Panic panic panic
So here I am, sitting in the library, worrying about my chemistry exams tomorrow and doing absolutely nothing to prepare for them. Why? Because though I’m sure there are many things I could be doing to improve my grades, I’m really not sure what they are, and also don’t know if trying to memorise some things which probably won’t come up will drive the things I’ve learnt already out of my mind.
It would really have helped if I’d learnt the stuff first time round, but when you’re given lists of elements that form oxides and have to memorise every single reaction the oxides undergo, it’s hard to find the incentive to learn them. I’m sure there is some kind of pattern or trend that helps you to learn them (there always is), but unfortunately I didn’t/can’t find it and Mr K probably told us in the lesson I missed.
Fun.
So, tomorrow morning I’ve got possibly the hardest exam I’ll do this year. And I’m writing a blog entry.
Matthew @ 13:35, June 22, 2005 to Diary | Comments (9)
Comments:
Sheepie
*afternoon
Comment added at 21:50, June 22, 2005
Martina
It wasn’t too bad,was it? Mr K kept on pretending that as long as you knew about electronegativity, you could not bother learning any of them. I think that is a lie though because I understood the electronegativity things he was saying and still had to learn all the reactions. I spent a lot of time trying to work out the trick to it all.
Comment added at 17:10, June 23, 2005
Matthew
Yeah, it was easier than expected – I was quite pleased. I got the question with aluminium wrong though, as I hadn’t memorised it.
I’m editing your comment to take out Mr K’s full name – it’s just my new policy given that Google seems to like my site a lot. Not that a search for his name would ever bring up this site, but just so it’s all standardised.
Comment added at 17:41, June 23, 2005
Jeff
Matthew,
While your anxiety says that learning new things will “push out” other things, science (as you probably know) says otherwise.
In God’s infinite wisdom, he has created our brain as the “ulitimate storage container.”
Science has taught us that the brain actually expands as it recieves new information (what’s actually happening is that synapses are physically making a connection (or more properly multiple connections) to our brain cells.
Rest easy. Your brain can handle it.
On another note, your thoughts about the ethereal “I know that I can do better, but I don’t know how” are very common.
It’s why there is so much self-medicating going on (from narcotics to television to food). Life IS overwhelming and success is only granted with a perpetual dependence upon our Creator.
Comment added at 20:18, June 25, 2005
Matthew
My problem is that, while what you say is true, it only really works like that if you give it time. It’s not possible to cram the night before the exam and remember everything, which was the situation I was finding myself in. I really should have started working months ago.
You are most definitely right though, especially about dependence on God. I have no doubt I’d have done a lot worse with all of my exams without him (especially Geography GCSE and English AS, not that either of them matter really).
Comment added at 13:55, June 26, 2005
Sheepie
I can remember everything I crammed the night before. But of course with A-levels there’s so much more to learn…
Comment added at 14:01, June 26, 2005
Matthew
And you knew everything in the first place, you just had to be reminded of it, whereas I had to learn a load of stuff for the first time. And yes, there’s a lot more to learn for any one exam.
Talking of which, I should probably go and revise music.
Comment added at 14:28, June 26, 2005
Mr E
With GCSEs I can’t remember there being a lot of need to cram the night before in most subjects, actually.
Comment added at 23:16, June 27, 2005
Matthew
Just for science, but then that wasn’t really even cramming.
Comment added at 12:05, June 28, 2005
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