<p>"how difficult are the academics for plebe year?"</p>
<p>If you are accepted to the academy admissions has already determined you have the academic "ability"---whether you actually succeed </p>
<p>Depends on:</p>
<p>1)your study habits
2)the level of courses you take
3)your study habits
4)your willingness to seek additional instruction when needed
5)your study habits
6)how willing you are to put up with disappointment--to not give up
7)your study habits
8)your willingness to help others who may be struggling with a subject you understand well (after all, sometimes the best way to learn is to teach)
9)your study habits</p>
<p>Ooooh...Plug for the student success course, here. It's only about 10 lessons, and will really help those of you (us) who had the natural intelligence to coast through highschool and maintain A/B averages. If you've never actually cracked a book and STUDIED for more than just a test or finals, you need to learn how. You'll have a chance to sign up during Beast. It will also teach you time management and good things like that.</p>
<p>11) Don't forget sleep. That was actually one of my biggest hurdles first semester. No matter how hard charging you are, you can't do without it. Either get it all at night or have a nap schedule that you can stick to.</p>
<p>I think I heard it while cruising around the Air Force Academy forum, but how are the weekends during Beast? Do you get them off as in there are no cadre to mess with you? What do you do during weekends at Beast?</p>
<p>No, you'll do the same things on Sunday you do the rest of the week. Classes, lectures, and blocks of instruction, but the morning is devoted to church, if you want to go, and you don't have PT. Saturdays are exactly the same as the rest of the week.</p>
<p>Depends on your company, your attitude, and your company mates. I was pretty happy plebe year, although I had some rough patches. I also did Catholic Choir, Sandhurst, White Water Kayaking Club, Film Forum, the Circle in the Spiral, German Club, Arabic Club, and made the effort to enjoy the little things...Like pinging across Central Area during ESP for the sheer pleasure of the tremendous downpour that threatened to drown me. My family was living in a desert climate, so the rain was a small miracle to me...ditto the first snowfall, and the snowball fight that broke out in our area. And the riots. And the birthday parties. And the general knowledge that everyone else was miserable too, so I might as well iron my strack lines, polish my shoes, grin and bear it because in a few short months, I wouldn't be a plebe any more. So get out there, get involved in clubs and stuff, keep your room clean, help your buddy out and ENJOY the suck. I can look back on beast pictures and laugh now, as well as the ridiculous series of zany ones me and my room mates took one Friday night as we SAMIed our room...including the one someone else took of us from the hallway because we'd mop and glo'ed ourselves into about three square feet in the middle of the room.</p>
<p>A yuk I know told me that the odd class years seem to have a harder time than the even years, which means that were doomed 2011'ers!! bzzzt, would you agree?</p>
<p>My yuk daughter says don't sweat it. She says that after her year, Beast is now a "piece of cake"--"don't worry about being in shape, eat what you want, exercise if you want, and bring all your stuff to R day---there is plenty of room in the barracks, so tv's, radios, ipods, cell phones, your favorite stuffed animal are all welcome! And the cadre are sooo nice now!!"
:)</p>
<p>As a member of the Class of 2006 and an Old Grad (tm) I am qualified to tell you that mine was the <em>last</em> hard Beast and the <em>last</em> class to truly be developed. :-D</p>
<p>Also, I didn't really find that true. 2004 was a hard class to have as sergeants, '05 was cake as team leaders, but '04 was hard on us. We were hard on '07, '07 wimped on '08, but we terrorized '08 too. '09 we kinda left alone, we were just happy to be graduating. '07 got their act together as cows and did some good things for the plebes. They'll be gone when you get there. Honestly I don't think it's as easy as evens easy, odds hard, but I do think that the evens have it worse right now.</p>
<p>Is it true about only having two desk ornaments? If it is, I so would have put one black and one yellow yoshi on my desk. </p>
<p>Maybe for fun I'll get one of my sister's friends to make mock ACUs for them. </p>
<p>Also, is it true that you can smuggle in your pillow from home that you sleep with and hide it in your lower drawer or trunk when it's not in use?</p>
<p>LOL. Ok the two desk ornaments thing went out while I was a plebe. They have to be tasteful and not detract from the military demeanor of the room. Don't worry, I had several stuffed animals on my bookshelf. I used the issued pillow during Beast, and then bought a nice one for the academic year. It stayed on my bed the whole time.</p>
<p>I am very short... about 5 feet 6 inches~5 feet 7 inches....
are there any serious disadvantages of being short?
Is is harder for short person to go through beast and plebe year?
I am kind of worried...</p>
<p>lol I suppose it'd be hard for us short people (I'm 5'7 too) on stuff like the rope climb but we must be handy for tunnel crawls and things of that nature.</p>
<p>How are the rope climbs during beast by the way? Are they real ropes are like the ropes with the knots on them? What if you absolutely can't negotiate that obstacle? I wouldn't wanna be a burden to my squad or anything!</p>
<p>I'm 5'2". Beat you all :) And I can still make it up a rope in less locks than most tall people, it's all in bringing your feet as high as possible and then just standing up. </p>
<p>Short people disadvantages -
- Walking in formation. The 40 inch steps can be killer
- Ruck marches - again with the short stride, and if you're short waisted, the ruck frame is way too long for your torso
- Being generally less strong/lighter. A 40 pound load is 1/3 of your body weight if you're 120 pounds. It's 1/5 if you're 200 pounds. That really takes its toll on you after a while.
- None of your off the rack uniforms will fit, like the white over gray shirts or the ACUs
- For a lot of people small = cute and getting people past that assumption can be hard</p>
<p>All in all, some of the physical stuff will be harder just because you're short. The Leadership Challenge course will make you feel useless, mostly because everyone's going to bull through and brute force the challenges (get the 50 gallon drum from point A to point B over the 8 foot wall without touching the mulch type stuff) so you'll probably be the second person over and not be doing much because you're...short. Military movement and the IOCT will be a special joy, especially the shelf and the horizontal bars...although you get a bonus on the rope climb because by the time you touch the red mark on the rope, your feet will already be at the level of the platform. Watch the video, and you should understand this sentence :) This was taken in the new gym, so everythings all shiny and new. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmZsT1DRC-8%5B/url%5D">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmZsT1DRC-8</a></p>
<p>Other than that...If you get put in the top bunk, I feel for you, I did that for three semesters out of the four that I had bunkbeds in my room, and for an additional 8 weeks when my room mate had knee surgery. It's no more of a disadvantage than being exceptionally clumsy. I'm both, and I made it through OK.</p>