7B: Yesterday is History

I was taking a brief reflection of my college experience so far and one thing I considered as a little bit of a failure was my performance in my History class. This has never been one of my favorite subjects because in my opinion things of the past tend to get really confusing and repetitive. There always seems to be some sort of disagreement then a war to try and reach an agreement, which also usually comes attached with a lot of death and debt. It just seems depressing to me most of the time.

Anyways, I was unsatisfied with the first grade I got in that class. Although it’s not considered failing and most people would probably be satisfied with such a grade, to me it was disappointing. I spent a lot of time studying but when the exam came around some things seemed completely different and unfamiliar. I noticed that what I had taken notes on from in the text book had showed a different aspect then what the professor had shared in class. On the exam the questions seemed to be leaning more toward what was given in the lecture rather than what was written in the books. Since, my class is a huge lecture there isn’t much discussion like in high school, so my reaction was to just try and write down as much of what the professor said as possible. I realized immediately that my mistake was getting too hung up on every little thing that the he said instead of picking out the important points and later looking further into them in the book.

I decided to move my seat to the very front row of the lecture room so that I could clearly hear what the professor says without feeling the need to write it all down because now I’m so close that I could just ask him anything I don’t fully understand. I listen more attentively now before jotting down random things. I have also been comparing what I’ve been learning from the book with what is brought up in lecture beforehand. So that I could see how everything plays in this time instead of just analyzing two different sources of information and only trying to make sense of them on the test. I hope that I can continue to improve my study skills not just for history but for all classes in general. This incidence made me realize that certain classes require different approaches and techniques and also that college truly provides endless learning opportunities whether it be from our mistakes or from the text books.