Blog 2
“Next time” or “I will not do”
Before coming to R-World I had heard a lot of rumors about the amount of work the people here expected. In high school just like a lot of other people I used to just get by doing the minimum of what was expected, I had decent grades, enough to get a 3.6 GPA. At first I thought to myself “if I got through high school doing the least amount of work possible and still did really well then maybe I can continue it in college.” After the first full week at R-World I realized I had overestimated myself tremendously, I didn’t think I was the best in school and what not, but I did think that R-World classes would not be too hard, I was wrong. My first week was pretty confusing, I was forced to switch out of Spanish 304 because I am a native speaker and was placed in Spanish 303, which is a composition class.
After three-weeks of R-World biological studies I had my first exam. I was definitely not expecting to have an exam this close to the beginning of the school year. When Dr. Walke announced to the class that there would be an exam on Friday, September 12, everyone in the classes had blank looks on their faces. As soon as she said it the conversations began, “hey lets study,” “want to go to the library and re-read the book?” or my personal favorite and the conversation I joined in on, “What the hell? Already?”
Although I was a little surprised by the new that I would be taking an exam so soon I thought to myself, “I can do this. I just need to study and not procrastinate and put off the study guide,” … it was the first thing I did. Instead of starting to work on the study guide Monday when it was originally given to us I waited until Wednesday to start working on it and study. I knew I was screwed. As the Friday drew closer I became more nervous, I would freak out if I didn’t understand something on the study guide. I ridiculed myself if I forgot what the function of a certain cell was or what cells had which functions. Although I was extremely nervous for the exam, I continued studying for it and began to understand more and more of the material, which was previously a mystery.
Thursday night I had my last cram session with two friends that are also in my class. The three of us began to study at 4:00 and finished studying at 8:00. We all felt pretty good with ourselves and we all believed we knew the material relatively well. However, the day of the exam, rumors had already begun to spread, as soon as that 8:30 class was over people already knew how hard the test would be. Hearing the rumors that the test was going to be extremely hard freaked me out. I stopped paying attention to my Spanish professor so I could study for the exam, and I also did not pay attention to the chemistry lesson because I was going over the material once again to make sure I knew what I was doing.
My last class of the day was Biology. I walked into the life science building knowing that I should have studied a bit more. I sat in my seat which was a seat in the middle of the classroom and waited for the Professor to walk in. Once she passed out the exam I knew I was screwed. The things I thought I knew and had studied had faded out of my mind. I no longer knew the difference between osmosis and diffusion was, I couldn’t label the plant cell completely, nor could I tell why cystic fibrous was affected by protein folding. Long story short I do not feel I earned a high grade on the exam. Now that I know understand the way exams are in R-World I am pushing myself to study harder next time and not procrastinate or in other words next time, I will NOT, procrastinate.
Blog 1
Who Do I Call When I Need Help?
Before coming to R-World my mother would always know what to do. If I needed anything she was there. Just in the first week of being in a foreign place R-World forced me to face a pretty fun yet frightening night that left me wondering what was going to happen. On a cold Friday night my roommate and I went to Lucky’s to buy a pizza because some friends had came over. While we were there the owner of Lucky’s was talking to us about his collection of and hot sauces and how there was a challenge they offer. My roommate being the “tough” guy he thinks he is took the challenge. The suspense was real. As we waited for the pizza he was talking really tough he kept saying “How hot can this really be?” However, once we actually saw the hot sauce dripping out of the pizza he began to get scared. He regretted agreeing to do the challenge, but his pride was too important to him to back down now. He Picked up the Pizza and went at it, each bite he took was a struggle to watch. Watching him cry was both amusing yet scary because after three bites tears began to descend off the side of his face. His face was extremely red, probably from the hot sauce, the grease, and the pain he was feeling. He couldn’t accomplish the challenge however he did learn that he shouldn’t be too cocky. Although that was pretty exciting, the real excitement started at 8:45 when he texted me the words, “help I’m throwing up blood and I feel like I’m about to pass out.” I left the concert wondering whether he was all right, as soon as I got to the dorm I noticed he was on the floor in the fetal position. I knocked on one of R-worlds resident advisors doors to ask for help, but she wasn’t there so I texted her and asked her what to do so she called me and told me to call campo. I called campo and they told me they were going to call the ambulance to take him to the hospital. Although he was in excruciating pain he still had enough energy to go on to Yik Yak and post about his experience. So now that I think about whom to call when I need help, the only thing that is going to come to mind is “Call Campo,” and also never try Lucky’s hot sauce challenge.
9. Taylor Gilley
I had the exact same test biology and I feel the same way! I did not study at all and could not figure out what cystic fibrosis was or even the basic definition of science. Next time I am definitely studying and not waiting until the last minute!
09/15/14, 03:51 pm
8. Myles Cooper
Had my 1st exam in PoliSci last week, and can definitely relate. Even if I studied even more I still felt somewhat unprepared, and I was even doubting myself come exam day. I guess this is really all apart of the transition though.
09/15/14, 03:31 pm
7. Jeanne Skulstad
I feel the exact same way about my psych exam tomorrow! My teacher didn't even give us a study guide or told us anything specific that is going on to be on the test. So Im just studying what the professor talked about in class and hoping that would be somewhat helpful. Like you said, this is all a learning experience and if we don't do so well on the first exam we will work harder to do better on the next one.
09/15/14, 03:21 am
6. Aaron Heinle
I know exactly how you feel, i did the same thing with my bio exam. but all we can do now is learn and make the next exam easier by not doing the same thing.
09/15/14, 02:34 am
5. Griffin Davidson
I took the same exam in Bio with the same professor. Don't worry about how you did, just focus on moving on and learning from any mistakes and you'll have great success moving forward.
09/14/14, 05:09 pm
4. Taylor Gilley
I agree with Uni. I love hot sauce, but I don't think I will try that on a pizza. I have known so many people that have been to the hospital in the past two weeks. I'm sure the hospital expects this now.
09/07/14, 11:06 pm
3. Unica Alleyne
I love hot sauce but now I'm cared hot sauce pizza sounded great until I say how ur friend turned out I'm so sorry. Note to self : don't eat luckys hot sauce pizza
09/07/14, 08:42 pm
2. Paul Hanstedt
Wow. I just--I pretty much don't know what to say . . . Just: wow. Crazy. I can't believe Lucky's can serve food that can actually send people to the hospital and not get sued!
I loved the description of him eating the pizza with tears down his face and his face all red. Take a bit more time describing this: you don't need to do it all in one paragraph. Let us actually hear how cocky he is by letting us hear his actual words.
Good stuff. And I'm with Kaitlin: ouch.
09/07/14, 06:59 pm
1. Kaitlin Madigan
Oh my goodness, your poor friend! Well, I guess it kinda serves him right for ingesting all that hot sauce... Still, ouch! I have to say that I've always thought people bleeding and throwing up blood after eating a lot of spicy food/hot sauce was a myth. Turns out that I was wrong. Really great job with telling your tale, it was highly amusing!
09/07/14, 05:35 pm