I will completely honest. I often feel this way since I get frustrated with a few professors who go over their lectures way too fast and all over the place for me to even catch up on my notes, especially since I’m a slow note taker. My memorization skills are rarely ever good since I often immediately forget a lot of things that I tried really hard to study or learn. It’s even more difficult for me to study when my parents always need me to help them with something at the most inconvenient time, depriving me of my sleep, study, and homework time. I’m having a lot of trouble with Calculus 1 and Biology 182 since with Calc 1, I forgot a large chunk of my algebra skills that I’ve learn because I haven’t taken algebra in a very long time and Biology 182 because of a study guide that I have that is filled with very vague instructions and questions that can mean anything. On top of that, I have a ridiculously short amount of time to even be able to practice and study for my two class exams this week.
It feels like the only way for me to guarantee myself success in college is to be intellectually gifted, an ability to multitask, be a fast note taker and have strong memorization skills, all of which I lack. I guess I either just be stuck in community college for a very long time wasting my time and money(without being able to transfer to a University with an associates) or just flat out give up out of frustration and give up on my life and be stuck with horrible low-paying corporate jobs. I mean, if I can’t even get past community college as a part-time student, part-time employed, then there’s no way in hell that I will probably survive University but I also want to be successful with my life and be happy, not miserable and being a failure.
I have a smart pen but I only use it for BIO182 since it will be completely useless for my Calculus 1 course since Math in general, is something that you learn visually and hands-on, not through audios.
Those are tough classes - you might consider a different career path, but I’d still at least try to get the associate’s degree. What will you do if you don’t stick with college?
Also… it is WAY easier to finish college before you have a family than after. Give that some serious thought before you drop out, as it is tougher to go back when you have a lot of family responsibilities.
@intparent Not quite sure yet. I haven’t thought about it yet since just now, I was thinking that since I don’t have too many prerequisite classes left before I finish my associates and transfer to ASU for Software Engineering major(could probably be until next fall for me when I finish my associates and transfer), that I will pretty much be throwing away all of my years of hard work and money.
Well… I’d have a plan before you quit in frustration. Can you get tutoring for the classes you are struggling in?
Also, there are certainly IT jobs that don’t require a software engineering job. They don’t pay as well, but still… IT is a “what have you done lately” kind of profession.
@Grijalva480 Finish your associated if you’re close. That is going to be a difficult major though. Get tutoring. Are there other majors you could choose?
There are a lot of good trade jobs out there. Welding, electrical, construction, manufacturing. Michigan is actually starting a TV campaign to get kids to consider the trades in place of college because there are so many open positions.
So, you might benefit from switching majors and/or changing your classes. Tutoring might be another option as well.
Some jobs require a degree and others don’t. If I were you, then I’d be finding jobs that don’t require degrees if you think that college is not for you. Even if you have a plan for the future, remember that if you want to work at your “dream job”, then figure out if they need a degree from you or not.
I understand that you’re going through a rough time now, but in about 5-10 years from now, I believe that you’ll be doing what your heart told you to do 5-10 years ago, which starts today.
The guy who maintains our furnace ( it’s a fancy German Buderus) has a B.S. and MS in music. The pay is high. For Electricians or Plumbers make salaries in the 50s. The average teacher salary is only 45k. Just something to think about.
The thing that really frustrates me the most about college is how incredibly fast-faced their classes go, to the point where I get little to no time to even actually study and actually understand the concepts to prepare for exams and also to the point where I’m left with no choice but to deprive myself from my sleep to catch up. It’s bad enough for me already that I’m trying to balance work, personal and school life while my parents would often take a large chunk of my HW/study time on the weekends to help them with something important.
It’s like, what’s the point of college if they don’t even give you any space to breath and actually really learn the lectures.
@sta3535: The reason why I picked Software Engineering as my major is because I love working with technology and break things apart with my video game consoles, computers or any hardware device, along with working on a few softwares(I sometimes make my own games on PC through a software on Steam). I also enjoy problem solving when it’s needed in my life or spare time(fixing or troubleshooting computers after watching Youtube tutorials).
I guess my only struggle with college is really my time management with studying and homework and that I’m a little slow on learning where in college, it seems extremely mandatory to be an incredibly fast learner.
This is a huge problem. And you have a job too? It sounds like you have too many things competing for your time. Have you talked to your parents about this? You might want to take just one course at a time until you can arrange to have fewer demands on your time.
@Grijalva480 I know you don’t want to hear this but there are IT trade options also where you could fix, trouble shoot and problem solve. I’m a little concerned because III introductory classes like Calc 1 are weed out classes and what comes after is generally worse. If you had to change, it would not mean failure. People have to change all the time and they do.