I have been in and out of college several times and I’ve failed physics twice already. My entire life has been on hold for the past 10 years because I have most of a degree except for physics. So here I fucking am, taking physics as an older and more mature adult. Surely I’ll be able to make it work just this once. But no. The lab professor is the biggest hardass I’ve ever seen and I’m not even completing the non-lab homework at a sustainable rate because they’re being hardcore about that too. At a community college this time of all places.
If I had a time machine I would go back in time and tell myself to never go to college ever under any circumstances. Even going to las vegas and gambling all my money away would have been a better choice. Even throwing fistfuls of $100 bills out of an airplane would have been a smarter financial decision. Even working at Walmart where those 15 cent raises eventually add up over the course of 10 years would have been a more lucrative career path.
Tl;dr fuck society
I never went to college and that’s a decision I regret less and less with every passing minute. And I’ve had a lot of minutes to think about it.
I’m at a stage in my life where my work experience and portfolio is far more important than a decades old diploma. And I got here with no extraneous debt.
There are fields where secondary education is justified and essential: law, medicine, some engineering, architecture. That sort of thing. Outside of that I am of the opinion that the American college system has devolved into basically being a scam. Maybe that wasn’t the case 50 years ago, but it is now. It’s just a debt industry, aided and abetted by our public schools being so shit.
Fuck school in general, actually. I started getting those same feelings in highschool. Most of the classes were pointless and I knew I was never going to use them. I quit highschool.
The Navy forced me to get my GED, which I aced. College was attempted a few times, but it was also pointless for me. After the Navy, I focused on my career and on technology. It’s worked out is far with no ragrets.
Physics fucked me multiple times in my college career. One thing that helped me a lot was I got tested for a math learning disability through the college. It was found that I did have one and as an accommodation I was given extended time on tests and a little leeway on late work.
Have you checked if your college has a tutoring center? Usually they offer free tutoring for the first several physics courses.
It takes a lot of time but it works REALLY well. You can do your homework there and they’ll tell you if you make a mistake.
There are probably only a couple of concepts you need help with. Have them walk you through 3 of the harder homework problems at the end of a unit and you’ll be amazed at how far that gets you.
If you don’t have access to tutoring (literally the best way to learn), go to your prof’s office hours. Read the problems and ask about what you’re struggling with.
I encourage people to drop out around 10th grade, get your GED, go to community College for all your Gen Courses, then take a path to what your passion is. It’s way more affordable, and our public school system is extremely outdated. There are many different types of “thinkers”. I.E. Those with an Inner Dialouge and those who think in Emotion and Representational Imagery. One size does not fit all. My hope is A.I. will change the way everyone is educated. Or, it’ll be used for greedy, and nefarious purposes. But one can hope!