1st Sem of the last half of my College life

This semester has got to be the worst for my academic life. Well, I knew it was going to be 3 weeks in. That early I said to myself, “this sem is screwed up, I’ll just ride it out and change and put all my effort next sem.” And that’s what I did. Finals week became damage control just to prevent the bad grades I’m expecting from becoming worse.

The semester started well actually. Philo seemed fun, Theology under Dacanay was intimidating in a good way, and my DS subjects were interesting, of course.. But then this whole personal problem thing took effect and my whole life got derailed. All these distractions. Include the fact that I got into playing DotA more, which I admit I became an unhealthy habit; given a choice between working on an assignment or studying, or playing a game, I would almost always choose to play then cram on my academics later. Here’s how I messed up this semester.

Like I said Philo seemed fun. My teacher was funny in a way that he explained concepts using stupid stories from the past or layman’s analogies, which made the class lively and understanding easy. However soon the readings became more and more of an headache to read, and as the concepts became more and more abstract my resistance to subject increased with it. With the lessons hitting a brick wall in my head I found my mind slipping in class, which to me is like leaving a computer idle; sooner or later it will power down and hibernate. And that’s what happened. One day I fell asleep in class and for the rest of the semester I spent more time asleep than I was awake and listening. Which is bad because whatever easy-to-understand explanation sir Pasco gave in class was wasted on me. When time came for long tests and papers that involves philosophizing, I lacked the knowledge to explain it save for whatever term I think I heard in my dreams or what I remember getting a glimpse of in the blackboard in the times I am awake to shift to a more comfortable sleeping position. And philo finals was technically my first real orals. I had a week to study all the concepts I slept through the whole semester, which I wasted. I studied 9 thesis statements from scratch 7 hours before the orals. Come orals time I just said all the things I can think off even remotely related to the thesis statement. End grade, C+.

I would say my favorite class this semester would be Theology. Fr. Dacanay kept the class attentive with an unholy mix of fear and entertainment. Who knew a priest could have so many sex jokes be crass with it too. What he taught wasn't just dogmatic Church teaching, but the moral reasoning behind it. Not what just the Church says, but why it says it. He deserves his legendary reputation and i recommend taking him to everyone; everyone who is willing to gamble his/her grades that is. That said my problem for Theo was that my quiz grades were erratic. A 3 this week will turn into an F the next. Part of the reason for that is I didn't study well for the quizzes. I would read the required reading for that test 10 minutes before the class while walking to it. I didn't take any orals. The first chance i skipped because I was still intimidated by the thought. The second chance I missed the sign-up and almost missed the written test because I didn't know the right dates. The finals orals I decided not to take because by then I couldn’t gamble with my grades anymore. My group didn’t help at all. Or I should say they did. Because even though they are a group of little pretentious queen bee wannabes who do things at the last minute, they still manage to do the stuff that’s needed to be done. End grade: D. Yeah I survived.

And since I've put off this post and I'm getting tired of it, let me speed through the rest of the subjects.

DS 102. Slept through it the whole sem, didn't read the readings. C+

DS 112. Only problem is surprise low quiz grades. C+

DS 130. Loved it. Normal effort. Surprised to get a B

OrgMan. Thought it will be easy. But it turns out I didn't put in my side of the effort, and i regret that. Sir is the type of guy who will perfectly mirror the amount of effort you put in. Grade: C. I deserved it.