Studying and Burnout
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Topic: Studying and Burnout
Posted By: SSOK
Subject: Studying and Burnout
Date Posted: 08 February 2011 at 7:40pm
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So, along with 95% of the world, I hate studying.
I dont know what the rest of you all did during highschool, but I did less and less work every year and graduated with a 3.8 GPA. I thought I studied for finals.. but I never did "real studying" until I got to college.
So, now I am in my fancypants engineering school. Second year. I have always been a terrible math student and I consistantly get crappy grades in math(Calc). Most of the students here blame the school for giving us too much stuff to do and professors that dont speak english. While I think we have more difficult math than say a Rutgers education major, we're certainly not MIT.
Regardless, I think I am studying too much or I am surrounded by people who dont study enough. I have devoted 70% of my free time since Friday night to studying (I didnt have a weekend) and the test is tommorrow, whereas many other students are beginning to study now. I feel burnt out, and I know if I begin studying right now I wont get anything done. Yet I feel completely unprepared and I feel I will bomb this common. Frustruating is an understatement.
TL;DR: College math is hard, I hate studying /whine ------------- 
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Replies:
Posted By: scotchyscotch
Date Posted: 08 February 2011 at 8:18pm
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I've got an assignment due for tomorrow. I just started it and already I'm on here procrastinating, so I'm probably not the right person to comment. The perils of a part time course that's relatively easy just with a bunch of essays and research needed. I've always been a crappy student I just cant get started. Once I get going I'm fine but usually I just sit staring at the work and decide I'd rather do something else.
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Posted By: evillepaintball
Date Posted: 08 February 2011 at 8:30pm
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I did the same thing in high school. Now that I am in college, I am doing it again and will graduate somewhere around 3.7. Hooray state school ------------- 
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Posted By: MeanMan
Date Posted: 08 February 2011 at 9:13pm
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I barely had to do anything in high school and got a 3.96 GPA. College is a bit trickier. I usually do 1-2 days before the test to study, but not constantly. I get distracted. I found the best thing for me, is if theres a study guide, rewrite the notes that pertain to the study guide, then strictly study that after going through ALL the notes once. Finals are a little rough because there is so much information. ------------- 
hybrid-sniper~"To be honest, if I see a player still using an Impulse I'm going to question their motives." |
Posted By: Darur
Date Posted: 08 February 2011 at 10:13pm
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70% of your free time lost to studying is pretty reasonable. I'm a Junior in EE. Last semester I was averaging 3 hours of sleep per night, pulling weekly all-nighters, no weekends. Hard core studying for exams began up to two weeks before the test, while regular studying for exams was never ending. Don't kid yourself into thinking it will get easier, either. Calc is relatively easy compared to most classes you'll be taking later on, depending on what engineering you're majoring in. When I was a sophomore, my hardest classes were Calc and Circuits. I spent about the same amount of time as you are now studying and I thought that was ridiculous dedication on my part. Looking back, it was a complete cake walk compared to later courses. Now, if you feel unprepared, odds are you are. Now, if everyone is feeling unprepared, thats a sign of the class. Many professors curve to reflect this. I've had classes where the average was a 19/40, and most students made it out with B's and C's. If you want to do well, you can slack off, cheat and squirm your way through, or you can step it up and make it through. Engineering is tough for a reason. ------------- Real Men play Tuba [IMG]http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/1859/newsmall6xz.jpg"> PH33R TEH 1337 Dwarf! http://www.tippmann.com/forum/wwf77a/log_off_user.asp" rel="nofollow - DONT CLICK ME!!1 |
Posted By: brihard
Date Posted: 08 February 2011 at 10:38pm
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I'm sitting here finishing off a major project proposal due tomorrow. Then I get to actually do my readings for tomororw, and post my reflection questions online. Then I get to work in the morning, with little time between work and class. Huzzah! ------------- "Abortion is not "choice" in America. It is forced and the democrats are behind it, with the goal of eugenics at its foundation." -FreeEnterprise, 21 April 2011. Yup, he actually said that. |
Posted By: choopie911
Date Posted: 08 February 2011 at 10:42pm
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I'm really trying to keep from burning out, and it's been a balancing act for sure. Last semester I spent 12 hours a day on campus, 4 days a week, working on projects for one class. On top of that I had a math class that I hated, and needed to pass. I had pretty much no free time all semester. Then we have xmas break, and I'm back to school for a new leisurely semester.
By that I mean, the same amount of time, but a worse math class and a useless prof who doesnt actually teach anything. On Wednesday I spent 18 hours straight on the same research project. Today I've been at it for 7 hours so far, with probably another 5 hours to go before I call it a night. |
Posted By: brihard
Date Posted: 08 February 2011 at 10:52pm
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Two more months and my last assignment is in, and then it's just exams. Of course, then real life kicks me in the head, but I'll worry about that when I get there. ------------- "Abortion is not "choice" in America. It is forced and the democrats are behind it, with the goal of eugenics at its foundation." -FreeEnterprise, 21 April 2011. Yup, he actually said that. |
Posted By: stratoaxe
Date Posted: 08 February 2011 at 11:41pm
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I'm only a year and a half in, but I can tell you that my study habits sucked bad my first two semesters. I'm at a 3.6 right now, hoping to be 3.7 with straight A's by the time I get to UTA (or UT Austin).
My biggest step this year was to outline all of the chapters in the book as I read them. It makes the process of absorbing the information 10x easier for me. I have to write it by hand, also. If I try to type my outlines, I dint absorb anything. Generally, however, I'm a shameless crammer. I've skated by thus far alright, but I'm definately trying to change habits this semester. I now devote around 4-6 hours a week studying (still terribly low), as opposed to last semester's avoid-contact-with-the-book-until-test-day approach. |
Posted By: ParielIsBack
Date Posted: 08 February 2011 at 11:44pm
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If you don't think it's worth it, change your major. You won't be the first or the last. Yes, the reality is that if you want straight As you're going to have to work your butt off in engineering. It's just the nature of the beast. It won't be any less difficult in any other field that actually provides good pay with an undergraduate education. The question is what is it worth to you? Don't pay the price if it isn't. In line with what Darur said, I've had classes where 50-60% is average. My girlfriend has had tests where 25% was a B. You're not the only one struggling, and it will help you to work with your peers. I'm not interested in math for math's sake. I passed all my calculus classes, did well enough that I could move on and not destroy my GPA, and it's not an issue. There are some engineers who explore engineering through math, and some who only use it as a tool. I definitely fall into the second category, and you may too. Not to harp too much on this, but studying with people who know the material, will drastically reduce the time you need to learn anything. Find a tutor if you can, get an upperclassmen friend who's already taken the class to help you in exchange for beer, whatever gets you through it. In general, cheating won't. You will have to apply the math in your engineering classes. Differential equations and basic calculus need to be your friend, because without them you will have a very difficult time getting through your 300,400, or 500 level courses. Also, remember that your GPA is not the sole influence on your future. Graduating below a 3.0 will make your life much more difficult, but there are a variety of other activities that can sometimes fill it, whether it be student organizations, sports teams, a job, etc. Wrestle with what you want do, then figure out how to get there. ------------- BU Engineering 2012 |
Posted By: You Wont See Me
Date Posted: 09 February 2011 at 12:24am
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I'm a pharmaceutical sciences student and am horrible at studying...
------------- A-5 E-Grip JCS Dual Trigger DOP X-CORE 8 stage x-chamber Lapco Bigshot 14" Beadblasted Optional setup: R/T Dead on Blade trigger |
Posted By: brihard
Date Posted: 09 February 2011 at 12:24am
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How does the American GPA system convert in terms of percentage grades? ------------- "Abortion is not "choice" in America. It is forced and the democrats are behind it, with the goal of eugenics at its foundation." -FreeEnterprise, 21 April 2011. Yup, he actually said that. |
Posted By: evillepaintball
Date Posted: 09 February 2011 at 12:53am
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Posted By: Gatyr
Date Posted: 09 February 2011 at 2:01am
Word. I considered transferring to UT as an engineering major because I did well in Calc 1 and 2 and the community college's equivalent of Physics for engineering majors, but I decided it wasn't worth the work I would put in to getting the degree since the entire reason for me getting an undergraduate degree is to get into law school. I chose a LOLbral Arts degree instead because I felt like getting a degree with a focus in philosophy would help me best prepare for the LSAT and law school.
This was my other concern. While correct for engineering majors who want to be engineers, that couldn't be further from the truth for prospective law school students. In particular, I know of three people in the engineering program who want to go to law school. All three are wonderfully smart, driven, and know exactly what they want to do in life, but two of them will be attending a lower-ranked law school than they deserve because they chose to major in engineering. Instead of having a 3.8+ GPA and going somewhere like a top six law school, they have a sub-3.0 and are stuck with hoping their LSAT scores can get them in somewhere worth going (which, with a low 3.something GPA, is next to impossible). Like Pariel said, if it's not worth it, change your major to something that is worth it. ------------- 
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ParielIsBack wrote:Posted By: ParielIsBack
Date Posted: 09 February 2011 at 7:38am
I don't know a single engineer who wants to go to law school, so I never thought of that. Engineers who go to law school tend to be patent lawyers, and that field is not particularly large. Unless that's what someone wanted to do, I don't see the point in doing engineering before law school. There are a whole lot of majors that will prepare you more effectively for it. GPA does matter to a pretty significant extent for graduate programs, but like the hiring process they look at your other activities (plus your GREs.) ------------- BU Engineering 2012 |
Posted By: ArthurBignose
Date Posted: 09 February 2011 at 8:08am
I'm an engineering undergrad student looking to go to med school. As far as grades go, I've been told that schools will take the major into account when looking at your GPA. As in, a 4.0 in a BS is worth more (to them) than a 4.0 in a BA degree for example. I'm a junior right now, as as far as calculus goes, I use things I learned in all 3 calcs on a daily basis. We also use stuff from the ODE class and linear algebra frequently, and occasionally stuff from the PDE class. Try to learn your math well because it will make your life much easier if you have a good understanding of it. ------------- |
Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 09 February 2011 at 10:44am
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In the 5 years I was in college I pulled an all-nighter ONCE. And that wasn't even studying, it was preparing a final portfolio for my Methods in Education class, the final step before student teaching. I spent hours organizing sample lesson plans and assessments, interviews, curriculum guidelines, blah, blah, blah into a binder that I don't believe was ever looked at by anyone. As for studying, I did all that during the day. If I don't sleep I don't focus. And if I'm not focused, I retain nothing. I never understood how people could be in the lounges or library to strange hours of the morning cramming information into their brains, then head off to an exam with a half empty cup of coffee clutched in a death-grip and a glazed and panicky look in their eyes. I always knew when I hit the point of "Screw it, if I don't know it now, I'm not ever gonna know it." and would go to bed. Granted, I didn't take calculus or advanced sciences, or anything like that, but some of the state mandated education courses were no picnic either. I'll never forget my "Adolescent Psychology" class, where we had to know almost a different types and sub-types of learning styles, and be able to detail lesson outlines which would accommodate each type, as well as be able to identify who pioneered the research and development of each style of teaching. The whole semester was spent staring off into space- it might as well have been in Russian for all the psycho-babble. And when it came time to study for the final, I gave it about 4 hours and went to bed. Sleeping on what you DO know always seemed comparable to Staying awake to re-read the stuff you WON'T know at that point. At any rate, good luck. Oh, and high school? I think in the 4 years I attended HS, you can total my hours spent studying for ANYTHING and come up with a single digit number. I did what I needed to to get by and little else. ------------- ? |
Posted By: jerseypaint
Date Posted: 09 February 2011 at 10:57am
NJIT has crap for math professors. My friend who's taking electrical engineering has only told me horror stories of all his math courses. On a side not, I'm actually studying (2hrs before the exam) CalcII right now and I'm pretty sure I'm going to bomb. Mainly since I never took CalcI and I still don't have the textbook for the class. Go me. ------------- 
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Posted By: impulse418
Date Posted: 09 February 2011 at 11:46am
| Cry me a river. |
Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 09 February 2011 at 12:09pm
How wonderfully productive. Thanks so much for your contribution of incalculable worth. ------------- ? |
Posted By: agentwhale007
Date Posted: 09 February 2011 at 12:35pm
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Other folks learn and process information differently, so I wouldn't put too much thought into the folks who begin their studying process earlier or later than you. |
Posted By: stick_boy_2002
Date Posted: 09 February 2011 at 2:17pm
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i finished high school with the bare minimum of i think a 1.5 gpa. i hated high school. ------------- 
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Posted By: impulse418
Date Posted: 09 February 2011 at 2:36pm
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Posted By: agentwhale007
Date Posted: 09 February 2011 at 2:47pm
| It has been a while since we've had an honest-to-god troll in here. |
Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 09 February 2011 at 3:16pm
Hasnt it just? ------------- ? |
Posted By: scotchyscotch
Date Posted: 09 February 2011 at 3:55pm
| Don;t suppose there are any Law students on here? |
Posted By: jerseypaint
Date Posted: 09 February 2011 at 4:05pm
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If anyone cares, I failed mad hard. Apparently not knowing Trig puts you at an extreme disadvantage. Especially with no calculators allowed. -------------
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Posted By: ParielIsBack
Date Posted: 09 February 2011 at 5:15pm
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I assume it was 30, 45, 60 degrees questions? Engineering teachers generally give you access to as much as you need. It's more about knowing how to apply your knowledge than memorizing formulas. Math teachers on the other hand...
Quite the claim to fame there. ------------- BU Engineering 2012 |
Posted By: choopie911
Date Posted: 09 February 2011 at 5:16pm
| 12 hours yesterday, so far I'm at 5 hours today, and still at it. |
Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 09 February 2011 at 5:16pm
What did you do this time? ------------- ? |
Posted By: brihard
Date Posted: 09 February 2011 at 7:10pm
 ------------- "Abortion is not "choice" in America. It is forced and the democrats are behind it, with the goal of eugenics at its foundation." -FreeEnterprise, 21 April 2011. Yup, he actually said that. |
Posted By: SSOK
Date Posted: 09 February 2011 at 8:29pm
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Test wasnt too bad. Yay time for beer. -------------
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Posted By: ParielIsBack
Date Posted: 09 February 2011 at 9:05pm
I've bought three six packs in the last two weeks. None of them have ended up in my room though. Nothing like a good beer at the end of the day. ------------- BU Engineering 2012 |
Posted By: choopie911
Date Posted: 09 February 2011 at 9:23pm
| Up to 8.5 hours now, nearing the end of this weeks work. Then I get to turn it into presentation slides. |
Posted By: jerseypaint
Date Posted: 09 February 2011 at 10:01pm
Nope. Differentiating and integrating stuff like sin, cos, tan, etc. I don't know any of their properties or how to use them in basic Algebra since I haven't studied them since high school. -------------
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Posted By: scotchyscotch
Date Posted: 09 February 2011 at 11:05pm
I have taken the decision to start a law degree... (By that I mean I totally got arrested for punching a hooker in the bewbs/berk) (by that, I mean that I actually just started a law degree)
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Posted By: ParielIsBack
Date Posted: 09 February 2011 at 11:41pm
If they catch you using your soul again, I've heard they take your firstborn. I think you're sneaky enough to get away with it though.
See, those kind of questions are the ones that annoy me. Turn to the end of your book (I'm guessing it's a Stewart, since he's by far the most common, although I'm pretty sure these pages are in all calculus books) and you'll find a bunch of pages with all the trigonometric identities and their derivatives and integrals. What use could there possibly be to having someone regurgitate that on a test?!? Just finished having Wolfram Alpha do some integrals for me. Feels great to turn what could be half an hour of frustration into 60 seconds of typing and an answer I know is right. ------------- BU Engineering 2012 |
Posted By: jerseypaint
Date Posted: 09 February 2011 at 11:51pm
I actually just got my textbook today. I don't mind integrals/differentials, its just impossible when you can't use basic algebra to turn the crazy problems he gives us into something manageable enough to integrate or differentiate. -------------
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Posted By: choopie911
Date Posted: 10 February 2011 at 2:12am
| Woo! Done this week, 12 hours of work today. But, now I understand Mondrian more than I ever have. It's broken my brain a bit though, because now I can't even look at apartment window divisions the same way. |
Posted By: Gatyr
Date Posted: 10 February 2011 at 2:34am
Did you enjoy 6th Street that much?  When do you plan on enrolling? A 3.7 should be good enough to get you into the larger schools (Natural Sciences/Liberal Arts) regardless of your extracurriculars, and you've got a decent shot at the others if you have good softs. If you need help with living arrangements or anything in general, PM me. I know the lay of the land pretty well, as well as what's cheap for the most part.
That's precisely their goal. Going to a top-10 engineering school isn't the way I would have gone about it, but patent law is their dream.
For equal GPAs, that might be the case, but for law schools (and I hear that med schools are becoming the same way), the higher number is looked upon more favorably, regardless of the degree. Prestige matters for law schools, and the higher average GPA for entering classes means more prestige for that school, regardless of whether or not it's a engineering BS from MIT or a LOLberal Arts degree from some D2 school in Arkansas. -------------
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Posted By: ArthurBignose
Date Posted: 10 February 2011 at 6:32am
Being able to do easy to moderate difficulty (that includes trig functions) derivatives, integrals, and differential equations in your head will help you in the long run. You should be able to focus on the engineering problem, not the math. ------------- |
Posted By: MeanMan
Date Posted: 11 February 2011 at 3:12pm
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I took a Corporate and Organizational Finance midterm yesterday and just studied 1.5 hours beforehand and got an 88%, which I am dissapointed with.
Some of the stuff on there I figured wouldn't be, well it was. I found out my Intermediate Macro professor relies on the book heavily for stuff. Midterm is in a week and guess who hasn't opened our book? This guy! -------------
hybrid-sniper~"To be honest, if I see a player still using an Impulse I'm going to question their motives." |
Posted By: rednekk98
Date Posted: 11 February 2011 at 5:28pm
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I was going to post something, but considering I had the same major as Reb, he pretty much covered it. I got stuck doing my huge portfolio for my student teaching with lesson plans for 75% of every lesson I taught for a semester, about 20 additional essays and graphs and crap explaining student progress, all of my supplementary material , student work samples, observation forms from my professors, etc. I had about 40 different state standards to provide evidence for covering, which meant writing a table of contents and tabbing ALL the lessons plans etc. that met the standards. Even though I broke it down into sections (each with their own mandated cover page) I ended up having to do a complete table of contents and index of EVERYTHING I had included and re doing all my tabs with more professional color-coded tabs. A full 4" binder packed full of crap. My professor refused to grade it until I had an absolutely complete table of contents and better-looking tabs. She also didn't like that since some of the items were in protective sheets and some were 3-hole punched, the tabs didn't all line up, and threatened to fail me (along with chewing me a new one in various ways, including her dislike of my beard). I eventually did all of that, drove to her house so she could grade it since she refused to go back to the school to pick it up. She sat down with me, looked at the table of contents and the tabs, and asked me to show her my evidence for meeting TWO of the 40 or 50 standards, and gave me an A. It less than 10 min for her to grade about 360 hours worth of work. Hmm, I guess i did have something to add after all. Anyways, I'm in my last semester finishing up a class for my minor (Modern Political Thought 300-level) one Major Requirement freshmen class that didn't transfer from my last school, that I have taught at the highschool, level and read all of the books for (World History) and a rock-climbing class(win) this semester. 2 Days a week isn't bad. I am totally burned-out and look forward to not taking any more college classes until I start my Masters. In the mean time, I'm going to finally live the college life promised to me by Animal House and Van Wilder (minus Frats) instead of working two jobs and sleeping in my car. Hang in there, be smart. Even if you need to jump through stupid hoops, do it, even if you need to do it half-assed. We do not have a Jeffersonian Meritocracy here, just accreditation. Get your degree by whatever means necessary. |
Posted By: agentwhale007
Date Posted: 12 February 2011 at 9:29am
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I'm feeing it a little bit now. I'm helping out a friend with some intercoder reliability tests, two friends actually. After coding for 15 hours yesterday, I'm hardly almost 1/4 of the way through the 10% coding needed to prove reliability. Good. Lord. It's going to take forever. The other project I'm helping on, however, involves looking at every issue of Playboy ever made. Bravecoward, btw, if you've got nothing to do tomorrow, and you'd like to be a reliability coder on this project, hit me up.
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Posted By: MeanMan
Date Posted: 12 February 2011 at 10:46am
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I like the sounds of a playboy project, I'm curious what the project actually is... -------------
hybrid-sniper~"To be honest, if I see a player still using an Impulse I'm going to question their motives." |
Posted By: Mack
Date Posted: 12 February 2011 at 11:48am
Reading this thread made me realize how happy I am to be out of school and looking for a job.
^^Very true. While I tend to try to study material as presented and finish projects early I have discovered I am actually most effective when in the midst of a last-minute "trapped-like-a-cornered-rat" panic. (To the point that I actually found saving my last review of papers/projects for the night before the due date resulted in the most improvement in them.)
Somebody needs to get laid
Wow, Whale leads a rough life. ------------- 
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Posted By: agentwhale007
Date Posted: 12 February 2011 at 2:01pm
It's my roommate's idea. She's looking at the "Playboy interview," which has largely been seen as a selling point of the magazine (besides the hoots). It's a long, uninterrupted Q&A with someone. We're coding for demographics like occupation, gender, race, length of interview, etc, and going over every single interview since the magazine started. The hypothesis is that the trend in the 1990s for magazines to be more celebrity-based, and the introduction of Maxim and FHM-type magazines in the 2000s has led to a sharp increase of celebrities and musicians being the focus of the Playboy interview instead of politicians, artists, activists, etc. Also, good Lord, microfilm is an every-loving pain in the butthole.
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Posted By: ParielIsBack
Date Posted: 12 February 2011 at 4:34pm
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You're reviewing them on microfilm!? I mean, that makes sense, but even the short time I used it in high school was much too long. Also, I've discovered that I can forget entire college subjects. I took a course on MatLab my freshman year, and used it for four or five projects through my sophomore year. Went to do another project in it today, and realized I didn't even know where to start anymore. I haven't written code in over a year, and I knew I was screwed when my 'help' requests came back with nothing. I also appear to have left my MatLab book at home when I moved in. I decided to give up and take the easy road by using Wolfram Alpha to solve the problem for me. Unfortunately that means I have to retype every problem instead of just the variables. ------------- BU Engineering 2012 |
Posted By: brihard
Date Posted: 12 February 2011 at 4:50pm
...So your school has all the old issues of Playboy on microfilm? ------------- "Abortion is not "choice" in America. It is forced and the democrats are behind it, with the goal of eugenics at its foundation." -FreeEnterprise, 21 April 2011. Yup, he actually said that. |
Posted By: agentwhale007
Date Posted: 12 February 2011 at 5:52pm
Yep. A bunch of other magazines too. Media studies are big here.
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Posted By: MeanMan
Date Posted: 12 February 2011 at 10:01pm
Thats a nice find. I never would have thought of that as a whole. Nice catch, nice catch. -------------
hybrid-sniper~"To be honest, if I see a player still using an Impulse I'm going to question their motives." |
Posted By: ParielIsBack
Date Posted: 12 February 2011 at 11:33pm
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*Heads to library*
------------- BU Engineering 2012 |