What was your experience in English class like?

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I always did well in English class up until high school. The creative writing assignments and persuasive essays were always my strongsuit. The ones I hated most were "Tell about an event in your life and explain why it helped you learn a lesson/why it changed something/how it relates to this or that". I always had to make something up. For some reason the other kids didn't seem to have a greater problem choosing a topic for those essays than any other essay, but I don't see why...how many life-changing events that result in a greater level of self-awareness do children have? Research projects were the WORST, and I always procrastinated those hardcore.

Some of you can probably relate to this: 50% of teachers loved my writing style and always gave me A's, 50% of teachers HATED it. I just joined up here to find that everybody has a similar writing style to me, and now I see why it's annoying to some. Countless paragraphs of wordy, disjointed analyzation that never reach a point or conclusion. Up until high school I was told that my writing was phenomenal, then I started getting red marks everywhere saying "not enough information, poor transitions, no topic sentence" and they forced me to make my writing very structured....even though almost nothing you read is that structured.

Oh, and before English class got serious, I aced just about every spelling and vocabulary test. That was nice. I even got 7th place in the state spelling bee, beating out some other kids who, looking back, probably had Asperger's as well.

On a side note, I also noticed that some of the best teachers I've had were male English teachers, and female English teachers were uncreative and boring. My most memorable math teachers were female but none really stood out because it's hard to get creative with teaching math.

English has always been one of my best subjects. Most of my english teachers were pretty impressed with my writing skills and with my advanced vocabulary for my age. My 7th grade english teacher even thought that I should get into novel writing.

When I was in high school, I flirted with Pre-AP/AP english classes, which I didn't really do as well in. It seemed that AP english teachers were more difficult to impress than regular english teachers. I struggled in my AP english classes, but I breezed through my regular english classes.

When I was a senior in high school, I took Dual Credit english. It turned out to be a very good decision, since I did well in that class and had a good time. I'm not sure what my professor for that class thought of my writing, but I managed to make an "A" in that class nonetheless.

When I took British Literature during my first semester of college, my professor had us do journal entries for each reading that we did. In one of my entries, she was impressed that I used the word "whom" correctly.

My belief is since women in general seem to be more gifted verbally, those men who take up a verbal profession or discipline (like literature or English) will be more gifted than the average woman who takes up said discipline. Just like most chemists were men, but Marie Curie was far far more famous than her males peers, but also one of the only women in physics and chemistry at the time. She is a statistical out-lier.

I loved a lot of things in English class. I loved writing stories and essays, and I was always very good with grammar. I loved reading some books as well, but I found that if it was not interesting enough, I had little motivation to continue reading it. HATED Shakespeare in high school, but loved the play we read in university. :S My college prof told me I should major in English because of my writing skills in my essay work. (I'm not though....)

in english 101, a prof once told me, in front of the whole class, "you make so many stupid mistakes, you must be psychotic!" for some reason he hated my guts and always found snide ways of letting me know it, always in front of other students. i wasn't the only one he disrespected this way, and i dropped a dime on him. but it was somebody else, who was the wrong person for him to offend, that got him declined at contract renewal time. but he was only part-time, so he just found work elsewhere.

I was on an A overall when I finished high school. English was my favourite subject, so it follows that I'm now studying it—along with Writing—at university. I've never had an English teacher who wasn't impressed by my vocabulary and command of grammar, punctuation, and spelling (that's not to say I don't make mistakes).

But I did have some weak points that prevented me from being top-of-the-class: speeches and exams.

I can write speeches very well, but having to get in front of the class and speak was among the most nerve-wrecking experiences in my life (I am loathe to admit it, but I cried all day before a speech once). The teacher I had was nice enough to allow me to speak near the end when there were only about five people in the room, but it made no difference. I did manage to get As/A-s for all the speeches, though (I think she was being a bit lenient).

Exams were where I fell down, though. I've never seen the practical purpose of exams save for recalling copious amounts of information and memorising pre-written essays. Why force somebody to try and write an informed essay in an hour when they could write something so much better in their own time? The experience was (and still is) equally as nerve-wrecking as public speaking—I always feel like a vibrating piece of jelly. I got B+s for all the exams, but they were always Fs in my eyes.

I'm not enjoying the university equivalent of English (the film and television portion is all right) as much; there's too much 'critical reading' involved and pulling up wild metaphors and symbolism the author probably never even intended. I want to be an English teacher, though, so I'm persevering. I'm not sure how I will cope in front of all the students, but I find I am less nervous when I'm talking about something I'm genuinely interested and knowledgeable in.

Here's hoping.

I did well on Essays. Horrible with diction. I never figured out how people learned all those words they use...
So literature classes were fun growing up. Vocabulary based things were not.

Even when I discovered I liked reading last year, I still don't see any special words in stories.

I would have to agree with that and not just from recent experiences but from past ones too. Its hard to admit to someone when you’ve failed again just a few marks off from getting a decent top average grade but it was the best I’D EVER done in an English exam.
Most exams are dull, stupid and averagely boring. Too much topic sentence fails to get you noticed even if the topic greatly interests you and you have to fight hard within the space of just over 2 hours to read, process the info and write what you think. With loads of other students in the room with you. I tried for better exam conditions this time but I still had to sit with a ton of sixth formers. Most of whom were doing maths or science.
I’m not going to describe just how pissed off I used to get in exams but spacing yourself out when you’re trying to think and the exam officer is trying to read your mind at the same time, as if you’re processing off a screen in front of you, is just total nonsense.
To get a decent mark, it has to come from you and naturally, you can’t focus for long on a topic sentence without straying off into the subject matter anyway. My mums good at foreign languages and her sister is an English teacher.
Every exam you will get here in the U.K is ghastly and because examiners are not paid much to mark exams in the night. How can they look over a two and a quarter exam paper within 15 minutes? I don’t get it and, I don’t care that everything should be relevant.
The teacher just wanted her backside to be appraised for the ‘countless hard work’ she puts in teaching. She’s officially retired and still going. Stuck up wench. Told me to come back when there was less coursework.
I enjoyed the coursework this time as it was celebrating the 100th centenary since WW1 and I had choose 3 poets to compare and I scored a C on that. (she hates English Lit).Try feeling the words you're saying. My ancestors I believe supported me on my writing journey involving them in many aspects too.
I impressed myself, it is something which I will never forget. Poetry comps boost my emotional confidence and underachieving feelings. I enjoy reading novel fiction too. Maybe, I'll also write a book one day.
So, this is why I've decided to basically pursue my academia within my budget and now, I'm travelling a few towns up toward the S West side of my county to stretch my learning capabilities and vision. I’m honestly just doing what I want, because that way I don’t get the hassle I don’t need.

We don’t tend to use the term IDIOM here in the U.K. In reference to types of speeches, its usually based around a factual topic of interest you’re explaining and not a metaphorical meaning for a cause of something.
Ultimately, speeches have to generate more around the facts than the idea you can simply push forward with a simile. The English language has too many ‘deeper meanings’ to actually sacrilege one term from another.

In English, people tend to resonate from one idea rather than form a topic, which can become confusing for non British speakers. However, being native myself, I’m not entirely certain you can really separate fact from fiction in speech presentations any more than sheep shearing. Which would be a demonstration and not fiction at all.
I was never any good at speeches as a child, as I was always nervous in front of people, even though my PowerPoint is something of interest. I would always get picked to read narratives though and often I’d enjoy them.
On this course, I got to vary the topics a bit, and actually choose what I wanted to do. So, unlike well, apart from me and one other person, so no one, I picked out a poetry assignment, as I quite like poetry.
Instead of tabloid fiction, which I have no apparent interest in.
On the next one, I did it again, favouring Churchill over MLK. This is because, he was a British war time leader, and followed on from my first assignment, whereby I had to study war poets.

At the end of the day, you can’t rush an assignment, any more than forgetting your lines in a speech or slurring your words because something in the crowd might snare or misinterpret you.
Another thing I hated was assembly awards. You’d get this certificate and sometimes money, if someone picked your name out of this bucket for accreditation. A £25.00 music voucher at the time wasn’t bad, but I’d rather not get vouched for subjects I don’t like and as far as competitions are concerned, I do well enough but ‘is there anything at the end of it’ you might well ask, ah yes, if you enter a local comp, if not, you don’t get any money. No money? Only praise. Just when I thought my writers block was a thing of the past.

Once I got a massive fan package from R.L.STEIN when I was 10 years old. That at the time meant something. Anything from the U,S was an achievement. Now, I’d rather get handwritten love letters , fanmail and possibly a cheque. Just like real employees do. Well, if they want me, then a meeting with a publisher or getting a stocking filler would be good. If not, then well, eat me.

The few times I was forced to take English I did poorly (low As...which is poorly for me) because the professors didn't like my opinions.

The only one I really recall was suggesting that Dr. Frankenstein was a deadbeat father to his monster.

I don't see the point in kissing a** in an English paper, but that seems to be what the lower classes are looking for. Other than that you can do okay as long as you remember how to do punctuation correctly. I usually had someone else read over my paper before I turned it in to spot things like that.

My English professor was a relative of mine. You would probably think that he would grade you easily a good grade. In my case, it was quite the opposite. I had to work twice as hard to get the "A" in the class. And if, screwing around in class he would call my father and tell him what I did in class

I failed English once in 7th grade. The teacher was an effeminate gay person who liked the girls in the class--possibly because they were more "mature" than the boys.

Then I had a crush on my English teacher in 8th grade. Shortly afterwards, I discovered that poetry and literature were very good things, rather than sissy things.

Since that time, I've always done decently in English.

I have always done well in English classes, all the way through college, particularly if it was a take home assignment where I could do a storyline, then a rough draft, and finally the finished paper. I always asked myself " How would this look if I saw it in print".
A note to the OP, your writing style falls into the 'stream of consciousness' genre. If your instructors liked James Joyce, they would like your writing. If they were the type that didn't, they wouldn't.

I did very well in English up until 9th grade. I was placed in Honors English 9, but I was not recommended to advance to Honors English 10. My 9th grade English teacher didn't like me so much, and she was out for quite a while in the middle of the year. I don't know if I would have done better if those circumstances were different. At the end of the year, I talked with the department head, who looked over my papers and gave me some pointers that helped me more in 15 minutes than my regular teacher had helped all year! She would have overridden my teacher's decision, but after some thought I decided not to continue in the "honors" track and stuck to regular English classes. The stress of trying to keep up in a more advanced class may have been too much. I don't really regret this decision, though I do wish I had some of the experience that I know the more advanced students got. When I went to college, I did not test out of Writing 101.

My grammar and vocabulary are still just mediocre. I definitely excelled more in math and science, although I was not a "wiz kid" like the students at the top of my class. And above any other subject, I have excelled in music. Whenever i daydream about what I might do if I wasn't a musician, nothing to do with English comes to mind. I didn't mind writing in relation to history or philosophy, but I couldn't write a novel or short stories.

Which English Class? Some of them split English and Lit - not sure which was worse, though I was better at the English. A lot of Lit I just do NOT get.

"On a side note, I also noticed that some of the best teachers I've had were male English teachers, and female English teachers were uncreative and boring."

I never noticed that - but it was true. Two women both terrible stand out - two men, both terrors - you had to be on your toes - but really good stand out.

But my woman History teacher was incredible.

I used to be able to pull a formulaic automatic A five paragraph essay out of my ass like nothing. As you get in higher grades the prompts get more abstract and all i could ever think of was super personal and its not like i wana lay out my problems to some stupid teacher. However it seems that painfully horrible writing skills are considered average so if i think i did really bad its probably gona get a B. I did my last english class in summer school which sucked but the teacher gave the absolute worst senior paper a 96% and most of the class got 100s