The "Grammy Brain" is alive and well.

The ups and downs of going to college have hit home this semester.  As I have said, the C++ class I have been taking is really taxing my poor old brain.  Last week I discovered why:  the department chair I talked to about my problems told me that I should be working on a minor in mathematics to be in that class!!!  I had already checked out some symbols and terminology that I didn't have a clue about and discovered that algebra has changed a whole lot in the last 50+ years and that some of the terms were actually from statistics, which I have never had.  It turns out the problem wasn't my brain after all, but my educational background.  It never occurred to me that algebra would change that much since I took it way back when they were chipping "a=c+b/10" on rocks.

The result of all these discoveries is that I have dropped the class and, since no other classes that I need were still open, I am spending this semester completing projects here at home, reading books I have stacked in waiting, and catching up with myself.  Needless to say, I am already enjoying the resulting drop in my stress level.  I was really feeling like a complete dunce until I started researching the symbols and terms I had never seen before, much less understoond.  What a relief!!!  My "grammy brain" is not totally gone.  I am looking forward to taking a computer class I do need in the fall and maybe a Gen. Ed. one this summer.  Thanks for the continued support and kind words.

I am the student Grammy with a Grammy-Brain

As a Grammy, I have discovered a big difference from the first time I went to college.  Before Grammy-hood, I studied, took in the information, processed it and sent it back out as test answers, exercise results, etc.  Now that I have entered Grammy-hood (several years ago, as a matter of fact) I study, take in the information, assume I process it only to find out it doesn't want to come back out.  That is a very frustrating to me.  I don't know why it hasn't hit me before in my other classes.  Maybe the other classes were easier, but I don't think so.  I suspect it's because most of the my classes have involved graphics in some way and they are easier for me to spit back out.  There are NO graphics in C++.  Maybe I'll discover them later on.  I doubt it, though.  The concepts aren't anything I haven't encountered before in lots of classes, both computer and academic, and I understand the concepts and the syntax of C++ but the results just don't want to come out when I need them to.  I guess my days of studying with background noise has come to an end and I will have to concentrate more on what I am taking in.  Hmmmmmm, that's a bit  more than I bargained for, but not impossible if I decide it isn't.  I can only say to myself, "Onward, student Grammy.  You can do this and be successful at it!".  I know that it'll all be worth the effort in the end.

Oops! Rats! and #%$%%%^(

I may have discovered one reason I procrastinate.  I turned in my assignment on Monday because there was a chance I wouldn't be in class on Wednesday.  She gave it right back to me...........................wrong assignment!!!!  At least I still had time to do the right one, but I didn't.  I didn't even play the "should" game.  I just accepted that, at the point in time, my husband needed me more than I needed to hit the panic button and push to finish the right assignment.  It was only worth 40 points anyway.  Hopefully, I'll do well on the rest of the assignments that those 40 points won't be a problem.  I think being an older, more mature (hah!)  student means finding  more balance between school work and home life, no matter what instructors think you should do.  Oh, well - on to the next assignment.
I have learned one thing this programming language is used for.  It's used to put mathematic/algebraic formulas into a format that computers can use for large computations like banks and businesses do.  At least, that's what it looks like right now.  Anyone taking bets whether or not I'm right?