It’s the day before Spring Break, so I’ve been busy taking tests and completing assignments.

For several hours, I poured over note cards scribbled with French verbs and their English definitions. I analyzed 10 chapters of my Microeconomics textbook. I reviewed communication theories from lecture notes. I studied important dates and well-known figures for my Computer-Assisted Reporting and my Media, Race, and Gender exams. I memorized f-stops and shutter speeds for my Photojournalism midterm. I crammed everything I read into my brain. I yearned for a break between my overlapping classes, never-ending homework, and intensive midterms. I wanted to rest my drooping eyes, aching back and frazzled brain. But my desire to earn good grades kept me going.

All the hard work paid off when I got back my Communication Theory midterm. I let out a sigh of relief when I looked at my score: 80/100. Oh, the horror stories I had heard about the professor! “He’s a tough grader,” “He has favorites,” “His accent makes it difficult to understand,” and “He made me cry.” But he didn’t seem threatening to me. In fact, everyone in my class agreed—he’s a funny man.

“If my students say good things about me, I think I must be doing something wrong,” he said. “It’s either you’re all smart, or I’ve gone soft in the head!” He laughed. Poor guy. He didn’t even get a chance. Potential students decided not to take his class based on rumors of his “tough love” grading. They judged him without even stepping foot in his classroom.

But we misjudged him, too.

“My friend decided not to take your class because he wanted to maintain his GPA,” a student admitted to the professor. “I heard you’re a tough grader, but I think your exam was pretty straightforward.”

Perception, a term we examined in class, applied to the situation. Assumptions based on past experiences, cultural expectations, needs, and attitudes influence the way we perceive. We believe what we want to believe.

The most effective teachers, I believe, communicate the textbook’s connection with real-life situations and engage students in learning through discussions. I think it’s especially important to gain an overall understanding of material. You’ll learn best by applying terms to reality, rather than memorizing their definitions.

When I attended my Microeconomics class, I didn’t understand my professor’s references to negative and positive externalities or his drawings of supply and demand curves. It was as if he spoke another language and wrote in a cryptic code. I was lost, but I decided to teach myself. I practiced review problems in my workbook, confident of my ability to comprehend the material. But when I sat down to tackle the 10-page midterm filled with charts and graphs, my mind drew a blank. I decided to withdraw from the class and drop my marketing minor in favor of sociology. Reading the class descriptions for “Self, Mind, and Society” and “Sociology of Religion” piqued my interest. I decided that learning about human behavior and society in general complements my major in journalism, whereas marketing is geared more towards advertising and public relations professionals. I had to scramble around campus to collect five signatures for approval in switching my minor.

This weekend, when I’m home on break, I’ll catch up on schoolwork, hoping to reduce the amount of work near the end of the semester. I’ll begin interviewing the handful of news professionals who agreed to share their experiences for my Media, Race, and Gender research paper. I’ll start searching for transportation databases to present to my Computer-Assisted Reporting class and I’ll analyze 2006 crime statistics for my final research project. Then I’ll tackle my French composition and text assignments. After that, I’ll cover a baseball game for my competitive sports photo essay, and I’ll probably make a stop by the beach to capture the sunset off Waikiki. And maybe I’ll get some shuteye this time around.