I dont know how to explain it. I feel like i am getting absolutly nothing acomplished in my english class. My grade is a C+ and is falling. I do not want it to fall further. I am thinking that i should just forget about all the stuff i havent done and try to get a handle on what is due. Is this the right way to go about this? or should i try to get the old stuff done first? Its an AP course, which means its faster paced and more "advanced" and stuff, but its like alot of reading and assignments and stuff. All english work and no play on my ford truck makes me a dull boy! Heres what i did today.

School 7:55-12:00
Eat and drive to work 12:00-1:00
Work 1-4
Visit with grandparents and back in town by 5
Went to friends house to work on fenders for my truck 5-7
Came home and met girlfriend 7:00-7:30
Shopping for food 7:30-9:00
Finding other things to do to put off english homework 9:00-9:46

And the english stuff is like really really boaring. Like "blah blah blah...and the boy put on his hat and walked out the door...Blah Blah Blah" Then its followed by a question like "what is the significance of the boy putting on his hat"? It just drives me crazy because i dont see that there is any specific answer to a question like that. Maybe the kid just wanted to wear his hat, it doesnt have to mean anything. Thats like most of the reason why i dont want to even start on any homework. Plus, right now i'm so far behind i feel doomed. What do you guys/gals do to overcome this? I think I should just forget the late stuff ever existed and worry about what is due tommorow? Is that the right way to go about this. I've never failed a class and i'm not going to my senior year with only 3 classes left.

Thanks, Peter

 

Do the work that you are supposed to be doing now first. That way you can get full credit for it and not fall any further behind.

Whether or not you do the work you've missed (and when) depends on the teacher's policy on late work. If (s)he doesn't accept it, don't waste your time. If you can get credit for it, do it when you can.

And yes, English class is boring and the teachers often seem to be full of it when they tell you about the symbolism of things.

 

second the motion on complete english boredom

 

It sounds like you need to discover the art of BSing. Basically, if you think something as you're reading the assignment, write it down! Look for connections to the rest of the story. Make up some theory about how the hat symbolized something, even if you think it didn't. Then make up some BS about how it had all been leading to that, etc. English teachers love BS.

Dont waste time on the old stuff, do what's due tomorrow. Complete the assignment. That's the important thing. It doesn't necessarily have to be good, but it does have to be done.

In terms of time:
I learned about 11th grade, as things became more complicated, something has to give. Usually it's sleep. If you can cut some of the stuff from 4:00 to 9:46, you'd probably be better off. Priorities man.

 

Yeah i know. The only thing is our school requires a senior project where each senior student has to designate a project, create a thesis, write a paper, and give a presentation on it. All of this is due on APR. 20th My friend is putting ghost flames on my truck and i'm remodeling our downstairs bathroom. We havent gotten much done on either and i'm starting to get worried about that too. I just wish i had my own place so i could go through with my plans and would have time set aside to do the stuff i want to do. Alot of the time i'll come home with plans to do school work or something, and will find that my parents allready have other plans for me. Its all just frustrating but i guess its all just life too.

 

hehe... Ever considered engineering as a profession??? hehe

Well, I have to say that this is kind of incorrect. No writer will ever say that a person is putting on hat because that is all they wish to convey.
There is always a hidden meaning (unless there is an obvious direct meaning, like the hat ties in later in the story). The writer may be trying to convey that the character requires a hat to hide thier weaker personality, or that the elements in thier life are so arduous that they need to head "into battle with a shield" (the hat being a metaphor for a shield) etc. etc.


As for fitting it all in, wait till you go to college....

 

engish isn't all that bad- I got through it all ok.. and yes, English teachers LIKE BS... IF you have different answers that means you "thought" and if you "thought" then yeah., they like it. Good luck.

 

Yeah, actually, i'm going to college for automotive engineering. I just dont like all the imagry because i'll find something that i think symbolizes something and will say it and it will be totally wrong. I just feel the imagry is more of opinion than strait fact. Just for example the boy puitting on the hat, say the "correct" answer is using it as a shield. I say that the boy puts it on because his grandpa gave it to him and it means alot to him. So he wears it in memory of his grandpa. Then i'm wrong. I just dont see how they can take a hidden message and say that is what the author who has been dead for 200 years intended for it to mean. I like fact, and I can guess and say what i think it means, but when its wrong it frustrates me.

 

Thats one thing about English thats good... All answers are correct answers, you just have to prove them. If (throughout the book) the boy has a strong relationship with his grandfather, and you can support that relationship with quotes etc. then thats the right answer.

Good luck with the auto engineering

 

My sister failed english with a 35. She did NOTHING in class, if she went at all. I drove by the taco bell last week, and my sister was sitting in her van with 6 other people eating taco bell and playing videogames while they were supposed to be in gym class. The only classes that she goes to on a regular basis are auto shop and chemistry.

Sister's advice: It dosen't have to be done right, it just has to be done.

 

Amen to that. (BTW, your predicament is the reason why I didn't take AP english this year. I was sick of not learning much and BSing everything. This year I took Humanities, which is an art history class)

I am one of the procrastinators in my school who is perfectly cabable of obtaining whatever grade i desire, but in addition to procrastinating, I don't do work if I find it has no meaning to me.

What you have to do is sit down and look at all the assignments you have missing and assemble them in front of your folder. If possible find the ones that are worth the most points and do those first. Also make sure you get the quick easy points out of the way. I would suggest doing quick easy papers during english class, and then during other classes doing the longer stuff (if you have a blow off class that's an easy A that you can do that in) Multitask. If a teacher is lecturing something you already know, take out your english.

If you can't get all assignments done, then do the ones woth the most points and the ones that take the least effort (sometimes you'll get lucky and have ones that take little effort worth more points)

Good luck!

~Matt

Oh yeah, spend less time on FTE when you're typing your english paper

 

Having stayed awake through all of high school and college English, I have to agree that English teachers just love BS I used to get into arguements with my teachers all the time about answers. In college it got to the point were I would just make stuff up Any (all most all of them) question that had ". . .why do you think. . ." got an answer I just pulled out of the air. And the other questions that no one cared about, like why so and so decided to wear pants to work. . .got an an answer that was thought out, but completely wrong

Aced them all though, sometimes I think they just didn't want to see me again

Tip #1- Write quick, and don't think to much about it. . .the more you think, the more you second guess yourself and the longer it takes.

Tip #2- BS is your freind.

Tip #3- Books on tape work well so you can listen and work on your truk at the same time.

 

Take the quote in my signature into consideration.

I didn't take an AP course this year. I took an easier English blocked (3-4 periods) for half a year, and passed with a B. The class moved pretty quick. I just threw my opinion in whenever I could, and was attentive in class. Being attentive in class guaranteed us a 33%!

 

Part of the problem is
[/QUOTE]I am thinking that i should just forget about all the stuff i havent done [QUOTE]

I'd definetly talk with the teacher and find out if you can still earn points for this. AS far as your timeline, If it were me, I'd list my priorities as schoolwork first, before working on the truck or the GF, Not sure where you shopped for food, or how much you had to buy, But I dont think Ive ever shopped that long for food.

 

DRive by that same Taco bell in a few years or so, You'll see the same thing, except instead of eatoing taco's they'll be selling tacos. Cant do too much these days without an education.