# Severe trouble getting over "poor" grades...kind of long post.



## Faded Lines (Sep 22, 2006)

I am a sophomore in college, and for as long as I can remember, throughout school I have always had great difficulty with exam grades. I don't mean that I fail, but I constantly dwell on them. For instance, when I was in third grade, we took some weird exam that was to be sent to the district's board of education to assess us or some crap. It was two days before Halloween. When I left school that day, I kept thinking about a question that I was unable to answer. It really, really bothered me. So much to the point that I stayed home from school the following day, because I was too anxious to get the "grade" back. The next day was Halloween. Every kids favorite day! I went to school, nervously awaiting the return of my "exam". She never graded them. That evening, I went to a Halloween party with all my little friends at some kids house. While everyone around me was having fun, I kid you not, I was thinking about how I could possibly steal my exam back so I could try the question again. ****ing sick, right? IN THIRD GRADE!!!

Anyway, fast forward. in high school, I was never an over achiever, but I did care about school. B's were fine, but I still dwelled on mediocre exam grades. Then college rolled around. Last year, my freshman GPA came out to a 3.59. Stellar. I did well in all of my major courses, just as I had hoped. However, despite this, bad grades reigned over me for days to weeks to sometimes months. But, when the year was over, I was happy with my GPA and walked away. This year rolled around...since I transferred schools, my GPA is a 0.0. Had to start all over again. I have taken 2 exams so far...on Calc 1 I got a 76. Pissed me off, and I made a thread about it on here because I made dumb mistakes. I took my first Bio exam and got an 80. That pissed me off too. The average was a 55, but to me an 80 in my major is completely unacceptable. Mind you this is general bio 1, and I had to retake it because this school didn't care that I got a 5 on the AP exam. I worked my *** off studying, but I guess not as much as i should have. I don't know, when it comes to not getting an A (in this case my 80 is actually a B+ because the course is very difficult, believe it or not) in my major, I feel sick to my stomach. I pretty much feel like I am not intelligent enough for the discipline if I can't nail an A in it. Also, in my previous bio class from last semester I got A's on every exam. So it was a shock.

Ok, so, my point hasn't totally come up yet. What I am getting at, is, grades such as these seriously put me into a depression. Every single thing I think about is tainted by my grades. I can't hang out with my girlfriend without having that big fat 76 or 80 in the back of my mind. I'm constantly getting anxious about my drive to do much better on the next exam. It makes me feel ill, and I cannot escape it. I try to psyche myself out of it, in various ways. When I finally get to the "**** it" point, I feel happy. Then I come crashing down again. The grade hangs over me like a plague. I can't take it anymore. School is not enjoyable, because every single grade I get always has a problem. If I get an 87 on the next bio exam, I'll be mad at myself for not getting a 90. I ****ing hate kids like that, and I have become one of them. Nothing is good enough in school for me, and for that I hate it. I have come to despise exams because they bring nothing but depression towards me, and no matter what I do, nothing below a 90 is good enough. No matter what, it ruins my day and ultimately my life. I want to be able to relax without feeling guilty, like I should be studying. I know for a fact grades aren't everything, but i feel like the opposite thought is glued to my *** and I can't take it off! EVERYTHING I TRY TO DO TO STOP THINKING ABOUT GRADES DOESN'T WORK!

What do I do!? I'm helpless, and at the breaking point.


----------



## mathman (Jan 20, 2009)

Hello, Faded Lines.

You say that you feel guilty when you are relaxing and feel like you should be studying instead of relaxing. Not that I am suggesting anything by asking this, but exactly how are you studying? Do you make studying a priority and give yourself ample time to cover the material or are you cramming the few hours before the exam? If you study as in the first case, do you study in large continuous segments or smaller segments distributed over many days? Do you do all assignments and whatnot?

If your study habits are truly inadequate, then that feeling is expected and, in my opinion, is a great motivator. However, if you are putting in the required time and effort then I'll give your situation some more thought and see if we can come to a solution (I get this feeling too, but for a slightly different reason).


----------



## Faded Lines (Sep 22, 2006)

I never, ever cram. I always do homework right when it is assigned. As for biology, I tend to read the chapter two days before lecture, then do quizzes and such before lecture. The lecture fuses my understanding, and I move on. I revisit things if I need to. In regard to this exam, I do admit though that the week before the exam I was feeling a little depressed and unmotivated, so I didn't study as much as I should have. I studied very well before that week, but the week coming up to the exam could have been more productive. 

Overall, work comes before play, if you want to hear it that way. Maybe that is why I get so upset.

I think I get so nervous during exams, that I tend to blank out and forget things that I covered in at least some detail. Then when the mediocre grade comes back, I feel depressed because I know I could have done better.


----------



## mathman (Jan 20, 2009)

How nervous do you get? This is my problem and it just cropped up recently. In addition to visibly shaking during an exam, I can barely remember my name. This also seems to be your problem since the studying is fine. Also, in those classes where you did poorly on the exam, were they courses primarily of wrote memory or understanding and problem solving?


----------



## Faded Lines (Sep 22, 2006)

Well for Calc it was problem solving, but I had every type of problem down pat. I just made silly mistakes, like literally blanked out on the easiest one.

Bio is about 90% memorization. It is just a difficult course because each exam contains 9 chapters of information. Not only that, the questions suck on the exam (the professors are notorious for having trickily worded exams). Oh wel. I must say I am extremely motivated to do better next time.


----------



## millenniumman75 (Feb 4, 2005)

Unrealistic expectations?
Expect less and get more. Honestly, those grades are pretty high to me - 25 over that average? SICK! Then again, I always did better in the "harder" courses than the easier ones. I never had your routine, which is probably why I am an average student. Anyway, you need to start praising yourself for the routine you are in. Everybody wishes they could do better, but I would say that you are pretty well off and should stay that way.


----------



## Giraffe (Sep 7, 2010)

Two tips from a fellow science student:

1) Bio is about memorization, yes, but it's also about organization. Use spreadsheets and tables to organize the data you have. You'll find that making study sheets forces you to find the important bits of data. If you want an example, feel free to message me and I'll send you the chart I made of human hormones for my anatomy & physiology class. It's some of my best organizational work. 

2) For the memorization part, download a flashcard program that uses spaced repetition. I use Anki, but SuperMemo and Mnemosyne are also popular, I believe. They're based on an algorithm that makes sure that you learn the flashcard again just as you were about to forget it. Spend a bit of time on these every day and spend time learning how to write good flashcards (SuperMemo has a great section on this subject).

The tl;dr version of this is: You can't get A's in the sciences by brute force of will alone. You have to put some time and effort into learning how to study intelligently.

Hope that helps a bit.


----------



## Faded Lines (Sep 22, 2006)

Giraffe said:


> Two tips from a fellow science student:
> 
> 1) Bio is about memorization, yes, but it's also about organization. Use spreadsheets and tables to organize the data you have. You'll find that making study sheets forces you to find the important bits of data. If you want an example, feel free to message me and I'll send you the chart I made of human hormones for my anatomy & physiology class. It's some of my best organizational work.
> 
> ...


I'll take a look at Anki, thanks!


----------

