Back to college: Major effort, but worth the trouble

My hardest class this semester is astronomy. I have a B in it, although if I mess up on even one test, I'll be down to a C. This class requires me to read the chapter, go through the online lecture, answer study questions, take a timed test and do a lab. The hard part is the lab.

When I returned to school, I didn't know I would have to take another science class. The first time I was enrolled, psychology majors only had to have one science class. I took biology my freshman year and got it out of the way. But, in the 11 years I was out of school, the requirements changed, so I had to have another one. I debated long and hard about what class to take and because the others required so much math, I chose astronomy, thinking math wouldn't be a huge part of it.

Boy, was I wrong. Our first lab was over the metric system and metric conversion and formulas I haven't used in about 20 years. The second and third labs were pretty much all math, too. We can pick a lab partner to work with us, and after going through a few family members and friends (all of whom had some trouble with the wording on the lab instructions), I finally found one to help me out. If I manage a C in this class, I'll be happy.

I have almost a perfect score in my history class. It covers American history from 1877 to the present. For this class, I have to read the chapter we are covering, view an interactive Web site covering the chapter, listen to an audio lecture, participate in a discussion over the Internet with other classmates and then take the essay test, which requires us to write a two or three page paper over the questions he gave us.

I love this class. The papers make me think and analyze different events in history, and since I love to write, it doesn't bother me to express my knowledge and opinions on paper. I was marked down a few points on one essay test because I neglected to state my sources in the correct way. I won't make that mistake again, but since he drops our lowest test score, I still have a perfect score for that class.

My easiest class isn't really a class at all; it's a seminar on careers in psychology. Students taking this class don't get a grade; it's either pass or fail. We read the chapters in the book, view a Powerpoint lecture and have different assignments to do. We've had to write a statement of goals and what we want to achieve with our degree. We also had to choose our minors and what classes we were going to take. Our latest assignment was to do an actual resume and an ideal resume, one that would include things we want to do by the time we graduate.

My two favorite classes are developmental psychology and the psychology of personality. These are the classes I went back to school to take, and I can't wait to take more of them. Developmental psychology is basically studying human development from conception to death, and right now, we are learning about babies, toddlers and younger school aged children. It's fascinating to learn how their minds work.

I was extremely worried about the psychology of personality class. Our teacher offered us a list of students' opinions after taking the class. Almost all of them talked about how hard the tests were. I studied and studied for that first test, which was timed, so even though it's open book, you don't really have time to go and look up every answer. I found the first test surprisingly easy.

I'll admit it's not easy. Online classes take a lot of time, a lot more time than I ever thought they would. I'm often spending spare moments reading or checking the web site for class updates, but I am proud of myself for making the effort to do it.

-- Tamara Belinc is a freelance writer for the Times-Gazette.