This week I started my third week of college. It has been a challenging experience so far. I have also encountered a few things that have taken me by surprise. However, I think given how long it has been since I have been in any academic environment, I am doing okay.

Learning online has been more difficult different. It certainly does require me to be more self-motivated than I naturally tend to be. Keeping to a schedule – due dates – other than my own has caused me some frustration. I find myself getting bogged down in the details – wanting things to be perfect – which is slowing me down some.

One of the things that makes Argosy different from my experience with brick and mortar colleges is how they arrange their class schedule. They do follow a semester schedule, and each semester is 15 weeks long. However, they break each 15 week semester into two 7.5 week sessions. You are considered a full-time student if you take two classes per each session. Basically that means you would end up with a total of four classes per semester. Each 7.5 week class gives you the same amount of information, and work as a full semester class would, which means you have to assimilate a whole semester’s worth of information in about half the time. Obviously, this is why my school workload is a little heavier than most, even though I am currently only taking one class. This also means, that potentially you could earn your four year degree in less than four years.

Currently, I am on what they call a three-quarter schedule. What that means is for this session of the semester I am only taking one class, however, when the second session of the semester starts I will be taking two classes. For the following semester, I could keep the same three-quarter schedule or change it to a full-time schedule. As of now, I have not made a decision on whether or not I am going to go full time next semester. I am going to hold off on doing that until after the second session starts and I see how I do with taking two classes in a short amount of time.

The class I am taking for this session is called Skills for Success. I can see why this is a required class for every new student in the school. First of all, it gives you a real good idea of what it is like to have to learn a subject in half the normal time. The other thing it does, is emphasize how important it is to keep some sort of schedule. With the fast pace of the courses it is vital for students to be aware of all their due dates. This class also prepares the students for college-level writing. The ultimate goal final project of this class is to take everything you have learned through the class assignments and create a learning plan for yourself.

One of the things I had to do in the first week of this class was take some diagnostic tests that were meant to assess my grammar skills. Since I spend a lot of time writing I assumed the diagnostic tests would present no problem for me. I was extremely surprised at my results:

• Sentence Grammar        67%
  
• Punctuation and Mechanics    83%
  
• Usage and Style        87%
  
• Basic Grammar        92%
  

I was very humbled. I consider that a good thing. I think if I had kept on with my attitude of “I know it already” I would have missed out on some great learning experiences, and most likely set myself up for failure – since I would not be as open to learning as I should have been.

Fortunately, the school does not just leave you with those results with no opportunity to learn what you need to in order to improve them. In addition to the coursework that is required, there is a whole bunch of videos and grammar exercises that I am required to do to bring my grammar scores up to par.

I think one of the things that has impressed me the most about the college I have chosen to go to is their desire to see their students succeed. They do not just throw you in the deep end, hoping that you will figure out how to swim. They give you plenty of opportunities, and help to ensure that your college career is as successful as you would like to make it.