I’ve been in kind of a chronic panic mode for at least the past two months–and I continue to be–because I’m completely lost in AP Euro. In the first semester, I never read my book because my teacher had never mentioned that it was required to read it continually–he just assumed that we all knew this, but this being one of my first AP classes, I had no idea. I was finally informed that I was supposed to be reading, and I started, but as you know, the textbook is huge, and anything over five pages a day will fry your brain. Unfortunately, there is no other way for me to catch up besides reading about ten pages a day.</p>
The load itself wouldn’t be a problem if it weren’t for the fact that I am absorbing nothing. I am not unintelligent, but history is not my best subject, and I am failing over and over again to see the connections between events, as well as remembering many of the events themselves. </p>
I can’t spend more time on my textbook because it is already taking one to two hours out of each day. I’ve tried many strategies for absorbing the information: writing down big ideas and connecting them (which takes about twice as long as the other strategies), simply highlighting the important bits and then copying what I’ve highlighted, and re-reading sections three times over three days, in hopes of tapping into my hippocampus so that the facts stick. Nothing has worked.</p>
I am still getting about 70% on in-class tests at best. My teacher rarely actually teaches, so I can’t really get anything clarified. We are required to have a study group, but many students are just as clueless regarding what we should know as I am, so that hasn’t been any help either.</p>
I’ve wanted to give up on this class multiple times, but of course that wouldn’t really do any good. I’m extremely worried about the test, more than any student should be, and I generally feel hopeless.</p>
What do I do?</p>