So, I may have neglected to mention that I'm actually taking two classes this term. Obviously the only one that matters is my senior capstone, and fortunately for me, I love it. But see, I started college early, didn't have any AP credits (because I graduated from high school early and never took the tests), and never changed my major. Which means I have a unique and slightly amusing problem: I have 119.5 credits. I need 120 in order to graduate. So I cruised through the class offerings for Spring until I found a 1-credit course to take: Student Development 100 (Essential College Skills). Hahahahaha. Seriously. I really am taking it. The irony makes every class hilarious to me.
(Side note: it occurred to me--after the add/drop deadline--that the religion department has some 1-credit classes like "Islam and Christianity" or "Judaism and Christianity" that would have been really interesting to take, but alas, it's too late to change that now.)
Anyway, it is slightly interesting to learn about basic study skills and put my college career through a litmus test to see how I did. The funny thing is, in class this last week, the professor was adamant that students can only study/do homework for about 20 minutes before their attention starts to wander. Therefore, if studying for a long amount of time, it's wise to change subjects every half hour or so. So he told us that when we create our weekly schedules, he doesn't want to see three hours of the same studying in a row. Ha.
Well, I have news for you, Mr. Smartypants. I spent eight hours last night doing the exact same homework. Without a break. You can argue with me if you want, but it doesn't make it less true.
Granted, I agree with the principle of the thing. If I'm plowing through biology homework or something, (which I haven't done in about two and a half years) my attention span isn't that great. Changing it up every half hour to 45 minutes would probably be nice. But I'm not in those classes anymore.
His rigid study policy doesn't allow for those especially creative/mentally stimulating kinds of homework. If my homework is related to editing, design, or reading something interesting (yes, even research--a lot of times it's more interesting than the original text) I can easily get lost in it for hours and hours.
Last night I was reading The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown for my capstone course. It's not due for another week or so, but my professor recommended we get started on reading it while we finished up with Inception. I'd intended to just "get started" but eight hours later, I put down the finished book (complete with sticky notes highlighting Jungian principles wherever I found them). It felt great. I love getting lost in a new story. And if my roommates were worried that I wasn't in a good mood, I apologize. It was just hard to extract myself from the world of words in front of me long enough to respond to their questions.
20-minute attention span? Pah. Not when it comes to doing the things I love. Although, I may only spend 20 minutes at a time on homework for his class. We shall see.
1 comment:
Yeah, that's kind of silly. I think I see his point, but when I really get into something, the worst thing you could to do is pull me out at 20 minutes.
It really is funny you're half a credit short! Hah!
Post a Comment