Struggling With A Class

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I've just started it and I'm already walking out of it with a "I hate my life" mentality.
It's not that it's not interesting and I like the topic.

It's just that I constantly feel like the dumbest kid in the class and everyone seems to be getting everything and I'm not.

I said something that wasn't correct today, and everyone laughed at me. I just started crying right in the classroom.

Help!

I'm sorry you had that experience. Did your teacher notice? Can you talk to him/her? The whole class doesn't need to know about your ASD, but perhaps your teacher could help.

One time, I had a gentleman in my class who was laughed at this way--because he wasn't getting something the rest of them understood in my communication with him. I didn't notice anything was amiss until the class started laughing. It made me angry and I defended him. When I checked on him later, his table mate had explained the thing that the class had found humorous. I didn't see why it was funny (being how I am), but I realized that they were just being NT and seeing the humor when I couldn't...I don't think they were trying to be mean to the poor guy.

Sometimes when they don't understand where the point you are making is coming from, they don't know how to react and laugh. I'm sure your teacher would be happy to help make it a more welcoming atmosphere for you--without exposing your differentness. Above all, you should feel that you can answer questions and speak up in class so that you can get what *you* need from the experience.

Again, I'm sorry this happened, and I hope your teacher makes the effort to help.

Being laughed at is the worst feeling in the world.

If they announce ahead of time what they are going to cover, you could try pre-studying the material before class. If it's an interesting subject, it shouldn't be too annoying to do that.

What class is this out of curiosity?

I've found myself in this same pickle more then once, and the best solution by far is to go and visit with your professor during his/her office hours and talk to them about it one on one. In most cases I found that in fact I was doing just fine and that I was fully on par with the rest of the class. One of my professors gave me a good piece of advice when I visited him today over a similar issue, and that is that you can only evaluate yourself and you should never under any circumstances judge yourself based on how your classmates appear to be doing. Classroom charisma is by no means an indicator as to how well someone is doing!

In the event that you feel that you need help, your professor in any case is always the best place to start.

I would suggest talking to your professor if it's his/her style of teaching that you're having problems with. Sometimes it's the presentation of the material that makes all the difference - and sometimes professors just aren't very good. They might know their stuff but they're not the greatest teachers. So, if it's the lecture style or something that the professor can do, talk to him/her about it! It's their job to teach you and they can't do their job if you don't let them know there's a problem.

Otherwise, I'd suggest the tutoring center, it should be free and it's not meant to be condescending, some students go even if they don't have any problems just to get ahead. And they'll connect you with a tutor who really knows the subject and can help.

Don't let the other students get you down!

In a university course (during my first year) I asked some really inane questions with obvious answers (that were not obvious to me at the time)> the whole class laughed at me twice in one day and I felt like s**t. I ended up getting an A+ in the course though....one of the highest grades in the course......... don't let others ruin the experience of taking an interesting class) for you. Don’t drop the course.......