Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Curlew on December 17, 2008, 05:20:07 AM
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Last night (15-16) stayed up all night studying for my chem final, I consumed 2 small redbulls, 1 medium redbull, 2 large redbulls, 1redbull cola, and 1 monster erergy drink. Stayed up till 10am right throught the end of my final.
Consumed: 72 ounces of energy drink, roughly 700 mg of caffine in around 6 hours.
I got 2 hours of sleep after the final then woke up to keep studying
This night (16-17) I am staying up all night writing my History paper and studying for history and political science. I have consumed 2 small redbulls, 1 medium redbull, 1 5 hour energy, and am currently working on 1 large redbull, I have 2 monster energy drinks at the ready. I plan on trying to catch a nap around noon, then waking up for the final at 3, or possibly pushing through to the test.
If all is drank I will have consumed: 74 ounces of energy drink, and roughly 850mg of caffeine in arround 10 hours
PS: the 16th was my birthday, and i speant it all awake and studying...lame
I am doing it for the grades, but I am currious about at what level caffeine becomes dangerous, any doctors in the house?
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Don't worry about the caffeine, cramming on no sleep is a bad way to prepare for an exam.
If you've done any work this semester, you're probably going to do better if you just turf the books after you've made some concise notes and focus on getting an uninterrupted 8 hours sleep before your exams.
No stimulants and plenty of healthy food. Lots of water, a solid breakfast of carbohydrate (wheat, oats, grains... whatever) and plenty of sleep are a big part of any good preparation for an exam.
Caffeine will not make your brain work, it will just stop you from falling asleep should you choose to lie down. If you're anything like me, energy drinks will do little to actually make you alert and certainly will not make you think clearly. It won't sustain you, mentally, it will just make you on-edge enough to make you a poor thinker.
You're better off going for a quick run in the fresh, night air if you need a boost when studying. Just enough to get the blood pumping and your body's natural stimulants working.
Do that every half an hour or so and you'll get better results than you ever will with caffeine.
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We just had a young man (14)die from a combination of energy drinks and sports. From what the paper said the kid drank energy drinks and collapsed on the field while playing soccer. Apparently suffered a heart attack. Ill try and see if i can find the Morning Call newspaper article. It happened in Quakertown Pa.
Anything in excess is bad, just be careful :salute
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You'd be better off not studying and sleeping rather than studying and drinking energy drinks like that.
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You are all under the impression that I know most of the material in the first place...sadly i do not know a majority of the material
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It's hit and miss for me. Sometimes just 2 red bulls will keep me wired all almost day, sometimes no amount seems to make any real difference.
You should study less, more often. You get to take it much more easily and have a clear conscience the whole time. e.g. I slept 12h+ the day/night before each exam, with a couple of hours doing almost nothing before showing up for the exam. I don't even look at any notes in the last 24/48h. The only thing that's fun and/or seems to help at that point is re-writing/organizing the class material in totaly different ways from how I learnt it so far.
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See now that is your first problem.... I know it's easy for us older folk to say study all semester and then it wont be so bad when you get to this point.... Real easy for me to say it in fact, even though, I was in your shoes a bunch of times.... BUT IT'S TRUE BRO!!! So, next semester you will see a more clear path on getting great grades!!! :salute
You are all under the impression that I know most of the material in the first place...sadly i do not know a majority of the material
Good Luck with your Finals!!!
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Oral Caffeine Dosages
Threshold 10 - 20 mg
Common 50 - 150 mg
Strong 150 - 400 mg
Heavy 400 + mg
Lethal 3-20 grams oral (depending on the individual)
check this out: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wear/6944026.stm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wear/6944026.stm)
and: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wear/7255306.stm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wear/7255306.stm)
:uhoh
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It's hit and miss for me. Sometimes just 2 red bulls will keep me wired all almost day, sometimes no amount seems to make any real difference.
You should study less, more often. You get to take it much more easily and have a clear conscience the whole time. e.g. I slept 12h+ the day/night before each exam, with a couple of hours doing almost nothing before showing up for the exam. I don't even look at any notes in the last 24/48h. The only thing that's fun and/or seems to help at that point is re-writing/organizing the class material in totaly different ways from how I learnt it so far.
Very good method here, works well for me too. I study study study, then sleep for at LEAST 10 hours. When I wake up I eat a healthy breakfast, usually eggs or something. I try not to worry about the test at all, and right before the test...usually 20 minutes before I look over my notes to refresh my memory and then head into the test.
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See now that is your first problem.... I know it's easy for us older folk to say study all semester and then it wont be so bad when you get to this point.... Real easy for me to say it in fact, even though, I was in your shoes a bunch of times.... BUT IT'S TRUE BRO!!! So, next semester you will see a more clear path on getting great grades!!! :salute
Good Luck with your Finals!!!
Lol thank you
and thanks for all the advice, unfortainitly it is really useless this semester but thanks anyways :salute
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I once studied 48 hours straight. I was working 50 plus hours a week on a loading dock handling 100lb bags of feed and farm chemicals. Fell behind in my studies by something like 32 chapters. Amazingly enough I managed to pass both classes with B's. You know my ex-wife said I was lazy. After the tests I crashed for about 20 hours. I've done 16 hour studying marathons a bunch of times.
Of course what Llogann is saying is correct but not always possible. Make a schedule and stick to it.
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I am doing it for the grades, but I am currious about at what level caffeine becomes dangerous, any doctors in the house?
I know, as I am a big Monster fan, that it says limit yourself to no more than 3 Monsters in one day. So I'm assuming all those energy drinks have the potential to cause some harm to your body.
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Happy belated Birthday ;)
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My brain read that subject as College, Beer, Hangovers, Caffeine, and All-nighters.
Aah yes. I remember not remembering some of those all nighters. Getting home and cramming in 20 min of deciding which subject to study. Next deciding to grab a brew to steady the nerves. Slowly realizing that this isn't that hard of a subject...and so on to Beer #?. Wondering why the water is boiling. Waking up on the cold kitchen floor in a pile of cans. Stumbling to the bathroom to find an unflushed toilet of Ramen noodle puke. Finally getting that sweet black gold hull O' Vitamin Caffeine to wake me up. Getting advice from a student that's failing Intro Psychology, but remembers something about taking the test in the same state as you are in when studying. Downing a few, boarding the crappy bus into Baton Rouge. Aah Yes, higher education.
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I feel your pain man, I just pulled an all night redbull and tobacco induced (enduced?) study session for Sociology of Law myself. Thank god the test was no where near as bad as predicted. One more to go!
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Proper time management negates the need for all nighters. An all nighter is an exercise in sleep deprivation which is the worst thing you could do before an exam. The history paper should have been done prior to exam time so you could allocate time for study then proper rest so that you are at your best at the exam rather than at your worst. Not knowing the material before the finals is another example of improper time management.
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Wow, that much caffeine intake is a symptom of serious procrastination! :lol
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Curlew as an individual recently endowed with a shiny Bachelors degree, I feel your pain. I understand everyone will tell you "space out your studying" or something along those lines, but realistically thats not enough. When you've got 4 300 level history exams and a 400 level poli sci exam in a period of 3 days, you NEED to do some level of cramming. For one of my classes for example, I had to know specifically how the growth of railroad affected 20 select US cities, 5 of which would then be randomly picked for the test. This sort of material has to be crammed pre-test, in order to reinforce what you may have hit earlier in the semester. That being said, in some cases I would encounter some books/info that I didn't hit earlier in the semester, but I digress...
Now there is plenty of science + advice that will tell you "get 8 hours of sleep, caffeine doesn't help, etc etc"
I've read the journals, I understand the science, but when it comes down to it grabbing 2-3 hours and pounding caffeine got me a 3.7 with a double major and intense extra-curricular load. You have to find what works for you. Of course, its extremely dangerous and can definitely kill you. As for my poison, I generally stayed away from energy drinks (no need for all the crap that comes with them) and either drank A. lots of coffee or B. some sort of juice/beverage with crushed caffeine pills in it.
I only had to REALLY cram for 4/8 semesters, so not too bad. Just be careful, and if you find yourself shaking uncontrollably for the love of god put down the red bull and drink some water :)
I'm a turrible role model :( turrible.
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Curlew,
There is a reason that the side of the can has a warning not to consume more than a certain amount per 24 hour period. With energy drinks such as Red Bull and Monster, each can consumed strips off a layer of protective cells which line the inside of your stomach, and keep the acid you use to digest contained within. These are known as epithelium, and without them, you can quickly develop ulcers. In an absolute worst case scenario, you can actually cause the stomach wall to fail as the acid eats through.(through prolonged large intake of these drinks...and it takes ALOT) Should that happen, you would most likely die, unless very near a high grade emergency facility.
This is in addition to the problems caused by over consumption of caffeine, which you may easily look up for yourself.
I consume no more than 2 Monsters per day, and even then that puts me on the threshhold for problems.
Your study habits indicate that you've done one of two things...
1)Procrastinated the entire semester..(something I saw often as a biology instructor)
or..
2)Taken too many credits or are completely over your head in the subject matter
Only you can figure out which it is. All nighters at the end of a semester is a sign of poor study habits. Your brain will only take in upwards of 20-30 minutes of new information and convert it into formation of synapses. After that, it runs out of "steam", and needs at least 15 minutes of downtime. Studying all night gives you absolutely zero reward, in the end. You should look to learn your required material during the semester, not at the end. As an undergrad, I used to laugh at how everyone disappeared the week of finals.... and at how they marvelled at my 95 without seeming to study...while they were ruining an entire week for high 70's. College (at least academically) is all about pre-planning and goal setting. I found that after I started doing that, I found alot more time to do more "interesting" things.
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Yea thats why I avoid energy drinks Moray :) Of course caffeine is still dangerous in it's own right,but again your eliminating some of the superfluous danger.
Also in some cases I was cramming for procrastination purposes, but in many others I had kept up with my studies throughout. It was a reinforcement in the last couple of days which was absolutely essential to remembering many of the details required. The semester I was referring to was indeed a mistake, and I made a policy to take no more than 4 300/400 level courses per term after that :) All the same, you need to learn what works for you...and try not to kill yourself. :aok
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I love how nearly everyone is telling him to have better study habits just before the exam. Hello, its too late now, tell him how to best cram for the exam, at least that's useful information.
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We just had a young man (14)die from a combination of energy drinks and sports. From what the paper said the kid drank energy drinks and collapsed on the field while playing soccer. Apparently suffered a heart attack. Ill try and see if i can find the Morning Call newspaper article. It happened in Quakertown Pa.
Anything in excess is bad, just be careful :salute
Do you really know what killed the kid or are you guessing? Either way I agree energy drinks and sports are bad news together.
But your general, out of the box, 16yo is tougher then a Tex-Mex chicken fried steak. Ive seen em get chopped,shot, banged to pieces and a month later they are back on the corner like it never happened. When I was a bit older, as a young troop, we'd go for 3 days straight drinking, fist fighting, ho'ing, and then we'd drink unending pots of coffee to get thru mid-shifts. I could fill up 3 Queen Marys with wiz from all the caffeine drinks Ive ingested in over 30 years of shift work.
I say pound the caffeine and get the work done. When you start talking to people that aren't really there then its probably a good idea to back off some.
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I love how nearly everyone is telling him to have better study habits just before the exam. Hello, its too late now, tell him how to best cram for the exam, at least that's useful information.
OK..... accept your lack of preparation and go get some sleep. If you were to pass you would not do well anyway as you put off the important things all the time.
(Magic pill still unavailable..... scientist were out partying late every night and did not get the pill prepared in time)
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I love how nearly everyone is telling him to have better study habits just before the exam. Hello, its too late now, tell him how to best cram for the exam, at least that's useful information.
Says the guy from the University where Wednesday is the only day for studying. ;)
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I love how nearly everyone is telling him to have better study habits just before the exam. Hello, its too late now, tell him how to best cram for the exam, at least that's useful information.
What part of "cramming does not work" didn't you understand?
Retention of "crammed" information is exceedingly poor and is generally stored in synapses designed for short term retention, which generally "dump" the information contained within to make room for the next round of "mundane" stimulus. Meaning, when you get in the car and read a stop sign, you're already losing what you just crammed. You may end up remembering one or two questions and feel you were successful at preparing for the test, but you will miss many more. Long term retention (more than 8 hours) and solid formation of specialized synapses requires re-examination of the information at least three times, and is better facilitated by re-enforcement by more than one sense. (ie. hearing AND reading)
There are a blessed few that have picture perfect photographic memories. If our young friend was one of those, he wouldn't be pulling an all-nighter to begin with.
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What part of "cramming does not work" didn't you understand?
Retention of "crammed" information is exceedingly poor and is generally stored in synapses designed for short term retention, which generally "dump" the information contained within to make room for the next round of "mundane" stimulus. Meaning, when you get in the car and read a stop sign, you're already losing what you just crammed. You may end up remembering one or two questions and feel you were successful at preparing for the test, but you will miss many more. Long term retention (more than 8 hours) and solid formation of specialized synapses requires re-examination of the information at least three times, and is better facilitated by re-enforcement by more than one sense. (ie. hearing AND reading)
There are a blessed few that have picture perfect photographic memories. If our young friend was one of those, he wouldn't be pulling an all-nighter to begin with.
dude, crammin does work, just have to cram all night,
yes it is true that you loose that information, but by repeating studiyn the information 30 times as well as creating study guides for the hour before the test in one night, it is enough to pass my test, i dont really need to remember chem in 3 weeks, plus i was working on a paper last night so i dont see how I could loose this by looking at a stop sign.
and :salute soonermp for rockin the allnighters with me, anyone else rockin allnighters?
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Happy birthday Curlew. You were born on a great day. The same one as me. I feel your pain in college my birthday was always right in the middle of finals so i always had to have a delayed party. I wont even go into what i had to do sometimes to stay up and study. So how old are ya now?
Rabbit27
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Do you really know what killed the kid or are you guessing? Either way I agree energy drinks and sports are bad news together.
But your general, out of the box, 16yo is tougher then a Tex-Mex chicken fried steak. Ive seen em get chopped,shot, banged to pieces and a month later they are back on the corner like it never happened. When I was a bit older, as a young troop, we'd go for 3 days straight drinking, fist fighting, ho'ing, and then we'd drink unending pots of coffee to get thru mid-shifts. I could fill up 3 Queen Marys with wiz from all the caffeine drinks Ive ingested in over 30 years of shift work.
I say pound the caffeine and get the work done. When you start talking to people that aren't really there then its probably a good idea to back off some.
Newspaper article attributed the death to cardiac arrest resulting from over exertion and the high caffeine levels. They ( the paper mind you ) reported that the autopsy and tox report associated the death to the consumption of the energy drinks and the physical exertion. The young man collapsed on the field and died at the hospital a little while later. I would be more than happy to email you the young mans name, I'm sure you could find out the backround info.
I would NOT be so callous as to make a statement like that on a "guess". I am just passing along to Curlew what i have read on the subject, as he had asked the question if what he had done was bad for his health.
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Naw I wast just wondering if they autopsy found some kind of congenital defect of some kind, or abnormality in his heart. Ive never heard of energy drinks being a cause of death. I agree they have no place in sports from the dehydration alone. :salute
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"i dont really need to remember chem in 3 weeks"
then why are you wasting your time and money taking the class? if its a prerequisite course for something else then chances are you're going to need to know it...shorting yourself on the foundation knowledge is stupid. even if you don't need it further down the road...again you've spent a considerable amount of your money and time taking the class. That should be more than enough incentive to learn it.
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Happy birthday Curlew. You were born on a great day. The same one as me. I feel your pain in college my birthday was always right in the middle of finals so i always had to have a delayed party. I wont even go into what i had to do sometimes to stay up and study. So how old are ya now?
Rabbit27
lol its an excellent day, im 20 now, and for all the birthday wishers thank you
as for the "dont need to remeber chem, then why are you sating your money and time", three words: general education requirments
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GL and happy birthday! :aok
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Naw I wast just wondering if they autopsy found some kind of congenital defect of some kind, or abnormality in his heart. Ive never heard of energy drinks being a cause of death. I agree they have no place in sports from the dehydration alone. :salute
Sry Rich, my comments came across as rude, wasnt intentional. Its been a long day and im sick as a dog. :salute
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wut
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lol its an excellent day, im 20 now, and for all the birthday wishers thank you
as for the "dont need to remeber chem, then why are you sating your money and time", three words: general education requirments
Curlew, what are you majoring in, if you don't mind me asking?
There is no college I'm aware of (of course, I could be wrong there, if your Dean was very forward thinking...) that Chem is a general requirement for graduation, unless you are using basic Chem (CHM 1020 or lower (CHM 101-102, depending on your school's numbering system)) for a general elective sub-requirement. CHM 1020 (101-102) is basically repackaged high school chemistry, without any expectations..on the same level as Astronomy.
If you were made to take CHM 1045 (CHM 105-106) for any reason and you aren't majoring in any science, your advisor is crap. Also, if you are majoring in any science, and have the attitude that you don't need to remember chemistry in three weeks, drop out now. You'll save yourself alot of heartache when you realize, honestly, that's all you really need to KNOW.
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Good Luck Sir. I have my last exam as a college students on thurs @ 2. I know how you feel man.
:salute
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Don't kill your body just to get through some exams... Most people fail at least one subject through their college studies, according to my head of department.
I noticed that my grades were sliding from quite good to just borderline when I got to the 2/3s point of my degree. For one of my end of semester papers I put in so little effort and churned such an utter load of crap that I only passed by a few marks. My teacher was quite friendly too and I was the only guy in a class full of f- king bra-burner militant lesbians that actually offered something in the classes, so I believe he let me pass based solely on his discretion. It was then that I decided that I needed to take a break from study and come back after a year with a fresh mind and a slightly more padded wallet, so I took intermission and worked for a year.
Studying full time and working a couple of shifts a week just to pay for the bare essentials like food and petrol just to get to uni really sucks a lot of balls, so I decided to get away from that and start making some money so I could waste it on my car, a gaming PC, a massive TV and PS3, lots of expensive beer and whatever else I wanted.
It was the best thing I could have done, I'll be going back to uni next year with a fresh mind after what ended up being an 18 month intermission. I've had time to work full-time at a job that will be perfect when I go back to uni and generally turn my brain off and relax.
I have also decided that one must treat uni (or college for you yanks) like a 9-5 job. Even if you have one lecture and a class and are only needed on campus for 2 or 3 hours, stay there after and study. Do the homework that day, do the required reading and start borrowing some books from the library. It's all too easy to fall into the "sweet, I've only got a half day, I can do such and such for the rest of the day" attitude. Whatever you do.... don't go to the bar before lectures. Nothing makes it harder to get through a lecture and get anything out of it than the 'beer tireds'. :lol
Even if you tank your exams and fail everything, you'll only have set yourself back six months.... in the grand scheme of things, that's pretty minimal damage.
Just take this position that you're in as a valuable lesson that sacrificing an hour a day during the semester will save you stressing out and pulling all-nighters just to get the grades you want. Come back next semester fresh and calm and just do the leg-work when you should. I'm sure that you've got something of a brain between your ears, so it's not like you'll have to bust your knackers every night doing course work just to get through it.
Hopefully, I can take my own advice in my final year and get the work done. :aok
Good luck, mate.
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Remember that first post, where you asked about a "real doctor"? For what its worth, your hook snagged one.
I got accepted into a program that essentially reserved a seat in med school before I even started college. While that reduced stress in one way, it increased it in another -- since the program was set up to get us through the 8 years of college and med school in just 6 years. I started college 3 weeks after high school graduation, and kept going (including all the summers but one). In college we carried 18-21 semester hours, and though they don't do credit hours in med school they said the load would be about the same as 50-60 hours. (In the states college is considered full time at about 14 credit hours).
Needless to say, that was a lot of studying.
Our med school did things differently from a testing standpoint as well. There were no tests, quizzes, or homework papers through the semesters. Our entire grade came down to the final exam. Period. And, exams were all given in the same week, back to back -- 8 hours per day, for 5 days straight. Some serious pressure. (And the testings haven't stopped -- after med school, residency, and fellowships there are Subspecialty Board exams....and after THAT there are recertification exams every 7-10 years.)
So allow me at least a few cc's of credibility. I've done lots and lots of tests, and I can tell you that cramming is only slightly better than showing up raw. It's popular only because it allows you to think you're doing something while you're busy putting off the discomfort of studying. Like most kinds of procrastination, it ends up causing more suffereing than you would have gotten if you just dabbled away at it.
When you get enough sleep, your mind will remember things FAR better, and even more you'll be able to make those 2nd level connections between things you DO know and what the test is asking. I could detail several times I read a major point question (like 25% of final grade) and had no idea what to do....but after a few minutes of doodling the steps needed to get from what they gave me to what they wanted popped into place.
As long as you have a modicum of knowlege, you are better off with a rested, undrugged brain than with an exhausted crammed one.
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As long as you have a modicum of knowlege, you are better off with a rested, undrugged brain than with an exhausted crammed one.
^ That is this whole thread in a sentence.
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Sry Rich, my comments came across as rude, wasnt intentional. Its been a long day and im sick as a dog. :salute
bailey I know you to well to ever think that.
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Some tips that worked for me
1. Eat a pasta meal the night before the exam
2. Get plenty of sleep
3. Eat a Banana or two a couple of hours before the exam (Brain Food)
Good Luck, and Happy B-Day :aok
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I'm buying a laptop to take to uni for next year, just a cheap one without the bells and whistles so that I'm not tempted to use it for anything outside of word and uni-based web stuff.
I reckon if I keep it 'fun-free' I'll be able to avoid the hours of procrastination that plagued my studies last year.
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Back in the day....
...we had 2 guys in my group who had those reserved seats in med school locked up. Then they got a console game system for the dorm room.
Their grades went into the hopper, and they didn't get to advance. Gaming and high pressure studies are a dangerous mix!
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I'm buying a laptop to take to uni for next year, just a cheap one without the bells and whistles so that I'm not tempted to use it for anything outside of word and uni-based web stuff.
I reckon if I keep it 'fun-free' I'll be able to avoid the hours of procrastination that plagued my studies last year.
ANy computer can run flash games lol
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"Like most kinds of procrastination, it ends up causing more suffereing than you would have gotten if you just dabbled away at it."
amen, brother
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funny thing is that I've fought an ongoing battle with procrastination. Read an article about it not long ago (and made myself chuckle because I put off reading it for 3 weeks) -- was reminded that procrastination happens because psychologically we're doing what seems sensible in the short term by avoiding uncomfortable experiences.
Article then pointed out that the thing we're avoiding is almost always not nearly as uncomfortable as we think it is, and that overall discomfort is reduced by just doing the darn thing when you think about it. So I've had a (probably temporary) surge in non-procrastination behaviors. :)
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What part of "cramming does not work" didn't you understand?
Retention of "crammed" information is exceedingly poor and is generally stored in synapses designed for short term retention, which generally "dump" the information contained within to make room for the next round of "mundane" stimulus. Meaning, when you get in the car and read a stop sign, you're already losing what you just crammed. You may end up remembering one or two questions and feel you were successful at preparing for the test, but you will miss many more. Long term retention (more than 8 hours) and solid formation of specialized synapses requires re-examination of the information at least three times, and is better facilitated by re-enforcement by more than one sense. (ie. hearing AND reading)
There are a blessed few that have picture perfect photographic memories. If our young friend was one of those, he wouldn't be pulling an all-nighter to begin with.
I have to add something here, no hard evidence except first hand experience. You can make cramming work if you manage to refresh everything often enough, even just a little, long enough for it to settle into (I guess) long term memory. Back in early high school I memorized 10 pages of spanish text from about an hour of reading it full speed, over and over.. Then 10min of waiting lined up outside of class with everyone chattering and me alternating between that and running thru the material.
I did forget most of it within a couple of days after the test, from what I remember.
And no, it's not a good idea to do this exhausted, over night. It's not just deminishing returns, but deminishing everything, a lot like taking a driving test drunk. Even if you know the material, you're handicaped.