The Insanity of Study Habits
 

This is how I am studying for my stats test on tuesday:

Read over some stats stuff for about an hour.

Decide to take a break. Something totally different for my head. I decide to read Hughes' Birthday Letters, as it's been a while and I kinda need it for another class, anyway. I get to a poem called "St. Boltophs" and I get to a line about "Prospero's book..." and I google Prospero and then google Sycorax, then Uriel, the Niphilim, then Ariel and end up on this blog by a woman named Ariel Gore.

Then, I keep checking the cellar.

dammit.

I am writing an essay on the Prologue of the Canterbury Tales.

1.) Read translated, easy to read (ha ha) text I purchased last night.
2.) Try to read old English text, since theoretically I already know what it says.
3.) Give up. Look it up on Sparknotes.
4.) Write some stuff down in my notebook, using a purple felt-tip.
5.) Go upstairs for another Diet Coke.
6.) Help son with homework.
7.) Come back downstairs. Read Cellar.
8.) Go back to Sparknotes. Write a few things down on paper.
9.) Doodle on hand with felt tip pen.
10.) Go upstairs for snack.
11.) Yell at son for playing Line Rider instead of typing homework assignment.
12.) Make son a snack.
13.) Go back downstairs.
14.) Realize I left my snack upstairs.
15.) Make snack to replace snack that cat ate.
16.) Go back downstairs.
17.) Read Cellar.

I'm getting a lot done, too.

I hope the words "pot" and "kettle" were in there somewhere, LOL!

Oh, yes. It's especially ironic, since my essay is about irony.

:headshake

eek. talk about circular reasoning.

My research indicates that much time must be spent on The Cellar in order for effective study habit make achieve productive study time thank you.

I thought this read,"The insanity of stupid habits"

I am alarmed at how much of a presence the Cellar is in my study habits...and BBCnews ... not good :P

I have a bitch of a year coming up. I've been tentatively toying with the idea of playing a new MMO that's due out by Christmas....how bloody stupid is that? I don't know where my head was at thinking I could in someway fit in a new hobby in the final year of a degree lol.

Scrapped that idea. I have a serious amount of work to do and only 8 months in which to do it. I have pretty much blown the Summer (doctor who lol) so haven't got my preliminary research done in advance as planned. Oh well. Still doable.

My point (yes, i have one somewhere) is that I am appalling at studying. I have never developed effective study habits and 'work/life balance' is an entirely alien concept in my life.

I have to get it right this year. I am scared shitless that I will fuck this up at the final hurdle...

To be considered for the MA scholarship award that I want, just getting a First Class degree isn't enough...to be considered I need to finish with an excellent First Class degree. I am currently averaging 75% in my grades. That's an okay First. I have to get that up to late 70s or early 80s. Tall order. I am not sure if I am that good.

But I don't know that I am not...so I have to go for it...

Not sure if you're that good?

Oh, yes you are.

Ahh, Dana, most students are like that .... fear is a great motivator. If it weren't for the last minute etc etc.

Are you doing an honours/research thesis or something? If so, how about you talk through it here?

You can do it Dana. BTW, coming thru in the crunch is also great real world training. Look at it this way - right now you have all this advance warning of whats to come, in the real world that is most likely NOT the case. Your being able to do what needs to be done, which I'm confident you will, is what will carry you thru and make you a success during, but most importantly, after your schooling is done.

I never looked at it that way before. I always thought that my cramming ways bespoke a lack of discipline. But you are right. I'm pretty good at going into overdrive when a deadline is coming up fast.

I'm still discipline challenged anyway though.

Dana, from what I've read of your posts, you should be able to come away with flying colors. I think almost everyone has wierd study habits. When I was in school, I used to got nuts during finals, stuck in my room, trying to cram a semester's worth of information on 4 or 5 subjects into my head. I would create flash cards that I carried with me as I took long walks outside. Inside, my attention span seemed limited to 20 minutes, so I'd study for 20 and do something else for 5 minutes. For my zoology and botany classes, I bought these cool biology coloring books and lots of different felt pens. I colored those pages just like I was five years old again with a brand new crayon set. It worked for me.

Fear + adrenaline + caffeine = honors program & accolades for Dana. :D

When I was a kid, I would choose (subconsciously, maybe) not to put too much effort into school, because I was afraid to find out that even with hard work, I'd still screw up. I mean, if you get a bad grade and didn't put work into it, that just makes you lazy. If you get a bad grade and really TRIED, what does that make you? Stupid?

I'm still afraid of trying hard, failing and feeling stupid. But I'm more afraid of failing, in general, and maybe not as afraid of feeling stupid as I used to be.

Every now and then, though, I still catch myself falling into that pattern. I'm on guard against it.

BTW Bri, how did the stats test go?

I have to take a stats class too. Haven't decided which one yet.