Soo Stressed!
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Topic: Soo Stressed!
Posted By: Kevin
Subject: Soo Stressed!
Date Posted: 27-Sep-2008 at 07:20
I'm soo stressed by school right now, all get in school is soo many test and quizzes and it seems like that's all i do, and not to mention there has been repeated misunderstandings on my part with my AP Psychology homework all of this seems so ridiculous, and I feel like I'm not taking off academically like I should despite the fact that I try and work soo hard and I'm losing out to people who don't deserve honors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Replies:
Posted By: Constantine XI
Date Posted: 27-Sep-2008 at 07:39
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Time management.
Buy yourself a daily diary with all the hours for the day marked on each page, it should start at 7 am and finish at about 9 pm. Work out the exact amount of time it will take you to study/work for a given test or assignment. Then schedule every hour of the day from the time you wake up until the time you go to bed so the required amount of work always gets done. Remember to add time for breaks, recreation and social activities so you don't burn out. Good luck! ------------- |
Posted By: Dolphin
Date Posted: 01-Oct-2008 at 16:31
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It's simple, if other people are getting better grades than you and you are sure that you work harder, then it's either they are just more intelligent, or they are at least studying smarter. One problem you can't remedy, the other you can try to fix by prioritising work, find the information most relevant to your study and learning it well. Before College, sometimes it's better to just do what you are told to do well, rather than having a scattershot approach to far too much information.
And Constantine, while I agree that on paper your advice is good, for me it takes the whole point out of learning and enjoying the process. If we scheduled sex, or recreation, or anything else it takes away from it. Personally I study about three hours a day around exam time, and that gets me top grades, scheduling every hour of the day is for regimented people, not people who enjoy learning through their own drives and motivations.
Robots don't get top grades in my experience, but hey, that's just me. ------------- |
Posted By: Constantine XI
Date Posted: 03-Oct-2008 at 03:27
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Yes I know dolphin, I don't propose anyone do this indefinitely. Last year was honours year for me and I wanted to badly to get the top mark in my department. So I followed what I outlined above and it worked wonderfully (I had to surrender my social life and be very solitary, and the fatigue damn near wrecked me). But I was aiming to get first place in something that was intensely competitive (we have more commerce students at my uni than any other in the nation). Then when the whole process is over and you have got where you want to, you can take it easier. A solid heap of hard work and sacrifice while young can make things a hell of a lot easier when you are older.
If you wish to enjoy yourself while learning, then for sure don't use my Nazi scheduling regime. That procedure is just to get you marks when you want them really badly.
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Posted By: Aster Thrax Eupator
Date Posted: 03-Oct-2008 at 12:10
Sorry, I won't buy that - I know plenty of thick people who just have a knack for exam technique. An exam at the end of a 2-3 year course which lasts for only around 1-2 hours doesn't really prove much. I'm not being arrogant when I say that I get the highest grades in my class, yet I still know people who also get As but seem as thick as ****. The system is far from perfect - and I also know people who are far more intelligent that me but don't get the marks they deserve.
If you want something, you have to kick life in the privates for it - just work harder and harder until you get it! In any case, the system is, as I say, far from perfect, so those people aren't all going to be geniuses... ------------- |
Posted By: Reginmund
Date Posted: 03-Oct-2008 at 12:30
The system only wishes to test your knowledge in one very particular and narrow subject, not your ability to reflect independently, your intelligence or your general erudition. As a result it is not necessary to be what you think of as smart, the deciding factor is rather your work ethic, and almost any simpleton can in theory memorise knowledge from books and articles merely by repeating over and over what they have to learn. However, the real advantage to being intelligent and generally knowledgeable lies in how little effort you have to make in order to achieve the same grades as the mediocrities who study like crazy to compensate for their shortcomings. Take this from one who spent the laziest two years of his life writing a masters thesis that was graded with an A. ------------- |
Posted By: Omar al Hashim
Date Posted: 03-Oct-2008 at 12:40
No I agree with Dolphin. Exam technique is very important (studying smarter). The whole idea in a heavy workload environment is to minimise the amount of work you need to do to achieve the maximum grades. In my experience people who get As and are as thick as four stars are probably a lot more intelligent than you give them credit for. They have probably seen the smarter and better way of learning while you are slogging away inefficiently. I have noticed among my uni colleagues that the people who get the best marks are less likely to get hired by companies than those who have moderate to good marks. ------------- |
Posted By: Reginmund
Date Posted: 03-Oct-2008 at 12:51
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Intelligence and good exam techniques are related; if you are able to look at a thousand pages of required reading and decide just what you have to do in order to get good grades for the minimum amount of effort then surely you are quite intelligent.
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Posted By: Constantine XI
Date Posted: 03-Oct-2008 at 13:14
This is a very good point, though I would say it relates more to those studying the liberal arts. In that field, the ability to create an defensible and persuasive work out of a sheer colossal mass of information does require one to be smart enough to know what to memorise religiously and what to pass over as useless to gaining the examiner's marks. ------------- |
Posted By: Reginmund
Date Posted: 03-Oct-2008 at 14:31
Absolutely, which is why they are in my opinion intellectually superior to those who pursue natural sciences. I know this sounds incredibly arrogant, but the natural sciences require a very workmanlike form of practical intelligence that doesn't require you to mature intellectually. Most of my old high school friends study natural sciences, and I whenever I am with them I notice how immature and simple their minds are compared with the people I meet who study liberal arts, despite dealing with such complicated sciences as physics and chemistry (generalisation of course, but I've seen this pattern repeat itself more often than not). Not that it's necessarily a bad thing; I find the simpleminded students of natural sciences to be a welcome break from the liberal arts students with all their pretentiousness and self-centered introspection, no matter how sharp their intellects be or how well-spoken they are. ------------- |
Posted By: Aster Thrax Eupator
Date Posted: 03-Oct-2008 at 15:05
True, but if a person was truely intellectual, then they would put the effort in anyway because they are so curious. Obviously, being able to write a good essay and get a high mark without doing any of the reading shows intelligence, but that depends at what level (I guess in your case with the masters, obviously!) but at the stage Kevin and I are at, it doesn't because one can get a C-B without trying anyway. I think that with intelligence must come the passion for the subject - surely that's an aspect?
Moreover, as regards you comments about further reading - at a high level, that in itself must be evidence of intelligence, because at a high enough level, the further reading is itself a feat. In my history course, I don't consider someone who gets As but doesn't read and appreciate the key works to be less intelligent than one who does and still gets As. I always find that there comes a point where people can't rely on exam technique and really have to have a flair for the subject - I discovered this only this year; the people who have done so wonderfully in GCSEs have begun to slip down, whereas people like me who didn't do so well have soared up. ------------- |
Posted By: Reginmund
Date Posted: 03-Oct-2008 at 15:26
Well yes, and a person who fails to realize the significance of history can't have much potential in the first place. At least a basic knowledge of history is required of anyone who wishes to style himself or herself as an intellectual, and I recall even my old teachers in math and the natural sciences took great pride in knowing the history of their discipline. How is this for a general rule; people who don't know much about history, don't know much about anything.  ------------- |
Posted By: Aster Thrax Eupator
Date Posted: 03-Oct-2008 at 21:46
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I clearly agree with you - but I am finding that at the moment in my studies, the need for "passion" for one's subject is really begining to pay off. It's hard to get a good grade without doing extra reading and soforth outside of college. This is happening over a long period of time though - a matter of mark boundaries, but it's there. ------------- |
Posted By: Kevin
Date Posted: 03-Oct-2008 at 22:45
I think you hit the nail right on the head Aster, sort of speak as we both see the people in our secondary school education who get the good grades and honor rolls and so on and so forth and who are intelligent in many cases but are not intellectual as they aren't driven by the passion for fields of interest and study but by money and financial reward at the end of the tunnel. In addition many pretend to be intellectual but are not and just wind up being elitists instead. For example I saw much of this in the students among me at the Cambridge College Programme and can tell you that I think many of them with the attitude they take will find higher education difficult and I could even see many dropouts among them. However passion for the subject wields very strong power in terms of education and will bring more to people who show such strong willingness much fruit in the future. Also this isn't to say all high achieving students aren't passionate, for example I think there is some at least budding intellectuals in my AP US Government class, however I just don't know at this point. |
Posted By: Aster Thrax Eupator
Date Posted: 03-Oct-2008 at 23:02
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I recently went to the Durham university open day and spoke with many of the academics there - they were passionate - and that got them where they were. Moreover, you are right to use the term "intellectual" within that context - an "Intellectual" is one who uses his/her knowledge and intellect keenly and with an active mind - not just soaking up information and using raw intelligence to reguritate it onto an exam paper. I've seen what you mean about the "fake" intellectuals a lot - they will feign intellect, but when it actually comes to doing the reading and stuff, they just can't be bothered. They love sitting in black berets and talking about existentialism and nihilism (I don't know WHY it's always those two philosophical schools!) but it's obvious they've never read anything by Nitzsche and/or Satre. It makes me sick - I think a lot of it comes from the image the romantics portrayed - Lord Byron and Colleridge etc have a lot to answer for... I obviously don't know the details, but from what I know of you I doubt it's because you aren't "smart-learning" as was mentioned above, or aren't doing enough. However, if you're not (which I doubt) ensure you spend most of your time working. I'd imagine that in your case it's probably the system just playing to the lowest common denominator. One word of advice I'd give is practice papers - ensure you don't do pointless exercises; even if they are set in class... ------------- |
Posted By: Kevin
Date Posted: 04-Oct-2008 at 02:32
Hmm, I've never seen the fakes wearing black berets lol? Your right in assuming I think in saying that I'm a smart-learner and a hard worker. However even though I'm one of the hardest working people at my school I feel I can improve on some issues namely time management in which I often tend to take a long break after an exhausting day at school, then focus too much studying on one topic while neglecting another even though I sometimes get around to it eventually usually in the wee hours of the morning or 3-10 minutes before class like many students our age. Also my organization historically has been on the rather poor side(although I have made strong improvements here). This is also combined with the learning disability in math that I think I told you about a while back, that's played a big part in holding me back and causes me to struggle in the subject and it's related fields such as physics which I'm in this year and even though it's causing me massive pain I seem to be doing well none the less. Still even with all of this and me trying not to let the above hold me back, I still think that things are unfair you know? |
Posted By: Omar al Hashim
Date Posted: 04-Oct-2008 at 02:54
hmmm, from the look of this thread I'm going to wager that myself, Constantine, Reg, and Dolphin are the kind of students that Aster and Kevin are complaining about 
I know exactly what you mean. Although at least at my uni I would not include most physics students in the simple-minded generalisation. Good physics requires spark, style and a razor mind. Chemistry on the other hand can basically be held up as the perfect example of what you are talking about. ------------- |
Posted By: Aster Thrax Eupator
Date Posted: 04-Oct-2008 at 14:51
To be fair, that's not really "smart learning" - make sure you look at the lesson plan and the scheme of work, and plan your work accordingly. I make sure I do roughly 1 - 2 hours for each of my subjects a day - that keeps me sharp and on the ball. ------------- |
Posted By: Kevin
Date Posted: 04-Oct-2008 at 17:25
The thing with me is time is becoming harder to come by with extracurricular activates such as my internship and other ones which makes time like that hard to come by, not to mention all the tests have to take to gain admissions somewhere. However you are right in saying that my study method does need reconsideration. So I take it you are organized and well disciplined in dealing with studying for school? |
Posted By: Aster Thrax Eupator
Date Posted: 04-Oct-2008 at 18:21
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Well, I think/hope so - I do a "to do" list every day, and leave my weekends for extracurricular activities. Don't take on too much outside your studies if you are deeply interested in them. ------------- |
Posted By: Parnell
Date Posted: 04-Oct-2008 at 21:15
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I've often thought that intelligence rarely gets people good grades in exams (Or if it does, its usually just the difference between high marks and really high marks) Most of the time it boils down to studying and effective studying techniques that works for the individual. If you devote enough time and work out a system of study that works for you, you will get the top mark. I often think that I'm slowly working my way to a perfect system - every time I've sat an exam since my Leaving Certificate my studying technique becomes more effective and sophisticated. My personal problem however is laziness, and being distracted by the delights of TV and the internet.
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Posted By: Omar al Hashim
Date Posted: 05-Oct-2008 at 01:39
That's insane! You must have a very light workload to be able to do that. ------------- |
Posted By: Aster Thrax Eupator
Date Posted: 05-Oct-2008 at 02:55
Nope; it's fairly heavy - but I do it through a lot of late nights, dedication, passion, caffine and tobacco. It's not that I need to do all of it - I just really enjoy it. I must have read the Oddysey and Aeneid about 4 times each now (and that's not including the time just spent analysing individual books). ------------- |
Posted By: Kevin
Date Posted: 06-Oct-2008 at 04:19
I'm terrible with time management , although to fix it I like your idea of siting aside a fixed amount of time for each subject. |
Posted By: Reginmund
Date Posted: 06-Oct-2008 at 11:46
They are drawn to the outward qualities of the intellectual rather than the inner, in other words being an intellectual to them is more about image than anything else. I can understand why they do it, we all have egos after all, and surely we all feel smug when we get the chance to tell people we are historians rather than something dull like accountant or tiresome like carpenter, or when we sit on the bus reading a book titled "Analytical Essays on the Dichotomy in Early Corinthian Court Music", knowing you are the only one present who can penetrate its content. Heck, we may even indulge in pretentious dress - it's all part of our reward for wholeheartedly pursuing our passions rather than the best career prospects. That's just it though; it's a reward, and the reward can't come before the accomplishment. Those who feign intellect will soon look the fools when they're among erudite scholars and reveal they have all the smugness of the scholar but little of the knowledge. Edit: And don't make fun of Lord Byron. Artists are the only ones who can justify being even more smug than intellectuals. ------------- |
Posted By: Kevin
Date Posted: 08-Oct-2008 at 01:17
You have more then a point in saying that many are attracted by the image, but the image is second to the reward of passion in my opinion and the opinion of alot of the people on here. |