Today marked the beginning of what I hope and pray is my penultimate quarter of degree study. The day began with French, which would have been fine if 1) I had reviewed last quarter's material, and 2) if I hadn't gotten one of the teachers that speaks only French in the classroom. (I switched sections today as soon as I got the chance.)
But that's not what this is about.
In order to fulfill degree requirements, I must take the class mentioned in the title of this post. (Never mind that this requirement DISAPPEARS in the Fall when the switch from quarters to semesters takes place.) I knew that this would be a large class, but didn't quite understand how B-I-G.
When I entered the large lecture hall (as far as I know, the largest at the university) I was overcome by the stifling heat in the room. This is significant because it was darned cold outside with a brisk wind which made the contrast even sharper. I found a seat and fidgeted with my phone while waiting for class to start. More people entered the room. And more. Wait, there are a few more!
The professor confessed the number of students in the class.
Four hundred fifteen.
We were instructed to watch the large screens in the front of the room (hey--this could be a church!), find our names, and note our "group number." When everyone found their group numbers, all 415 of us had to get up and move to a different part of the room where our groups would be gathered. Chaos.
When the nearly-impossible was accomplished, our "group leaders" talked with each of the groups about...well...not much. Imagine group leaders talking to their groups, in the same room, simultaneously. I could barely tolerate it and got a terrible headache.
It is probably part of my introverted, multi-tasking personality that I take in everything that's going on around me, and am seemingly unable to filter out "noise." I'm the student who gets up to shut the classroom door when the prof doesn't do it. I'm the one who must go to an empty, quiet room to talk on the telephone. I'm the one who stopped in the middle of wedding prelude music to tell that girl in the loft to STOP drumming her fingers. So having to listen to everything going on in that lecture hall was sensory overload, and I was exhausted by the time we were mercifully dismissed early. But hey, it's only ten weeks, right?
In other news, the recital date has been set and is awaiting approval from a university god.
That is a big class. Ten weeks isn't that bad, I guess - that is, if the lectures are only an hour in duration. If 2-3 hours, it might turn out to be more difficult to maintain attention, unless the subject matter is interesting.
ReplyDeleteThe twelve class lectures are two hours in duration. The other class meetings are only one hour long, and will have only 207.5 students.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the subject matter being "interesting," I've a feeling there'll be a few blog posts about this class.