Focus: Maths, Chemistry, Physics. Anything involving numbers. Don't get me wrong, I can do them, but its always taken me so much extra effort to do well in those subjects. I got a B in Maths at GCSE, whilst putting 100% more effort into the subject than English literature, in which I got an A*. I did no work for English lit. Same happened at A level. I took Law, English Lit, History and Chemistry. I enjoyed Chemistry, but that made it even more annoying when I failed miserably at it. I'd put about 10% effort into English and Law, and came out with A's, yet with Chemistry, despite working my ass off to try and do well. I was getting everything from E's on a bad day to C's on a good day. Ended up scraping a C, but damn that was hard. Anti-Focus: English, like I said above. I love reading and writing, and English Lit just seemed to come naturally to me. I started my degree doing English, with a minor in Spanish because I'd studied it a few years before and enjoyed it. Never would have seen it coming, but I've now switched to a degree in Spanish and Catalan, with a few modules of Law thrown in for good measure. English at uni still came easily to me, but I didn't feel challenged at all, and I found myself falling asleep in lectures and wondering how being able to analyse bullshit poetry would ever help me find a job after uni. Spanish took more effort to do well in, but I figured a challenge would be good for me, and getting decent marks in Spanish after working hard for it is so much more rewarding than simply bullshitting my way through a 3 year English degree. Reckon I made the right choice though. Pretty awesome feeling when the hard work pays off and you find yourself being able to hold a full conversation in a foreign language. Plus, I'll be doing a 12 month internship in Argentina next year, provided everything goes to plan. Score!
Anti Focus: It would not be apparent from most of the rambling poorly spelled nonsense I spew forth on this board, but English (Lit) was my always my strongest subject. I have always read at a much higher grade level than most of the people in my class. And have usually been able to form my bullshit into fairly concise ideas. From 9th grade on I have been in Honors, or AP English. Also I tend to find the free flowing, conversation based, learning in lit classes really meshes with my style of learing. Also phys ed was a great one for me. Spend and entire semester playing games, then answer a few mindless questions on sports at the end! Why yes please. Focus: Art is the dirty hair brush of Satan's most depraved slumber party. No matter how much I payed attention, I can't draw, I can't paint, hell a straight line is often beyond me. I usually passed well because Art is a soft class, and teachers in Oklahoma tend to pass out A's like pedophiles pass out candy. I tend to suck at math as well, but that is mostly attributed to laziness.
Well put. Focus: Statistics. OK, so not all of statistics, but the probability portion of the course. I remember being confused way back in elementary school, when doing the very base level of probabilities. Fast forward to Statistical Analysis of Product and Processes Development and I am just hating life. Was toward the lower end of the grade distribution on the first exam, which does not usually happen for me. Now that we are moving toward confidence, tolerance intervals and the like, I am understanding the material much better. (You mean to tell me my TI-89 can not only do all of my calculus and algebra, but stat too?! Easily the best investment of my educational career). Alt-Focus: I'd call them "Mid-level Engineering classes" I guess. Dynamics, Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics, etc. As was already said, classes like Calc, DiffEq, and Physics are definitely weeder classes. The fundamental concepts of these classes need to be understood in order to completely understand what you learn in the engineering classes. Basically what will happen is that there will be people who struggle through the math courses may find that the engineering classes are computationally easier, as well as more interesting, which makes them easier (and more fun) to learn. (There is also the people that will struggle continuously through everything... who usually end up as business majors). For example, in a base level Electronics and Instrumentation course, there are first and second order differential equations that need to be solved. However, there is usually a "trick" answer, eliminating the need to use the confusing and time intensive skills you learned (and more than likely already forgot) in DiffEq. That being said, since I was good at the math classes, the engineering classes come relatively easy to me. This may or may not be my inner nerd coming out though...
Physics was always very easy and very intuitive for me until I hit quantum mechanics. Christ it was like hitting a brick wall, every instinct you have about how the universe operates suddenly comes to a screeching halt and nothing makes intuitive sense anymore.
I don't think, from high-school to now, that my average has ever been above about a seventy six. I keep thinking that it's time to take a trade, but I keep getting drawn in by the romance of science. At best, I think I'm capable of getting a general degree. Hot job market for that right? Focus: Chemistry, with the extremely odd exception of organic chemistry. From grade 11 to now, it's been a constant and deadening struggle. I will say, however, that analytical chemistry has given me a deep and abiding appreciation for Excel. Alt-Focus: The only thing in life I have yet encountered that does not make me feel incompetent is bussing tables. Shit's fuckin' zen, yo.
Focus: I'm horrible at subjects that require a large amount of creativity i.e. art and creative writing. I'm not a very artistically creative person. Thankfully the introductory level of these courses are mostly participation-based so I never had a problem passing them. Anti-Focus: My first semester of college I was already in multi-variable calculus and finished with the basic college-level physics courses (mechanics and electricity/magnetism). I've never had a problem with any math or science course, even the social sciences (although that's not saying much because the social sciences are usually nothing more than memorization *cough* psychology *cough*). To put it bluntly, my brain understands the language of logic, and not much else.
I've been lucky. Most classes I take I've done pretty well in, aside from a bit of a hiccup in my work ethic last year that was more a result of a personal funk than lack of ability. English, physics, history, astronomy, economics, politics, calculus and even a few art courses have all come somewhat naturally to me... ...and then we come to chemistry. Fuck chemistry. In high school sciences, I had marks clearing 90s in every single class, except chemistry, which I only managed a 68 in or something. I have no idea why, but my brain can't wrap around any of the concepts, and even when I look back at high school level chemistry, I just get angry because I still can't pick it up. Chemistry can get fucked. Biology was a little bit harder than most because there are several elements of chemistry to it, but even then I think I managed a low 80. Chemistry can burn in hell, and I don't give a fuck what changes are occurring to the physical makeup of chemistry while it's happening. The fire burns it, it fucks off, end of story.
The lowest grade I got in college was a B+ in Linear Programming (which has nothing to do with computer programming; it's a subfield of mathematics concerned with certain kinds of optimizations problems and is useful in fields like operations research). I can't say that I could never understand it, but it was the first class where I thought I had done pretty well on the tests and on the homework and continually got schooled anyway.