A Few Words About My Pre-req Classes

This post isn't a funny one. It's an observation of my pre-req classes that I had to endure.

The nursing program that I am attending is associated with a college in my state which I have affectionately named Pickle U. In order to get the associates degree in health science that is awarded along with the diploma from the nursing school we had to take 18 credits with Pickle U. I could give a rats ass about the associates degree, I just want the education to be able to pass the NCLEX test after graduation.

Anyway, if you already have college credits you still need to take 18 hours with Pickle U in order to get this degree. So between January and June of this year I completed my required credits with the college. Now, I had to take Anatomy & Physiology, Developmental Psych and College Math (each class was held one day a week, at night for 4 hours each) because while I had classes that covered those areas, they didn't count for some reason. I took these classes with my fellow future nursing students, so a majority of the class was filled with people who paid attention to details and wanted to know what are the rules were so they knew what was expected. Let me tell you, I will be going to school with some smart people and I don't mean just book smart.

That made 10 credits I had to take, which meant I needed 8 more to complete the 18. So I chose to take online Art Appreciation, Intro to Computers and Intro to Business. Naturally, I LOVED the online classes because I could work at my own pace and didn't have to sit through lecture after working all day. However, I found one thing really disturbing with these online classes. There was a lot of busy work involved, but nothing really demanding or mind challenging. The classes were filled with half off campus people like me and half regular college students. I was astounded at the class averages for homework assignments and tests. Tests were always open book with plenty of time to take them, assignments were manageable but somewhat time consuming and logging on a few times a week to participate in discussion didn't take that long. Yet, the class average was always around a 72%. I took a correspondence class in college (History of the Reformation) and it was 50x's as intense as these classes. I can't believe how much the material was brought down to such a basic level and yet people couldn't rise to the challenge. The worst part is I had to pay for the experience in time and in dollars.

Now, my A&P class and Developmental Psych were great classes. I learned a lot and was challenged in each. I give full credit to the instructors who were consistent and realistic of their expectations. I'm going to save the math experience for another whole post. It was quite a trip.

So there you have it. The two classes I needed the most I loved and they had great instructors. I loved my Art class, but it was just busy work. The rest were a complete waste of my time and resources. I wish they would have just let me pay the money for the credits and be done with it.

Oh and lest someone thinks that I am bitching because I didn't do well... I got all A's. It's the first 4.0 GPA I have ever seen. I'm enjoying it while it lasts :)