I hate to say this, but I’m really not absorbing the wealth of information available in this online Nutrition course. With an exam every other week and only eight weeks for the course, all I am really doing is learning how best to pass an exam by quickly finding the information in these open-book tests. There’s little time to read for any purpose of learning. Each exam is based upon two to three chapters of textbook, or about 100 to 125pages, along with anywhere from 45 to 70 pages of lecture outlines and up to 200 a/v slides for the audio lectures. And, of course, there is online discussion to take part in. It is a lot of hard work to keep up with it all if you don’t take a particular interest in the topic (this, or any other summer course), and I do feel that I’m just going for the credit.
Got a 95 on the exam today, with one more exam to go. A week and a half. It will be a big relief to get it over with, and even now I’ve done the math to figure that if I don’t take the final, I’d still come out with a high C. But I’d come out without my self respect.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology