I don’t think the rules are particularly strict. I’ve had high school teachers with rules like that.
Besides not being used to the rules, what about them are too difficult for you to follow?
Do you have trouble making it to class on time? If you have some unavoidable reason for consistently being late (like having a class right before this one that is all the way across campus or something), then perhaps you could speak to your professor about it and ask if there could be an exception made, or leave your other class five minutes early. If you’re just not used to having to be on time, well, then now would be a great time to learn to do so. Think of school like a job. If you’re consistently late to your job, you get fired. If you’re consistently late to your class, you fail.
The bathroom rule is a little weird, in my opinion, but it’s really not that hard to go to the bathroom before class or to wait the 1hr to 1hr and a half to go to the bathroom after. Is your class really long? If it’s like a three hour class, then you could ask if the professor wouldn’t mind having some sort of break halfway through. If the class is just an hour and a half or an hour long, then I think you can handle not going to the bathroom. If you have a medical reason why you have to go to the bathroom during class, speak with your professor about making an accommodation, but I really don’t think that’s the case here.
Now, I think the real problem is that your having trouble keeping up in the class. Look at how your structuring your time. College in general tends to have more outside of class work than in-class time, whether that work is homework, writing assignments, or just studying. If your having trouble keeping up, perhaps you should talk to your professor for advice. But take a serious look at how much time and effort you are spending on the assignments. Try to find more areas in your day when you can work on assignments. Are you taking on too much extracurriculars, spending too much time with friends, working too much? School should come first, so if you don’t have enough time for school, then you have to give something else up. 4 page papers really aren’t very long, especially for college level writing. The extra practice of having to do multiple 4 page papers is probably good for you, to be honest. Try to ask for extra help from your professor or the writing center, if you need it.