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Exams! Hoo-rah!


absoludicrous91

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An hour after typing this, I will be taking my first exam, for World History. My exam season doesn't end until Tuesday. Someone once called war, "Long period of intense boredom, puncuated by short moments of intense terror." That's pretty much my exam season.  :wink:

What are exams like for everyone else here?

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I'm actually releaved once I begin an exam, because it means that I no longer have to worry if I need to study more, because I can't. I also know that the whole thing will be over soon, and whether I do good or bad won't change if I'm stressed about it, so I am happy.

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Yeah, I know how you feel. But I disagree about your comment on stress. I think that if you feel pressured to do well on a certain topic, the pressure will motivate you to do better.

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Yeah, I know how you feel. But I disagree about your comment on stress. I think that if you feel pressured to do well on a certain topic, the pressure will motivate you to do better.

Yeah, but that's before the test, when there still time to study. Once the exam has actually started, worrying if you studied enough is pointless.

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I pretty much have no feelings when I take exams.  It's like, oh, another test.

Just a lot of neverending hard work throughout the quarter.

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It depends on the format of the exam, the difficulty of the material, and the resources I had to study with.

Physics:  Study guides with exact multiple choice test questions given; all it takes is completing the study guide beforehand and memorizing the answers.

Music:  Same format and guides as Physics, only it's all facts and no math.

Calculus:  All problems come from the homework sets; do the homework and remember the concepts.

So most of my exams are in the study guides I get, so they're not so bad.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Sorry if this is too much of a necro-post, but I felt it wouldn't be too inappropriate to decompress a bit here on my impending exam. Have you ever reached that threshold of being so very worked up that you pole-vaulted into a state of near apathy about exams? Lately, I've come to this point with my one exam in economics; certainly, I'd like to get a good mark, but I'm so tired of worrying that I can't bring myself to worry further. By far, this is unconventional for me, as I'm a good student and all, but it also contributes a bit to the pressure--or at least, the ego brought on by being renowned as such a good student contributes. I shall avoid further bemoaning this, only except to say that, in summation, I loathe the idea of one being judged simply by a random scattering of questions and how far from perfection one is at answering them.

*resumes studying like mad*  :evil:

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I feel your pain Rapidfire.

Incidentally, I just failed my math final, which means I'll be taking Linear Algebra next semester... again.

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My Schools different, if you have perfect attendance and have no failing grades, you don't have to take finals.

I, however, have an F in geometry and I have one more test in there before the deadline before finals regestration. So if I screw up on this test, I'll have to take finals, which will therefore screw my other grades, which will send me tumbling down a fiery abyss of my parents' wrath, I'll get a lot of my junk taken away from me, and I won't get what I want for Christmas.

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Have you ever reached that threshold of being so very worked up that you pole-vaulted into a state of near apathy about exams?

I'm mostly apathetic when it comes to exams.  I hardly study for them.  At the same time, I get high scores.  My philosophy is that not studying/taking an apathetic perspective greatly reduces stress and therefore improves exam scores.  In addition, if you know your material well, do your homework, and pay attention in class, you shouldn't need to do an insane amount of studying.

Of course, it all depends on the instructor.  I did have to worry and study a lot about my calculus class back in spring quarter because his exams were ridiculously hard.

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In addition to attendance of classes, homework, etc., there is also the natural abilities of some people in some subjects as opposed to others. Broadly, part of my anxiety for this particular exam was that it was in maths, at which I'm not especially adept. On the other hand, I didn't have any stress for my Latin or Greek exams.

I just came back from my economics exam, incidentally, and it wasn't nearly as difficult as I anticipated. I took the apathetic perspective to heart, but I'm still glad I studied all the same.

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In addition, if you know your material well, do your homework, and pay attention in class, you shouldn't need to do an insane amount of studying.

I definitely agree.  If you read through your notes and homework some every day, it'll eventually stick in your memory due to repetition, and you'll have less to worry about later.

Some related news:  I had a 79.38 average in Calculus II before the final exam, which is 0.12 points short of a B, so I needed a 28/33 on the final for B for the class.  I studied all my material, but not for very long, then took the test.  The next day, the grades were posted.

I GOT A "B" IN CALCULUS II!!!  *faints*

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