Are you a poor student?
I mean I get by, and I'm not the worse but when it comes to certain classes I just don't pass them and focus on my other classes...
I know that isn't the right thing to do but I'm not really the best student. Like Spanish, I'm just sort of attending the classes I don't think I'm going to pass.
I'm really kind of being lazy and immature, irresponsible. I'm just not really a very good student.
I know that isn't the right thing to do but I'm not really the best student. Like Spanish, I'm just sort of attending the classes I don't think I'm going to pass.
I'm really kind of being lazy and immature, irresponsible. I'm just not really a very good student.
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Hey! There's a ton of Spanish speaking people here in the forums, starting from me! You should ask for help!
This is what came to my mind too.
As for my grades... yeah, I suck. I have a major problem with Procrastination and ADD, so when I finally DO start on an assignment, I'm constantly wandering off from it for various reasons. I also have a very hard time studying things I don't find interesting (though I think some of this is a problem everyone has) as well as a miserably hard time with dates in history/lit/etc)
It's a bit frustrating.
...I've had both. Started out with computer science and failed miserably, then continued with English and German and excelled. Sadly, the latter didn't bring the joy of much money in my pockets. So I'm poor, but not a student anymore.
I just barely passed year 12, though.
Also, I've never been a poor (meaning no-money) student. I've always lived with my parents, so I haven't needed to pay for food, accomodation, etc... and I was able to save the money I went earning with my jobs.
In two weeks, I'm starting my Master's degree. Now, I'm hoping not to be a poor/bad student, but I fear I will become a poor/no-money student: the Master's degree is outside my town, so I have to quit my job, and the Master fees and the food/accomodation costs far from my parents will eat all the savings from previous years.
Since I'm voluntarily quitting my job (not being fired or ending contract period), I'm not entitled to have an unemployment compensation, and with the crisis situation it may be hard to find a new job
I wasn't really happy with good but not stellar grades, so I became more studious again as the "omg adult freedom" craziness wore off and I took an Honours year. I think it also helped that in the later years of university, I had more control over which subjects I did. The first couple of semesters involved some subjects that I didn't particularly want to take but were core for the degree. In later years I could specialise a lot more and choose the subjects that interested me most.
Anyway, not sure what kind of student I am these days. It would probably depend on what I was studying and why. I'd need to be pretty engaged with the subject material (or have some kind of significant external incentive / end goal), because I fear I've become intellectually lazy and may not follow through with what I start.
Ditto. I wonder if the "no money" interpretation would be the most common one. I'm betting yes, just because of the general association between full-time study and lack of money.
I rather enjoyed geography, and think it's a decent high school subject - it's fairly important to at least be aware of the wide world outside our own backyards.
And definitely maths, I hate maths... But lucky for me I won't have to do it ever again, I sure love my Calculator on my phone...
I'm still lazy I've just gotten a lot better at getting this stuff done.
However, after that I was at University of California, Santa Barbara, which is both a beach school (read: party hard central) and hugely, hugely competitive. I'm not much of a partier, but even if I was, the workload just really wouldn't let me. I wasn't used to having so much expected of me on such short notice (I'd gone from the semester system to the 10 week quarter system). I left my apartment to do one of three things:
1.)Get groceries.
2.) Go to class.
3.) Meet with the Society of Creative Anachronism once a week (my only fun thing).
Other than that I was drowning in essays and assignments. I had a couple of meltdowns over the two years I spent there, generally during Winter Term when everything just built up on me. I managed to get out of there with a 3.4 and get into University of York, but I still bombed my LATIN class on the way out, which I'm having to try and rectify here.
Basically Santa Barbara broke me of a lot of my procrastinator habits because I wouldn't have made it out of there in two years if it hadn't lost them.
thats what red bull is for
So you were a good student when you were asleep in class?
I'm usually fairly good at school, but this year I've had a horrible time concentrating. I blame this on the fact that I have less structured classes this semester - for three of my classes, I have a significant amount of reading and studying to to, but only two tests the entire year (midterm and a final). It's hard for me to study when my only two grades cover half of the semester... it's overwhelming. That, and general laziness. But I can usually overcome that!
That being said, I'm trying to study abroad next year, so I'm hoping to bolster my gpa a bit more. That's given me a lot more motivation to focus and do well. I'm just hoping I can bounce back from my less than stellar midterm grades...
Ooh, where are you planning to go?
Oxford, I hope. I'm an English major, so it's the best fit for me, academically. Plus, I've always, always wanted to go to England - and I don't actually speak another language. I'm taking Latin, which is... well, a dead language, and I used to take German, but I don't think I'm good enough to make my way around the country.
Latin can be useful depending on what you're doing (though yeah, not so useful for travel). For example if you lean towards Medieval English literature, Latin is a must if you want to draw on it as a source material for masters/PhD work. I'm focusing on the Norse/Anglo-Saxon aspects of the early middle ages myself, but even I need to have some Latin under my belt.
...though if I'd read as much Victorian literature then as I have now, I could have written an awesome thesis on mental illness/retardation in Dickens...
Oh don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed all the Latin I've taken. I'm not exactly sure where I'm going with my major yet, but it's definitely improved my vocabulary and I've studied a lot of classical poetry (we're translating the Aeneid right now) that I probably wouldn't have otherwise. Plus, if I ever do want to learn a romantic-based language, it ought to help out.
Especially for people like you and me who keep moving around, right?
To answer the question at hand, I'm not sure! I'd say I probably are a rather poor student. I tend to feel extremely stupid. See, there are subjects I get, and there are subjects I don't get. But I'm unable to study for either. The extent of my studying has always been showing up for class and listening to the teacher. I was infamous in school for not doing the homework, or doing it in the hall right before class.
My grades were either A or F (to adapt it to you guys), and my parents signed me up for remedial classes in several subjects, with little success.
For my high school exams (that is, in 12th year) I decided to work hard to get better grades in my bigger problem, History.
On the trial exam I took early on in the year, I got a 3 out of 20, which is a horrible, horrible grade. Not just a failing grade, but a "I gave you points for the ink" kind of grade. So I studied super hard the rest of the year, with friends. Because I knew I would never be able to pass the History essay portion of the exam, I learned all the maps by heart (the exam is divided into two, a History essay for 12 points, and a Geography map for 8).
I still worked hard to improve on the essay, but I wasn't expecting to get most of my points from it.
Anyway, long story short(er), in the end I got a 9/20. Tripled my grade, but still an F (divided into 8 for the map and 1 for the essay, for your information -_-').
So yeah, I get stuff or I don't, but I don't even know how studying is done. I feel so stupid about that, it's like it escapes me completely.
See, you're obviously not stupid though, and it's not fair how school can make some people feel that way. Your "I don't even know how studying is done" comment in particular suggests that maybe you didn't have the right teachers and/or the right support you needed to improve.
I know what you mean about some things just not "clicking". I had a real problem with physics, even though I was good at mathematics and good at the other branches of science. My brain just doesn't seem to work that way - it kind of threw me, because up to that point I'd pretty much breezed through everything at school.
My older brother was brilliant at physics though. He was so patient helping me with my homework, explaining the concepts and stuff. My theory is that he sucked all the physics talent out of the womb before I got there.
Sure, maybe I wasn't taught it right. I've also been told that I just never had to learn when the other kids did, because I struggled less with stuff. But I've always felt extremely bad for not working at things.
It doesn't even feel good to get an A if you feel you didn't even pay attention to what you were doing. And it sucks to see people work hard and get less. It seems unfair. And I just feel lazy, too. I feel like I'm one of the rich kids who never had to work for their money, you know?
I think it's only fair that I suck at some stuff. I've just reached a point where everything, whether I suck at it on not, requires studying. And I still don't know a thing about it. The problem is, if I don't get something, it doesn't matter how much you repeat it to me, I'm not going to start getting it.
I can "work hard", but only with things I'm passionate about, things I actually enjoy. And even that, I'll slack off if it's convenient. I hate that. I'm surrounded by people who work so hard and I feel that it's not fair that I don't.
Well, right now I'm not allowed to work or study (still the immigration thing) and it's been a while so all of that is multiplied. I know it's not my fault, I can't do it legally, I'm not allowed to, but I still feel terrible about it.
I've been wanting to take classes to become a French tutor/teacher, because knowing a language is one thing, but knowing how to teach it is another. But I contacted a French distance course institute and never got an answer. (I recently figured, I'm not legally allowed to study in Canadian schools, but I might still be able to in French schools. But I can't fine many distance classes unfortunately :S)
I think there might be a hole in your perception there. You usually feel stupid, or inadequate because of your short comings or failures not because you're so very smart something actually begins to bore you...
Why would you feel stupid?
??
Of course you could simplify ,and say you feel stupid just because you get bored and blow things off that don't really interest you . But even still, it's a misleading way to put it when you claim to be some sort of whiz kid.
Something just isn't coherent there...
Maybe you're looking for undisciplined, irresponsible, unfocused, narrow minded ,something like that....
Seems to be some sort of issue with you personally where you talk well of your self and then on the other hand attack yourself without real thought into it.
I don't choose to blow anything. I just have things I'm good at, that I always had As for, and things I'm bad at, that I always had F for. I didn't study for either.
Sometimes I did my homework ahead but it never made a difference, so I ended up doing it in just a few minutes between classes (not always before the class it was due for though, sometimes I did it after the class that handed it out too), but I wouldn't consider that a choice to blow things off either...
I did have problems with things going too slowly though, now that you mention it. When I started studying Japanese, I took a condensed course for the first year in two month over the summer, so I could enter second year right away. I passed the first year no problem. But the second year, that was done in an actual year, was just too slow for me. And they didn't offer it in condensed form, either. Each class was once a week instead of once a day (and shorter as well) and from one week to the next I didn't remember the previous class as well so it caused problems. I ended up just dropping out, which was a shame.
If I knew how to study, I would have been able to just make that memory last longer, or to refresh it or something. But I only work by attending the classes themselves, and I'm completely unable to "give myself a class" which is pretty much what studying is all about.
I'm hoping the classes about how to teach other people will be able to help me teach myself as well, but because they're distant classes I'm nervous. I need someone explaining stuff to me, I need to be able to ask questions. I can't just read a bunch of text and get it if I don't feel a person behind it. So a forum/blog post is fine, but I can't focus on things like newspaper articles or school manuals. They're too neutral, cold and impersonal.