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I don't know if anyone else has this little pet peeve, but here's one of mine.
People who are falsely modest about academics (I'm talking about tests). Here's an example: Person A goes to take a test and before the test he says "man I didn't study AT ALL for this test." Then afterwards he says "omg that test was so hard." Then the grade comes in and he's got an A "WHAT! wow that's so crazy, I didn't even study." Or, it works another way, there are people who say every test is hard regardless, so if they do poorly they say "see, I knew that test was hard" or if they do well they say "man I'm so lucky to do well". Either way, it's a cop out, and it's bullshit (it's also annoying).
In general false modesty just annoys me, but especially with respect to school, it just seems like a big pile of bullshit. In high school, it was filled with kids not wanting to look like nerds, so they pretended and acted as if they never studied, even when they actually did, and then had "WTF" faces when they got A's... and in college I've found that it's more of the opposite, people usually study a lot, but then pretend like every test is insanely hard that way they don't feel stupid if they do poorly, and they feel relieved if they do well. It's a really annoying defense mechanism that most people have...
Here's my philosophy. In high school I was a pretty poor student (got bad grades), not because I'm dumb or anything, but I didn't give a shit about school and I was lazy as hell. Despite that, I almost never said tests were hard. I knew that I did poorly because I didn't prepare enough, rather than the material being difficult. One of the only tests I thought was legitimately hard was AP Computer Science, especially because I didn't learn jack shit in the class (and almost everyone failed the test). In college now, I have the same attitude, I haven't found a test that I thought was particularly difficult, and although I haven't aced all my tests, I always know what I'm getting right and what I'm getting wrong, and I usually know why. I don't lie to myself and say tests are hard and lower my expectations.
I prepare reasonably well for my tests now, although I'm never one to put in mega study hours, I always rely on the fact that I almost always go to classes and pay close attention, and then do the reading, and a bit of reviewing for exams, maybe a little extra for finals... but so far through every test I haven't felt the need to say "that was really hard". I personally believe that if you prepare yourself enough, no test should be HARD. If you think something is hard, you just didn't try hard enough, or there is something fundamentally wrong with your understanding (for example, if you learned some information wrongly, or didn't understand it well... but again, this can be fixed with better preparation).
I'm never one to bullshit people and say "oh I dunno if I did well on that test." If I think I'm going to do well, I'll tell people just that if anybody asks, and if I say I did poorly, it's because I legitimately did. Although sometimes tests are variable and someone may think they did well and end up not doing as well, I would usually attribute that to not enough preparation, and say something like "I thought I did pretty well, but I"m annoyed because I could have done better."
I'm not a perfectionist by any means, don't have a 4.0 or anything like that, and I'm not a cocky or arrogant, but I DO like to be realistic with myself for one, and to other people should they ask... because I personally believe that always lying to yourself and others in order to make yourself feel better is really stupid / annoying.
Anyways, I don't know if anybody else has this same annoyance, or I'm just weird. But ya. Try it sometime, just be realistic about your academics (if you have the problem I bitched about above)...
 
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I think for it to be false modesty he has to be trying to be modest. These people are just being assholes.
Though occasionally there is a test that you really don't know if you did well or bad on.
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Canada3083 Posts
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United States20661 Posts
How it works with me is that I know and confess to being an atrocious student, because I am. I heed next to no scholarly mores, and am an all-round slacker.
I still think the vast majority of tests are easy though. And I don't study for them. I sacrifice almost all points on homework by not doing any, and laze my way through school - is that inherently bad? I see it more as a flaw in our American academic system than my failures as a 'falsely modest' student.
It's fine if people say whatever the hell they want about how they did on a test; that's largely irrelevant. I can make my own judgments as to the intelligence of a person [tests don't cover that, anyway].
Attaching intelligence to academic success is rather silly. Sort of a tangent to what you said, but whatever.
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Aotearoa39261 Posts
You must hate me then too 
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United States22883 Posts
I'm usually pretty honest about everything.
"Yeah, I studied pretty well."
"Yeah, I owned the shit out of that test."
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On June 13 2008 14:09 Salv wrote:
I'm one of these people.
yeah me too, a lot of the time when i say stuff like that though i really do feel like i didn't study well enough or didn't do that well on the test, but when i get it back and it's an A i feel like shit for saying i didnt study 
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On June 13 2008 14:10 Last Romantic wrote:
How it works with me is that I know and confess to being an atrocious student, because I am. I heed next to no scholarly mores, and am an all-round slacker.
I still think the vast majority of tests are easy though. And I don't study for them. I sacrifice almost all points on homework by not doing any, and laze my way through school - is that inherently bad? I see it more as a flaw in our American academic system than my failures as a 'falsely modest' student.
It's fine if people say whatever the hell they want about how they did on a test; that's largely irrelevant. I can make my own judgments as to the intelligence of a person [tests don't cover that, anyway].
Attaching intelligence to academic success is rather silly. Sort of a tangent to what you said, but whatever.
I'm not saying there's anything WRONG with it.. I'm just saying that it's a pet peeve of mine when people do that, and it bugs me.
And ya, sort of a tangent, I wasn't referring to anyone's intelligence, I'm well aware test scores are not reflective of a person's intelligence. It just bugs me that people pretend to do bad or not study when they actually do, or when people who are really smart pretend to be dumb, that kinda thing.
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Where I go most people are lazy on school, and if they do bad they blame the professor... myself included sometimes
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Well, maybe I can give you a different perspective. I'm pretty much 'one of those people' who say tests are hard (but usually get good/descent grades) and say I didn't study when in fact I did prepare.
However, I have good reasons for doing so. First of all, when you really try to do well and don't its a lot more difficult than trying to do decently and doing decently. There is a diminishing return for study hours vs grades.
Second, its genuinely difficult to do well in a class if you don't want to be there. I've been in school way too long, and it gets to the point to where I just can't do it anymore. I literally can't force myself to actually work out the problems....in fact, this quarter many times I've done problems for the first time on the actual test.
Some classes are actually easier for freshmen then seniors. When we get assigned a lot of homework I think to myself "I'm not doing this sh*t." In fact yesterday I had a final on a single chapter. There was one type of problem that I hadn't done fully, and I told that to my friend. He asked what I was going to do, and I said I knew how to derive it. Well, not that I had derived it before, but in theory I knew how to derive it. So basically, as he summed it up while we were waiting for the final to be passed out, in theory I could derive the theory behind the problem to actually solve it.
So while the material on a test might not be hard, it can be hard none the less.
As far as studying. For those who really try to study to get really good grades and really understand things, it always feels like you haven't studied enough. Does working through the practice exams count as studying, when you haven't actually gone into the book and worked out a problem? I might spend 6 - 8 hours working through the practice exam, and say I haven't studied, because I feel that since I didn't read through the notes or homework or book, the minuscule amount that I did do is assumed implicitly by anyone taking the class.
Bottom line is if you aren't an A student and you are comparing yourself with one, your terminology will be different. If I join a game "1v1 noobs" you really don't know what that means. There are so many different levels of noobs that its just as likely you will get completely crushed as it is you will win easily.
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When I say a test is hard, I usually refer to how hard it was relative to past exams and how difficult I expected it to be. This is even if I know that I got 90+. And when I say I don't know how well I did, then I'm being honest; while I know that I probably got 75+, I probably didn't prepare well enough to know the concepts cold and am forced to derive it on past principles, which is a bit hit and miss.
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wait till you get into a hard college full of people who felt like this in high school, and shit starts getting pretty difficult because of that.
On June 13 2008 14:10 Last Romantic wrote:
How it works with me is that I know and confess to being an atrocious student, because I am. I heed next to no scholarly mores, and am an all-round slacker.
I still think the vast majority of tests are easy though. And I don't study for them. I sacrifice almost all points on homework by not doing any, and laze my way through school - is that inherently bad? I see it more as a flaw in our American academic system than my failures as a 'falsely modest' student.
It's fine if people say whatever the hell they want about how they did on a test; that's largely irrelevant. I can make my own judgments as to the intelligence of a person [tests don't cover that, anyway].
Attaching intelligence to academic success is rather silly. Sort of a tangent to what you said, but whatever.
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United States20661 Posts
oh I got into a ... sort of hard college? UC Berkeley.
I'm sure it'll be difficult; I am going into it with the thought that I am not the smartest person and will have to try hard.
High school is a fucking waste of time, though.
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I'm definitely one of those people. My parents raised me Chinese-style. I got owned for every little mistake I make on tests. So now, I'm in the habit of claiming I did poorly unless I know solved every single problem correctly (careless mistakes aside).
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On June 13 2008 14:36 Last Romantic wrote:
oh I got into a ... sort of hard college? UC Berkeley.
I'm sure it'll be difficult; I am going into it with the thought that I am not the smartest person and will have to try hard.
High school is a fucking waste of time, though.
Don't worry, it's probably not as hard as you might think ^^
... unless you're planning on getting into Haas. In that case, prepare for hell.
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I do this sometimes...or all the time. I usually do this because whenever I'm confident and feel well prepared for a test, i score low. However, having low expectations nets me 100% -_- Academic life stopped making sense after people in the top 10 ranks started scoring low on tests but still manage to pull off 4.0+ gpa's...
I think something more annoying than this is when people claim they care and study like hell to do well on the test but after a day or two, they forget everything. Maybe it's just me because I feel very strongly about this when it involves math or science classes. Especially when they plan on majoring in the subject they claim to love so much..
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On June 13 2008 14:38 B1nary wrote:
I'm definitely one of those people. My parents raised me Chinese-style. I got owned for every little mistake I make on tests. So now, I'm in the habit of claiming I did poorly unless I know solved every single problem correctly (careless mistakes aside).
I am a competitive perfectionist...
/blame parents
/see shrink
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GrandInquisitor
New York City13113 Posts
On June 13 2008 14:10 Last Romantic wrote:
How it works with me is that I know and confess to being an atrocious student, because I am. I heed next to no scholarly mores, and am an all-round slacker.
I still think the vast majority of tests are easy though. And I don't study for them. I sacrifice almost all points on homework by not doing any, and laze my way through school - is that inherently bad? I see it more as a flaw in our American academic system than my failures as a 'falsely modest' student.
It's fine if people say whatever the hell they want about how they did on a test; that's largely irrelevant. I can make my own judgments as to the intelligence of a person [tests don't cover that, anyway].
Attaching intelligence to academic success is rather silly. Sort of a tangent to what you said, but whatever.
Enjoy it. College is literally absolutely nothing like this, if you're doing a real course of study (aka not Psychology, Sociology, or any of the bullshit majors). Trust me, you probably think, nah, it's fine, I'll get it - I breezed through high school with perfect A's and a 1600 SAT, never ever studying for a test, and I can't hold it down in college without significant work.
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I never studied in high school and did fine. I didn't study while in university either, and did fine there too. Did I make a big deal out of it? Sometimes. Do I care if I pissed off the guy who studied for 4 hours a day when I equal his mark? No, not really.
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United States22883 Posts
Those "bullshit majors" don't test very often, but they require fine paper writing skills. Convoluted bullshit generally doesn't work anymore. Maybe for psych it might.
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EPT
