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  • LAVA Moderator: Shinji Ikari

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

I'll fudge details to make late assignments seem not late, etc., but (in university at least) I've never outright cheated on an exam. Most of my classes are almost all essay questions, anyway.

I'm a realist in general, though, so I would be more than willing to cheat in some instances. Some professors give the same exam year after year, and most people cheat in those classes at my school. Not cheating means I'd get screwed, because the huge number of cheaters throw off the curve. Letting the professor know would be the 'honest' thing to do by conventional wisdom, I suppose, but, again, I'm a realist, so that sounds like an awful idea. It would cause the frats and most students to despise me, and many professors that have such exams wouldn't like it anyway; they know people cheat, but they don't care because they don't want to go through all the effort of writing a new, secure test every semester.

As far as learning goes, I separate learning the worthwhile material from getting the A. Whether I learn or not is dependent on whether I do the readings, participate in any useful discussions the class has (some do, some don't), etc. These things are typically, at best, tangentally related to grading; whether I cheat or not on a multiple choice exam is independent from whether I did the readings and such, although cheating is often used as a means to avoid having to spend the time to learn. There are also plenty of classes that can be completed without cheating and without learning, IME.
 
I am a political science major - in Aus though. Anyone who can cheat well in politics (especially in 2nd and 3rd year) deserves a degree!

For me I don't cheat. I tried to a couple of times in first year when I was under massive pressure to get stuff handed in but I quickly learned that cheating at uni was nearly as difficult than actually studying to pass a subject. Plus, learning is fun, and cheating is bad mmmkay ;)
 
How do you motivate yourself to do work?

Without taking any drugs or anything, how do you motivate your self to write essays to the best of your ability most of the time, if not all of the time?

I'm currently doing my A-levels in History, Philosophy and Politics and I find that I won't do any of the essays untill last minute when I'm under pressure. I guess it'll help with exam technique but still.. I always start and attempt my essays before hand.. but I don't get cracking untill about 1am.


Discuss,
eDDe
 
I write papers right before they are due and for the most part I tend to get A's. I guess I work best under pressure.
 
I do pretty much the same thing here, I work far more efficiently under pressure, but it does stress me out quite a bit.
 
for me I totally just get stoked on the good grades. once i quit doing drugs, i got back to my old mentality that learning is fun. maybe it's just me but i like learning (even pointless stuff), i like getting those 90's and up. I like living up to my potential. I was always smart but i never tried in middle school or high school.
then i went to college,
when i was doing drugs my GPA was a 2.3
last semester (sober) my GPA was 3.9 something.

getting a bad grade when i know i could do better is always good motivation.
and not skipping class, enjoy what you're studying, really enjoy those good grades (feel free to brag) and look forward to those A's at the end of the semester.:)
 
dankstersauce said:
for me I totally just get stoked on the good grades. once i quit doing drugs, i got back to my old mentality that learning is fun. maybe it's just me but i like learning (even pointless stuff), i like getting those 90's and up. I like living up to my potential. I was always smart but i never tried in middle school or high school.
then i went to college,
when i was doing drugs my GPA was a 2.3
last semester (sober) my GPA was 3.9 something.

getting a bad grade when i know i could do better is always good motivation.
and not skipping class, enjoy what you're studying, really enjoy those good grades (feel free to brag) and look forward to those A's at the end of the semester.:)
Click to expand...


Yeh I am like that, I still get good grades even when I leave it untill the last minute.. BUT, it stresses me out and I'm just not motivated to do it the day I get it.

Got my philosophy and history A-level coursework marks back today!!
Philosophy - 47/50 so a nice high A
History
47/60 so a high B (I did this one at start of college and I know for sure since I quit drugs etc that my work is of a better standard, if only I could re-do it now :P)
 
For me, it was pretty simple: I asked myself, would I rather work at a hard but easily-sustainable level, and turn out a top-quality product because I took my time, or break my balls over two days for something that is just adequate? Every single time, I made the first choice, and never regretted it--and I'm a consummate procrastinator 99% of the time.
 
dankstersauce said:
for me I totally just get stoked on the good grades. once i quit doing drugs, i got back to my old mentality that learning is fun. maybe it's just me but i like learning (even pointless stuff), i like getting those 90's and up. I like living up to my potential. I was always smart but i never tried in middle school or high school.
then i went to college,
when i was doing drugs my GPA was a 2.3
last semester (sober) my GPA was 3.9 something.

getting a bad grade when i know i could do better is always good motivation.
and not skipping class, enjoy what you're studying, really enjoy those good grades (feel free to brag) and look forward to those A's at the end of the semester.:)
Click to expand...

Yes, yes, yes!!!

Congratulations...
 
Probably the most motivating thing for school work is if you are actually interested in the assignment. really attempt to do work on a topic you enjoy and are genuinely interested in and you will be highly motivated with the assignment. it wont seem like work then and it helps you focus.

this sounds cheesy but what i usually do is reward myself for finishing my assignments. its quite reinforcing and makes me concentrate on my work. like if i want to go see a dj or get drunk or high, i just force myself to wait after the assignment is finished and then reward myself. usually i jus get high ha ha. buts it has the added effect of not letting your recreation affect your school work. so its kinda like taking away distractions so you have no choice but to focus on school work. and then it feels so good when you finish you do it over again.
 
i'm a procrastinator and almost always wait until the last minute. i tend to work well under pressure but i'm in dire need of a major motivational streak since i only have 2 days left of school and i need to pull a 4.0. my grades have been great so far but i tend to lose steam toward the end of the semester.

i will be free in 3 days but i want to be free RIGHT NOW. i'm exhausted.

 
I'm another one that leaves it till the last second, except that for most of my coursework, it wasn't just essays, it was usually a substantial piece of software and a write up. I'd usually start the whole thing the day before and have a cut off of something like 5am where I'd put the code to bed and start the documentation.
The motivation was generally along the lines of "Fuck! I've got less than 24 hours to do a project that's got 300 hours allocated to it!"
 
finding the motivation to follow though will college

my counselor has been pushing me to try and take a college course or two. she tells me that i seem very smart to her and that maybe i should give it a try. she knows how i feel about college and how intimidating it is to me, but she thinks it would be a good thing to at least try.

but like i said, it is very intimidating to me. i start to feel like i am not smart enough or good enough or that everybody else is so ahead of me in it that ill never make it.

we talked about it alot and she told me of some ways to try and not feel like that or to at least confront those feelings or thoughts.

i just feel silly, like im not sure what im really doing or if i really should. to be honest im afraid to try and fail. im worried ill give it a shot and it wont work out. like i said, id maybe only start out taking one course. but its just so intimidating to me to actually do it.

in a way, actually succeeding is more scary to me than failing at it. because then i have to feel something different, success. i havent felt that much in a long time. im not sure id know what to do with it. its almost like id be embarrassed to pass the class and do well.

any advice on what i should do? has anybody else felt like this?
 
With this post, please don't assume I'm judging you. In fact, I think the chance of you actually being quite smart though easily intimidated with low expectations is quite high. But even for those who aren't the brightest apple in the bunch, the following will apply.

You get a lot out of college if you push yourself to become a better thinker. I'd say, at least for undergrad stuff, the most important thing you do is become more efficient with the learning process itself (the ability to retain knowledge, the ability to process and apply the knowledge, etc). If you start out a bit behind in these abilities, it's really not a problem. There are enough people in college who don't give a shit. Those who do care, even the slower individuals, will really pull ahead in a year. I've seen people go through some pretty major changes.

So, I suppose I'm saying something very typical: motivation is the most important factor. At least to start out. Although your very question was about finding the motivation, your post really suggests that you're trying to find the confidence.

Some people don't care for huge universities, and I can see why. But there are upsides. In every huge lecture you have, there will be people on all kinds of levels, including your own. There will be the smart people who work their asses off, the not-so-smart people who work their asses off, the smart people who don't give a damn, the not-so-smart people who don't give a damn, sleep through class, etc. Whether you find yourself motivated by those who do really well, or by the fact that you're doing better than the slackers below you (especially if, like me, you used to be one of the worst of the slackers). Or maybe you find motivation in seeing the people who are at the exact level/struggle you're at.

Smaller schools with class sizes of 20, for example (even for intro level courses that are huge lecture halls at universities), can be amazing for some people. Direct 1:1 support from professors is priceless. But I feel that if I went straight into that from high school it would have been the end of me. I'd have been judging myself against the (rather homogenous, in comparison. AKA: not divided into the huge tiers in the previous paragraph) other students in the class, just as I did in high school.

Of course, everyone has their limits. There's more than motivation, and certain brains can't process some subjects as well. I feel that I've got a fairly fixed math handicap. While it wouldn't be impossible for me to get through 3 more terms of calculus, I'd struggle more than most, and my grades would be pretty low, and I'd be miserable, even if it were my only class and I could devote all my time to it. I could push that capacity bar up a little at a time, much slower than many people. And a term away from it would send it right back down to the ground.

It sounds like your fear of succeeding is related to this. You set the bar a little higher, and it's a shittier (a word) fall if you fail the next time. And it's true. Failing in high school really wasn't a big deal to me, it was kind of normal for me to fail at least a class each term towards the end. Then, at college, I did alright my first term, which made my girlfriend happy enough to cry. Though I told her it was sweet of her, I was actually a bit offended in a way. If my doing well represents my character, then all my previous failings do too, rather than it just being "a bullshit class" for example.

I do believe that strong motivation alone can absolutely get you through a first year though, even for subjects that don't seem to work naturally for you. After that, it's a matter of finding something to concentrate on that does work naturally for you, that you enjoy. By expecting (even intending?) to fail, you never come close to finding out what your 'natural handicap' (in terms of what you can actually learn, motivation/work ethic aside) is. Maybe you're scared of where it might be. If that's the case, maybe you can at least commit to a year, because you're not going to reach it by then if you just work hard.

Sorry if any of that failed to make sense. I'm pretty tired at the moment.
 
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