Where will I end up?

LegacyUser

I fear the future. Most people probably have a lot less control over their destiny than they would like to think, but I think I am in a category of my own. I believe that I am quite intelligent, I have been IQ tested twice in official settings and on both occasions I have scored well above average. I am in first year of a demanding, high point requirement course in Trinity college (would rather not be more specific), and I feel like I am at the mercy of forces unknown to me. What I am getting at is my capacity to work. I am almost incapable of actually sitting down and studying. The only reason I have succeeded in any exam to date is because I can retain information covered in class reasonably well, but a mountain of luck has been on my side each time in terms of which questions actually appear on the paper. I am not doing well in college to date, I haven't done any of the assignments I have been set, and as per usual I haven't opened a book. I just can't seem to be able do it. I leave everything to the last minute and I then usually hand up an appalling and embarrassing attempt, or scrape through the exams, but I don't think I will be able to do that with any good results in college. I fear that the future does not hold good things for me, but despite this I still don't work any harder. Has this happened to anybody else, or does anyone have any advice which they could give me as to how I can achieve success at college despite myself?

mikemac

First of all use paragraphs, it's a nightmare to read. Thanks
Meh, so you've a high IQ. Congrats on your good LC but intelligence is a lot more than that.

You've just described most college students!
Do feck all until exam time and then cram and load up on red bull for all-nighters.

You have a capacity to do well in exams but the weakest student in the class could beat you if they put the work in.
You need to beat procrastination, the main author I'd know who does stuff on that is Anthony Robbins.
I'd not saying go buy anything but sure go onto youtube and see if you find it useful. You can buy the tape programs cheap on ebay

"There's nothing worse in life than wasted talent."
-A Bronx Tale

metamorphic

so you've gotten by 18 years of life without putting in a big effort, now life is sticking it to you and you've been given a rude awakening. It's rough, but don't let it beat you.

In the main, bar a few lucky sods, you reap what you sow, so start sowing.

You may have never had to timetable a work schedule, or start a project that would take more than a days worth of last minute work to complete. Start to get realistic, you've already said the current setup is causing you to mess things up, so change your approach. You're believing the hype that college is all fun. It's alot of fun, it's not all fun.

alantc

Don't worry about it, if you're half as smart as you think you are, you'll be grand. Just have fun. Check out the Eliz Rooms, Atrium and GMB each each evening and you'll find a few free drinks receptions each week, just lie and say you left your membership card at home. A few drinks with some nice people always helps me forget the mountain of college work I have to do.

MagicMarker

alantc wrote: »

Don't worry about it, if you're half as smart as you think you are, you'll be grand. Just have fun. Check out the Eliz Rooms, Atrium and GMB each each evening and you'll find a few free drinks receptions each week, just lie and say you left your membership card at home. A few drinks with some nice people always helps me forget the mountain of college work I have to do.

Yeah, you'll get buy on your intelligence alone, and in the mean time you can drink yourself into a stupor, and you don't even have to pay for it! :rolleyes:

OP, do you have any interest in what you're supposedly studying? Or did you only apply for the course because it needed high points and is in Trinity?

metamorphic

I would say the opposite. OP hasn't any idea what it takes to handle the workload (s)he's now met with. I'd start working on it until it becomes clear what's neccessary to tackle it. After that they'll know by how much they can ease off to keep the work under control and still enjoy things on offer around the college.

cuckoo

OP, you could talk to your tutor and see if any of the student services are running time management/study skills courses at the moment.

The aliens are not beaming down a force field that prevents you (and you alone) from opening a text book. Seriously. And, if you believe that, well, the studying is the least of your worries.

It can all feel a bit overwhelming at the moment, but just sit down today and study something for 30 minutes.

BroomBurner

Hi OP,
You sound very frustrated. Kind of like thinking that you're going be great at things possibly because you were good at school and have a high IQ. It's hard then to find out that you're not actually good at everything, in fact, you may even just be average at everything. That's just what happens when you leave the cosy confines of the World of School.

In time, you'll get over it and settle down. Until then, take control of your college course by STUDYING. Either that, or change to something that you are interested in studying.

podge79

Unregistered wrote: »

I believe that I am quite intelligent, I have been IQ tested twice in official settings and on both occasions I have scored well above average.
What I am getting at is my capacity to work. I am almost incapable of actually sitting down and studying.
but a mountain of luck has been on my side each time in terms of which questions actually appear on the paper.
I am not doing well in college to date, I haven't done any of the assignments I have been set, and as per usual I haven't opened a book.
I leave everything to the last minute and I then usually hand up an appalling and embarrassing attempt, or scrape through the exams, but I don't think I will be able to do that with any good results in college.
I fear that the future does not hold good things for me, but despite this I still don't work any harder. how
I can achieve success at college despite myself?

you start by saying you believe your quite intelligent and have an IQ "well above average" - then start using it to get the finger out and work harder at college instead of leaving everything to the last minute and handing in work that by your own admission is "appalling" and an "embarrassing attempt".

so you made it into trinity into a high points course... well done on that but it will have been a complete waste of your time doing so if you drop out, fail or get a degree that could have been oh so better if you had motivated yourself to get it.

the future holds for you what you make of it... 5,10 20 years down line people wont give a sh*t if you have an above average IQ or if you got into trinity if you haven't used it to your benefit

there's loads of people out there who dont have the chance you currently have - get the finger out and prove that your worthy of that place and that your not just happy to stroll through and get a mediocre degree... prove that you can be the best of the best - be all you can be.

Suaimhneach

OP, thats a typical first year in college, regardless of your IQ or LC results.
At the end of the day, the responsibility is all yours. Dont use your good fortune this far as an excuse not to do any real work. Get up off your back side, and do some work. You might surprise yourself.

Firetrap

That you've gone to the trouble of posting your problem here is a good start. You may be smart but so too are the rest of your classmates. Being academically bright is an advantage but it's meant that you've managed to get yourself as far as university without breaking into a sweat. Unfortunately, university is very different to school. A thing that sticks in my head from college is lecturers saying that for your Leaving Cert, you get marks for regurgitating facts. In college, you have to start thinking for yourself and forming your own opinions. The game has been upped.

Here are a couple of things you could try

• Make out a studying schedule and do your best to stick to it
• Arrange with friends to study together
• Have a word with your tutor or with the college counsellor
• Force yourself to study for even a short period of time. These things are habit forming

I know how you feel - I was that solider. I've done alright in my career after a couple of false starts but I do sometimes look back and regret the wasted opportunity that was my time in college. I came out of there with a B.A. Special (e.g. one of those major/minor degrees) but in hindsight I wish I'd been more disciplined and tried harder.

Bear in mind that your final degree marks will follow you around for the rest of your career. Every time you look for a job, you will have to put those marks down. You will only be in college for a relatively short time in your life. It's up to you and you alone whether you blow your opportunity or grab it with both hands.

miss no stars

Op, I'd say that's typical high IQ first year college stuff.

Ever been to CTYI? You sound like an ex ctyi-er.... You've pretty much described my first year in college.. in a demanding course.. in TCD... and that of friends of mine who also went to CTYI. In fact, you've all the details pretty much the EXACT same.

After wasting a year in TCD, I switched to a very similar course in a different college and when I started it I just decided that I was going to do well, if all these other people who weren't half as intelligent as I am could do well, then I could do it.

Being honest, your high IQ is working against you here. You're used to coasting along and it's VERY difficult to get out of that habit - but it IS possible. Everyone else around you (bar maybe one or two) got there out of hard slog so they're well used to it.

When you get home after college, take out a subject that you find do-able. Make a list of what has been covered from the start. Give yourself two hours and decide what you're going to cover in those two hours and DO IT. After lectures spend 10 minutes going back over the notes you took. The next day, do the same. Keep at it until gradually there's less and less to do. You'll be working up until Christmas but it will be worth it when you realise you've caught up and are doing ok.

Are you sure you like your course? Do you like the TCD atmosphere? Personally I was unimpressed with my course, was only very vaguely interested and I just couldn't hack the TCD atmosphere. You need to think about these things, the last thing you want is to find yourself 4-6 years down the line doing something you really aren't mad about, but you don't HATE it either.

My advice is, work up until christmas and use that brain! You'll actually be happier when your brain is worked hard. It's surprising the pleasure you'll derive from studying once whatever it is "clicks" with you (and it won't always do this instantly in 3rd level - which I'm sure is a shock you've already had to your system).
You've missed the "no fees next year" deadline for withdrawing if you do decide you hate your course so stick it out until christmas. Give yourself christmas as a goal and work your ass off until then. If you're still struggling and nothing is improving, then my advice is get out THEN. You can go pick another course for the following year and you'll only have to pay tuition fees for the first half of the year.
Give yourself a chance, you're new to this whole studying thing but you'll get it eventually.
Work at the course, if you still don't like it, go with your gut. Your happiness is what counts after all. PM me if you want to talk more about the course and how to overcome high-ability induced lack of study.

LegacyUser

miss no stars wrote: »

Op, I'd say that's typical high IQ first year college stuff.

Ever been to CTYI? You sound like an ex ctyi-er.... You've pretty much described my first year in college.. in a demanding course.. in TCD... and that of friends of mine who also went to CTYI. In fact, you've all the details pretty much the EXACT same.

After wasting a year in TCD, I switched to a very similar course in a different college and when I started it I just decided that I was going to do well, if all these other people who weren't half as intelligent as I am could do well, then I could do it.

Being honest, your high IQ is working against you here. You're used to coasting along and it's VERY difficult to get out of that habit - but it IS possible. Everyone else around you (bar maybe one or two) got there out of hard slog so they're well used to it.

When you get home after college, take out a subject that you find do-able. Make a list of what has been covered from the start. Give yourself two hours and decide what you're going to cover in those two hours and DO IT. After lectures spend 10 minutes going back over the notes you took. The next day, do the same. Keep at it until gradually there's less and less to do. You'll be working up until Christmas but it will be worth it when you realise you've caught up and are doing ok.

Are you sure you like your course? Do you like the TCD atmosphere? Personally I was unimpressed with my course, was only very vaguely interested and I just couldn't hack the TCD atmosphere. You need to think about these things, the last thing you want is to find yourself 4-6 years down the line doing something you really aren't mad about, but you don't HATE it either.

My advice is, work up until christmas and use that brain! You'll actually be happier when your brain is worked hard. It's surprising the pleasure you'll derive from studying once whatever it is "clicks" with you (and it won't always do this instantly in 3rd level - which I'm sure is a shock you've already had to your system).
You've missed the "no fees next year" deadline for withdrawing if you do decide you hate your course so stick it out until christmas. Give yourself christmas as a goal and work your ass off until then. If you're still struggling and nothing is improving, then my advice is get out THEN. You can go pick another course for the following year and you'll only have to pay tuition fees for the first half of the year.
Give yourself a chance, you're new to this whole studying thing but you'll get it eventually.
Work at the course, if you still don't like it, go with your gut. Your happiness is what counts after all. PM me if you want to talk more about the course and how to overcome high-ability induced lack of study.

Thank you for the advice, much appreciated. To clarify a number of points you raised. There areas of study within my course which I am extremely interested in, and in fact I have no difficulty there, in fact I have been studying these particular areas for a number of years prior to the leaving cert. This is perhaps the most perplexing aspect of my problem, I can study, and have studied, particular subjects such as philosophy and music solely for my own enjoyment, however, when it comes to an exam based situation where I am required to study, my motivation is just non existent. I may have come across as lazy in my previous post, of course I have considered this possibility, and I don't think I saving my feelings by discounting this explanation. I can scarcely sit in a chair for more than five minutes when my objective is studying. My mind drifts to other matters and before long I am gone, something else filling my mind. When I force myself to sit and study, I end up reading the same sentence several times, often losing its meaning before I have finished reading it. Perhaps I am lazy, perhaps I just need to be kicked up and down the street and told not to waste my time in college, but not matter how hard I try, all my attempts seem to end in failure. Apologies for ranting like this, but I feel as if I am free falling without a parachute, and I don't really have anywhere else I can voice these problems.

miss no stars

Unregistered wrote: »

Thank you for the advice, much appreciated. To clarify a number of points you raised. There areas of study within my course which I am extremely interested in, and in fact I have no difficulty there, in fact I have been studying these particular areas for a number of years prior to the leaving cert. This is perhaps the most perplexing aspect of my problem, I can study, and have studied, particular subjects such as philosophy and music solely for my own enjoyment, however, when it comes to an exam based situation where I am required to study, my motivation is just non existent. I may have come across as lazy in my previous post, of course I have considered this possibility, and I don't think I saving my feelings by discounting this explanation. I can scarcely sit in a chair for more than five minutes when my objective is studying. My mind drifts to other matters and before long I am gone, something else filling my mind. When I force myself to sit and study, I end up reading the same sentence several times, often losing its meaning before I have finished reading it. Perhaps I am lazy, perhaps I just need to be kicked up and down the street and told not to waste my time in college, but not matter how hard I try, all my attempts seem to end in failure. Apologies for ranting like this, but I feel as if I am free falling without a parachute, and I don't really have anywhere else I can voice these problems.

Don't worry, you don't sound lazy to me (which is something I've often been called when actually I was bored to the point of almost being dead). You're gifted - as distinct from "Clever" or "smart". Revision is hell and I know that hell! It's plain and simple that revision is just boring as obviously you think differently to most people who will "sit down and learn". You need to find a new way of revising because otherwise you won't stand a chance. I'm lucky in that my course is maths/science based and I can just find lots of problems and lash into them as fast as I can but from the sound of it yours isn't like this.
You need to learn to study critically. That means instead of reading something slowly to absorb and take in the information - read it fast, identify the key points in each paragraph. Work out how they interact with each other and what happens to the others if one changes. Constantly question things as this seems to be how you learn things. Sitting down at a desk and studying in the traditional sense is how a lot of people learn and most of them can't learn by understanding. Use it to your advantage!
Don't give up hope though, especially as you've gotten into a course that you love. Is there some sort of education support person you can go to in TCD? They're usually good at figuring out how you learn best and how to tackle exams.

micmclo

micmclo wrote: »

"There's nothing worse in life than wasted talent."
-A Bronx Tale

Aids is worse.

So you mean this isn't normal? :eek:
Seriously, I felt exactly the same in college. Coasted through school without putting much effort into anything, schoolwork came very easily to me for the most part. I was always rubbish at revising and studying, well it's boring, so I thought it was normal to procrastinate. During my final year I spent hours on Youtube and Facebook when I should have been working on my dissertation. The more I had to do, the more I procrastinated. Tbh, I thought everyone was like this. I wouldn't worry too much about your 'destiny' - if you're getting terrible marks, cop yourself on. Set yourself a minimum standard for every single thing you hand in, don't let yourself miss a single deadline, because when you start doing it it can be a slippery slope, from what I gather. Stop worrying about everything as a whole and concentrate on each individual piece of work for the time being. That was what saved me in college - I handed in everything on time, I turned up to nearly all my classes and made sure what I handed in was a reasonable, if not good, standard. I was never giving 100%, far from it, but I was doing well despite my shocking inability to concentrate. Just set your standard and stick to it, don't be one of those people who never comes in or asks for extensions on everything.

rainbow kirby

miss no stars wrote: »

Op, I'd say that's typical high IQ first year college stuff.

Ever been to CTYI? You sound like an ex ctyi-er.... You've pretty much described my first year in college.. in a demanding course.. in TCD... and that of friends of mine who also went to CTYI. In fact, you've all the details pretty much the EXACT same.

That sounds terrifyingly like me, apart from the fact that I'm in UCD. I'm an ex-CTYI'er (00-01) and I can honestly say I have NEVER developed study skills.

I was able to coast through my first year in college (I started college as a Mathematical Science student, went in with the usual A1s in maths and a string of sciences), but the wheels started to come off in second year when I actually had to start working hard. I didn't handle it right, and then ended up failing the summer exams. Passed the repeats on about 3 weeks of study, then never properly settled into third year because my foundation from 2nd year was shaky - dropped out shortly before the exams. Changed course, did well in 2nd year of that, struggled with third year (though there were external factors in play there), then took a year out - and here I am now, 6 years after I started in college and I'm merely a fourth year undergrad in Computer Science. I'm still horrible at planning things, leaving things until the last minute, cramming, having bizarre ways of learning things, and I have an incredibly short attention span and poor concentration.

The moral of this story (and my saga) - You're smart, use it properly. Get your study skills sorted now, and it'll stand to you in the long run. I'm not the first ex-CTYI underachiever, I won't be the last. It also helps that you're recognising this in first year when you're getting into general college habits - it was worse in second and third year for me.

LegacyUser

You may have a high intelligence, but unfortunately you get out of life what you put into it. Intelligence does not put anything into life. If I were you I'd forget about what my IQ was and I'd start telling myself that I need to work to pass my exams. And that's it. It's nothing to do with your IQ.How badly to you want to get qualified in what you're studying?If you want it badly enough then your IQ is just a tool to help you get there.
Do you study in college?I know a lot of people who do, because they say there are too many distractions at home. Mind you it's personal preference as well. Set yourself goals for yourself..within an hour I will have done... xyz. The other thing is to do exam questions because in college it's as much about knowing how to answer the questions as it is about knowing the subject matter. There's a method to passing exam questions.Plus if you're writing out answers, you're more inclined to keep going, and retain the stuff.Personally I get bored stupid sitting reading stuff.I could never learn by rote. I'm not sure what you're doing, but if it's maths based, do loads and loads of examples.If it's language based...I always developed enough of a vocab from answering practice questions to make up an answer to whatever was thrown at me, as opposed to learning answers by heart. I also made sure I had a pretty good idea of what could be asked.In college exams they tend to rotate around a number of different questions, a variation come up every year. You need to do every past paper you can lay your hands on. Unlike the LC it's a lot less about learning and regurgitating, than it is about reasoning, and approaching answers in a certain way.

To add to what others have said... (if you want to stick with the course)

Treat getting your degree as a challenge and work smart.

The biggest mistake I saw people make in college was not recognising the minimum amount of work it would take to achieve whatever they wanted. For me I wanted a 2.1, not willing to do the work for a 1.1 but didn't want to be too mediocre either. For some it's merely the minimum to pass.

Once you know what you want, aim for it!!! Work towards that on an assignment by assignment basis and you will reach your goal. (It may seem ironic to be talking about work in the context of the minimum necessary but it will still take some work)

Always know when the deadline is, always submit something, always do some cramming before the exam.

If you get lucky along the way you might find a passion for some area of the degree and end up aiming for bigger results in some areas.

The point is, intelligence is kind of pointless if you can't apply it to something. A bunch of people in college I knew thought they were above average intelligence but really struggled; missing assignments, failing exams, repeating years... I always felt they couldn't be that smart if they couldn't even recognise the minimum they needed to do to get by. You're working this out for yourself.

Obviously the better option is to truly want to excel etc. I felt like that about some subjects and not others but I never lost sight of the prize... Best of luck!

Grimebox

drop out and work in a petrol station till next september. then you really will study next year

littlebug

is there a time of day when you can work better than other times? Way back in my college days I found the only time i could actually really put the effort in was in the mornings- the earlier the better. At exam time I would get up ridiculously early and even if I just worked from 7am to 10am i would have 3 hours more done than if I'd stayed in bed til 10am and I would feel better for having done something. It worked for me at the time.