Studying Hard for Mid Terms, not getting much out of it :(

Just want to type out how I feel....

Well Mid Terms are upon me as I am now at the Halfway point of my first semester, in Year 1 Business Admin at NAIT.

I feel like I am not getting things, not like I am in over my head or I want to quit. It's like everything I have learnt becomes void and useless during an exam, and this is the first time that I have been doing great in class, writing notes and doing homework, all my online assignments and home work, then BOMB an exam.

Ever get writers block, I guess I can describe it as that. I don't know what the heck to do, I have wrote two mid terms already, Personal Finance yesterday and Management today and I did horribly on both of them. My marks are not in but I missed 15 marks on my Finance midterm as I vapor locked, I could not recollect the proper procedures to complete the last few questions. Then I hear "Pencils Down, Heads Up, exams handed in NOW, anyone still writing gets a ZERO~!, Pencils everywhere drop, then I look around and out of 30 of us there was only 3 people left, 4 including myself. I used to breeze through exams in High School.... I guess 10 years does make a difference.

In today's exam I managed to get all the questions complete, but I know that at least 26 marks are subject to opinion as I don't think I answered the questions in proper format after hearing other students discussing the exam in the Elevator. My problem was I had no knowledge of what was being asked of me in the questions? Did I omit something in the text book? Are my study attempts failing me? I took a chance the best I could and at least put something down to complete the test. I know the very last question was wrong as all I did was reword the question as my answer

I am feeling Stressed to the 9, with 3 more mid terms left with thursdays and Friday's being my worst subjects, and no money to pay for tutoring I feel blah.
I was ready to go back to school and I don't want to drop out, I just can't come to terms with why I am experiencing these temporary memory lapses?

Anywho, this was my study break.... hehehe
I am going back to the books. Tomorrow's mid term is Microeconomics Chapters 1-6 + 15


EEk:

I would not get too excited until your marks come back and I would not get to excited about the gossip in the hallway either. Usually mid terms are only worth part of your total mark. As a mature student you have some order in your life that fresh out of high school students do not. I went back to take business and accounting when I was 50 years plus. I'm a year short of a BBA. Relax- the world will still be there when mid-terms are over.

I am sorry to hear this Jonny. I can`t help but I can sympathize with what you go through. I get the same thing. Extreme exam anxiety. I did well at university except in my exams, always bombed them no matter how well I knew and understood the material.
I wish I could help, but I never did figure my way out of it.
I still did well as my inclass marks were very good. Keep going and try to handle the stress and keep your eyes on the prize, you will get there!
Please tell your dad that I have another really nice, young light sussex cockerel he is welcome to have if we can figure out a ride for him. He looks like he is going to be very nice.

I totally get the exam thing. Is there a school counselor you have access to? That would be free and they could probably help you with exam writing problems. Another thing to do is get old exams. Go the library (not at home where you are totally comfortable, set a timer and treat them as if they were the real thing. Also talk to your profs. Tell them the issues you are having with taking tests. Many won't care, but some will. They can give you direction, so may even let you do extra assignments if you test results are really poor, but you show you are trying and in fact "get" the material. Good luck- I bet you'll find your groove soon

Try this trick.
Before the exam get some gum you like, and a hard candy you like, ie life savers.

About 5 min before the exam, have a couple of life savers or what ever. You can have one every 20-30 min. You dont want to sugar overload because then you crash.

Then just as you are about to start the exam, pop the gum in your mouth and chew. Hopefully you like gum.

The little (not big) sugar hit of the candy (Brain runs on glucose) helps with brain function. The gum chewing helps blood circulation and.... believe it or not... focus. Especially in kids ,,,, er,,, I mean students, who have concentration, focus, endurance issues. It also helps to use up tension energy and ballance the brain.

This works really well with kids with test anxiety.
Trust me, it really does work.

Try it. It cant hurt.

That is really cool artic. I'm going to remember that for my son- makes sense!

Jonny you have been out of the education gig for a while now. Chin up, it may take some time to get back in the swing of things. You are intelligent and driven. I know you can do it! Seek out a support system. There should be mentors, professors and study groups that you can work with to gain confidence.

Sue

Hey Jonny,

I can completely relate. I went into first year of nursing school after about 5 years out of high school. It wasn't as long away from school, but it was a pretty intense "new beginning". I got completely worked up over the first year's projects and exams!! I would freak out that I didn't know a question and all I could do was think about that! Then, before you know it exam time is over and all I did was obsess over how I couldn't remember that ONE thing that I KNEW I KNEW! Here's some things I found helpful...

-study with other students the week or two before the exam. Maybe they thought of something to study that you didn't think was important, and vice versa
-take notes in lectures, there is often hints as to what's going to be on the exam
-Don't OVER read. I know they assign chapters xyz, but let's not kid ourselves, who can remember that all? I skim read, read bold headers, understand the general concepts of everything and the key points, but do I try to remember every single little wee detail? Nope, how can one person remember so much? If it helps you, make notes or highlight while you read. One thing that actually helps me is finding videos on youtube, there's lots of informative videos that accurately describe things, and I like hearing someone "tell" me information, I remember it more easily
-in every exam, remember that if you think logically, you can probably pull it off. This occurred to me after 2 years of being completely stressed-to-tears over the skill evaulations we have in nursing school (pass/fail, not graded, fail and the bus stops here). I was sooooo stressed out about every little thing - how many gloves to take into the room, how to position my hand for this or that, etc. I finally realized - hey I'm pretty smart, I can figure this out as long as I know the steps and think it through logically, one step at a time. Same thing with writing exams, particularly the long answer.
-in math exams, I alwayyyyys used to write my formula's (if you have to memorise them, or what have you) down on the scrap paper. I would also write down any other useful info I needed to remember or tips for myself on how to answer questions. I would THEN open my exam. I found if I didn't write down the formula's first, sometimes they got jumbled in my head and then I wouldn't be able to use them properly.

Arctic had a good idea about the gum, I am DEFINITELY going to try that! After long exams, I am always starving, but it feels like my brain is hungry. Maybe I'm weird, not sure. LOL

Anyways, wait for your marks to come back before you get too upset. We are always our worst critic! Plus, it's your FIRST midterm/exam back in school! You will be ok once you get back into the swing of things.


OH OH OH! I also forgot, lucky underwear ALWAYS helps, too.

I got the gum and hard candy ting from an AMAZING special needs teacher I used to work with. The gum thing actually has published studies. It was presented at teachers convention a few years ago too. The sugar thing came from the problem of kids not having ballanced blood sugars, or not eating well/enough or sugar lows from nerves. A little bit of sugar at the right time can help the brain function for an hour or two. Keep the body bloodsugars level.

I was amazed at the effectiveness of gum. It really does work for many kids/people.

I know of a classroom where the teacher has taken it to a whole new level. I think it is a little crazy, but she gives every kid a gum, if they want, when she passes out the test they can have a gum.

When I was teaching at AADAC I let the kids plug into thier MP3s. It was as much for me as for them. Most of them were in withdrawl so anything that helped helped. I then started using it with kids with behavioural issues, kids who could not sit still through an exam. Worked like a charm, helped fill the empty spaces in thier brain and remove the "empty sound" and distractions as one kid put it. Later I read an article on letting kids tune out durring quiet work and exams. It works.