Staying Motivated and Memorizing for Exams

[rhuthwaite]

HEy
Well exam time has started and I have 4 exams in 6 days, so not too happy about that :( Anyway I've been studying hard up until and I've got my 1st exam on friday. But I've got a big problem... I am no longer motivated to study... don't know what has happened.. I sit down in the same spot I study in everyday with no distractions and I just stare at my books. It's a complete waste of time and I can't seem to learn anything. I should be motivated to learn got 3 great resons to study:
- I don't want to fail
- If I fail I get kicked out of my course
- If I pass I get paid $3500 cash
but they aren't working :(

What do you do to stay motivated to study?
Oh and do you have any ideas on the best way of memorising large amounts of information you don't understand?

 

[Evo]

Oh and do you have any ideas on the best way of memorising large amounts of information you don't understand?

That's a BIG red flag rhuthwaite. Why don't you understand? That's what you should be addressing, not trying to memorize things without meaning. Why aren't you able to learn and understand? Shouldn't that be your primary concern?

I can't even relate to just wanting to find a way to pass a subject without learning it.

Your 3 reasons to study are wrong. Maybe you should consider if getting an education is wasted time for you.

 

[dontdisturbmycircles]

I enjoy my classes and the best way (the only way in the sciences I think) to memorize things you don't understand is to try to understand them.

Mid term week is stressful though. Calc mid term tommorow.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I wasn't a very good student until college actually. My mindset changed in college when I started making very good friends in my classes. Much of my college experience was actually doing group projects and presentations rather than tests. What changed was that I started to really really care what other people thought of me. I would be extremely embarrassed if I did poorly on something and my friends found out. So that was my motivation. I didn't want to appear stupid or lazy to my good friends in class.

 

[rhuthwaite]

Our lecturer for that particular exam told us to just memorise the work because we will not understand any of it until next year. It's all about how x-ray machines and linear accelerators are constructed.

Don't get me wrong I do generally enjoy studying and I love the course I am doing and I love the job that I'l end up doing, I am just so worn out. We've had atleast 1 exam/assignment due every week for the entire year and my course doesn't give us holidays until after our these final exams (then we get a month off and after that month we go back to studying and get assessed every single day for 7 months)

 

[Evo]

Our lecturer for that particular exam told us to just memorise the work because we will not understand any of it until next year. It's all about how x-ray machines and linear accelerators are constructed.

Then I blame him. If he can't give you an understanding of what the exam is about, then he needs to redo the exam (he sounds lazy) or do a better job of teaching. Is he saying the time spent on this course is a waste? Each step in the learning process should have meaning. I can see how the bigger picture and a deeper understanding may not come until later, but what is he teaching you now?

Sorry, but I have two daughters your age and they have good teachers and bad teachers. The bad teachers are very damaging.

 

[Astronuc]

I concur with Evo.

What do you do to stay motivated to study?

It helps to be interested in what one is studying.

Oh and do you have any ideas on the best way of memorising large amounts of information you don't understand?

The point IS to understand what one is studying. One cannot be competent in one's field if one does not understand.

Also - eat well, get plenty of sleep, minimze/moderate consumption of alcohol (i.e. drink with meals and don't party until after exams), and exercise - walk, run, swim, dance or engage in some other physical activity that one enjoys.


Sounds like one of the courses is radiology. Certainly to be a technician who throughs a switch one does not need to know the physics behind the Compton effect and brehmsstrahlung, but a great radiologist should know it, as well as the principles of X-ray imaging.

 

[Evo]

Another issue here is memorizing something you don't understand. That can really cause you problems later on. Bits and pieces of that will be stuck and it will impede your learning. You should probably consider reporting this guy. They are paid to teach, believe it or not.

 

[Astronuc]

Our lecturer for that particular exam told us to just memorise the work because we will not understand any of it until next year. It's all about how x-ray machines and linear accelerators are constructed.

Don't get me wrong I do generally enjoy studying and I love the course I am doing and I love the job that I'l end up doing, I am just so worn out. We've had atleast 1 exam/assignment due every week for the entire year and my course doesn't give us holidays until after our these final exams (then we get a month off and after that month we go back to studying and get assessed every single day for 7 months)

We have Homework forums as well as the various physics topical forums. Please use those - and ask questions.

The complaint department is here in GD.

 

[Moonbear]

Actually, it may not be the instructor, but a poorly designed curriculum if the class you need to understand the class you're taking isn't offered until next year.

I'm not sure what to suggest. If you're just memorizing things you don't understand, I don't know how you'd motivate yourself to want to do that either. Maybe find a study partner from the class so you can force each other to keep going by quizzing each other on the material?

 

[rhuthwaite]

I'm am studying radiation therapy and I understand compton effect and photoelectric effect and all those things, unfortunately they were already tested in radiation physics earlier this year so now I am having to draw the blue prints to building x-ray and linear accelertors and how each of the components of the machines are constructed.

I love every aspect of my course except learning the blueprints of these machines and the thing is if these machines break down we aren't allowed to touch them, specially trained physics men have to be ordered in.

 

[rhuthwaite]

That's a good idea moonbear I might do that

 

[Evo]

I'm am studying radiation therapy and I understand compton effect and photoelectric effect and all those things, unfortunately they were already tested in radiation physics earlier this year so now I am having to draw the blue prints to building x-ray and linear accelertors and how each of the components of the machines are constructed.

I love every aspect of my course except learning the blueprints of these machines and the thing is if these machines break down we aren't allowed to touch them, specially trained physics men have to be ordered in.

I've never understood how knowing how to build something had anything to do with using it or understanding the results obtained. Do the people that build them need to know how to evaluate the information and make diagnoses?

 

[Astronuc]

learning the blueprints of these machines and the thing is if these machines break down we aren't allowed to touch them, specially trained physics men have to be ordered in.

I'm wondering the same as Evo. Your learning blue prints of machine layout - and if these things break down - you can't touch them. Of course, a qualified (and licensed) technician has to do the repair and maintenance on the equipment. But WTF, mate? This seems a little bassackwards.

Learning dose/exposure control, calibration, set up and so on makes sense, but unless one is planning to build these things, it doesn't make much sense.

What are the faculty smoking down there? Do you guys have magic mushrooms growing nearby?

 

[rhuthwaite]

Haha I don't what our department is doing, I do know they are remodelling the whole course after this year and I think they ran out of papers for us to do so decided they would make us learn radiation technology. They can pretty much get us to do any papers they want because we are the only place in the whole of NZ that teaches this course.

 

[EnumaElish]

I'd suggest "manual memory," write down (or draw out, e.g. blueprint) whatever you're asked to memorize.

I'll hypothesize that this isn't all that different from how human anatomy is taught in medical school. You are "at it" until you memorize all the 10,000 parts.

 

[Moonbear]

...specially trained physics men have to be ordered in.

Ooh, you can just order them? Is there a catalog?

 

[rhuthwaite]

Ooh, you can just order them? Is there a catalog?

Hahaha I hope so!

 

[Astronuc]

http://www.kutztown.edu/activities/clubs/SPS/images/Picture_Page/guys.jpg

 

[scorpa]

I find writing as I study really helps me, helps me understand and retain the information. Trying to convert a bunch of wordy info into diagnostic flow charts and diagrams really helps me out to. Unfortuantely there isn't always time to go through and do that. I just finished my midterms today thank god. I studied for 12 hours straight saturday and another 12 straight sunday and feel like death now. I was physically ill before my exams...it was so bad. I came home and absolutely crashed.

 

[Moonbear]

http://www.kutztown.edu/activities/clubs/SPS/images/Picture_Page/guys.jpg

Ooh, I think I'll take the one in the middle. Where's the order form?

 

[rhuthwaite]

Ooh, I think I'll take the one in the middle. Where's the order form?

Hmmmm how much is a postage fee? I want the middle one sent over here, air mail and insurance.