Apathy coming to bite me in the *snip*!

Perhaps the problem is a lack of interest in a majority of my classes. Usually I manage to do well in the class regardless of whether or not I enjoy it, but this first semester of college has done away with such a track record.

Entering college, I was determined to have better study habits. I'd get straight A's, damn it, and nothing would stop me. Apparently I didn't foresee a severe disinterest and (in some cases) dislike in my classes.

I'm trying to eliminate as many general education requirements as I can. I'm taking the last math class I'll ever have to take in my life. Unfortunately, its subject material is stuff I did back in the early years of high school, which just about kills motivation. I've not done a single homework assignment in the class, and given that I've got a solid B+ in the class and easy-as-pie extra credit opportunities worth up to 50 points (almost as much as a single test), I can't really be bothered to work.

German and Economics are much the same. I don't put in enough effort to either class to manage more than a B, mostly because I really, truly don't care about either class in the slightest.

I had set myself up for two classes I expected to enjoy. I love my English course, and I'm doing very well in there. The other course, Greek and Roman Mythology, has turned out to be a terrible disappointment. It originally had a cap of 30 students, but somehow it's turned into a lecture hall for 150 students, an environment totally adverse of meaningful discussions about the texts we read. As such, I've missed multiple classes and haven't bothered to read anything. Given that I read sparknotes summaries for the first exam and managed a 97%, I can't really bring myself to do anything different for tomorrow's exam (the catalyst to this little rant). Even more unhelpful is the results I got from calculating the grades I need on the next two assignments (a final project I expect to be almost unbearably easy and tomorrow's exam). To get an A-, I only need an average of 89%, easily obtainable given that the final project is likely to boost my grade ridiculously.

Anyway, long story short, it looks like I've not quite lived up to my own expectations (not at all a foreign concept to me). If I get the grades I expect in each class, I'll land myself a GPA of 3.46, which is, by all accounts, respectable. However, it's not enough to get me into the honors program (by a measly .04 points), which, in the end, isn't particularly important to me.

So, thread topic to make this other than a rant. How many of you suffer from lack of motivation like this? What do you do to motivate yourself to try harder? I set myself up with a (hopefully) better schedule next semester so that I'm taking less classes I know I will hate (economics, math, and German) in favor of subjects that at least hold some interest for me. I'm not sure how well it'll work out, though.

I think most people do. I certainly do. Having classes you actually like is the most important thing, here, and that will improve once you start getting into higher levels and stuff more pertinent to your major. Sometimes classes you think you'll like just turn out to suck, and there's not a lot you can do about it.

Going in my first semester, I'd thought pretty hard about wanting to be in the Honors program. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized how worthless it was for me. In high school, it got you into classes that looked better for college and got you away from the idiots. Now, the only possible good thing about the Honors classes would be smaller sizes or more interesting discussion, but I go to a large University and I've found that I honestly prefer the big lectures...mostly because if I'm not there, it doesn't really matter.

I'm never going to apply for a job and have my prospective employer say "Oh MAN, you took Honors classes!? Let's hire you!" Actually getting the degree is what counts. And as long as your average is up to snuff in that regard, I say who cares if it's a 3.1 or a 3.8. I'm very bad at motivating myself to study unless the material is interesting. Assuming it's not, my motivation mainly stems from a desire to keep a B average, since that's what I'll need to get into my degree program, and is also what I need to keep for my tuition to be paid for me. So long as it's a B, not much else matters.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Azar

I think most people do. I certainly do. Having classes you actually like is the most important thing, here, and that will improve once you start getting into higher levels and stuff more pertinent to your major. Sometimes classes you think you'll like just turn out to suck, and there's not a lot you can do about it.

Going in my first semester, I'd thought pretty hard about wanting to be in the Honors program. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized how worthless it was for me. In high school, it got you into classes that looked better for college and got you away from the idiots. Now, the only possible good thing about the Honors classes would be smaller sizes or more interesting discussion, but I go to a large University and I've found that I honestly prefer the big lectures...mostly because if I'm not there, it doesn't really matter.

I'm never going to apply for a job and have my prospective employer say "Oh MAN, you took Honors classes!? Let's hire you!" Actually getting the degree is what counts. And as long as your average is up to snuff in that regard, I say who cares if it's a 3.1 or a 3.8. I'm very bad at motivating myself to study unless the material is interesting. Assuming it's not, my motivation mainly stems from a desire to keep a B average, since that's what I'll need to get into my degree program, and is also what I need to keep for my tuition to be paid for me. So long as it's a B, not much else matters.

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Aside from the GPA requirement (which I very well may fulfill after all), I'm already taking honors English courses despite not being in the program. A member of the program only needs to take two honors courses per year (one per semester makes it easier), and I'm doing that already. As an English major, I'm allowed to take any honors course within the department.

That aside, the test I was worried about that spurred the decision to write the above rant turned out to be a huge fluke. I was freaking out a whole lot (not helped by the fact that I almost slept through class and ended up being 35 minutes late), but it turned out to be one of the easiest exams I have ever (and likely will ever) take. I finished in under ten minutes, probably achieving 100% in the process, without having read any of the material. This significantly boosts the likelihood of an A in the class, which puts me back in the running for the honors program.

The only reason I'm not particularly excited about the honors program is that, somewhere along the way, I'll likely have to take an honors class outside of my major. I don't think I'll be able to take two 300 level courses and three 400 level courses all at the honors level. I'm not even sure they're all available at that level, and while I'm good at other subjects, I don't think I really want to make them harder on myself than is strictly necessary.

Also, the only reason I'm interested in the honors program has very little to do with employment and is more related to the inevitability of education beyond my undergraduate degree. Although undecided as to what I may pursue at a higher level (it's coming down between continuing to study English or, perhaps more likely, trying to get into law school, I imagine that being in the honors program might give me a leg-up in either, although since I'm only a freshman and that's a long time away, I'm not exactly concerned enough to see how much of an impact it will have.

I applied and got into the Honors program at my school before coming, and have very mixed feelings towards it. My school is fairly small (14,000 students), but it really does make an effort towards small classes no matter if you're in the Honors program or not. Only a few teachers in my 3 semesters has failed to learn my name, and in a lot of cases require that we go and see them and talk to them. I prefer going to small classes conducted like seminars for this reason. I can be myself and not be looked at as some kind of freak. In lecture classes I don't care about going (and indeed, the only lecture class I have this semester, I've skipped seven times).

But anyway, back to the Honors program. We're also required to take two honors classes a semester, but what I found is that that is a HUGE problem when you have 30 hours coming into your freshman year. All of the honors classes were entry-level classes that I had tested out of. Eventually, in our Honors program, you have to take Colloquium classes, and write a defensible thesis, something that I am not ready to do in the slightest.

So I was in conflict for a really long time. I am definitely going to grad school, like you. Do I want to stick with the Honors program and write a thesis that I don't want to write (and will have a hard time fitting in, because I'm studying in Scotland next fall, and changed my major to a completely different school this year, so I have tons of lower-level classes to retake), or focus on maintaining my high GPA (which is 3.95 at the moment) and just rely on that, plus Phi Beta Kappa (which I am assuming I will join) and participation in College Bowl to get me into grad school?

Well, here is where apathy took over for me, because I am going to drop the Honors program next semester.

But anyway, more applicable on the thread topic. After I changed my major to History from Business this semester, I was still taking Business classes that I did not care for in the slightest. In one of them, my grade has slipped to a likely B+, and in the other, I've maintained an A, because it's Accounting and all basically simple math work. I would say that the drop in one class is do to a lack of interest, and the belief that "Hey, I won't have to continue this line of study, so what does it matter?" Next semester, I'm taking classes that, for the most part, I will be interested in about (except for Physics): history, sociology, literature, mythology. I hope to be much more interested in those, and likewise both go to class more and try harder than I have been this semester.