Imaginative Student Has Trouble Adjusting to Workbook-based Curriculum I am a freshman at Alfred University. I've been out of school for 6 years and am returning as a non-traditional student.

I'm having some trouble that I hope someone may have insight for me. I love and adore mathematics and am endlessly intrigued and interested. Usually, back at home, I would work on little projects, like building toys or games or web apps and would explore the mathematics of the problems I was solving and generally have a wonderful time. Now that I'm in college I'm in a structured environment where we work in groups to solve problems in a workbook, and I'm assigned specific problem sets to work on in a specific topic every night.

I am having difficulty adjusting to this format of exploration and study.

I have a very free-wheeling approach to learning and it follows a spiritual bent; as I develop as an individual I also develop my skills and soak up more knowledge. The spirit isn't exactly something that you direct to sit down and do work and I'm not sure how to bridge the two worlds. No level of understanding that I've achieved will galvanize me to the discipline necessary to complete homework every day of the week, or even to set a goal of completing homework three times a week. Although now that I'm writing that, making a small goal like that seems much more reasonable.

I know I have to shed the habit of project-based learning however it's dying a hard death. I don't really know what to do about this.

Is this enough information for someone to possibly give me advice?

Thank you,

Khari
You are trying to achieve something, presumably a mathematics degree. Often, it is necessary to do dull, uninteresting things to get what you want. You have to decide first whether you want the degree, and the opportunities it will bring, enough to be willing to do things you do not enjoy to get it.

If the answer is "No" drop out now without wasting any more of your time and money.

If the answer is "Yes" you need to think in terms of doing something today, doing it now, to get what you want in several years time. Each homework assignment turned in on time is a small step to your objective. Its entertainment value, or lack thereof, is irrelevant.