MEGA - Studying, Exams, Stress, and coping with them

Time management, also perhaps taking some form of sedative like valium for extremely stressful occasions?
 
I find what helps is really setting aside time for school work and studying and making sure that I work solidly during that reserved time by going somewhere with a studious atmosphere like a library or a coffee shop to do work. Then when your room or wherever you relax is really a place of rest and not a place you associate with stress. Keeping school and home separate are important for reducing stress. Also, talking to other people in your classes about the course and arranging study sessions is a great way to learn.
 
D's said:
Ok, Stress has played a huge part in my drug addiction. I'm trying to do the right thing and not do AS many drugs, or stay away from the hard shit (like heroin,coke,meth..etc..) I dont drink either, so have to find other ways to deal with stress.

The stress mostly comes from being rushed, or not finding a parking spot, or having a shit ton of homework, the list goes on!

Anyways, The college I'm at doesn't really have anything fun to do.. like not a real nice campus.. It's a ghetto ass community college in the hood. and the only reason i'm going there is.. not because it's an all black school.. I know the teachers there want to see the students move from the hood, and start their careers anywhere but here.

SO even though being the only white kid in the class, maybe I can get in on this, and move from the hood...

So if anyone has any stress relieving ideas?? please let me know.. :]
thanks
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Buring the candle at both ends with drugs and study may be proving too heavy a burden.

The drugs seem to be the elephant in the room here rather than something you will struggle to do without.
 
Meditation has helped me reduce my drug use to almost nothing during school time (occasional pot and alcohol on weekends).

Therapy could help too, it's just nice to be able to say whatever you want to someone whose completely receptive.

Also, life generally sucks. Just know that if you keep trying, it will improve.
 
College problems

No matter how hard I try, I can't seem to do well in college. I'm 19 years old and a freshman in a local community college. I do well in english courses but seem to struggle in everything else.

I may have a gig writing about one of the biggest music festivals in the country. Not sure how strong the possibility of this happening is but I'd jump on it if its possible.

Due to my poor grades, I am constantly criticized by the adult I live with as well as my grandmother. Neither of them are happy people though they are both well off.

Basically, what should I do? I'd like to keep going to school but it seems like I can only do well in what I love. I have been diagnosed with ADD among other mental illnesses but that one seems to hold me back the most in school. I enjoy writing but whenever I try to do work for other courses, I can't focus at all.

Sometimes I wonder if I'll even be able to get a job even if I graduate due to the poor state of the economy.

Is there a way of pursuing an education in writing? Will I even be able to get into a 4 year school if I have a poor GPA? Is it possible to take a break from classes to take some time to clear my head and then come back retaining my credits?

I feel like I have so much on my plate and I don't know how to deal with it.
 
Some schools will allow you to take an incomplete in all your courses and for you to resume them the next time they are offered, but it's usually only for extenuating circumstances. I was allowed to take a medical leave but all that meant was that I could withdraw from my classes past the withdrawal date and still get a full refund for the classes and not have it count against my GPA or as one of the semesters I would be eligible for grants and financial aid.

The majority of people can do well in college with the right amount of effort. I know a lot of people that did horrible in high school but were able to put in the effort and/or figure out ways to do well. When you are simply viewing college as the next step after high school, there isn't much motivation to excel. The more you realize that it is your time and money going into these courses, the greater the effort will be that you will likely put forth.

When transferring from a community college, anything over a 2.5 GPA will get you into the majority of state schools, and you can even get into some of the less difficult schools with a GPA as low as 2.0 It's the more renown state schools that you need at least a 3.0 to get into, and then higher GPAs for the private universities.

You could always just take 12 credits and work a lot until you figure out what you want to do. Another option would be to work a lot while going to school part time, but if that would result in losing your health insurance then you might want to stay full time. It took me a long time of working full time and going to school at community college before I got sick of it and really tried to go away to school. Once I made it away to school I valued my education a lot more than the people that had gone straight away to school, since I had a better understanding of what my education meant, and also the money I invested.
 
man, I know how you feel. I'm a freshman as well, and feeling pretty stressed and overwhelmed with keeping track of everything and trying to figure out my future. I analyze the shit out of everything so it gets pretty frustrating....I have add as well, and it really does affect me a lot. I'm on daytrana now which helps when I use it, but its still hard. I don't like feeling like I can get things done because I'm on something, instead of being able to do it on my own.

I can't really say anything about your issues with writing and grades, but I'm right there with ya, I been feeling like there's so much on my plate a lot lately too
 
Dude I went one semester at community college and hated it. I passed all my classes but didnt return because it seemed like a waste of time. I dont think im ever going back. The whole education system revolves around making money off students and im not giving a school one more cent of my money. If I want to learn something I always thought it was better through experience than in a classroom. All school is about is seeing who can put up with the bullshit long enough to get a degree.
 
shimazu said:
Dude I went one semester at community college and hated it. I passed all my classes but didnt return because it seemed like a waste of time. I dont think im ever going back. The whole education system revolves around making money off students and im not giving a school one more cent of my money. If I want to learn something I always thought it was better through experience than in a classroom. All school is about is seeing who can put up with the bullshit long enough to get a degree.
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While I can certainly sympathize with your angst, I have to say that for many people getting a degree is the only option they have to do what they want.

You cannot practice medicine without a license and an ungodly amount of schooling. Nor do I want to go to a doctor who has not achieved this.

It may seem that schools as institutions only want student money, but I have yet to meet a professor who was not invested in the success of his or her students who were willing to go to class and work hard. I'm sure there are profs out there who appear as if they don't care, so maybe I've just been lucky.

Besides, one semester of community college is hardly a full university experience. So before you go shitting on other people's hopes and dreams, try showing some respect towards those who have no other option but to attend college and get a degree in order to gain what they want out of life (whatever that may be).
 
LogicSoDeveloped said:
No matter how hard I try, I can't seem to do well in college. I'm 19 years old and a freshman in a local community college. I do well in english courses but seem to struggle in everything else.

I may have a gig writing about one of the biggest music festivals in the country. Not sure how strong the possibility of this happening is but I'd jump on it if its possible.

Due to my poor grades, I am constantly criticized by the adult I live with as well as my grandmother. Neither of them are happy people though they are both well off.

Basically, what should I do? I'd like to keep going to school but it seems like I can only do well in what I love. I have been diagnosed with ADD among other mental illnesses but that one seems to hold me back the most in school. I enjoy writing but whenever I try to do work for other courses, I can't focus at all.

Sometimes I wonder if I'll even be able to get a job even if I graduate due to the poor state of the economy.

Is there a way of pursuing an education in writing? Will I even be able to get into a 4 year school if I have a poor GPA? Is it possible to take a break from classes to take some time to clear my head and then come back retaining my credits?

I feel like I have so much on my plate and I don't know how to deal with it.
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Yes, check out the liberal arts majors. If you like writing, you can get a degree in English, journalism, etc.

As for taking time off, most schools will allow you to continue taking classes after extended absence. I dropped out of school my senior year of undergrad and returned to the same school 7 years later to finish my degree.

I have ADD and have to work very hard to focus. I don't use medications but I have a friend who also has ADD and he is successful in grad school with his medications. I have another friend who has schizophrenia and with the right medications, he too is successful in grad school. So don't let those things get you down. You may have to work a little harder than your peers, but it will be all that more rewarding when you get your degree.

Good luck.
 
shimazu said:
Dude I went one semester at community college and hated it. I passed all my classes but didnt return because it seemed like a waste of time. I dont think im ever going back. The whole education system revolves around making money off students and im not giving a school one more cent of my money. If I want to learn something I always thought it was better through experience than in a classroom. All school is about is seeing who can put up with the bullshit long enough to get a degree.
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there are some things that you will never be allowed to learn through experience if you don't have the right education (i.e. law, medicine, finance, engineering). and there's a lot of education out there that is worthless, but it doesn't mean there aren't good schools/professors out there teaching hard-working students very useful skills.

@OP - try and find some treatment for your ADD that works for you. i suffered with it, particularly once i got to college, and even though the medicine never really agreed with me, i did learn a lot about structuring my time that's helped me resolve a lot of my issues.
 
pretty sure he wants to do something in the writing field, which definitely isnt one of those "need a degree" fields. All I was trying to say is that school isnt for everyone, and Id rather save my money than keep doing something I have no interest in. Theres some kind of brainwashing going on in America that everyone needs to go to college which is totally untrue. Basically dont make yourself go only because you think its the norm.
 
I wouldn't go because it's the norm.

I've worked for a living and came to a very elegant conclusion. Work sucks worse than school.

YMMV
 
Tommyboy said:
You could always just take 12 credits and work a lot until you figure out what you want to do. Another option would be to work a lot while going to school part time, but if that would result in losing your health insurance then you might want to stay full time. It took me a long time of working full time and going to school at community college before I got sick of it and really tried to go away to school. Once I made it away to school I valued my education a lot more than the people that had gone straight away to school, since I had a better understanding of what my education meant, and also the money I invested.
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This rings true to me. Coming from a household that didn't encourage academics at all, I really had to do some soul-searching before heading off to college. I was able to transfer to university with a 3.1 GPA after graduating a 2yr associate's program. Now I'm maintaining roughly that GPA and my hope is that it will be competitive enough for graduate or professional programs after I graduate next year.
 
Procrastination advice

Hi, ive got a very big problem with procrastination and it is almost a traumatic event for me to think about or start doing an assignment

I realise that my mind blows the task out of proportion and that it can be divided up into smaller amounts

does anyone have any good tips on how to actually sit down and do their work?

homework terrifies me almost as much as girls do
 
Ah, I completely get that, I'm the same. It becomes such a big deal in my head, that I can get rushes of adrenaline and panic just thinking about starting an assignment sometimes.

It's hard to get out of that mindstate, I'm still not completely there and I still often procrastinate, a couple of things have really helped me though. First and most importantly, is setting myself small blocks in which I decide I'll study. Just 30mins, I say I'll work for 30mins, even if it's just staring at the screen or writing out the title. Making it such a small block makes it less intimidating though, because you can focus on just sticking it out for 30 mins, instead of worrying about the hours it might take to do the whole thing. Even just setting yourself 5 mins to work on it at first can be helpful in getting yourself over the mental block.

When setting out a timetable like this, I'll write it out for the whole next day, all 30 min blocks with 10-15 min breaks in between, and some longer ones to do something you like in between too.

The other thing that has helped me, is changing my environment. Just getting to the library and working there instead sometimes helps me break out of my procrastinating funk, especially if you go somewhere with less distractions. I find breaking through that initial barrier hardest too, once you've got started, it's usually easier to keep going.

Good luck..
 
^i agree.

limit yourself to a very small amount of time when you first look at an assignment. read through what's required, jot down a couple notes about what your next steps might be, then put everything away and do something else. this will make it easier to continue, since you'll have some direction and won't just be staring at a blank sheet of paper. likewise, it will make you generally less anxious about starting other assignments, since you know that all you need is ten minutes and half your attention to get a foothold.
 
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Man im the procrastination king. I dont do anything until i really have to do it. That includes studying for a test an hour before class. The mindset is the biggest thing of course, getting yer head into it. You see, this semester im taking health 101 and at the beginning we had to make a little list of self improvements in diet, exercise and stress. For dealing with stress i put down procrastination.

I wont do something then when i really have to do it i wont have enough time and i wont even do the homework or whatever and end up getting a 0. I found that writing it down as one of your goals is good. Thats what i did. Write down your goal on a peice of paper and stick with it. Monday - i have to do this. Fuck the schedule and there is no tuesday. By midnight i want to have this assignement completed. There is no tomorow just today and this what needs to get done. Then again, a little speed always got me doing stuff 8)
 
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