Of course I’m writing this during my Calculus II class and accepting my unfortunate fate.
Stage 1
The semester hasn’t started yet and you’re fairly confident in your math skills. You’re at Tulane, so high school math was probably not too challenging for you. Maybe you even enjoyed math in high school (gasp!). You’re not particularly looking forward to this class, but you’re not dreading it either.
Stage 2
It’s the first day of class and your teacher probably doesn’t even have a syllabus yet, so you jump straight into math down. You quickly realize that you were not at all prepared for this and your brain will probably explode by the end of the class period.
Stage 3
It’s the second day of class and you’re kinda scared, but you figure you just need some time to adjust. The transition from high school to college is tough, so the same must hold true for math classes, right? You tell yourself everything will be fine in a few days and you’ll be back to your usual, smart self.
Stage 4
It’s the third week of class and you’ve finally realized that your whole “adjustment” plan just isn’t happening. Math is hard and we’re all doomed.
Stage 5
It’s the middle of the semester and at this point you’re just praying for a C. Maybe it’s the first time that this has ever happened to you, so your mental health subsequently declines as a result of feeling inadequate and unworthy of mathematic excellence, but you continue to go to class and pretend like you know what’s going on.
Stage 6
Yup, it’s that point in the semester. You’ve completely given up and decided that, even though you’re probably failing, you won’t let math stress you out because you have so many other things to put your energy into!!!!
Stage 7
Finals week. You probably won’t study because you legitimately know nothing and the inevitable curve is your only will to live.