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

over the three years of my recent degree (studied full time at distance while working full time without a single day off), the pain of starting and cramming, the utter stress and anxiety, became.... somewhat pleasurable. i noticed that i would progressively push it further and tighter, and it ran in complete contrary to rationally knowing better than to act that way, but there was a thrill and a rush with overcoming such a traumatic obstacle. i think i got addicted to it. it was seriously a bit like a climax.

i never missed a deadline.

actually, the two or three assignments i started early turned out to have lower results.
 
To OP: best trick for me is to NOT THINK, JUST DO IT! Power through!

Granted, it will not work every time but it helps to change thought patterns to try NOT to think about stuff you don't want to do. Because life is full of shit you don't like but have to do. So... what will the thinking about it change? Will it change shit likable? Make you a better person? Nah. It will change nothing at all. So... stop thinking, start doing and having a reward after completing the task also helps...
 
Over the years ive learned that procrastination is just part of who I am and despite my best efforts to change myself, I fail every time. I think its better to just embrace that part of myself, as long as I get all my shit done who cares if I dont start it until the night before. Something about the time pressure I put on myself gives me a sense of focus and I honestly think I do my best work when time in of the essence.

I have a big paper due on Tuesday and work full 9 hour shifts every day between now and the day before its due except for thanksgiving. I already know that I wont start it until about noon the day before its due and it would be really easy to get down on myself about slacking off, but that does me no good. In the end ill write a kick-ass paper not matter what.
 
Mysterie said:
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
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start doing whatever is easiest to build momentum.

if doing a written essay stle assignment, just start typing, smash out as much as you can. Do it point form if you like, or just start typing paragraphs withut worring about gramar or the order of the points your making. Tidy it up once you got a draft in front of you.
 
Friends told me that the only way they could get stuff done was if they did it first thing in the morning, literally waking up at 5am and just getting it done in one shot, not allowing themselves to have breakfast or go in the shower until the paper was done. It hasn't worked at all with me (it's just cruel), but if you're already a morning person, you might consider trying that.
Working in 45 min. blocks and taking 30 min breaks between them usually works for me, but it still takes a long time to finish papers because of the constant interruption.
 
L2R said:
over the three years of my recent degree (studied full time at distance while working full time without a single day off), the pain of starting and cramming, the utter stress and anxiety, became.... somewhat pleasurable. i noticed that i would progressively push it further and tighter, and it ran in complete contrary to rationally knowing better than to act that way, but there was a thrill and a rush with overcoming such a traumatic obstacle. i think i got addicted to it. it was seriously a bit like a climax.
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Exactly the same for me

i never missed a deadline.

actually, the two or three assignments i started early turned out to have lower results.
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Well.. don't start missing deadlines, or you'll end like me - to feel the rush now I've got to IV deadlines. :p
 
I have some suggestions that work for me, but I'll post them after I go get high and get some get pizza.
 
Are you a crammer?

I've always 'done' academia with a mighty cramming session just before exams. All nighters, trying to fit as much info into my cranium as possible. I dunno, it's just how I learned to do academia... Does anyone else cram? Any success, or otherwise interesting, stories related to cramming for an exam?
 
I dabbled in the art of the cram while in undergrad. Never worked for me. I found my short term memory to be less forgiving than my long term memory. I also tended to second guess my answers more often because I was exhausted from lack of sleep and wired from caffeine all at the same time. The body's physiological response to sleep deprivation alone should be enough to discourage people from cramming.

When I got to grad school, most of the classes required enormous amounts of reading and writing compared to undergrad. I know people who wrote 20 page papers from scratch the night before they were due. They were typically the same people who either had to retake the course after failing it or who ended up dropping out or being terminated from the program. I would not be surprised to hear that some of them crammed for exams as well.

I'm not saying cramming doesn't work for some people because it does. I'm just saying that one has far greater chances of making good grades AND retaining the information long-term if they take their time and spread their studying out over the semester more evenly.
 
i was an epic crammer in undergrad. all i can say is, it works when it works. i mean, some classes are crammable and others aren't. you're not going to get very far cramming for physical chemistry or something like that, but you may be able to see good results from cramming for more qualitative subjects.
 
I have ONE exam left. It's too late to change now. I suppose I won't be able to cram at work though
 
i did my undergrad degree at distance (while working), so had no exams, but had lots of assignments instead. i found i got better results when i crammed.
 
Cramming and "pure" mathematics do not go hand in hand. Good luck cramming for a real analysis exam, or really any other rigorous, and honest (as in the prof doesn't dumb everything down, and expects you to be able to adjust to problems/proofs you have never seen before on an exam) proof-based graduate mathematics course. Fortunately, I've learned to doubt my abilities possibly more than I should, which means I tend to prepare well beforehand.

Anyway, it has been shown that cramming is an incredibly ineffective form of learning/retaining meaningful information. Supposedly, the best way to study, is to start studying well in advance, and take lots of breaks, so the information you are reviewing is fresh and interesting. I've found that it works well for me.
 
realistically, for ideal results you should pretty much always be studying in little spurts throughout the day, in addition to long stretches of studying before tests. it promotes familiarity with the material. learn to study in little sips instead of big gulps. classes that i aced and retained all the information from were ones that were so interesting that i was always working a problem or two if i had a few minutes to spare, if you do that you don't even give yourself time to forget anything.
 
back in undergrad during finals i'd read a novel from cover to cover, write the final paper, submit it at 7am, and then break out the psychology notebook for my final at 10am. i obviously indulged in orange beads during finals. and notebook not textbook, because i did go to class, pay attention, and get a real education.

but even though i don't use the assistance anymore, some of this has carried over into my career. which is fine on one hand, because it's not like i work any less or make any less effort. it's just in more concentrated bursts. where it fucks me is with coworkers. i say i need something by blank date, and they say ok. then that day comes, and i'm like what's up? and then they say they are sorry; they got bogged down by whatever... is it ok if they give it to me on thursday? and i gotta be like this submission is due EOB tomorrow and the one missing piece is the financials or the whateveriaskedfor. at that point i am inconsiderate and a pain. why thefuck would someone say they need something essential to a major project the day before that project is due? because i don't ever give myself a buffer and i am not being considerate of the way most people do. it works the opposite way too. someone says they need something from me by whenever. i say that's impossible. i ask when their deadline is, then let them know when i can get it to them. this makes them all nervous because they want to have their project finished a week before the deadline. and i don't know whatthefuck to tell them because i don't self-impose artificial deadlines so whatever i am currently working on cannot be put off for something else we don't even need for two weeks. this makes a certain personality types uncomfortable.
 
Definitely a crammer. I was all through college/uni/high school. Now I'm taking one course at a time while working and I definitely cram for those exams. I wish I had the motivation to actually study earlier!
 
yes, and no.

For subject/class I don't like too much, i cram away. if i'm not planning on legitimately learning the material of a class, then cramming to still pass the class allows me more time to truly study stuff i like more. this also allows me to study minimally for tests in these more favorable subjects, because i've spent more time on over time and know the material.

sometimes when i let my workload pile up, i'll take a whole night and complete a large chunk of assignments….i don't really look at this as cramming, because i'm not trying to encode the info into my short term memory only to be forgotten later. i still learn the material, but just a lot of differentl material over time.

overall i find "cramming" unfruitful, but useful.
 
OK. So there is a mixed bag here. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that one may deduce that it is a good idea that education should be reworked to make the critical scrutiny of our beliefs and assumptions a fundamental goal of education.

Having 50% of one subject's mark in a final exam is not logical. It has been shown that there is a significant loss of information after final examinations, when students cram for exams. I think with the nature of the world and humans there will always be a large amount of students that are either forced to cram (due to work commitments, for example), or that do cram because that is a behavioural trait of the student gained throughout their life.

IMO, it would be much more worthwhile, effective, and efficient to give assignments and open book quizzes with equal mark weighting; where one has an open text book and access to online or other sources to apply to problems; that are more like situations in the real world where one has the ability to refer to other sources. That would mean much less stress on the "average student", and an overall accumulation of knowledge that is more usable and applicable to work situations.
 
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