I was talking to one of my friends here and she was telling me about the time she put into studying and getting good grades. That got me thinking about the amount of work I put into classes. I’ve never really had to put much effort to get good grades in my classes barring a few classes. Every single math course so far except for Real Anaysis was within my grasp of understanding after just listening to the lecture and doing minimal practice. I can say the same for a lot of the physics classes. I’d say the toughest physics class that required the most attention was Quantum Mechanics because a lot of the math was new and we were barely grazing the surface. I’ve gotten A-’s or A’s in all of the courses in my major fields of study and I am a senior! That’s saying that I have done pretty well for 3 years even with tough faculty because the faculty had exceptional teaching skills. I have known for a long time that I learn the best from lectures rather than text books. I just can’t grasp concepts while reading especially if they are brand new and advanced. I had that problem in chemistry with one of the chem faculty. However, I realize that I have to face this problem real soon when I hit graduate school because I will have to teach myself most of everything I need to know.
One more thing I’ve noticed is that I have never depended on anyone but the professor to teach me things that I didn’t understand because usually if I didn’t get it, no one else did either or had incomplete understanding. I guess that sounds like bragging but I don’t mean to be a braggart. I was thinking about how I have been used by other people to tutor/teach concepts taught in class. Sometimes I wish I had someone like me for me, a fall back option in a peer.
