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

In high school, I crammed if I studied, but even that was usually just flipping through some notes or a textbook for honestly about an hour the morning before the exam. I'm still trying to break out of the habit, because it worked great in my first year of university. I'd study a day or two before the exam, and had no problems.

Now, however, the subject matter is getting a lot more complex, and I have started failing a few exams. Sometimes it still works, particularly if the subject is interesting, and if I've been to the lectures then cramming almost always works. A bunch of times I've taken a few Dexedrines the day before the exam, read the whole textbook, and passed easily. If I've skipped all the lectures, however, and/or the material is boring, then I won't be able to absorb all the information by cramming.

You cannot commit as much stuff into your short-term memory at once; it is infinitely better to accumulate it over time. I'm getting better at it, slowly but surely. Now I usually start studying about 2-3 weeks before an exam, and seriously studying (6h+ per day) 4-7 days before. Leaving it to the last minute also usually ends up in a trade-off between more studying or more sleep, and getting enough sleep is critical for memory retention.

I have been a successful crammer up until the last year or two, and it's been hard to break out of the old habit, but it's a lot better. I also find that when I cram, I soon forget the information; if I learn it over a period of time, I retain it.
 
Old thread, but this is something that always comes up for me around exam time. I'm a helpless procrastinator, and also really slow to get up in the mornings. Exams at 9AM are my nemesis - more than once I have actually missed my exam not because I didn't wake up to my alarm the first time, but because I snoozed it once too often and then just didn't wake up anymore (or tossed it into the corner or something). Even if I do wake up, I'm useless for a good hour or two. I've found that a few days before an exam - if it's in the morning - I deliberately flip my rhythm so that I wake up around midnight. Then I've got a good 8-9 hours of studying, and I'm still fresh, full of energy, I've had a decent meal a few hours ago, and I've spent the last few hours reading the material as opposed to sleeping.

When you do find yourself in the situation where you've only got about 12 hours of time or something, I will always sacrifice 3-6 hours to sleep even if that means not reading part of the material. Not sleeping fucks up your memory something fierce.
 
LuGoJ said:
I'm the same. I have to do all of my reading before noon, if I read any time in the afternoon or evening I fall asleep after a few minutes. The only exception is if I am standing but I feel weird standing a reading for any length of time.
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It doesn't matter what time I read, I get groggy. I used to read for hours, and one day fell asleep out of the blue. I've been like that ever since. I actually tried reading while standing, but started yawning and eventually sat down and...zzzzzzzzz. :\
 
Looking for advice- can't keep up with school.

Ok, so to keep my story short... I started college in august 2012 and worked very hard up to this point, overcoming many obstacles I've encountered along the way. I'm now halfway through my second to last semester, and about to say fuck it to everything. I just called my boss at my internship and told them I wasn't coming in anymore, and my grades for my three classes are terrible. School has caused me so much stress this semester that I've begun to feel physically sick when I think about it. And yeah, I know I should stop being a crybaby about it but I feel like I'm going to snap. I'm feeling pretty shitty about all of this. I could be graduating in the spring! Ugh!!! Anyways, has anyone else dealt with something similar? Dealing with a job or school and realizing you're about to fucking suffocate and you should probably do something to help yourself, but find it hard to accept because what will your family and society think??? I'm rambling, it's 5:30am, and I'm smoking to try to calm myself...
 
Hi Conky.

I've been in a similar situation.
I was about a yeah into a 3 1/2 year education, when I started to get in over my head. I got on/off depression, severe mood swings, insomnia, my adhd symptoms got worse and I developed tics (eye tics), due to the severe stress I was put under. At this point, my social anxiety was totally out of hand.
I kept going and developed OCD symptoms along the way.
With the help from my school/teachers, I got through the education, only to find myself totally worn down and unable to take any of the tests required to finish the education, my social anxiety was simply too severe and my mind was all over the place so even writing my final paper was not possible.
I have been a "home going" person since that as Im not even close to a full recovery yet. That's over 2 years ago now.
It should be noted though, that I had problems in this department prior to starting the education too, just not half as bad and the huge amount of stress that I was put under made it escalade really fast.

My advice to you is to pull through if you think that you'll be able to make it.
If not, when you shouldn't keep forcing yourself to school, as it might do you more harm than good and the stress induced side effects can linger for a long time afterwards, as is the case for me and even though I pulled through all of the classes, I have nothing to show for it due to my total colaps right before the final tests. You probaby won't be that unlucky but you asked if other people had experienced something similar so that's my story none the less.

Good luck sir, I hope you'll figure out how to deal with this shit.
 
Hi. Thanks for sharing your story :) I also suffered during high school, but made it out by the skin of my teeth. I have a problem getting homework done, that carried over to my college assignments as well. I am not stupid- I can do my homework and get As, I just can never start the assignment until the last minute, and recently I have not been doing my homework at all. It causes me too much stress, and I shut down. I should also add that this school issue lead me to an overuse of adderall these last few months, and I dealt with a 4 day come down last week. I'm done, my health and sanity is not worth getting my college degree at this point in time. I have a family, including a small child, that I want/need to be focusing on more. This school business has turned me into a raging, emotional idiot. Fuck that!
 
harmacologist said:
talk to a advisor and see if you can reduce your workload, change some deadlines or something to get back on track
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Luckily I have a close relationship with my advisor, and she is really understanding. She has dealt with me dealing with something like this at the beginning of the year, when I suffered from pnuemonia and pleurisy and lost almost all hope to return to school. I've been emailing her today, and she completely understands. I think I'm going to be ok...
 
Maybe you can take classes over winter break to help yourself catch up? I always did better in the shorter summer classes than I did in semester long classes. Night and day difference.
 
I've decided to can my internship and two classes, and keep one class that meets once a week. Technically this is the fall/winter semester. I think what also fucked me up was not taking the summer off- I spent the entire summer making up three legal classes that I was enrolled in during the spring semester. I couldn't finish them by the end of the term bc I got extremely sick and couldn't attend classes. I will finish one class this semester and still need 3 classes and 400 hours of an internship to complete, but I'll worry about that in the spring.
 
ConkyMadeMeDoIt said:
I've decided to can my internship and two classes, and keep one class that meets once a week. Technically this is the fall/winter semester. I think what also fucked me up was not taking the summer off- I spent the entire summer making up three legal classes that I was enrolled in during the spring semester. I couldn't finish them by the end of the term bc I got extremely sick and couldn't attend classes. I will finish one class this semester and still need 3 classes and 400 hours of an internship to complete, but I'll worry about that in the spring.
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I think you made the right decision by talking to your advisor and continuing your studies at a slower pace. I dropped out of undergrad my during my fourth year on account of similar symptoms to what you described in the OP. I did not regret it at first but after a very rough patch that included a period of homelessness, I found myself in my late twenties having not accomplished much with my life and working minimum wage jobs. That time I snapped again in the other direction. I said Fuck it, I have to finish my degree and pull myself out of this pit. I called an advisor in the state where I went to college and completed a BA through their distance learning program, which is a fancy way of saying I emailed all my assignments to the prof.

The reason I think you made the right decision is because you are very close to completing your degree and you are still making forward progress toward that goal. Take your time. There's no rule that states you have to take 3 or 4 or 5 classes per semester. Take one or two and focus on your job and family. You'll finish eventually and you'll be glad you did. The tortoise always wins the race.
 
Thanks, man. I'm glad to hear you made it through. And you're def right about no rules to how many classes I have to take at once... I've been on this track for two years- trying to cram in as much as I can to get done quicker, and it bit me in the ass. I have a great support system here at home. This whole week I have spent with my two year old, and it's the best I've felt in months. I think another reason I've felt like shit is bc this was the first semester I have been away from him the most- before I was away a few hours two or three days a week, this semester it was pretty much all day, everyday that I'm gone from him.
 
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