Former (and current) brilliant students- did you slack off?

In My Humble Opinion
41

I slacked off as much as possible, learning pretty early that it was one heck of a lot easier to earn an “A-” than an “A” or “A+” while earning the same grade points. Blessed with 99th percentile intelligence and an incredible memory, I just learned what I wanted to learn.

I did not take a single note through high school, undergrad and masters degree and got some pretty amazing grades. Not studying opened up a lot of time to do what I wanted to do.

Sadly, at the Ph.D level, big name schools that are rated in the top ten in their field nationwide, they don’t cotton much to punks with bad attitudes who don’t take notes, don’t study and get A’s and B’s on their tests, papers and projects anyway.

Just keeping up with the reading, papers, projects, teaching and going to class took 16 hours a day, seven days a week.

Ultimately, we were set up with a closed-book comprehensive final exam covering the entire 15,000 pages we had read for that one class that semester. Despite the breadth of the reading, nothing was out-of-bounds and the questions were incredibly narrow, detailed and, shall I say, none too relevant.

This “test” had never before been given before and has not been given since. Historically, 100% of the grade for this course was determined by a final paper and this practice was resumed the next time the course was offered.

Three of the four students who took this test failed and the only student who “passed” insisted he, too, had given poor answers and was convinced he had failed it.

Dragged before a kangaroo court, I was summarily dismissed for low scholarship for failing one course in the major. One of the other two “failures” was allowed to change his major and the other was allowed to retake the course when it was next offered, two years later.

Live and learn.

42

I’m a slacker, and I only feel like speaking for myself here.

I remember in early elementary school I would usually race to finish the in-class assignments (and win). Next thing I knew, through the blessing of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills and the opinions of my teachers, I ended up in the “gifted” program, which met once a week on Thursdays. Somewhere in between I lost the desire to do homework. I’d procrastinate, mainly because there were other things I’d rather be doing. To this day, my mind meanders about aimlessly, and it takes a bit of an effort to clamp down and concentrate. Actually, it feels like effort, but it’s more akin to self-discipline. I’d estimate that my average attention span for something that I’m not thoroughly enjoying is around 20 minutes.

My honest assessment of my childhood is that I had (and possibly still have) ADHD, and if I was in school now I’d be a Ritalin Kid. “Hyperactive” was a term my parents and teachers bandied about endlessly. I never did homework but got A’s or B’s on the tests, usually from cramming the night or morning before. This pattern continued through my high school and college years - it took me 7.5 years to get my bachelor’s degree. I skipped and dropped a ton of classes. One of the things I used to tell my friends was that if they did give me a degree, it would be an honorary one for “Persistence in Paying Tuition.”

I’ve always known I was capable of a higher level of production, and at times I prove it to myself. For whatever reason, though, I lack the ambition/motivation/self-discipline to have what others would consider a solid work ethic. A number of times friends have told me that they’d kill to have my brain. Well, I’d kill to have their work ethic.

“oh, the intrinsic drama of unfulfilled potential”

  • me
43

Hello, my name is DarkMika, and I am a slacking student.
I have a 3.8 GPA. My combined SAT score is 1540. My ACT is 33. And I do not know how to study. I am disorganzied. I have difficulty focusing, my mind wanders. The only class I have ever had to study for was Pre-Calc, and I made a B.
My goal during my senior year of high school is to learn how to study. I signed myself up for all four AP classes I could take.(I only got into three of them, and AP Physics took a bit of finangling to fit into my schedule, but I tried.) Five/eighths of my classes are honors or AP. I figure that I will learn how to study, even if it kills me.
This semester, I have one fluff course. Floral Design. I regret taking it. We’re three chapters into the book, and we haven’t even touched a silk flower. I am bored out of my skull. But, hey, just half a school year to go(darn block scheduling). I’ve learnt my lesson.