Lovelyish

I don’t remember my first college exam.  I remember my score for the class was bare-able.  I thought I’d loose my scholarship, too.

I’ve found that stressing the day of the test typically makes a person do worse. Instead of focusing on the questions on the test, they focus on how huge the test is. I test really well, especially considering the fact that I don’t study.

For instance, I scored a 4 out of 5 on my AP US History exam, and an 1860 on my SATs. I didn’t study for either of those. Had I stressed, I would have done much, much worse.

My advice is, calm down and focus on the questions on the test itself. If you don’t know the material, no amount of last minute cramming is going to help you.

my usual strategy is to begin studying several days to a week before the exam. i like to have everything covered by two nights before the exam. the night before i review everything. the morning of my test i will wake up maybe an hour or half hour early and speed review one more time. it’s not really cramming, because supposedly everything has been studied already. but once the information is already there, if you can review it again like that it really helps solidify it in your head before your test.

@galadrielspitcher@xanga - I do that too.  

this blog is so original. very well written and a topic that isn’t covered for an incoming freshman! you are awesome

I read something once, put it down, and repeat it over and over in my head while I’m doing something else.  I’ll keep doing that until I can recite a bunch of info comfortably, without forgetting anything.  It’s swell

This is kinda random, but do you go to UCB?

i eat a lot of sweet stuff. not so helpful, i know, but it makes me feel better…

Never really *failed* a test because they were usually on a curve.  Just know the topic and you will be fine.  Choosing a major that’s interesting tends to help your test grades.  Even if you failed, perhaps everyone else failed and the teacher will curve it or *shift* the grade scale.  I once got a 60% in a class which turned out to be a B+.

Talk to your professors, maybe they can help you out. In the most difficult courses at my uni (usually the math and physics one), the worst grade is canceled. 

My advice… don’t take courses too late. I did that once and by the time my last (and one of my most difficult) class rolled around I was so tired I had no idea what was being said, so I struggled for those exams.

My first Veterinarian technician pharmacology exam i BOMBED there was only other ten point quizzes and the final Before I tool the final my grade was a 65ish so for the final i needed at least a 90  I studied for three days straight crammed the night before the day of and 5 minutes before, my class mate sent me a text that night while I was in BJ’s Whole sale club I got a 102.5 and I’m pretty sure I scared everyone in there because of how excited i was
I think knowing how you  learn best is how you should study i’m better off with flash cards

Hm, I never have this problem in college because I went to a horrible high school that acted much like the college I go to (and many other colleges I’ve been to), especially when it came to grade pressure and study habits that needed to be formed. I’m four years ahead of the curve and have been prepped for this. Honestly, if you want to do well in college, a public school isn’t going to prepare you well, unfortunately. I know some people have no choice, but I think good advice for any freshman in high school is “act like your high school work is like college work” and form the habits early. All of my high school tests were ten questions long – and very hard random questions. Get one wrong and I was out with a B because 83% to 93% on a test meant a B. It was difficult graduating with a 3.96 GPA coming out of that high school. Most of the tests were essay questions so writing skills were also essential and things needed to be memorized so you could at least vaguely cite them at the end of your essay questions.

College is actually a relief to me. I don’t have to memorize citations for essay questions on tests and they don’t grade so difficultly. The only difference is the English classes, which tend to have Nazi-esque teachers that crave everything by the book and don’t know how to accept creative writing and jounalism-esque papers. The crave scholarly presentation and credible sources, with proper in-text citation and in-text established credibility of that source. Oh, but don’t present the paper like any of the scholarly and credible articles you’ve read, you have to do it “just so”. Drives me up the wall.

The grade on the first exam I had in college was 100%. I had a 4.0 GPA until Physics Lab, which knocked me down a bit. I was a chronic klutz.

I believed, for an afternoon, that I got a 103 on my first college exam. I checked the key and, though I knew I got 3 questions wrong, only tallied one. So I thought I got a 103, but it was really a 97. Not bad for chemistry, which I bombed at in High School. Bio, I can NEVER seem to crack an 80. Not in freshman high school bio, not in AP Bio, not in college bio. I absolutely love the subject, I just can’t get anything past like an 85 ever. And I need that 85 desperately.

@galadrielspitcher@xanga - good idea :]

I actually did really well on my first/second exam, a 94%. So for me the difficulity was keeping that high for the final. Uh…I’m actually doing better in uni than in high school…probably because I realize our money is getting stoled, so we gotta make use of it. Or something like that.

And yeah, there’s no point in thinking about how horrible you did. Forget about it until your marks are released, then do the above mentioned in the post.