Overcoming Obstacles In English Class

Overcoming Obstacles

When I was a Junior in High School, my English class was taught by one of my favorite teachers, Mr. Medlock, so, naturally, I thought that I could easily sail through the class. The English class consisted of British Literature which was new to me but sounded fun. However, I soon realized that this class was not for easy sailing. I had to overcome three, new, challenging difficulties that raised their head at me.
First, I was required to memorize the vast majority of many poems at once. Instead of just a few poems like in previous grades, Mr. Medlock would put ten poems if not more on the same test. Normally, I would not have trouble with memorization, but most of the poems were about nature, such as “Tintern Abbey” and “Westminster Bridge”. I am not one who enjoys reading about nature; I find it quite boring. Therefore, reading, much less memorizing, these poems proved to be very challenging for me.
Medlock presented a new style of test that I had never heard of in my life. It was called a “Quotes Test”. The test consisted of three parts: naming the poem that an excerpt came from, then naming the author of said poem, and finally, giving context from the poem surrounding the excerpt. These tests would consist of twenty quotes if not more on occasions, so just because of the sheer amount of quotes there were, these tests would easily take most of the class time to complete for even the most diligent of students. I found these test extremely challenging; because, I would second guess myself on numerous answers due to how much time was required for the test. I would be answering one of the last questions and then question my answer on question number two. Many times I had the right answer but changed it due to my second