RE: Knowledge.

Everything I have "learned" thus far into the school year (i.e. had hurdled at me through countless slides, smeared chalk drawings, and lectures that are more repetetive than a broken 8-track) has been review of what I learned in high school - with the exceptions of Italian and the yet-to-begin BA 101. Whether or not this is a good thing: I'm not so sure. I thought college was an institution of higher education, not a place to reflect on the lessons I've already learned. Most kids would kill to get credit for a course in which they essentially know all of the material; it's an easy "A", right? Call me a nerd (it's already a widely-known fact that I am a nerd), but I like to actually learn new things. Hopefully - probably - I'm wrong; it is only the second full week of school - maybe this is all quick review before jumping into bigger and better things.
Still, I dutifully take notes in every class. Why? I honestly don't have an answer for that. Maybe it's because I feel like if I don't take notes - even though I know the material - I'll forget. Maybe it's a comfort thing; take good notes, get better grades. (This sounds like an obvious statement, but it's not always so simple. Let's examine one possible situation:
A) Bobby is an excellent note taker. He writes down all of the information on the slides plus jots down the teachers' meticulous explanations plus adds his own personal notes to help him understand the material. Bobby is also always ten minutes early to class, and stays ten minutes afterward to ask questions. He skims over the chapters in the book with semi-attention - besides, he already took awesome notes.
B) Janice does not take notes. She makes no move during the entire lecture to retrieve pencil and paper from her backpack, if she even brings her backpack. Janice is never early and never stays late, providing she even shows up for class. Janice always reads the chapters instead of taking notes.
Event: Quiz over identifying key characteristics in DNA. This was briefly covered in class, extensively covered in the book. Who does better? Well, that depends on a lot of contributing factors. But we're going to assume that Janice did better because she paid more attention to the book than the lectures.
Point in Case/Case in Point [If you know which is correct, I'd appreciate the tip.] : Taking notes does not guarantee better grades.)
This is not to say that taking notes will damage my GPA. Not at all. Maybe notes will help me remember all I learned previously. Maybe notes won't do a dang thing.
Maybe I'm severly psychologically damaged.
Just kidding. Or maybe I'm not. Enough with the "maybe"s.
I can't even remember why I started this entry; how is it I can remember the make-up of nucleic acids from last year's Biology?
Oh well. The point is, I'm hungry, and I've got thirty minutes to get to J2, eat, and still make it to Eco on time. Ah, the quirks of a college life.