I need to vent!!!

[ngrshm]

I've waited 6 months to get into an A & P 1 class (2 quarters) and now that I'm finally in, there have been 3 tragedies in my family all within 2 to 3 days of each other. No deaths, thank God but the situations are pretty close. I haven't been able to place my focus completely on my studies. Although I do still study, I've taken my 2nd exam and I failed the first one and the lab. I think I did well on the 2nd exam but not on the lab. Let me just lay down a little about the class. I attend classes on Monday and Wednesday from 6p-9:30p. The instructor is all over the place w/ lecture and when I say that I mean he teaches from power points. The information is soooo broad and soooo much but he doesn't specify what we should focus on for the exam. Now don't get me wrong I don't want any special favors but we haven't had a "REAL" lab yet.... The material is all broken the bones are all scattered, the microscopes are half working so the instructor gives us handouts as labs about 45 mins before class is over and goes through it but still again, doesn't let us know what to focus on. The instructor gave us a list of the 206 bones and said "you all need to know this." This was on a Wednesday and our exam was scheduled for the next Monday. Now don't get me wrong I along with everyone else was thinking how are we going to know how to identify 206 bones plus the material of three chapters in 4 1/2 days. Not even doctors learned them in that length of time. We were all thinking that if he had been a little more specific & said I would like you all to know the bones of the skull, the femur, the humerus, and the pelvis then it would have been better but that didn't happen. Now my method of study may not be all that great and if there is something else I can do to make things better someone please let me know what worked for them. What I do is: I take notes from the powerpoint and put it on the outline handout during lecture, then I transcribe everything to index cards to keep with me at all times, then I read each chapter as many times as I can before the exam. Our exams cover 3 chapters at a time every other week. Tuesday is the last day to withdraw from the class, so I asked the instructor if our grades would be ready on Monday, that will determine if I need to withdraw from the class without damaging my GPA. I don't want to have to withdraw but we only have 2 more exams plus the final and that's it. I don't know if I can come back from the bumming the first exam and 2 labs.... Sorry so long just had to get it off of my chest...