Geology stumped me in college as well until the lab class. Fortunately I had a very good instructor who loved hands on field trips! I took Geology of Nevada and then again in Idaho! It helped me with Botany as well as plant ID, not sure why but it certainly helped connect all the dots! Maybe it's because certain plants grow with certain rocks/terrain! Now I use rocks/boulders in my landscape plans and they are just big rocks! Some things I choose to retain, some things I don't (I think they leak out of these holes I have in my brain!)

I certainly understand the frustration with generic/brand names in your world MrsD. It can get very confusing -- good example - Provigil. Why the heck does it have to be called one thing in the US and something else in Canada??? I digress, as usual.

I do very well with botanical names of plants. It's the common names that get me into trouble. Sort of like a local dialect.

I was required to learn the botanical names otherwise I would not have gotten through school! Each week for two years we had a plant ID test and on this test was 50 plants and we had 4 classes - perennials, annuals, shrubs, and trees. We had to know the family, genus, species, and cultivar (if there was one). They had to be spelled correctly and written correctly (italics as required and quotes as required). Made for a lot of memorization...my poor little MS brain with holes struggled some weeks.

I used to draw pictures on my test paper of my brain with holes and my arm with the IV in it and hope my instructor would be kind!

Good luck with the rock identification! Maybe you can join a local rockhound club and get some help that way! I know my dad belonged to one and that's how he came to be very knowledgeable about rocks!