Did you ever barely pull it off?

[Enlitx]

I just finished my first year of college, and things could have went a little better. Due to my excessive use of weed and MDMA, my first semester consisted of partying and waking up way too late for class. Still, I was able to pull four A's and one B because most of the material was review from highschool. I might mention that I need to keep a certain GPA to retain my scholarships, so a few B's meant a quite a lot to me.

The second semester was supposed to be different, I was supposed to go to class, that was until I had problems with my girlfriend every single day. I realize people would just assume I could get out of the relationship, but it goes a bit deeper and I won't waste time discussing it here. I found myself about one week from finals, really depressed, and holding a middle B in every class I was in. I needed at least two A's or else my scholarships were gone. Still, I couldn't catch up on all the material fast enough, and finals week rolled around much too quickly. I thought my scholarships were long gone by this point.

Monday night I had my ACS standardized chemistry final, and I needed to score in the 97 percentile or better to get an A in chemistry. After waking up at 6 A.M. (the test was at 6 P.M.), I used some adderall from a friend and studied my ass off all day. I scored in the 99 percentile on the test, and this was good enough to get me an A in the class. One big sigh of relief, two tests to go. The only problem was that I ended up being unable to sleep that night, and I had to study all of the next day for calculus.

Tuesday I didn't have a test, but I wound up taking the rest of the adderall while studying for calculus. I knew I should have saved some for my final the next day, but for some reason I munched that shit down. I had trouble sleeping Tuesday as well, despite some melatonin, and I wound up with about two hours of total sleep since Monday morning come the day of my calculus final. Though I tried to concentrate, it was pretty difficult, and I ended up with a low B on that final, leaving me with a B+ in calculus. I absolutely needed an A+ on my biology final or I was toast. It was here, right after my calculus final at 8:00 P.M., that I thought I was seriously fucked. It is hard to convey the panic I was in at this point. My parents can't afford to send me to school, so my scholarships were my only ticket to attending a nice university. My biology final was at 7:30 the next morning, I didn't know any of the material, I had just blown my chance for that second A, I was tired as hell, I was fresh out of adderall and no ice was to be found, and I needed an A+ on a test that was known to be very difficult. This was the low point in the week, and I honestly thought about giving up.

Low and behold, my best friend from high school says he will give me some of his 20 mg IR adderall if I drive to his school about an hour away. This was at about 10:00, so I hauled ass to get there and back to my apartment at 12:00. I had seven hours before needing to leave. I popped the adderall, studied harder than I have ever studied before, and sat glued to my biology textbook. I get to the test in the morning, finding it to be not nearly as difficult as I had imagined. Still, it was pretty hard and I wasn't sure about the grade I received. I found out I received .5 points over the grade I needed, leaving me with an A in the class. I was fucking thrilled, and I mean that in a complete physical, mental, and emotional way that is impossible to convey over the internet. I feel as if a death sentence has been lifted a day prior to the execution. I was sure I would have to leave my college. So I did some K and rolled that night in celebration, only to pass out in my car right before leaving. I guess I needed some sleep .

Moral of the story: Go to class, life is easier and cheaper. [<snip> -RR]

Anybody else have some close calls that were overcome with or without the help of drugs?

 

[sushii]

I've only risked fucking up one class so far - that I needed to do well in, anyway. The field I'm studying in is pretty competitive due to registration requirements, and the uni I'm at in particular has really high requirements for honours and postgraduate courses. At this particular point I needed an overall mark of around 80 in my final year neuropsychology class to have a chance at getting into honours.

I wasn't too concerned - my average is higher, neuropsychology was my favourite subject and the class was difficult but not particularly hard. I figured if I studied well and kept on top of everything I'd be fine.

Wrong. Stupid me misinterprets the essay question and barely passes the mid-semester assessment. Based on how the marks for the assignment and the exam were weighted, I figured I needed 100% to get a mark in the low eighties. At that point my mark was in the low 50s.

I basically just locked myself in the library for a week and memorised the whole fucking textbook. I lived on chips and learnt everything by rote. It's a terrible way to study, but somehow it worked. I ended up with a 91 in the class overall, so I'm assuming everyone else fucked up the exam and standardisation pushed my mark up by a lot - I know I didn't get 100% in it.

During my first degree I barely scraped through for the whole first two years, but I didn't care too much about it, so it doesn't really count.

 

[Chaos Butterfly]

Oh yeah... that was basically the story of my 2nd year at uni... I wasn't on scholarship though, so it didn't matter what grade I got too much, but there was no way that I could have lived with myself if I had failed anything. Way too much effort (and $$$) to have to repeat anything...

For the first 2 years of my degree, I didn't really go to all that many classes... if it started before 10am, there was a very very high chance that I wouldn't be there. Especially for maths classes. I just didn't really care... stupid classes that you are forced to take, and don't give a shit about... eh...

It came down to final exams, and I'd worked out that to pass the course I needed to get about 60% on the final exam (this happened for one maths class, for 3 semesters in a row...) I had started going to class in about week 7 of 12-13 weeks of lectures, so I had some grasp of some things, but anything that deviated from the given examples fucked me over hard...

So, I ended up studying my ass off, drinking copious amounts of red bull, and just swung a pass in all of those classes

Woo for not failing!!

I'm doing my PhD now, which just goes to show that even though you do fuck all for the first 2 years of undergrad, if you pull your finger out something savage in the final 2 years, you can get there

CB

 

[Fried Man]

Yeh, what a weird feeling to work your ass off for the last few weeks of school just to get a C- or higher (70 or higher). You're flooded with joy and dissapointment at the same time.

 

[dirtyharrison]

Congradulations on meeting the grade.

I hope you've learnt now not to leave it all to the last minute. Although saying that i never do and EVERYTHING i do is left to the last minute.

Well as they say, if it wasnt for the last minute, nothing would be finished. I've never had a drug fueled study session, although i wouldnt mind trying adderall or dexys and studying. I think speed would tweek me out too much. I did do an essay in 3 hours and proof read and did the conclusion in the morning and it got me a 6 out of 7 though.

 

[rm-rf]

i fucked around in linear algebra and diddnt start doign any work untill 2/3 into the semester. grade consisted of 3 tests and 1 final. i failed the first two tests so bad that i needed a 94 or something rediculous on the final to get a C (Cant have below a C grade in a major class). I ended up getting the C.

 

[Enlitx]

Congradulations on meeting the grade.

I hope you've learnt now not to leave it all to the last minute. Although saying that i never do and EVERYTHING i do is left to the last minute.

Well as they say, if it wasnt for the last minute, nothing would be finished. I've never had a drug fueled study session, although i wouldnt mind trying adderall or dexys and studying. I think speed would tweek me out too much. I did do an essay in 3 hours and proof read and did the conclusion in the morning and it got me a 6 out of 7 though.

I forgot to add that I used ice about four times before finals week, and every single time I would stay up all night the morning before the test. It was the only way to really understand all the material after missing so much class. I never had a problem with tweaking too much if I kept it under .5 grams, but if I went over that it was kind of hard to sit by a book and study. I spent way too much money on study drugs this year.

 

[indelibleface]

I did fairly well throughout high school. When I found out I got into the university that I applied for (and I applied to only one university), I took a breath of fresh air and decided to take it easy my last semester. I ended up getting straight C's -- which was the bare minimum requirement to maintain university eligibility. What was even more crazy was, in my math course, I got a 68.5%, which was the bare minimum required for C status in the class!

 

[ktx49]

^wow where do you go where a 69% is considered a C??!?! that is a failing grade here(F)

ive done this a few times myself, but NEVER with the aid of stimulants....lol i hate them! not even adderall will enter this lovely body!

anyways, i did however use copious amounts of percocets/OCs and methadone to get through a couple classes during my last semester i attended(fall 2005). once i wrote a 12 page paper on like a shit load of methadone...it was so funny because at first i was all stimulated and awake so the first part of my paper was super good and well written...then i started nodding off and my paper just lost alot of its form and arguement...even my teacher noticed LOL!
anyways, i took a break this semester because i was going through alot of shit and knew it would have been a disaster! boy was i right....not only have i been going through some of the worst depression/mood swings of my life, but i got dumped unexpectedly and rudely by my girlfriend of 3 years! and on top of all of that shit, i also was tackling a huge opiate addiction(suprise suprise lol)it WAS a disaster! but god damn i am so fucking happy i did not take any classes...especially because i would have been dumped right around finals and stuff and ive been really sad anyways! i cant imagine what woulda happened.

so im going back this summer in less than 2 weeks for a short, lecture packed semester. its gonna be minimal fun with classes reaching almost 3 hours a piece(for each of the two classes im taking, so 6 hours for two total)...
oh well, they are easy BS requirements that i need to get outta the way and they'll be really hard to get this fall with all the freshman coming in.

later guys

P.S.
please dont depend on adderall/amps/etc to get your work done when you've put it off. such a bad habit, what happens when u cant score shit and your in the same situations?!?

 

[space.age.sound]

^wow where do you go where a 69% is considered a C??!?! that is a failing grade here(F)

....
Where do you go where 69/100 is considered failure?


I've never had any of these 'barely pulled it off' times.. I just keep completely screwing up.

 

[Putingrad]

Yeah, my first and only year of college thus far... I fucking bombed first semester, 0.8 GPA... too much partying, and stopped giving a shit sometime around 2/3 through first semester. I decided to drop out, then at the last minute where I could register for the next semester in school.. I decided to suck it up and do it. Apply myself and make it through my first year passing and in good standing with the university. Well, I committed myself to it, kicked ass and BARELY passed... a 2.004 GPA. One letter grade lower in any class and I would've failed my first year of college.

I decided to take some time off after that close shave... it's been two years now since I was last in school, but this January I will be starting at a community college to raise my GPA, and eventually get into a better university.

 

[Gerbee]

I will let you know next week =/

 

[Hillbilly Dan]

My first semester at college was the closest I've come to completely screwing everything up. I don't think I took a sober breath that entire semester and barely studied for anything, but kept fairly decent grades. Then finals rolled around and everything went to shit. I went through a nasty break up involving my gf leaving me for another girl 8( , my car fucked up and I lost most of my savings, and to top it all off a friend of mine from high school killed himself. This all happened the week before finals. I'm fairly certain that weed was the only thing that kept me sane enough to function. I was sure I was going to fail my computer science course, but pulled a B! I managed to do the same with the rest of my classes and ended the semester with a 3.3 GPA :D

 

[sony123]

Monday night I had my ACS standardized chemistry final, and I needed to score in the 97 percentile or better to get an A in chemistry.


Anybody else have some close calls that were overcome with or without the help of drugs?

is that for general chem 1. if so how is the ACS test? im going to be taking that in about 2 weeks.

 

[Jim_Lahey]

I thought at any college/uni below 70% would be failing... guess not. anything below 70 is def. failing here in ann arbor.

 

[Jamshyd]

In most places, failing = <49%. In my university, 47 and 48% were still rounded up to a 50%, and we're talking one of the largest universities in Canada.

As for the OT: yes, and I have quite a story to tell, but no time to tell it (gotta go). I'll post again when I come back

 

[Enlitx]

is that for general chem 1. if so how is the ACS test? im going to be taking that in about 2 weeks.

Well, for me it was general chem II. I don't know if there are seperate tests for different levels of chemistry. It wasn't that bad, then again I studied like no other for it. I made this post about two years ago, and I have gone through organic I and II, so in comparison it looks relatively easy.

Anyways, as I mentioned in another post, I haven't used any drugs at all this semester and finals will be a piece of cake. I have an A+ in each class that I have finals in, and I would have to miss more than 16 out of 50 in one final just to get below an A.

 

[sony123]

wwwwwwwwwwwww

 

[Ernestrome]

I constantly barely pulled it off during my first degree. The tactic didn't work out so well in my final year. :/

Be smart, work hard, you'll regret it if you don't.

 

[RedLeader]

Two stories come to mind:

1) I had a very hard-assed professor for a second-year physics lab course. Basically nothing short of a death in your family could get you out of taking an exam during its scheduled time. I will also note that I was always much better at the classroom material part of my phsyics courses than the labs. I despised physics labs (except for one astronomy one I had). I needed to get at least a 70% or so on this exam to pass the course (pass it high enough so as to continue on with the major).

Anyway, there were 9 of us in the exam and we each got 45 minutes to do a lab experiment and then write up a brief report on the results. He had two rooms set up, so two people would go at a time, and we were alone in the room (unless he was in as well, which was roughly 50% of the time).

About 5 minutes into the exam, I was being careless and worried about time, and accidently took about 350 volts to the hand. To the hand I write with. God, it hurt like nothing else. The professor hears it happen and comes in. He just kind of looks at me, shakes his head, and then walks back to the other room. I was expected to finish! I was dazed and in shock (literally and figuratively). I managed to pull it off, but that sucked really, really badly.

2) 62%, when I needed 60% to pass. I was taking the course whilst writing my thesis, and went to about 1/2 the lectures. Did a dumb thing and took a course which I didn't even have the pre-reqs for, at the suggestion of my academic advisor. If I had failed that, I probably would not have graduated that semester, and it would have gotten VERY complicated, since I was an international student and hence really only got one "official" shot at completing the program in due time.