I surrender.
Just got home from classes, and I have to do something about my Architecture class. I've made it this far, but I honestly cannot keep this up. The class is, in all honesty, doing me all harm and no good.
1. The teacher is an idiot. The past two assignments were not sufficiently explained, and the only way I was able to even accomplish the first of these two is because I had the same thing in high school. The most recent assignment was barely explained beyond a handout on Tuesday, and we were told to have it half completed by today. BUT when today rolled around, he laid easily another two pages worth of verbal instructions on us (not as a class, he gave pieces of information to each student) which effectively and completely voided the work we were made to do during the week. With the assignments only getting more complex, I fear how much he'll forget to tell us (and yet expect us to know) about the end-quarter projects that are much more heavily-weighted towards our average.
2. The resource materials are insufficient. We were required to pay approximately $185 for two books that were supposed to give us all the information we needed in order to properly complete the assignments (and given how one of them is a whopping 2,000 pages, you'd think it would!). However, one book turned out to simply be an ABC's of drawing (um, I already took this jackass, I'm kinda aware of what dimension is!), and the giant, $150, 2,000-page motherfucker is atrociously constructed; rather than serve as a reference, it merely shows a bunch of example plans that are at such a higher level than we're at that picking out the vital information becomes impossible. Nevermind the fact that it's completely unorganised and the table of contents (I don't even think it has one) and index are completely useless.
3. This elective course is taking time away from my majour-oriented classes. The other three classes I'm taking alongside this one are Character & Object Design, English II (Literature), and Art History II. Now I've been leaving myself plenty of time each day to cover all four subjects, but I find that all that time set aside ends up getting used by Architecture alone. My recent C&O project and English II essay were done at around 3:00 in the morning (note, I had to wake up at 8:00 for classes those days) simply because Architecture took up my entire day on both occasions. I'm not in Interior Design. I'm not required to take this class. And yet it robs me of time better spent devoted to the other courses because I fail if I don't put in this level of effort.
4. It's a strain on finances. I had $300 set aside for books and supplies this quarter...for all four classes. About $270 of that went to this course alone. On top of that, the teacher continues to demand new supplies at the last minute, which most recently killed any chance of me picking up a set of greyscale markers needed for my next C&O project. Thanks jackass, is it really necessary to make us pay upwards of $2 per sheet for the next seven projects? Much less continue to force us to buy about six kinds of lead at $4-ish per tube? I have better uses for this money.
5. I'm badly losing sleep. Because I have to relegate my other classwork to late night hours, I averaged about 2½ hours of sleep per night every night this week. I budgeted my time, I didn't procrastinate too much or anything, and yet this still happened. On the right home this evening, I blacked out and woke up in time to just barely avoid clipping a mailbox and flying off the road. I NEVER -- EVER -- want to experience that sort of thing again.
I'm going to try and meet with my course advisor on Monday to see what can be done about this. I'm strongly leaning towards dropping it. My familiy'll still have to pay at this point, but it shouldn't damage my GPA (whereas staying will result in one or more failed classes and/or deteriorated health). I hate to drag my college career out another quarter in order to take another elective, but that's going to happen anyway no matter what.
1. The teacher is an idiot. The past two assignments were not sufficiently explained, and the only way I was able to even accomplish the first of these two is because I had the same thing in high school. The most recent assignment was barely explained beyond a handout on Tuesday, and we were told to have it half completed by today. BUT when today rolled around, he laid easily another two pages worth of verbal instructions on us (not as a class, he gave pieces of information to each student) which effectively and completely voided the work we were made to do during the week. With the assignments only getting more complex, I fear how much he'll forget to tell us (and yet expect us to know) about the end-quarter projects that are much more heavily-weighted towards our average.
2. The resource materials are insufficient. We were required to pay approximately $185 for two books that were supposed to give us all the information we needed in order to properly complete the assignments (and given how one of them is a whopping 2,000 pages, you'd think it would!). However, one book turned out to simply be an ABC's of drawing (um, I already took this jackass, I'm kinda aware of what dimension is!), and the giant, $150, 2,000-page motherfucker is atrociously constructed; rather than serve as a reference, it merely shows a bunch of example plans that are at such a higher level than we're at that picking out the vital information becomes impossible. Nevermind the fact that it's completely unorganised and the table of contents (I don't even think it has one) and index are completely useless.
3. This elective course is taking time away from my majour-oriented classes. The other three classes I'm taking alongside this one are Character & Object Design, English II (Literature), and Art History II. Now I've been leaving myself plenty of time each day to cover all four subjects, but I find that all that time set aside ends up getting used by Architecture alone. My recent C&O project and English II essay were done at around 3:00 in the morning (note, I had to wake up at 8:00 for classes those days) simply because Architecture took up my entire day on both occasions. I'm not in Interior Design. I'm not required to take this class. And yet it robs me of time better spent devoted to the other courses because I fail if I don't put in this level of effort.
4. It's a strain on finances. I had $300 set aside for books and supplies this quarter...for all four classes. About $270 of that went to this course alone. On top of that, the teacher continues to demand new supplies at the last minute, which most recently killed any chance of me picking up a set of greyscale markers needed for my next C&O project. Thanks jackass, is it really necessary to make us pay upwards of $2 per sheet for the next seven projects? Much less continue to force us to buy about six kinds of lead at $4-ish per tube? I have better uses for this money.
5. I'm badly losing sleep. Because I have to relegate my other classwork to late night hours, I averaged about 2½ hours of sleep per night every night this week. I budgeted my time, I didn't procrastinate too much or anything, and yet this still happened. On the right home this evening, I blacked out and woke up in time to just barely avoid clipping a mailbox and flying off the road. I NEVER -- EVER -- want to experience that sort of thing again.
I'm going to try and meet with my course advisor on Monday to see what can be done about this. I'm strongly leaning towards dropping it. My familiy'll still have to pay at this point, but it shouldn't damage my GPA (whereas staying will result in one or more failed classes and/or deteriorated health). I hate to drag my college career out another quarter in order to take another elective, but that's going to happen anyway no matter what.