I'm in my first semester at grad school for a master's in history and political studies. I'm currently taking 2 courses; while one makes enough sense, the other is not. It's set on World War 2 Eastern Front and we're set to read through some books, answer the discussion post, and move on to the next week. Normally, I do fine with these, but the books are rather dense so it's hard to process through chapters that are 40 pages long without having any idea what I'm looking for. There's no instruction; there's just the open post with open parameters to post whatever we like. The first two posts I've done were okay, but since she doesn't grade them and just responds I have no idea if I'm doing okay. Do you have any tips?
hi anon! thanks so much for taking the time to send over this ask :) first of let me acknowledge your hard work here--grad school is hard and you're doing it! that's something to be proud of itself. i have a similar class to this this semester, but luckily we get some discussion questions. my advice to you would be to first do some googling of discussion questions on the book that other people have come up with, then that can help guide your reading and give you some things to look for. if there aren't any discussion questions online, i would then try maybe coming up with one question you have about each chapter based on the titles, collaborate with your classmates to see if they have any ideas about the book, or set up an office hours with your professor! i am sure they would be happy to help you out. i hope this helps and please feel free to send more asks, reply here, or send me a dm! best of luck!!