So I might be counting my chickens... I mean there is the possibility that I could go into my exam tomorrow and forgot EVERYTHING I ever learned... not to mention some basic mental logic... in order to fail my programming exam. It is worth 50% of the course so potentially a rock bottom fail may be rather unfortunate for me... But improbable scenarios aside. Year 1 university complete.
I call myself one quarter of an engineer but really I don't think the relationship is quite the linear. I can't think of any reason though why it would become essential to but me to work at this point. It isn't like they would suddenly enlist me in a.... major electrical disaster (as opposed to a war or something)... and require me to step up as an electrical engineer. Mind you... if you need some very basic amplification... I'm your girl :). I have operational amplifiers (known as op amps) down so well.
After thinking about it. I think university is a compounding thing. I've seen my second and third year mates. More exams, more work, HARDER work. Definitely compounding. So that makes me 1/8th an engineering... cuz it means next year i'll be 1/4 then 1/2 and THEN i'll be an engineer. Now because it is a compound thing I better not be forgetting... well apparently I have already done that. Not great considering my exam was yesterday. Ahhh well... Lets see what I can remember huh?
1. Study is a whole body experience. If you can't convince every part of you that its what you need to be doing it doesn't happen. You sit down with good intentions but your fingers creep to the mouse, your eyes lock onto facebook - or google when facebook gets dull, your body suggests the bathroom - 5 times in 15 minutes, your throat drys up and needs water, you are suddenly way more hungry than you used to be, your legs are uncomfortable you need to get up and stretch - repeatedly... and so the list goes on. So only when your whole body realises that this study is IMPORTANT is anything likely to happen.
2. Sometimes it won't compute. You've read it a thousand times. Copied out the sequence a hundred times. Written out the equations with pretty labels and every other imaginable thing you can get from your notes. You know that from question to answer it goes like THIS. And still... for some reason in your head it doesn't. In your head 2 + 2 = 4... like it should... It is like being in 1984 (the book) and Big Brother and the marvellous propaganda is saying quite explicitly 2 + 2 = 5. The propaganda says it so it must be true but your brain refuses to allow the system to work for you.
3. Rote learning is good. Whoever said science/engineering students couldn't rote learn their way through their degree? Well maybe not all of it... But certainly first year. This is the one and only solution the the problem in question 2. You don't get why it does it or understand why that particular value even needs to have a place IN the formula. You just know it does. If you right out the answers to every tute sheet you've ever been given and cross your fingers... you may even manage 100% not understand... Unlikely sure but... 1st year physics lecturers don't actually but that much effort into the exam... which leads to -
4. Exams don't change. Unless you are unfortunate enough to be in a revamped course... You know when the uni decides that the old one isn't quite right so they need to overthrow the whole course.. maybe combine it with this other one... But essentially exams don't change. Questions may alternate on a 2 year cycle or the values get adjusted but essentially... Past exam papers really are your best friend. I don't use them often but I do know they work. There have been a couple of physics exams I've survived only because exams never change and rote learning works...
5. Nobody buts in the effort they should. I dunno maybe somewhere out there there is the hard slogging uni student, I am yet to meet them. One of my friends is damn near failing and she has to see a study aid person. I've looked at that time table she was given... Nobody can study like that and remain functional... We are talking 7-10.30 6 days a week... And according to the theory that should be typical of an engineering workload... Let me tell you unless it is the 2-3 days before an exam NOBODY can do that. See point 1. if you are question why not :)...
6. Deadlines can move. Yes, yes, they shouldn't have to, nevertheless thanks to procrastination and a failure to put in the effort you need in a timely fashion sometimes they do need to. I always thought a deadline was like a brick wall or something. A year or so of uni has shown me it is much more like an elastic, you can hit it and move it a little, just be wary the elastic is liable to snap eventually. Some lecturers are more elastic than others but they all will give you an extension... generally for little more than you approaching them with a pretty please. However this is a power you should not extort because it generally just means that you procrastinate to the later date at any rate... I suggest NOT doing that.
Last, or else I'll never finish, but possibly the exact OPPOSITE of least...
7. Procrastination is evil, bad and inescapable. No matter how many good intentions you have to do your work nice and promptly and not allow any aspect of your study to fall behind you are going to. Procrastination is always more appealing than your work. And while you are procrastinating you don't care that your work isn't getting done. Unfortunately the more you procrastination the more the study/work stress hurts at the end of it. Procrastination seems harmless, seems fun... it is EVIL. I say don't procrastinate knowing full well that you, I, everybody will... Its just life really...
Uni is fun... sort of.... Learning how to learn... I used to scoff over the past year that how has my learning been improved... and suddenly i realise that it has.. studying for exams is getting more effective... So much happens without you realising it... Nothing changes until everything changes... such is life.
No comments:
Post a Comment