
Originally Posted by
gottspieler
My microbiology class was going to be my favorite class. I was going to learn new and interesting things and bump up my GPA by taking a subject that I thought would be an easy A or B.
Going back to the OP, it occurs to me that in my experience learning about smaller and smaller things (in this case microbes) becomes progressively harder and harder. Particle physics, for example, is completely hopeless.
Microbiology is not a 'fun' class, not in the 'easy' way that many students initially expect. The physiological diversity of microorganisms puts every other group on the planet to shame. They have multiple photosyntheitc, chemosynthetic, and heterotrophic pathways that we have never imagined. A new pathway of oxygen generation in some microorganisms was only just reported two months ago, as one example. Pathology - that will never be enjoyable in an easy way. Torturous latin names, complex symptoms that vary from one patient to the next, epidemiology and immunology, each could be an entire class in its own right yet in microbiology the students are expected to learn it all.
Consider that
all of animalia uses the krebs cycle to generate reducing power and ultimately energy. If you consider animal physiology to be a challenging subject, then you can easily expect microbial physiology (for starters) to be an order of magnitude more complicated. Virtually any compound you can imagine can be metabolized by some microorganism or other. Hell, they even degrade plastcis. Hell, they even make plastics.
Interesting yes. Easy? Sorry, no. Looking back to your OP it seems your expectations were what led to this mess, but you'll get it sorted in the summer and probably have learned a great deal in the process.