My entire graduation relies on this one final..

[Bojangles69]

This is the first class I've ever had a "problem" with.
The truth is I honestly just slacked off, went into the mid term overlyconfident (the professor is a joke but his exams are not which I learned the hard way) and bombed the mid term.

Its got to the point where he was giving out our grades today and I need 120out of 150 pts on the final to pass the course.

I got exactly 50pts out of 100 on the midterm, and didn't study one second for it (which is rare of me I admit). I have about 10 days before the final and if I get under 120pts I have to retake this course next semester, which will push my graduation back to the next year. Thats an 80% basically or a B or better.

Do you guys think that'll be hard to do? Has anyone ever been in a position like this and what if anything helped you prepare? I figure if I study say 30-35 hours for it theres no way I'll get under a B. Its not hard work its just real specific (experimental psychology). Learning all different research designs, names for statistics and what not. I really could just use some motivation I know its not the hugest problem in the world but my anxiety has gone up 500% since yesterday. I'm also considering downloading some example tests that are harder from other universities, and seeing how I do on them.

If anyone has any ideas, recommendations, I don't care if its "overkill" (thats actually what I'm looking for) I could just use some good strategies to ace this test. Never been to the universities learning assistant in my life, will prob do that too, but anything else you can think of please let me know.. thanks guys.
It can't be that difficult to do right?

[JC.1987]

When is the final? Man every exam is like this for me... but somehow i manage a B average lol. Maybe get your hands on some riddilin?
Anyways what i find works for me is making those stupid flash card things, with the question on the fron and the answer on back...and possibly making abreviations for lists that you have to memorize... It sounds kind of juvenile, but in some cases it works.

Anyways best of luck

[thegodfather]

Meet me on AIM...

[Bojangles69]

Meet me on AIM...

Thanks bro, Im gonna have to see if you'll be around tommorow. I'm racing to finish this presentation due tommorow before I go to bed!

But Im def gonna see if your around tommorow!

[stack_it]

Never been put in a spot like that but best of luck to you

[Bojangles69]

When is the final? Man every exam is like this for me... but somehow i manage a B average lol. Maybe get your hands on some riddilin?
Anyways what i find works for me is making those stupid flash card things, with the question on the fron and the answer on back...and possibly making abreviations for lists that you have to memorize... It sounds kind of juvenile, but in some cases it works.

Anyways best of luck

Its on the 17th so I have ample time to prepare for it. But I'm gonna start tommorow so I was gonna come back, see what everyone wrote and then start studying then.

Thanks so far though this is exactly what I'm looking for.

[thegodfather]

I didn't know you had so much time to get it done...There's no reason given the amount of time and your present level of knowledge that you wouldn't be able to get that grade and without using stimulants.

If you're simply looking for methods to study, then I'll just share with you what works for me. Trying to study notes I take in class is useless for me, I used to bring my laptop to class to take notes. Also, studying bold terms out of the book does not work for me either. What I do, when it is a class that requires memorization of terms, models, etc, etc. Is I take all the bold terms, and all the models, and I type them out in plain black ink, and I use BOLD to indicate the term and then the definition or the model after it. I also use different colors on the font to indicate important things. Then, I print it out and study it every single day, until I get to the point that someone can ask me every single thing on the paper and I can recite it almost word for word. The benefit is that if you taking a multiple choice test, you are so familiar with the material you recognize it instantly. Also, you and I both know the books are filled with useless information and they dress up the topics, obviously, because the people who write textbooks want to sell textbooks. You need to eliminate all that shit and make your own study guides, because that extra stuff just messes you up. I wont even study a professors powerpoint slides because they are usually filled with horse shit too.

The reason that I condense all of the information to a few pages and make it very plain with just black ink and bolded terms, is because I memorize the stuff by taking a "picture" of each page in my head. Then when I am taking the test whether or not its multiple choice, I can look at the picture in my head and read off of the paper. I don't know if everyone has the ability to do that, but either way I think putting all of the relevant info into an easily readable document is better than scurrying through the book for the info.

[CHUCKYthentic]

oh i remember those days of having to nearly ace a final just to pass a class! the last year and a half of college has been a breeze, no a joke, for me. I got all my hard classes out of the way those prior years... Sh!t i had to get a 35 out of a 100 in a test yesterday just to get a B in a class haha!

You can definitely do it Bo, 10 days is plenty of time. BUT you will have to put in a lot of work up til then, as im sure you know! 30-35 hours total? That is plenty! I have never even come close to studying for a test for that amount of time... you re golden

Then, after you pass this SHITE, AR needs to throw us a darn GRAD PARTY! Ill be done too as of Thursday!

Good luck buddy

[Bojangles69]

I didn't know you had so much time to get it done...There's no reason given the amount of time and your present level of knowledge that you wouldn't be able to get that grade and without using stimulants.

If you're simply looking for methods to study, then I'll just share with you what works for me. Trying to study notes I take in class is useless for me, I used to bring my laptop to class to take notes. Also, studying bold terms out of the book does not work for me either. What I do, when it is a class that requires memorization of terms, models, etc, etc. Is I take all the bold terms, and all the models, and I type them out in plain black ink, and I use BOLD to indicate the term and then the definition or the model after it. I also use different colors on the font to indicate important things. Then, I print it out and study it every single day, until I get to the point that someone can ask me every single thing on the paper and I can recite it almost word for word. The benefit is that if you taking a multiple choice test, you are so familiar with the material you recognize it instantly. Also, you and I both know the books are filled with useless information and they dress up the topics, obviously, because the people who write textbooks want to sell textbooks. You need to eliminate all that shit and make your own study guides, because that extra stuff just messes you up. I wont even study a professors powerpoint slides because they are usually filled with horse shit too.

The reason that I condense all of the information to a few pages and make it very plain with just black ink and bolded terms, is because I memorize the stuff by taking a "picture" of each page in my head. Then when I am taking the test whether or not its multiple choice, I can look at the picture in my head and read off of the paper. I don't know if everyone has the ability to do that, but either way I think putting all of the relevant info into an easily readable document is better than scurrying through the book for the info.

This is all gold bro, perfect! Exactly what I was looking for.
Sounds like something you've refined through a lot of trial and error can't wait to see how it works. You also gave me a lot of other ideas as I was reading it, like just copying the terms themself onto 10 different sheets and filling the sheets out by hand everyday just for practice.

Lots of great stuff guys thank you so much!! Chucky too, thanks bro.

[*El Diablo*]

Just fvking study Bo, stop being such a lazy bitch.

[chicmagnet]

Geeze! what are you asking us for?... you're the second smartest on this board.

[*El Diablo*]

Im first. Thanks m8

[chicmagnet]

Ha ha....sure!

[ranging1]

unless ur doing advance economics or accounting i cant help you lol

seriously man just put your head down, u said it youself everythings riding on this

i know when i have university exams my social life sucks but WHO CARES

sacrifice abit of time now for a GREAT future

ull have plently of time to laze around and socialize when u have passed your course

u dotn pass your course and you aint gonna be doing shit

plus in australia if you fail a subject you can repeat, however id never do that since it costs over $5000 a semester here

so get off your arse and off this forum and go hit the books

grab your books, sit in a room and start fuking reading

whenever i study i do it with a study partner, OR i find someone whos stupid in my course and try teach them the subject, if you can teach a subject then you know the subject

looking at previous exams always helped me aswell, plus looking over the years midsemester and previous ones

looking over old homework also helped, however if your liek me who didnt do their homework FIND someone who has and look at it so u know whats going on

also since your doing psycology im sure u know the main way MANKIND or a human learns something and becomes good at it is

REPITITION

meaning you do something over and over again and u memorise how to do it

the same goes for study, if you go over it enough times youll remeber it, just keep repeating it and ull learn it

its proven that this is the best way a human learns

also the brain absorbs and learns the most for a period of about an hour

after an hour the brains ability to absorb knowledge and memorise things weakens, and becomes distracted

im sure uve studied before and usually for approx the first hour study is really really good, but then u start thinking about other things, or u start looking around or outside

this is about the time when your brains loosing its attention span

study in hour intervals, with breaks inbetween

i personaly always study in hour intervals with a stupid study partner that i explain to them what were learning after ive made them test me on repeating the information in the book and notes a few times

after an hour i take a 20minute break, and then start all over again

the idea behind this study theory does work and is based on science, not peoples personal experiences, since ur studying psycology i thought id suggest a method based on science and not theory

[DSM4Life]

Sleep with your professor. Works everytime.

[Bojangles69]

Ok so the final is tommorow at 3. I have studied consistently everyday for the last week, prob got in an easy 30 hours. Sacrificed a few work outs this week just to get the time in. Gonna get in a few more hours in the morning.
I feel like I know 100times what I knew last week, but oddly enough I'm still not confident it'll be enough.
Its weird because we had review today and I volunteered to answer at least 10 questions of kids who are acing the class, but his tests are so fvckn hard I'm not letting it go to my head.

It really is so 50/50 at this point I just am gonna have to wait and see. But I should get the grade a few hours after the exam, will def update if I know tommorow night! Wish me luck peeps - Bo

[MuscleScience]

All you need to know about experimental psychology is how to spell psychology. All the rest of it is complete bull shit.

[Bojangles69]

unless ur doing advance economics or accounting i cant help you lol

seriously man just put your head down, u said it youself everythings riding on this

i know when i have university exams my social life sucks but WHO CARES

sacrifice abit of time now for a GREAT future

ull have plently of time to laze around and socialize when u have passed your course

u dotn pass your course and you aint gonna be doing shit

plus in australia if you fail a subject you can repeat, however id never do that since it costs over $5000 a semester here

so get off your arse and off this forum and go hit the books

grab your books, sit in a room and start fuking reading

whenever i study i do it with a study partner, OR i find someone whos stupid in my course and try teach them the subject, if you can teach a subject then you know the subject

looking at previous exams always helped me aswell, plus looking over the years midsemester and previous ones

looking over old homework also helped, however if your liek me who didnt do their homework FIND someone who has and look at it so u know whats going on

also since your doing psycology im sure u know the main way MANKIND or a human learns something and becomes good at it is

REPITITION

meaning you do something over and over again and u memorise how to do it

the same goes for study, if you go over it enough times youll remeber it, just keep repeating it and ull learn it

its proven that this is the best way a human learns

also the brain absorbs and learns the most for a period of about an hour

after an hour the brains ability to absorb knowledge and memorise things weakens, and becomes distracted

im sure uve studied before and usually for approx the first hour study is really really good, but then u start thinking about other things, or u start looking around or outside

this is about the time when your brains loosing its attention span

study in hour intervals, with breaks inbetween

i personaly always study in hour intervals with a stupid study partner that i explain to them what were learning after ive made them test me on repeating the information in the book and notes a few times

after an hour i take a 20minute break, and then start all over again

the idea behind this study theory does work and is based on science, not peoples personal experiences, since ur studying psycology i thought id suggest a method based on science and not theory

I seemed to have missed this the first time around was a great read tonight!

But yeh it really is all about repetition.
And I couldn't agree more with the breaks (because I didn't take one) and noticed after 6 hours straight, I don't really get distracted, but for some reason I forget EVERYTHING I read 2 mins after I read it.
Its almost like the brain literally begins to shut down.

Happened just a couple hours ago I sat down at 3pm, studied straight till 9pm (taking a 5 min break just to grab some food) but at 9pm I noticed I was going over a simple chart with 5 terms I needed to memorize. Studied it for 15mins, got a blank piece of paper to try to write it out and not one word or definition came to my mind.
Sat back down AGAIN. Read the chart for about 10more minutes.
Went back to the paper, got 2 words AND got the order wrong.
25mins to memorize 2 words in the wrong order is really bad lol. (with definitions) That was when I realized I need to just start up again in the morning.
The brain def has its limits though.

[Bojangles69]

All you need to know about experimental psychology is how to spell psychology. All the rest of it is complete bull shit.

I personally couldn't agree with you more.

And honestly I use to think experimental psychology served a really important cause for general psychology, but after taking this class I have never understood so well, what a complete fvckn waste of time it is.

For every study I've had to read, I've read another study that disagrees with it. I might admit maybe 5% of all the studies that exist in the psych journal have some sort of real world validity, but in the conditions most experiments in psychology are conducted, most of the studies just realistically can't be generalized to real life... imo

[Hazard]

I needed an 80 on my chemistry final to pass for the year..... The teacher told me that infront of the entire class. So I told her that her final is going to be a piece of cake and i'll drop a triple digit 100 on it.

Took my final the next day..... asked her if I got atleast an 80 and she said "55" - I said "see.... piece of cake" - then I signed up for summer school and aced chemistry with a new teacher.

~Haz~

[ranging1]

I seemed to have missed this the first time around was a great read tonight!

But yeh it really is all about repetition.
And I couldn't agree more with the breaks (because I didn't take one) and noticed after 6 hours straight, I don't really get distracted, but for some reason I forget EVERYTHING I read 2 mins after I read it.
Its almost like the brain literally begins to shut down.

Happened just a couple hours ago I sat down at 3pm, studied straight till 9pm (taking a 5 min break just to grab some food) but at 9pm I noticed I was going over a simple chart with 5 terms I needed to memorize. Studied it for 15mins, got a blank piece of paper to try to write it out and not one word or definition came to my mind.
Sat back down AGAIN. Read the chart for about 10more minutes.
Went back to the paper, got 2 words AND got the order wrong.
25mins to memorize 2 words in the wrong order is really bad lol. (with definitions) That was when I realized I need to just start up again in the morning.
The brain def has its limits though.

lol nps

yea i know what u mean, i use to get that alot when i use to study like you do

but i solved it with better studying techniques

anyways mate, best of luck, ur a smart kid so im sure ull do fine

[Bojangles69]

Ok so I woke up and studied 4 more hours this morning.

Went in to take it and I really only think I got maybe 2 or 3 questions wrong at most. So I'm sure I did really good.

The problem is he handed back a paper we did last week (which I thought was gonna be an easy A) and I got a C on it. That raised how many points I need on the final by 28. And I already need 120 out of 150 to pass.

So *technically I would have needed 148 out of 150 to pass the course with the final, and I really don't think I did that well. I mentioned it to the professor and he said "when your grade is close like that I take other things into consideration like how well you improved throughout the course". I know I improved A LOT but it really is still completely on the fence.

He said he'd try to get my final grade to me tonight so I'll let you all know when it comes. I'm done for the semester so no more fvckn studyn but I'm still stressn the fvck out over this. Will update later hopefully..

[bmit]

Had the same thing happen my senior year w/ Organic Chemistry II. I was on the fence and my teacher let me graduate. Same will happen with you.

[Bojangles69]

I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Haha wow what a fvckn relief. Possibly one of the best feelings in the world.
Not only did I pass but I got a *93* on the final.
Professors exact words were "I couldn't make you repeat the course when you got one of the highest grades in the class", said the class avg was a 79!!

In all reality I still technically missed by 5 points, but he still gave me a c. Awesome professor.

Now nothings holding me back from graduating, next semester I got 1 easy as class, an internship, and am on my way!!!! thanks everyone who listened and helped keep me optimistic.
So happy I can end this thread on a positive note. Was so worried I was gonna fail... and now I can finally get a good nights sleep.

[thegodfather]

Bo....Good job brother...you have come a long way, and I think your story is a great one with your past and everything considered...You are an inspiration no doubt..

[ranging1]

U GUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

well done

[Bojangles69]

Bo....Good job brother...you have come a long way, and I think your story is a great one with your past and everything considered...You are an inspiration no doubt..

Thanks TGF that means a lot to me bro.

U GUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

well done

And thank you too ranging both of you guys gave me some really great advice in this thread.

Such a great feeling to be over and done with this crap after these last couple of weeks of serious stressing.

[gixxerboy1]

Good job bud.

always could have had the professor whacked if he didn't pass you.

[chicmagnet]

Well done Bo. Party up bud.

[jbm]

Best of luck and good luck... and congrats Bo!

[Ernst]

Congratulations Bo!

[Cloe85]

great job!!!

[sigman roid]

Well done bo,onwards and upwards now

[CHUCKYthentic]

congrats Bo! aint it a great accomplishment?

now AR needs to throw us a damn grad party for petes sake

[JC.1987]

Good to know you passed man. Congrats! I just hope that i can say the same for my finals lol...