When I took Essentials (UTD) I had become super discouraged with myself in that class and and super stressed. I had come in, also, without much of the right exposure or practice before hand. But I stuck with it and some time later did their Rec2 and was just as stressed, especially during their failures portion.
It is natrual to feel "watched" and react with some confusion about what do to rather than how you're trained and would natrually act/react if doing the dive.
Then I took Tec1 a year later (recently) and while I'm a pretty solid diver these days, in the class I was brainfarting like madness. My bouyancy was all over the place, was forgetting how to deal with valve failures, and so on. But by the 3rd day was rock solid. Me and my team buddy eventually "forgot" we were in class and just did normally as if on the dive and we solidified naturally.
Even during my UTD DM training some of the pressure got to me at times. There you're demonstrating and teaching but eventually I put the pressure behind me and then eventually I passed. When taking these types of classes (GUE / UTD) it's natural to want to be perfect and look good, but you must never forget the purpose of being in the class is to learn. What you'll learn will enable you to conduct the dives with a measure of competance and also practice to prepare for the next class. But when you're done with the class, you dive and with that comes experience. The ultimate goal is to have fun. With experience comes proficiency and you'll get the point where you're not focused/stressed about the skills and can just dive and enjoy it. Part of the fun is the company you spend with, as well.
The advince I like to give people is: the only criticism that should effect you in a class comes from the instructor, not yourself.
Anyway, stick with it. Classes tend to be stressful, but diving outside of them tends to be fun. I can't think of a time outside of class where I've been so stressed or concerned about performance. It'll come with practice and diving with the like-minded/trained buddies.
Thanks for sharing the report.
