I just wanted to get this off my chest. WHY COLLEGE, WHY ?!?!?! with the busy schedule that I have i am always cramming in time in between classes, on the bus before bed and after waking up to get in as much studying as i can possibly get. but with midterm week there is no such time because your time is divided between x # of subjects u just have to beast it as much as possible. The problem i encountered recently today was that although i knew all the material on the midterm today (for math) i had forgotten everything. I could not recall the simplest of theorems or the most standard of proofs I just could not - due to sleep deprivation. I knew the material, If i had slept for 7 hours ( then i would have aced 4/5 of that midterm easily but alas I spent my time practicing Problems which leads to me being tired for the midterm which leads to me not being able to recall exact theorems, defs or proofs which alas consisted of, you guessed it 4/5 of the midterm. Presumably I did not do so well on the midterm. I am so pissed that i screwed up such a easy exam. from trying too hard. thanks college =_=;;.

I even gave up starcraft 2 for you, college so why do you treat me so harshly. I chose you over fun over sleep over good health and happiness so why - QQ.

losing to this midterm feels like getting cheesed in a tournament that you had made amazing macro strats for... sigh ~ all that preparation for naught

micronesia

United States24752 Posts

October 21 2011 20:38 GMT

The obvious solution is to spread your prep out more rather than all during the week of. If you had done an extra couple of hours a week in the 2-3 weeks leading up to the midterm week you could have probably gotten enough additional sleep to feel better.

Smoot

United States128 Posts

October 21 2011 20:41 GMT

Don't burn yourself out and never knock off sleep!

As for me, I feel like the further along I am, the more I can simply reason things out. But this is coming from an engineering major. I make sure I understand what is going on with the systems and examples shown in class. It works better for me to reason things out on the exam rather than practicing 10 different problem sets and hoping I remember how to do it for the 1 that is on the test.

Of course math is different though. Not sure what you are taking, but the number of formulas and theorems I had to memorize in Cal 3 and Differential Equations was frightening so I feel for you.

Its all over now though! Good luck and keep trucking!

Djzapz

Canada10681 Posts

October 21 2011 20:45 GMT

Finished my masters degree midterms.

Just had a 9h30 night of sleep... Feels good man.

EsX_Raptor

United States2802 Posts

October 21 2011 20:47 GMT

I am a math graduate, and I can definitely say that if I were to be an undergraduate student again, I’d make sure I understood the notions behind the things each class was supposed to teach me. I don’t care if you have to make little drawings, sing a song, or hang upside down to get these ideas, but definitely do anything you can to make sure you do. Afterward, you’ll notice that memorizing formulas is as dumb as it can get.

But that depends on what you want to do with your studies. If you don’t want to take them that seriously, just work on memorizing skills. That should do it.

pandaBee

United States251 Posts

October 21 2011 21:06 GMT

Nah ofc i want to understand everything but it just so happened that working hard in this case vs. just memorizing the theorems screwed me over after all that work and sleeping in the library blah.

n.DieJokes

United States3443 Posts

October 21 2011 21:30 GMT

God I did this too x.x I put so much fucking pressure on myself for these exams (which is great for studying but makes me fall apart on the exam). I got b's on two of them because I simply didn't answer the second half of questions. Totally easy, had absolutely no trouble answering them but it didn't register in my brain that I had to answer them uggghhh. And then in prob. theory my professors like, heres a proof that'll be on the exam and then I didn't memorize the problem! What was I thinking, holy mother of god... I need to recognize the tremendous pressure thats on me to succeed and then not feel like. I wish I was a freshman again, I'm so gpa conscious now that I have one

Cruncharoo

United States136 Posts

October 21 2011 21:42 GMT

What I do for math tests is throughout the chapters/sections for an upcoming tests I put all the definitions, theorems, lemmas, etc onto one sheet of paper for that subject. This helps so that I don't have to flip through my notebook and find each theorem, definition, etc separately and try to memorize them that way. There ends up being way too many proofs and whatnot in the notebook that makes everything hard to find on it's own. Of course I also go back and read through the notebook a few times but I find that having this separate paper for all the 'memorization' part of an exam really helps. If you really know what is going on all you need to do is memorize the theorems and work the examples.

0123456789

United States3216 Posts

October 21 2011 21:54 GMT

I feel for you. I overstudy too, and sometimes miss easy questions and don't get 100%, but 98%. (same ballpark of examples) and it makes me go RAWRAWRWRRAAWR!

awu25

United States2003 Posts

October 21 2011 21:58 GMT

#10

I don't think I ever pulled an all-nighter as an engineer. They should offer classes on time management

Grobyc

Canada18410 Posts

October 21 2011 22:02 GMT

#11

My midterms don't end until Nov. 3, which is weird... because a month after that is when finals start. On the bright side, they are spread out pretty well.

SkyLegenD

United States304 Posts

October 21 2011 22:29 GMT

#12

Some upperclassmen and graduates on TL should really give us freshman noobs some advice on time management. In high school, your schedule was rigid - you just knew when you had to study and when you're free. in college, even though the amount of time you spend in classes is significantly reduced, the time outside of class isn't just to fool around.

God, I miss those days in hs when you could just look over some notes the night before and get an A...

KazeHydra

Japan2788 Posts

October 21 2011 23:03 GMT

#13

Sleeping the night before is more important than learning all the material. I will always choose to get a good night's rest despite not knowing all the material rather than studying and not getting any sleep.

It sounds like you need to work on time management, but I still know what you mean. My schedule is so stacked this quarter, it's not even funny. I have 9 midterms this quarter + weekly quizzes + weekly lab reports. Not fun.

Warble

137 Posts

October 22 2011 00:49 GMT

#14

Studying for exams is like defending 6 pool.

Everybody loses to it once.

Then you learn to wall off.

And then you lose to roach rush.

College: it's very cheesy.

+ Show Spoiler +

If you read the documents detailing your college's expectations, you will find that your expected work load for a full time student is equivalent to a full time job. Classes are a very small component of the time you're supposed to put in. Basically, you should be putting in 9 hours a day into your studies, just as you would put into your job.

With that said, I have never met anybody who actually does this.

SaLaYa

United States363 Posts

October 22 2011 03:32 GMT

#15

I study 12 hours for econ: I get a 72.

I study 30 minutes for Gov't (much harder class imo) because I lost my notes on my HD: I get a 92.

I study 1.5 hours everyday for 3 weeks for Arabic: I get a 69 ( awww yeahh).

I spend 2 hours typing my 10 page philosophy paper on why I don't think we should donate to charities (playing devil's advocate): I get a A/A-.

COLLEGE Y U NO MAKE SENSE?