I thought I’d do a bit of a review of my classes last semester, more for myself than anyone else. As this was my first semester of college, it was pretty, uhm, interesting, I guess, and I would definitely say a learning experience.
This semester I only took 12 credit hours, which looking back is something that I regret- I wish I would’ve taken more to make later years less of a burden.
1. Arts & Science 100
This class was just a joke. At the beginning of the year, since I started as a French major, I was in the College of Arts & Sciences, so this class was a requirement. However, I kid you not, I had lectures on how to read a textbook, take notes, and even a sex education class. Yes, in college, where we are all 18+. We did a lot of career projects and papers, to get more of an “idea” of what we want to do after college. My instructor was nice, but she was overly enthusiastic about class assignments. Sometimes I felt like I was in preschool and she was handing out coloring pages and crayons, excitedly telling us what we were going to do. I’m pretty sure I would have preferred coloring though. The only useful thing I got from that class was a booster to my GPA and an updated resume.
Credits: 3
Final Grade: A
2. Psychology 201
This class I really enjoyed. It was just an introductory Psychology class, and I had never taken Psychology in high school, so I was interested just by the mere fact that I didn’t know much about it. My professor was really sweet, and was very helpful but sometimes had a hard time keeping the large class (around 100 students) quiet. This class was more biology driven, which was also kind of annoying since I’m not one for the sciences, but I overall really enjoyed the class. It’s made me even consider psychology as a minor, but I need to think that over a bit more.
Credits: 3
Final Grade:A
3. French 211
Simply, this class was hell and my professor was the devil. He was a stereotypcial Frenchman: rude, snobby, condescending, and couldn’t understand a word I said in his language. I really hated this class; I dreaded going to it each day, since it was basically class-driven. What I mean by that is he would come in with a vague topic, and we would have to keep the discussion going. Which would be fine if it were an upper-level French course, but this was the first course after elementary French, so none of us were really prepared for that kind of discussion.
Questions were not welcome; a girl that sat next to me asked once what a word meant and he freaked out, started yelling at her for not knowing the word, and then told the whole class that this was a French class, not an English class. Well now that that’s cleared up. On another occasion, another student asked for clarification of some instructions he had given us. Our professor then proceeded to announce to the class that he gave instructions in French because that particular student had bad test grades. Uhm, what? Neither did that answer his question, or make any sense. He just liked to be a dick.
This class was also pretty writing intensive; I did more writing in this class than in my Honors English class. The compositions were pretty difficult, but somehow I managed to get at least a B on all of them. At the end of the semester, I had a solid B, but he rounded me up to an A-, which was completely surprising and very kind of him, the first nice thing I’ve ever seen him do. But I’m not complaining; I’ll take it.
Needless to say I’m not taking anymore French in college, which is kind of sad since I used to love it so much. I still do to an extent, just not enough to go through more levels of hell, probably with the same professor.
Credits: 3
Grade: A-
4. English H225
I was pretty nervous going into this class, since it was an honors class, but my professor was very likable, in a quirky sort of way, and really communicated with all of her students. The class turned out to not be very hard, and it was largely discussion based, so we really didn’t have to do a whole lot of writing.
The big project we had to do was a ten page research paper on ‘Writing about Writing and Research.’ In other words, we had to write a research paper about writing and research. Fun, huh? It wasn’t too terrible after I picked my topic, which was the intertextuality of the first Harry Potter book. Since I love Harry Potter, it was king of fun in a dorky kind of way to see the connections between it and other literature.
Though only downside of this class was that I already had credit for it from a college-credit course I took in high school, and somehow my advisor got things mixed up. So I was able to get the credits as an elective, instead of just a repeat class, which is better than nothing, but it was still kind of a waste. At least it was easy.
Credits: 3
Grade: A
So overall, I achieve a 3.925 GPA, which I am very proud of. Would’ve loved a 4.0, but I can settle with this being my first semester of college and having the devil as a professor. 
Congrats on your success for the Fall semester! Aside from the mandatory English courses, I’ve always been afraid of taking a university-level language course up until now. For the Spring semester, after a long period of contemplating, I finally took up the courage to register for Mandarin >.<" I have no idea what I'm getting into, haha. Everyone told me it'll be fine, especially since I'm surrounded by Chinese people that can tutor me
Happy New Year, Becca!!
Reviewing back in your classes for last semester is really nice for future references. I have a whole different blog/site dedicated to my college courses and such.
12 credit hours is pretty good; it’s a good start and you took it pretty easy. Congratulations on getting a 3.925 GPA! You really got yourself high grades there!
When you’re taking introductory/beginner’s classes, it should be really easy to go through. Many people are bound to go through devil-like teachers/professors in their lives… Like me with this art teacher a couple of years ago. Congratulations on pulling off the A-! It’s way better than getting a B for sure :). Though, your advisor getting your credits mixed up is really nerve wrecking. I’m glad to hear that you made things worked at the end!
I saw that you were a lot less active last semester! It’s all about time management and getting your priorities straight. Hopefully, you will work things out and blog more ;)!
Good luck to you with your goals for the year and you can do it!
Take care!
I loved this new theme, especially the menu!
You had an academically great last year… though that French professor sounds horrible! I mean how can someone assume that the students know the language perfectly and shouldn’t ask doubts? But still you did great in getting an A-! Congrats!
Wow you got a new pretty theme!
I took 15 credits this semester. I only got 11 of them too after failing math, which is a shame. I kinda regret that but not like I can do anything.
I had a class similar to Arts & Science 100, it’s like a basic starter! Easy grade!
I loved intro to psychology, but I didn’t like anything past it! I gave it up for education. You prob just missed the posts I had about it!
Urgh I can imagine French class be difficult! I am taking Japanese next semester!
That is good you took English H225 and got an extra elective grade!
Your GPA is way too high. That is not a bad thing of course LOL but it just makes me look terrible!
I have to say, this is such a pretty theme! I love the simplicity of it!
Your GPA is great! You did a really good job this semester! Keep your head up girl! Take all that motivation into your spring semester and kick some butt! c:
I found it pretty difficult trying to learn two languages at once. When I was in high school, I studied Chinese for two years. Then, I had to attend my basic English classes too. I love English – this is one reason why I passed. But Chinese was very difficult for me.
Psychology, ugh, I hate it. It was like learning a new language at the age of 20. I was always confused and had to ask for constant help in this class. I don’t see how people obtain a degree in psychology, especially if I can barely pass the class, let alone get a degree in psychology.
Amazing job this semester Becca! You did really well! I just got my grades back two days ago and I was pretty pleased as well. It’s sad about the french teacher, I had a terrible french teacher in high school so I switched to spanish for my first semester of college. She was a HUGE improvement from the one I had in high school.
Have you picked your classes for next semester yet? I’m sure you’ll do wonderfully in those too.
Happy New Year! Anyhow, except for French, everything seemed fine. Man, french seemed like hell just from reading it. It’s a shame because the language itself is very beautiful and so is the history of it.
You did amazing! Congrats on your GPA!
Thanks so much as always, Becca! I’m pretty happy with the way this layout turned out. I wanted to feature one of my best pieces on the header, and the lion is definitely among my best work. Glad you love it and happy 2013 to you too!
and ha, I know! I’m just like “Screw this, I do what I want” when it comes to the “eat healthier/exercise more” goals.
Good luck on reading 52 books! And oh man, I love reading more than anything. I just wish I had more time for it! I must have over 50 books sitting on my floor that I haven’t read yet because of school and crap. My reading goal for 2013 is at 30 books. I attempted 30 last year but only got to an embarrassing 19 books, yikes! So far, I have two books read this year. Not a bad start. 
And thanks! I highly doubt that I’ll get everything that I need accomplished, but we’ll see how far I get. Good luck on your upcoming classes! I haven’t even looked to see what textbooks I need yet. 
Congratulations on your successful fall semester! And ha, that Arts & Sciences class sounded like a class I had to take freshman year. One of those standard “introducing-you-to-college” courses. It was such a waste of time. My professor was super bubbly about the class, too! It got on my nerves actually, LOL.
I took an Intro. to Psychology class this past semester as well. It was quite fascinating, despite the fact that there were 300 students. The professor was bloody awesome and hilarious, though. He was always so energetic and excited and I could tell he loved what he did and that he genuinely cared for his students. I love professors like that.
You would’ve loved him.
I’m sorry to hear about your horrid French professor, but at least you survived with an A! It always sucks to get the worst professors. I try to avoid them when I can but still end up with one every now and then because they’re the only ones who teach the class.
Have you heard of ratemyprofessor.com?
And that’s so cool that you wrote a ten-page paper on Harry Potter! I’m sure that was really interesting to research and write about. For one of my freshman English classes, I got to write a 10-page paper on how the Beatles influenced/changed the world and society. ;P Fascinating stuff!
Regarding Into Depp, the domain expired but I haven’t renewed it yet. I honestly don’t know if I will or not because of money issues and the fact that I have so little time for it during the school year. (Although I could start bringing on people as staff members since the site was converted to WordPress.) I should be able to still keep the domain though incase I do renew it. It’s so depressing because I love that site so much. I want to keep running it but it feels so pointless sometimes when there are so many other great Johnny sites out there that are more “complete” than mine in terms of content. And they always will be.
I’m going to still blog/ramble about Johnny via tumblr and twitter and facebook and the dA group though since those are free. 2012 felt like such a dead year for the site because 85% of the Johnny news involved (as you know) all of the paparazzi and tabloid crap with his personal life and I’ve always stayed away from that. /sigh It’s a hard decision.
Happy New Year! =D
Wow, great job on your classes! It’s really great to see people who are doing great in academics; it inspires me to do better in college when I go this spring semester.
The goods news is that hopefully you’ll have a better round of teachers next time. I had a professor who was really hard on tests and refused to give the class anything higher than a B in most cases. It was frustrating, but I did get an A in that class.
That kinda of sucks having to take English anyways and I know how you feel. I took the AP test for it and missed a 3 by five points because I misinterpreted the last essay on the test. It was a huge disappointment, but I didn’t exactly have the best teacher for it since he was brand new. At least it’s done and over with now!
Anyways, have a good week! ^^
Oh man, totally feel you on the AP tests – they are awful! I took the one for English and managed to get a 3, but my university required a 4 or a 5 so that was soo frustrating. But, ah well.
Wow those grades are great! Congrats on having such a successful first semester at college. It’s going to give you such a confidence boost for the semesters to come, I’m sure. When do you have to choose your major and minor by? And what do you think they will be? Also, I hope this doesn’t sound weird, but I’m really curious about the paper you wrote about intertextuality and would love to read it… my sister did something similar one semester.
I have already declared my major as Business Administration (though I don’t have an emphasis yet – that I have to choose my junior year). It’s not required to have a minor, but I’d like to have one. I don’t think that there is a deadline to choose by. There’s a lot of different areas I’d be interested in for a minor – such as history and psychology. But I just need to think about it some more.
I can send it to your e-mail if you would like?
That would be cool, please
Just sent it – hope it’s not too awful to read.