During my first week of school I, like all students, received in each of my classes the dreaded 10-20-page manuscript of course content--the syllabus. The Holy Grail for success in class. Though in hindsight, I recognize that it would have been beneficial to thoroughly dissect the texts, I simply skimmed over them, even neglecting some sections that seemed unimportant. As I later discovered, within the repetitive stack of words that I chose to overlook, there was a snippet of vital information that would have spared my sanity.

After sitting through my first Computer Science lecture, I realized that it was a class that would require a copious amount of work to be successful. On the Sunday after that lecture, when I scanned through my syllabus, I was directed to the Moodle site for my first reading assignment. It came as no surprise to me that I had to swallow 27 chapters of material within 48 hours before my next Computer Science lecture.

"Computer Science is no easy topic and I’m going to need to work very hard in this class if I want to do well," I thought as I confronted the first page. "If I need to learn 27 chapters in the next 48 hours, then I guess I will have to get it done."

Being a driven and studious person, I immediately dove into the first chapter's material--not so bad. But, upon reaching Chapters 2 and 3, I noticed that it was taking much longer to digest the information. Flipping through Chapters 4 and 5, I began to worry as the material grew increasingly difficult for the beginner I am.

I found myself excessively rereading information just to grasp the general concept of a phrase. But I kept my composure, sitting as still as possible and practicing meditative breathing. In. Out. I knew that even the slightest flinch could initiate a complete mental breakdown.

I glanced at the clock: 2:00 p.m. I had already put in five hours of work. Halfway through Chapter 7, my ability to process information began to malfunction. The computer terminology of iterations, functions and variables had all joined forces in an attempt to break me down–it worked.

Terrible thoughts bombarded me. "I'm going to have to drop this course, change my major or even drop out of school at this point." I was no longer a stalwart cyborg reading and processing a textbook, but instead a mess of human tears and perspiration.

Contemplating the insanity that I had just forced myself through, I started to think that there could be no possible way my professor expected me to learn 27 chapters in 48 hours. I must have read something wrong or skipped over some important detail in the syllabus. I returned to the Moodle page. Sure enough, I found three words in front of the assigned reading link: “Read Chapter 1."

I put myself through several hours of hell for absolutely no reason just because I did not take the time to read three simple words in the syllabus. Please, do yourself a favor. Heed my tale of computer science madness as a warning. Read your syllabus carefully–I promise it will be worth it.