He has apparently been taught that LIFE is easy.
Rude awakening when he steps into the real world

Quite right. I assume it still works in much the same way as in my day. If you want the qualification you have to work for it & make a few sacrifices. If he's not prepared to accept that I can't think why this chap signed up for the honours course in the first place.

in my district (roughly 12,000 students) are required to read 3 books, 5 if in honors. these books arent the simple ones, oh no, we get 350 page books on histroy
350 pages.

Wow, what is the world coming to?
I was always an avid reader. Devoured everything in print I could find. I couldn't do it now but when I was younger I reckon I could have read those 5 books in less than a week. I often had 2 books on the go at the same time, one at work for break times & the other one at home.
I can't help noticing that most youngsters nowadays when alone (in a cafe or somewhere) seem to sit there staring into space. I've offered them my newpaper to read but they invariably refuse & carry on daydreaming. No wonder they complain about being bored.