cutting some things out. So this is why I decided to really make myself suffer by taking two classes again for the next five weeks.

I went to my Calculus class the first day, and you know what? The “professor” turned out to be a TA or graduate student, I believe, and he was REALLY bad. It was barely the first lecture and he started losing me, and I could hear other people were lost as well. He claimed to have never used a whiteboard before and accidentally called himself a student when he really meant to say “And now I’m here as a teacher, teaching this calculus class.” He also wrote too small on the whiteboard for us to see. I asked him to write larger, and some other students asked him the same thing at least three times, but he always ended up writing too small for us to see anything. This is a two hour class, and with about half an hour left, I got up and left.

I told myself I would either drop Calculus completely, or try to switch into another class. My friend had actually taken the second quarter Calculus last Summer Session, and recommended his professor to me, so I went to check his class out. I ended up really liking him and his teaching style. I told him I wanted to switch into his class and asked if he would sign my course change request paper, and you know what he said? “Sure, I’ll sign anything for anybody.” LOL. I was like, “WOW. That was super easy.” After class, I immediately went to the admin building to change into his class with my signed paper. That is just too awesome.

I made the right choice to switch because this professor is AMAZING. He starts off class by rambling about life and random things like that, but he’s a great lecturer and I like listening to him so I really don’t mind. And then when he lectures about math he is usually very clear. There’s more. Homework and quizzes are a HUGE portion of our grades, but apparently when the TA checks our homework we just need to have mathematical work shown and the answer written. For quizzes we are given the questions (and answers) AHEAD of time, so we can practice them at home and ace the quizzes. He even said he’ll give us an extra credit opportunity, which is making a YouTube video that shows how to do one of our homework problems. This guy is just too nice and he really wants us to do well in his class. It’s not too often that you will find such a nice math professor in college.

So yeah, although the workload isn’t any easier and especially in just a mere five weeks, I feel really happy about my choice of professors. Hopefully this means I will end up doing decently or even really well in these classes. Gettin’ back on my feet!