I had my first exam of the semester last Tuesday in my Music Appreciation class. I seriously thought a music class would be a breeze, which is why I chose to take it instead of something else. Sure, you may say, how hard is it to listen to music? Right. The first couple of class meetings, I wanted to scream out "Bloody hell, why do I have to learn about textures, scales, and tonality, and whatever else when the course was supposed to teach me about music from the beginning of time?!" Obviously, I didn't do that. It didn't even help that my professor seemed to be all over the place most of the time. And when it was time to study for the exam, I felt like my notes were all jumbled up. Good thing I've made it a point to prepare reviewers, so it wasn't as bad. But the weekend was quite busy and I didn't have much time to study. I had asked Kuya to help me review and he went, "Ni, kelangan mo pang mag-aral" after giving me a mock exam. Shoot. I countered though (in my head of course and not out loud) that the test shouldn't be that bad because we did go over quite a few supposed test questions - over and over and over.
Come Tuesday, as much as I wanted to say that I was ready, I wasn't as confident as I should have been because I knew there was a Listening part and I still couldn't differentiate Monophonic melodies from Homophonic or Polyphonic. Blast!. When I was handed the test paper, I was actually quite surprised because it wasn't your ordinary American college test with mutiple choice questions. Instead, it reminded me more of an exam a Filipino teacher would give - fill in the blank, open-ended questions, matching type, enumeration. The only typical type of test missing was the Essay part. Haha. There were a couple of things I didn't know or couldn't remember, and the last section of the Listening part was just abysmal. We didn't go over the various textures as much as we should have and I was sure I would flunk that part.
Yesterday, we got our exam results. Not bad, I got myself an 86, screwing up on the part where I had to identify the textures. After handing out all the exam results, the professor gave us this spiel about wanting everyone to pass and talking about his going over the test questions. Like, seriously, it was spoonfeeding. And then he goes, "Do you believe in Justice or Mercy?" And I, being the Court TV fanatic I am, mumbled "Justice" when it was practically obvious where this discussion was going. Most of the people so-believed in Mercy, and so did our teacher. And I was caught off-guard when he said that he was going to give everyone a second shot at taking the test. What?! Seriously, was it THAT bad? How many people flunked the test?
Some of you might be thinking, "Oh, shut up - just because you got an 86." But really, people shouldn't have been getting scores below 50 - which seemed to be the case - because we've gone over the same material for two weeks already. So on Tuesday, he's letting us retake the exam. The exact same exam, might I add. Ok ok, so I should be thanking my lucky stars for 2nd chances. After all, people do deserve such. What just bothers me though is how incredulous it is that people would flunk on such easy material. It is just bizaare.
And also in the same class, we're assigned a musical composer to do a presentation on and every day, someone must present. Days have gone by and already a handful of people have missed their reporting dates because either they forgot it was due, they forgot they even had a report to do, or they just assumed they could do it the next class meeting. It's my professor's fault, too. I keep thinking that if this was a class in the Philippines, their actions would get them an automatic zero for that activity. And I actually think that's better - it'll teach people to be more responsible. Whenever my classmates say they've forgotten their report, my professor would just say, "Ok, be sure to bring your report to the next class. I really don't want this activity to be too far behind." And that's it?! On our syllabus, though, it does state that the report is an integral part of our grade, so he shouldn't be taking it as lightly as this. From the beginning, he should have laid down the law - if you fail to do your presentation the day it is due, there will be consequences. I think that's how it should've been.
In my Government class, it isn't much different. And because I am SO behind in these lectures because I don't really know squat about American politics, I have to write everything the professor says and be sure I understand what he's saying or writing on the board. He even has that Southern accent I adore, but the drawl is thick, and it is a struggling feat to understand him some times. Anyway, on Tuesday, the class was asked to bring a copy of the US Constitution to class for the discussion on Thursday. Come Thursday, when the assignment was brought up - and yes, you might have guessed correctly - there was an outburst of profanity as more than half the class forgot there was an assignment. Come to think of it, I think the entire class freaked out. So our teacher goes, "Just bring it to the next class." That was it?! I was floored. Ok fine, what punishment could be given to people who forget to bring a bunch of paper, right? Well, credit to those who brought their copies would be fine. Hmph! So after I had to search the internet for the bloody constitution (ok, I admit, it wasn't THAT hard - another point why I wasn't happy people didn't do it), we wouldn't use it until next week? Oh, people.
For some reason, I am so chatty today. And I'm not even halfway done talking about American education in general. One reason being that I saw this show on TV that talked about the abysmal education middle schoolers and high schoolers get in American schools. So yeah, until then...toodle-loo. It has been a while since I wrote on my Friendster blog. Embarrassing as it is that I am partially recycling this entry from my blogger, I find it worthy enough to be mentioned more than once in cyberspace ;)
Thank God it is Friday...I can try to relax a bit until schoolwork catches up to me.
