So I just had a math exam dream. I finished my degree about 3 years ago. The last math class I took was about 6 years ago (statistics).
My dream exam consisted of business math:
calculate the time value of money assuming an average interest rate of 5% and an amortization of 7.3 years. Without a calculator.
Cracked out problem solving:
Two trains heading in opposite directions one traveling 30 MPH the other traveling 60 MPH both pass Farmer Jedd’s barn just as his chicken lays and egg. Determine the colour of the egg.
Quadratics:
No, I’m not even going to bother.
Ugh. I should not be having final exam stress when I’m not even in school, particularly in math disciplines I haven’t studied in over a decade. Who does that?
I still have stupid university nightmares, 8 years after graduating. Sometimes, I am at an exam and I am panicking because I didn’t study. Other times it is the end of the semester and I have done no assignments and I am about to fail. They make me feel really crap for a few hours, then very relieved for the rest of the day because I HAVE MY DEGREE! They also remind me why I have not been back to university.
I find it odd that you are writing, rather than taking the final. Does writing them cause you more stress than taking them? If not, maybe you were overriding the fear.
I don’t even know what you’re asking here. I am taking/writing a final. As in, sitting in a room, someone hands you a sheet with questions on it and you try to answer them.
Perhaps it’s a regional thing, but saying ‘I had to write a final’ means exactly what I described above around these parts.
The details of my dream were entirely different, but I recently had a dream in which I was about to try to solve a series of math problems with limited scrap paper and only some highlighters to write with. I was having flashbacks to “chemical engineering math” at the graduate level, which involved things like Fourier Transforms (and which I never did understand) but I didn’t actually see the problems.
(And yes, writing an exam is an expression I’ve heard used before, generally by people who aren’t American. To most Americans, it’s the instructor who writes the exam.)
Where I am (Indiana), taking the final means you’re the student answering the questions given. Writing the final means you’re the professor (or TA or whatever) writing the questions the students are to answer.
I’ve never heard “writing the final” to mean the same thing as “taking the final” before.
Eureka - that sounds quite horrid, actually. Interestingly, the only math class that I never had any problems with was statistics, and of course there were NO statistics on my dream exam.
That explains the confusion. Your use of “writing” made you sound British, but your reference to “math” (as opposed to “maths”) made you sound American.
So, if the people taking the exams are “writing” them, what do you call what the exams’ creators do?
I had those dreams for about a decade after I left college.
Then nothing.
I started law school in March.
I had my first one again within a week after going back. They are awful! They are always a class I’ve never taken/didn’t know I was supposed to take etc. And there’s always something additonal riding on the final (lose my job/school fees not paid, something) if I don’t pass.
I feel like shit the rest of the day after I have one.
Exactly! It’s like two days before the exam you find out that you’re registered in the class and you haven’t done any of the work and the ONLY way you could possibly get a reasonable mark is if you rock the final and you have 5 others that you’re prepping for as well!
They’re quite gross. Frankly, I think I’d rather have ‘Public Speaking while Nude’ dreams, although neither public speaking or being nude bother me much, so I guess that’s why.
South African here (BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!) The teacher sets the paper, then the students write it.
The night before my actual final high-school maths exam, I dreamed that I had to make snackwiches (does anyone remember snackwiches?) with geometry problems pressed into the surfaces. It was traumatic enough for me to remember it clearly to this day
You know what’s weird? Last month I dreamed that one of you Dopers sent me a copy of a math final that you, the teacher, designed. It was pretty neat because the task for students was to correct an already filled out exam and explain why the fake student was right or wrong on each answer they gave. The only part I found confusing was a section about whether or not the student could have used a tool to help himself, and one of the tools was “an array.” Is that even a tool?
I have kind of an opposite experience. One of the last finals I took was a Probability final. There was one question that I just stared at and stared at. I had no idea how to solve it. I worked out most of the other questions and ended up passing the class. Fast forward three years. I’m sitting at my desk at work (awake and in real life) and, BINGO, the solution to that problem pops into my head. Better late than never I guess.
Public speaking doesn’t bother me either, but I get “trapped somewhere away from home nude in public” dreams I’d rather not have. Ever again, thanks. Ugh.
Yes, yes, and yes on all counts. I finished undergrad 2 years ago, but once a month or so I still have this dream where I’m exactly 3 credits away from graduating, all of which are conveniently covered in one class. Sadly I’ve somehow skipped the entire term for this class unawares, and the final is two days from now! AAAAHHH!!
For me, these dreams are an expression of my feeling overwhelmed, unprepared or unequal to a task, and/or generally stressed out. I think feeling, “Oh crap, this event is rushing up at me too fast, I can’t get ready in time!” is perfectly normal at 8mo pregnant!
I usually have the one where it’s finals week, and you just realized/remembered you’re registered for a certain class, but you’ve never gone or done any of the work.
Sometimes though, it’s that I’m in a play, it’s opening night, and of course I’ve never even looked at the script.
A couple nights ago I had a new version: I was a contestant on Top Chef, though I was just my normal self - home cooking skills, no chef training.
Anyway, I’m surprised no one has posted this clip from Top Secret!yet. I completely sympathize.
