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

firefighter said:
A strategy that doesnt fuckin work:

waiting until the last minute to do something, then end up giving up because its just too late to get anything really productive done. feeling like shit about it the next day, while getting an F.
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This is only true for me with math related topics. I can write a 15 page essay starting at 1am the night before it's due and always pull out a decent mark. In fact I'd say that I do better under serious time contraints. Overthinking things tends to be my downfall.

Unfortunately my exam tomorrow (aka "this morning") is in statistics for behavioural sciences. It is just before 4am here, and at 9:30am my average gets dragged down a bit. Luckily this is the only math course in my program so I do pretty well overall.
 
captainballs said:
opiates in general keep me up. I can't understand people that take them and fall asleep. The buzz keeps me excited and awake better than any amphetamine could.
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haha I am the exact same way. ive actually been wondering how come this happens.. like I will get the nods off high doses of oxys but I can pop 60 mg of hydrocodone and walk the streets of a foreign city for hours feeling great
 
Problems Studying....and sleeping...

My typical week day consists of:

730am get up have
830am be at uni for class
400pm leave uni
500pm get home and do anything cept study!
1230am start studying

As you can see, at 5-1230 i cant seem to motivate myself to study! this is become a problem now that i am just getting further and further into the semester and the work just keeps building up. Its only past midnight that my mind gets into gear and starts working....by then its bedtime...

so i stay up and study till 1-2am...hence leaving me with very little sleep....other thing is, once i get into bed, im kind of in study mode...so i cant seem to sleep, i toss and turn for another hour or two before i can sleep...then having to wake up the next day with hardly any sleep...just kills me.

Any tactics people can think of to motivate oneself to study? and possibly fall asleep.... (no counting sheep doesnt work for me)
 
yasu said:
My typical week day consists of:

730am get up have
830am be at uni for class
400pm leave uni
500pm get home and do anything cept study!
1230am start studying

As you can see, at 5-1230 i cant seem to motivate myself to study! this is become a problem now that i am just getting further and further into the semester and the work just keeps building up. Its only past midnight that my mind gets into gear and starts working....by then its bedtime...

so i stay up and study till 1-2am...hence leaving me with very little sleep....other thing is, once i get into bed, im kind of in study mode...so i cant seem to sleep, i toss and turn for another hour or two before i can sleep...then having to wake up the next day with hardly any sleep...just kills me.

Any tactics people can think of to motivate oneself to study? and possibly fall asleep.... (no counting sheep doesnt work for me)
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For me, studying is a forced habit that changes every 4 months or so since my classes move around to different times each semester. You need to set individual goals for yourself to get things done. For instance, I set aside 2 or so hours to work on one thing, when I'm done, I reward myself with playing 20 minutes of a game or a sudoku puzzle or something of the sort (you get the point). When you're done, either return to that assignment, project or reading that you were working on, and set another block of time to either work on it or get it finished.

I also wouldn't suggest studying RIGHT before you go to bed, which you know. You need to give your brain time to decompress so you aren't thinking a million different things when you're trying to sleep.

It's going to take patience and practice to do this, but it really does work, and the rewards thing works well, too, at least for me.

We all know studying can suck sometimes, but it has to get done. I just don't want this to have a bad effect on your overall health and academic life.
 
Yeah I know the feeling...I have papers to write and right now its the last thing on my mind...but then again right now I have a lot to think about. But it seems I just get burnt out afterwhile and by the time finals comes, which is what really matter, I don't really care anymore.
 
eras3r said:
For me, studying is a forced habit that changes every 4 months or so since my classes move around to different times each semester. You need to set individual goals for yourself to get things done. For instance, I set aside 2 or so hours to work on one thing, when I'm done, I reward myself with playing 20 minutes of a game or a sudoku puzzle or something of the sort (you get the point). When you're done, either return to that assignment, project or reading that you were working on, and set another block of time to either work on it or get it finished.

I also wouldn't suggest studying RIGHT before you go to bed, which you know. You need to give your brain time to decompress so you aren't thinking a million different things when you're trying to sleep.

It's going to take patience and practice to do this, but it really does work, and the rewards thing works well, too, at least for me.

We all know studying can suck sometimes, but it has to get done. I just don't want this to have a bad effect on your overall health and academic life.
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Thats exactly what i try and do, i even made a study time table, exactly what time for subjects with adequate breaks in between for food and if i have time some computer games...but it just doesnt work, once i hit the books, my eyes and brain starts to drift.....its not until the late hours of the night they stay focus, at which time i should be sleeping to be at class the next day....I have the potential to say focus...i just dont =(

Oh and about studying before you sleep....wasnt i read somewhere that if you study before you sleep...it sinks in at while you sleep or smth like that....but i do find i recall a lot more studying during the late hours of the night.
 
^ I have no idea about that. I find that if I'm studying right before bed, my brain has a tendency to remain busy throughout the night causing me to not get a good night's sleep.

Does your campus has a life services office where they do therapy and whatnot for a discounted price? Often times schools will have something like that, and there is usually a study skills type thing where you can see a counselor to find out what may or may not help. I've thought about doing this myself since my time management skills, particularly during finals, are a little lax.
 
why not just sleep 5-1am and then study 1am - 7? no reason you have to stick to a normal schedule if you don't work that way.
 
Why don't you just stay in the library and study? there's really nothing else to do there except... read. or study. or do whatever homework you do.

Take a shower or something before you go to bed so you have at least 30-40 minutes to unwind your mind and get into relax-mode for sleep.
 
For me... trying to do homework after 9 PM.

I need to get up, drink coffee, get some protein in me, then go to the library to work. In fact, I'm going to go do that right now.
 
I have a couple papers to write in about a week, and I always put it off. Usually I go to the library and stay there until I'm finished, but lately I haven't been doing that either. Today I'm going to do everything I can to work at home...I just have to take that first step, I believe. Working at home is more convenient anyway---I need to learn how to do it effectively and ignore the distractions.
 
^ I think that depends. For me if I'm super tired (and by this i mean my vision is starting to get blurry etc.) I really can't concentrate any longer. If its something I absolutely have to finish I can will myself up earlier than normal to finish a paper/ project I was already working on. However, it's never a good idea to start a project on the due date. I agree with that. :)
 
study techniques?

anyone have any techniques that have worked well for them. this semester ive got a Biology, Chemistry, Geology, and Philosophy class. most of these classes are going to require me to memorize large quantities of information. especially the Biology and Chemistry. last year i just would highlight the book and then reread the highlighted info until i got it.

just wondering what else works.

thanks
 
flashcards, and jotting down/highlighting important parts from the text, at least for science classes. philosophy, i have no idea as i have never taken one.

which geology course are you taking?
 
Rogue Robot said:
flashcards, and jotting down/highlighting important parts from the text, at least for science classes. philosophy, i have no idea as i have never taken one.

which geology course are you taking?
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sorry, it not geology, it is a Geo-science class called Ocean systems.
 
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