Can't study or focus and need help

LegacyUser

These are the character assassinations I'm guilty of, above all else. Btw, I'm a very regular poster here, but I'm going unregged for various reasons.

Background: When I was a child, I was exceedingly smart for my age. I was way ahead of my peers, I had the reading age and mathematic ability of a 16 year old at the age of 7, and my IQ was intimidatingly high (about 170 or so, iirc). I also had (and still have, although to a much lesser extent) a prodigious memory. I'm not sure exactly why I was like this, but there were a few factors; my mother was a primary school teacher (who taught junior and senior infants), hence I was reading at age 3. I never watched tv; instead, my main pastime was reading. And my dad was always amazingly good at mathematics, so I figure there was genetic influence too.

I never got special attention or tuition though, and I quickly became bored at school. My teachers couldn't deal with this demanding, obnoxious little brat (I was frustrated, underestimated and bored, remember, so I would correct my teachers' spelling, or argue that what they were saying was wrong..I was a little dick, to be honest), and had little time for me. Also, my classmates didn't take too kindly to my always having the answer.

So, I played dumb, and I became incredibly lazy. I stopped putting my hand up in class. I would do my homework as it was being corrected in class; racing against time was the only thing that made it bearable. I would steal my sister's (3 years older than me) books and do her assignments for her (which we both got in trouble for).

This laziness and playing dumb continued throughout secondary school; but by that stage my acceleration of intelligence had slowed considerably, and I wasn't so far ahead of everyone anymore. I started to get B's and C's (previously unthinkable).

My grades started to slip a little, but I didn't care, they were still pretty good, and I knew that if I tried, I could do better. I just didn't care enough to try. Or so I told myself.

Now: I find myself in college. No longer do I have to play dumb; rather, I'm surrounded by such intelligent people that, for the first time in my life, I can actually be as smart as I am and be RESPECTED for it, rather than shunned or disliked. But the thing is, there are so many people who are SMARTER than I am. And it's really shocking for me. If ever I felt arrogant or superior in my life, college has been a truly humbling experience for me, which is good in many ways, but still an awful blow to my ego..

The biggest problem, though, is what I've been leading up to:

All those years of laziness have meant that I don't know how to work. I don't know how to apply myself to something; I've never had to revise for a test in my life. And my grades are terrible.

This has been going on for the past two years, and I'm getting more and more anxious and frustrated, because as I advance, the work gets harder and my grades get worse.

The scholarship exams begin in my university in March. A scholarship means free room and board, but also prestige and recognition, which I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I crave. (After all those years of playing dumb, people have forgotten or are unaware that I am pretty damn talented at academia.) Most of all, though, I could finally prove to myself that I can work at something, and prove to everyone who thinks I'm a useless idiot that I, too, am smart and have outstanding academic ability.

The clock is ticking though, and I still haven't started to study. I have a lot of catching up to do, and a lot of extra reading on top of that, if I wish to get schols.

It's all coming back to my own self-defeatism though: I keep telling myself that I COULD do it if I WANTED to, I "just don't care enough to". I sit down to study, and I.just.can't.do it. I procrastinate; I clean my room, read newspapers, talk on msn, surf the net, post here and on other message boards..anything, ANYTHING, to avoid working. It's like some kind of ridiculous learning disability, and I can't snap out of it.

Please help. This isn't a life-or-death issue; it's quite trivial I suppose. But it's incredibly frustrating. And there are a lot of smart people here whose advice I would genuinely appreciate.

And I know a lot of what I said sounds incredibly arrogant, but I promise you, it's not. What use is intelligence without application or dedication? I know the answer to this question better than most, I'd be willing to bet.

kraggy

Hi Op.

I can kind of understand your frustration. However, always try to remember that academic performance is really of secondary importance in the main scheme of things.

On the other hand, you have an issue you recognise and you want to fix it. I remember being extremely behind on a course before to the extent that i was close to pulling out of it altogether (an action i had taken with another course previous to that). However, for some reason i stuck in, put the head down and got on with it and though it was purgatory, i got through it.

How did i manage it? Well, i did something that i to this day have difficulty doing - taking one step at a time.

I kept looking at 3 months work having to be done in 3 weeks instead of making a start and taking it one day at a time. But then, i had a sudden, brief moment of sensible action and took out the book and said "right, i'm gonna look at the first page, worry about that and that only and at least have that much done tonight".

This is contrary to my usual demeanour whereby, as i said, i panic and see only the mountain ahead and not the first step.

Try and latch onto this frame of mind and it should help.

I detest study to this day but have found that once you start the ball rolling, it's in the back of the net before you know it.

Hope this helps.

k.

Black Swan

Couple of things you might consider?
1. Schedule and reward. Make yourself a study schedule, with benchmarks along the way to reward yourself. "If I get this done, then I get this!" There's a university nearby that prides itself in the expression, "First work hard, then play hard!"
2. Find a study buddy. Someone bright but in the same boat as you. Prod each other on, assign each other tasks to be accomplished, ask each other questions about material covered, and generally hang out together while studying.

LegacyUser

'I'm smart - I've never had to apply myself in any academic situation/level yet I have always excelled.

I also (and its related) have little or no work-ethic, drive to succeed or often willingness to even identify goals - not to mention work towards them.

I have also noticed that if I can't excel at something (eg. due to a time constraint) then I will procrastinate to a huge extent and find reasons not to do it at all.

The job I'm in at the moment requires very little mental input on my part and returns no further learning or intellectual stimulation.

Therefore my brain is unchallenged and underused - I reckon that your brain needs to be kept in shape or it will, in time, lose its power to some extent - I certainly feel it at times.

Your brain has sat in the attic gathering mouse droppings for years - its turgid and has liver spots on it - you may need to dust it off.......

Also - being smart is no substitute for putting some work in - if you find this tough then you should be grateful that when you've 6 chapters behind you some folk are stuck on chapter one.

- As an afterthought - you need to be smart enough to get away from academic achievement as what seems to be your personal metric for just how worthwhile you actually are/are perceived to be - If you are laid into a coffin in 60 years time and the most useful thing that you've left after you is multiple A4 sheets of academic cat litter then you Sir will have been a man of little consequence - Not that I'll have ever achieved anything by worm time - yawn looses interest......'

randylonghorn

Blue_Lagoon wrote:

2. Find a study buddy. Someone bright but in the same boat as you. Prod each other on, assign each other tasks to be accomplished, ask each other questions about material covered, and generally hang out together while studying.

Spot on, Blue, that was going to be my first suggestion.
I also agree with your idea of a study schedule, but I think the OP may need to start slow ... even if the schedule is 30 minutes study, 15 minutes break, 30 minutes study, etc. to start off with, you are making a start in the right direction ... PROVIDED you stick to it! I would actually suggest setting an alarm each time! Sorry if that sounds childish, but it strikes me that you have some learning to do (about study, self-discipline) which you actually skipped over when you were younger.

Third thing I would suggest is to try to make your study as practical as possible ... make notes, draw diagrams, whatever ... apart from the fact that this helps you remember stuff, it also means that at the end of a period of study you can see something tangible from it, which should encourage you.

Apart from that, I can't help thinking that if there are any teachers on here, they will be printing off your post and reading chunks of it back to their class tomorrow!

Pluto555

I've been trough a very similar situations playing dumb when younger, knowing i'm better then others, then the laziness i think its a cause of lack of motivation in primary in secondary schools like ours and then changing environment where our ego gets hurt and then the "learning disability happens"
I think you are now dealing with what exactly happened to you, you maybe question you intelegence, or why u dont feel superior like before and the answer to this is because u stoped using what u have your intelegence so now is time to stop waisting time and prove to yourself that u can do this, start by making a study plan and stick to it, study in the library - less distractions try different things and dont give up if u fail few times this "learning disabilty" can last but you have to keep trying, here is a link you may find helpfull

http://www.pvc.maricopa.edu/~sheets/lmw/motiv.htm


Good Luck

Rb

OP: Can totally relate, did exceptionally well throughout secondary but when it came to big exams or college exams I just thought I'd fly through them and didn't work for them which didn't exactly work out well (but not too badly). Come college I did unbelievably well throughout first year, didn't go in all that much but got good grades, thought I'd get away with the same the second year and made an absolute mess of it.

Best you can do is set yourself goals and work towards them. Can't offer too much advise 'cause I'm in the same situation, will do anything other than studying, but now I have to pass my exams this year so am going to dedicate myself to getting through them, as hard as it will be. The results are the rewards really, you'll get your scholarship if you work for it and its certainly worth working for. As hard as it is, try and sit down and study a bit every night. Not for long, just go through one section or something so by the time the exams come you're well revised.

Good luck with it.

Drift

Almost everybody falls behind in college OP or at least the people I knew did. Luckily in college you can cram for exams and most do. I thought it was something I could never do, in school I always had everything done perfectly and on time. In college that wasn't always the case, first and second year were a piece of cake so I cruised, studied a bit before the exams and got on great. Third year and fourth were different though, we had a lot of course work with the result that there wasn't time to study until right up on top of the exams but again we all crammed and happily I did well again.

The point I'm trying to get at is one of the problems with the way college exams are laid out is that it is entirely possible for someone to do nothing all year and still come out with a great result. It might not be fair, but its going to help you no end OP. Its only January yet so there's absolutely no need to panic. My advice would be to gradually ramp it up. Start with maybe an hour or two a day and you'll find in about 2 weeks you'll be doing 4 to 5 hours without even noticing. I'm not sure what type of course you're in, my guess would be one with a lot of external reading like law or something in the humanities. (I was/am an engineer so luckily it was all numbers.) If there's a lot of literature I'd recommend hitting that first, thats the type of thing that sinks in better now a month or two before the exam. Then closer to the exam the key is to look at past exam papers and prepare based on what you see there.

phantom_lord

Yeah I can relate to that somewhat, sailed through primary and secondary (sailed through the l.c. with 2 weeks of on/off work) with little or no effort , and turned into a pretty lazy being, suddenly when I arrived in college I met people smarter than me, and who actually worked!

After so many years of doing so well without doing anything my work ethic is gone, I've exams next week that I haven't done a thing for. On the other hand I know with a day or twos study on each I can do pretty well. Only thing is I'm too lazy to even put that in, I'll do anything and everything besides study. I'm also worried about what happens when the exams get more difficult and require serious effort.

I hope you get good advice in this thread.

dame

OP, I'm guessing you're in TCD?

I've had a very similar experience. Was always very bright in school, had no problems. In 6th class in primary school I queried a mark the teacher gave me (I thought I answered everything), and she replied that getting full marks might "go to my head". That really knocked me.

After that I sailed through everything until I got the result of my Junior Cert mocks. I did extremely well in everything and in one particular exam I got 98%. I brought home my results, delighted with myself but when my father looked at them all he said was "Could you not have made it 100", all matter of fact, no reply expected and no other comment made. I got a very good Leaving Cert, with results that most people would be delighted with, but I was mad with myself that I hadn't done better. I could tell my parents were disappointed too.

Since then I have had a far harder time getting my head around doing anything. Before we left school the career guidance teacher gave us all a full set of aptitude tests. When she gave me the results she said that mine were the highest she'd ever seen in the almost 20 years she'd been a guidance teacher. This should have made me happy and reassured me that I could do anything I wanted, but it just made me feel like a failure and a waste of space. I have always felt that whatever I do is never enough.

All through college (not the course I really wanted), I have struggled with assignments and deadlines (I include exams as deadlines for having enough study done). On one level I know I can do it but on another I am so afraid of failing. I start off with good intentions but quickly get paralysed by fear. I will do lots of research on a topic but then find myself unable to actually decide what to write. I often end up working late into the night before something is due and either handing in something I'm really not happy with, just for the sake of handing something in, or else getting so paralysed I shut down and can't do anything further for a few days. Not a good situation.

Sorry about all that rambling. The advice I can give is to start off with something small and do a little bit every day. Easier said than done I know. Write down all your assignment deadlines and decide that you are not going to bed on any night until you have done x amount on the most urgent one. Break each assignment down into parts, for example research, write main body, introduction, conclusion. I always find that it is easier to start with the main theory and then the extra bits of discussion will fall in easier around that. Assignments tend to pile up and the mountain can seem insurmountable. Remember that handing in something on the date is far better than handing in nothing or handing in something late, which is not much better than it would have been if you'd just handed it in on day. A percentage of your result will probably be deducted for every day you are late. Forget about the exams for the moment and get whatever assignments are due done. There's not much point in being a scholar if you're going to fail some of your subjects due to being "incomplete".

For exams I would say take out the last 4/5 years worth of past papers for each subject. Draw up a matrix of the topics covered and the angles taken each year. Obviously the topics that come up every year are the ones that you absolutely must study. Do not go into any exam without being able to cover at least 4 out of the 5 questions you will need to answer (assuming you get a paper with do 5 out of 7/8 questions). When you have these 4 topics covered you will feel more relaxed and in control and you will know that anything further you manage is a bonus. Try and get these topics covered before the last week. In the last week write out (over and over again) the answers you have for the past questions on these topics. The advice on getting a study buddy is very good advice. Spend a couple of weeks before the exams working together and getting answers to as many exam questions as possible. I would say that in the last week take a day for each subject and just spend that writing out answers. You can start by looking at what you've already done but by mid-afternoon you should be aiming to just look at a question and then be able to write down bullet points on the steps involved, equations required or theory needed. Take a few hours off in the late afternoon to relax and do a bit of sport or whatever but then have a quick read of your bullet points again beofre you switch off for the night. Get a good night's sleep each night. This will be easier when you feel you have done something worthwhile. The night/morning before the exam read over your bullet points again and try jotting them down from memory. I have even gone into exams and jotted down all the bullet points/equations I can remember. Do this as soon as you glance at the questions and then you will have lots of time to properly answer each question.

I hope this helps. Best of luck, you will get there.

democrates

Practical measures for organising study are amply described by other posters so I won't repeat. I think you've already zero'd in on the underlying problem area: your self-worth seems to be overly dependant on your identity as an intelligent person.

Lack of sufficient exam success then threatens to diminish your self-esteem, and the fear of it causes you to resist entering the pit of mortal combat which study has become.

First, be fair to yourself, you're out of practice and behind where you might have been had ideal conditions enabled you to maximise your potential all along. But it's best to get over that rather than letting it become a disabling chip on your shoulder, avoid coulda woulda shoulda backward-looking analysis paralysis.

For stark perspective on our lot in life and the value of work, look at this.

That's deliberately brutal so it may have the impact of marking both the end of the past and the start of a new future. The key adjustment is to firmly define yourself as an ethical social being first and foremost, and inherited intellectual gifts as an added but unnecessary bonus helping you to achieve worthy goals in life.

The inert statistic that is an exam score does not summarise your capacity to achieve a life of contentment and hapiness, things which cannot come from the icy water of intellectual exercises, but from being true to your ethics, nurturing honest healthy relationships, and applying yourself effectively to interesting and worthwhile challenges.

If you score lower than expected in an exam so what, an arbitrary target has a slim chance of reflecting exactly what you are actually going to achieve which is also based on nebulous variables such as starting point, mood-swings, external life events, how good lecturers are, random distractions, how long it takes to get into productive studying and such.

In short, you can't achieve true contentment by focussing on your self any more than fleeting pleasures yield core contentment, in fact such persuit thoroughly backfires as any heroin addict will testify. Replace the false personal threat currently polluting your work with the positive motivation to become more effective in a worthy life, and it should become most enjoyable - "If you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life".

If the work doesn't ignite your passions switch to something that does, it's still early days in the overall scheme of your life's work. Your studies provide practical aid to your career and financial security, yes, but how you develop your ethical motivations and relationships with others will determine the overall well-being of yourself, your family, and society at large. I wish you well.

event

im gonna take a different approach here

get off your arse and work!

stop dossing, stop feeling sorry for youself, that you dont know how to study, or are falling behind. quit teh self pity and get your arse to a library and MAKE yourself learn.

End of story

Twinkle-star15

I know what you're feeling (I found I didn't need to study much to get good grades because I remember most of what we did in class anyway), but all I've to say really is don't cram. Seriously. It might seem like it works, but you won't get the results you deserve, discouraging you from working the next time, so you cram again, etc...

You say you've got a good memory, so why not just take good notes in class? Keep going over them, especially before the exams. It'll be easier than reading the book or whatever, because it's all in your own words/your lecturer's words, so you've heard it all. Try and 'translate' the parts of your book into your own words (like you were explaining them to a friend) then repeat them over and over and over.

Like everyone else said, distance yourself as a person from your grades.

Focus more on the learning aspect rather than the passing-grades part. Sounds stupid, but when it comes down to it, people forget that learning can be really interesting, and only think about passing their exams.

And if that all fails, pretend. I mean, pretend you really like your course, and that you find studying a really easy, fun thing to do. Pretend you can't wait to do that hour's studying or whatever when you get home. It'll be hard, but after a while, you'll get so used to pretending you like it, you'll almost forget you don't like it.

Oh, and good luck in your exams!

Villain

I was going to post this as a guest but what the hell.

Well I can't say I was in the same boat because I wasn't more intelligent than those I went to school with but I was simalar to you in many ways.

I got through primary school with about a C average then went to secondary school and by 2nd year had dropped out of most honours subjects, it wasn't that I couldn't keep up if I had wanted to but I had no interest in studying anything I learned what I learned in class because I never opened book outside school, this continued right through to my leaving cert, but by 5th year I was driving and working so my attendance record in 5th and 6th year was less than 50%. I remember playing a round of golf the evening before my Biology and Bus. Org. exams, I never opened a book for my leaving cert and I got 300 points.

One of my main problems was I had no interest in any subjects in school, I was only interested in Computing and Networking and I had picked a course in an I.T that I knew I only needed 200 points for so I didn't have to work.

Heres where my story might be of some help OP, I went to college and loved parts of it but some of the subjects borred me to hell so I didn't study at all again, after 2 years I had to pick one of two courses and I picked the wrong one I went for Software Engineering but it was far too borring.

So after 3 months of 3rd year I dropped out and went to manage a bar I had been working in part-time for years it was good money but the hours were crazy and it wasn't what I wanted so I went looking for a job in IT all I could find was help desk work but I did for a year and then moved on and I have done well since I have been working for 4 years, I'm not saying I don't wish I had my BSC but it wasn't for me and I love my job today and I'm doing well.

College is just one avenue to get what you want, just because you don't have a degree doesn't mean you aren't intelligent, I know I'm everybit as intelligent as my mates who have degrees probably even more intelligent than a lot of them.

The Walsho

event wrote:

im gonna take a different approach here

get off your arse and work!

stop dossing, stop feeling sorry for youself, that you dont know how to study, or are falling behind. quit teh self pity and get your arse to a library and MAKE yourself learn.

End of story

Fair enough, all the advice given here is good OP, but only you can make sure you actually act on it. The study buddy idea is good, but wouldn't suit certain people (I know I work better alone, with nobody to distract me, if someone is there I'll end up just chatting.), and the offering yourself rewards for doing something always works well.

mossieh

supposed_former wrote:

These are the character assassinations I'm guilty of, above all else. Btw, I'm a very regular poster here, but I'm going unregged for various reasons.

Background: When I was a child, I was exceedingly smart for my age. I was way ahead of my peers, I had the reading age and mathematic ability of a 16 year old at the age of 7, and my IQ was intimidatingly high (about 170 or so, iirc). I also had (and still have, although to a much lesser extent) a prodigious memory. I'm not sure exactly why I was like this, but there were a few factors; my mother was a primary school teacher (who taught junior and senior infants), hence I was reading at age 3. I never watched tv; instead, my main pastime was reading. And my dad was always amazingly good at mathematics, so I figure there was genetic influence too.

I never got special attention or tuition though, and I quickly became bored at school. My teachers couldn't deal with this demanding, obnoxious little brat (I was frustrated, underestimated and bored, remember, so I would correct my teachers' spelling, or argue that what they were saying was wrong..I was a little dick, to be honest), and had little time for me. Also, my classmates didn't take too kindly to my always having the answer.

So, I played dumb, and I became incredibly lazy. I stopped putting my hand up in class. I would do my homework as it was being corrected in class; racing against time was the only thing that made it bearable. I would steal my sister's (3 years older than me) books and do her assignments for her (which we both got in trouble for).

This laziness and playing dumb continued throughout secondary school; but by that stage my acceleration of intelligence had slowed considerably, and I wasn't so far ahead of everyone anymore. I started to get B's and C's (previously unthinkable).

My grades started to slip a little, but I didn't care, they were still pretty good, and I knew that if I tried, I could do better. I just didn't care enough to try. Or so I told myself.

Now: I find myself in college. No longer do I have to play dumb; rather, I'm surrounded by such intelligent people that, for the first time in my life, I can actually be as smart as I am and be RESPECTED for it, rather than shunned or disliked. But the thing is, there are so many people who are SMARTER than I am. And it's really shocking for me. If ever I felt arrogant or superior in my life, college has been a truly humbling experience for me, which is good in many ways, but still an awful blow to my ego..

The biggest problem, though, is what I've been leading up to:

All those years of laziness have meant that I don't know how to work. I don't know how to apply myself to something; I've never had to revise for a test in my life. And my grades are terrible.

This has been going on for the past two years, and I'm getting more and more anxious and frustrated, because as I advance, the work gets harder and my grades get worse.

The scholarship exams begin in my university in March. A scholarship means free room and board, but also prestige and recognition, which I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I crave. (After all those years of playing dumb, people have forgotten or are unaware that I am pretty damn talented at academia.) Most of all, though, I could finally prove to myself that I can work at something, and prove to everyone who thinks I'm a useless idiot that I, too, am smart and have outstanding academic ability.

The clock is ticking though, and I still haven't started to study. I have a lot of catching up to do, and a lot of extra reading on top of that, if I wish to get schols.

It's all coming back to my own self-defeatism though: I keep telling myself that I COULD do it if I WANTED to, I "just don't care enough to". I sit down to study, and I.just.can't.do it. I procrastinate; I clean my room, read newspapers, talk on msn, surf the net, post here and on other message boards..anything, ANYTHING, to avoid working. It's like some kind of ridiculous learning disability, and I can't snap out of it.

Please help. This isn't a life-or-death issue; it's quite trivial I suppose. But it's incredibly frustrating. And there are a lot of smart people here whose advice I would genuinely appreciate.

And I know a lot of what I said sounds incredibly arrogant, but I promise you, it's not. What use is intelligence without application or dedication? I know the answer to this question better than most, I'd be willing to bet.

This strikes a real chord...I could have written this, you're describing my eduction almost exactly. All I can say is, get through the degree...if you only scrape passes to get through to the other side, do it. Once you get your first graduate job, everything changes...your approach to work will change when you're being paid for it. An intelligent person with a degree of any sort can do very well these days. NOBODY gives a damn what your grades actually were once you have finished college.

Deadevil129

From what I've experianced very highly acedemic kids (myself included) are bred to be competitive. Either from pressure from parents or teachers they're consistantly told a mixture of "You're amazingly clever, you can go so far in life" and "99% is not good enough, look at the mistake you made, that was just careless". This ends up resulting in a teenager who belives (and quite rightly so) that in academic terms they are capeable of anything but on the other hand also end up with no mechanism for coping with set backs and failures.

When I was in primary school I got very lazy in fifth and sixth class, at that stage I had enough of being bored, found the work far too simple and stopped making an effort. My marks dropped considerably but like youself I told myself I could do it if I wanted to. Secondary school marked a big change because I encountered other kids my age who were just as academic. I was knocked for six when there were people getting better grades than me and my ego took a massive knocking around in the pre-junior cert years. In respect, I can relate to what you're saying and the fact that you're very naturally intelligent will work in your favour, once you sit down and begin you'll be suprised at what you get finished. The most overwhelming thing is to begin studying a massive amount of coursework that seems near impossible to get through.

marie_85

I'm in shock because I could have written most of the OPs original message. I, as well, was one of the most intelligent children in my primary school, and essentially sailed through without having to work at all. The same when I began secondary school, although there were others who got the same grades as me. I justified that to myself by telling myself that they worked for their grades, whereas I got the same results with a lot less work.

Got a bit of a culture shock around the time of my Leaving Cert. Came close to cracking under the pressure I felt to live up to the standards I'd set myself. I was too scared to study a lot of the time, and part of that fear remains with me today. I tell myself that if I don't try to study and therefore don't do well, then that's the reason. I still can't cope with the thought that I might not do well even if I put the work in. It was one of the reasons I ended up dropping out of my first course in college.

I'm back in college after a couple of years of a break from academic work, and am a lot more motivated. I've rediscovered learning for the joy of it, and even though I've a slight tendency to cram, I'm learning to knock that on the head. Part of me is hoping I'll fail one of my exams so that I'll get enough of a shock to cop on and start working properly.

Sorry for rambling. OP, I agree with what the others have said about studying. What you have to do is forget about exams and simply enjoy the actual learning involved in your course. This will motivate you to do well.

LegacyUser

democrates wrote:

I think you've already zero'd in on the underlying problem area: your self-worth seems to be overly dependent on your identity as an intelligent person.

Lack of sufficient exam success then threatens to diminish your self-esteem, and the fear of it causes you to resist entering the pit of mortal combat which study has become.

Spot on. I think the real problem here is not that you're afraid that you can't apply yourself, but that you're afraid maybe you're not as smart as you thought you were. That's my two-bit psychoanalysis anyway:)

I personally believe that the ability to apply yourself to your work is part and parcel of overt "intelligence." It's much easier to excel at primary and secondary school level where the quality of work is still quite low. So, it may give you the mistaken impression that you're a genius instead of simply above-average. Just look at the number of posters who share your feelings - they can't *ALL* be frustrated geniuses, can they? Maybe they're just bright, above-average, intelligent people with delusions of further grandeur?

democrates

This just in:

“The Nature of Procrastination: A Meta-Analytic and Theoretical Review of Quintessential Self-Regulatory Failure.”

It took Dr. Piers Steel 10 years to produce... but is in fairness based on 691 other sources so he probably spent 9 years and 364 days developing his system so he could produce it in one day. That follows if you have faith.

I suggest not buying this and all the references and analysing yourself with respect to all that, instead notes:

Steel has also come up with the E=MC2 of procrastination, a formula he's dubbed Temporal Motivational Theory, which takes into account factors such as the expectancy a person has of succeeding with a given task (E), the value of completing the task (V), the desirability of the task (Utility), its immediacy or availability (�) and the person's sensitivity to delay (D). It looks like this and uses the Greek letter �: Utility = E x V/�D

spinandscribble

have to agree with above poster.
i know of few ppl who found primary school til jr. cert challenging (only the mentally challenged actually), everyone can get top marks there if they merely dont stare out the window for the whole time, maths, english and such were things that if you paid attention once you'd be set up.
i hate to be a bitch but if you were so smart you wouldnt have played stupid to fit in. you would have seen beyond peer pressure. you sound bright enough though, dont think im knocking you i just dislike excuse makers and the idea of someone years from now regretting not getting off their ass.
i just think you're wasting your time making excuses and reliving "glory days" that happened when you were 6 when you've got a dream worth fighting for.

you sit down now, turn off the computer, disconnect the net and grab your text books. READ. AND READ AGAIN.
highlight important chapters once you've attended class.
go to your lectures.
make Q cards. read them on the bus, train, when eating lunch alone sometimes.
be fancy maybe if your the sort and record yourself speaking the material and slap it on your mp3 player.

find someone to study with. at the every least they'll hold you to meeting up, sharing work, dividing research among you. study buddies work better then there are 3 imo.

pbsuxok1znja4r

Wow, sounds a lot like me. I never had to put in much work 'till I got to college and now I find myself not so capable of doing so...might have something to do with not really being interested by what I'm studying though. I think the best thing you can do is stop thinking about it, stop reading this thread and just start studying...

PiE

supposed_former wrote:

And I know a lot of what I said sounds incredibly arrogant, but I promise you, it's not. What use is intelligence without application or dedication? I know the answer to this question better than most, I'd be willing to bet.

This bit was meant to be ironic right? Right?!

So, it may give you the mistaken impression that you're a genius instead of simply above-average. Just look at the number of posters who share your feelings - they can't *ALL* be frustrated geniuses, can they?

Mystery solved.

Skiesonfire19

supposed_former wrote:

These are the character assassinations I'm guilty of, above all else. Btw, I'm a very regular poster here, but I'm going unregged for various reasons.

Background: When I was a child, I was exceedingly smart for my age. I was way ahead of my peers, I had the reading age and mathematic ability of a 16 year old at the age of 7, and my IQ was intimidatingly high (about 170 or so, iirc). I also had (and still have, although to a much lesser extent) a prodigious memory. I'm not sure exactly why I was like this, but there were a few factors; my mother was a primary school teacher (who taught junior and senior infants), hence I was reading at age 3. I never watched tv; instead, my main pastime was reading. And my dad was always amazingly good at mathematics, so I figure there was genetic influence too..

Ok that was pretty much me too growing up.. But 170? That's beyond genius! Mine war 140, Einstein was only 144 or so..

What's wrong with you is you never felt challenged in learning, now you do but you don't know how to be challenged by work or study.. What college are you in? I'm sure there will be someone qualified there you could talk to about this!

Skies

phantom_lord

170? I've never heard of anyone over 160...anyway at that age it's highly highly inaccurate.

Turbulent Bill

OP, sign yourself up for a study skills course: TCD's Student Counselling Service run plenty of free ones. If you've coasted along until now you've probably never considered 'how' to study - it just came along naturally. This mightn't be enough as the volume of work piles up. The course might give you a bit of structure, at the very least showing you how to start. I'm always surprised that, given the effort people devote to studying, few look at the best way(s) to use their time.

As you probably know, Schols are quite different from regular exams in that they really test your understanding. Cramming probably isn't an option.

dame

phantom_lord wrote:

170? I've never heard of anyone over 160...anyway at that age it's highly highly inaccurate.

Agreed, it is extremely hard to get accurate results when testing anything to do with young kids and their abilities. Depending on the test used, different results can be given too. If the OP was tested using a MENSA test the result would be considerably higher than what would have been achieved using a standard test from a psychologist. According to the guy who made up the questions on the "Test the Nation's IQ" (or whatever it was called, on Irish tv over Christmas/New Year), MENSA tests give higher results because they like to have higher IQ's than everyone else, or something like that. I think he said the results could be 30/40 marks higher than the more generally accepted IQ tests administered by pschologists. I suppose giving everyone higher results gets them more possible members for their club (with the necessary score of over 140).

I think the OP's mother should not have taught him/her to read before going to school. What did she think they'd be doing in Junior Infants? As a teacher she should have known that the child would get bored and that it would cause the teacher to leave him doing something else.

I also don't agree with the way some creches use Junior Infant course materials in montessori. I've actually seen a booklist for a montessori course that was basically the same for a child in junior infants, same workbooks (full series of four), headline copies and all. I think that's just wrong. I'm no expert but Montessori IMO is about learning through play, not in essence starting school a year early.

catho_monster

read 'The Now Habit' by Neil Fiore.
Its a self-help book (I know, God forbid), but it tells you how to stop procrastinating over doing study, especially because of the pressure you put yourself under.