I can't focus! And I need to study!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I am losing my mind. I need to be studying this week, and my brain has decided it’s on strike. Stupid lazy brain! I keep flipping pages, thinking “I know this, I know this, why am I reading this again?”

The problem is that it’s a review, and not really studying, so I can’t get into it. I’m taking the CSMLS exam in a week and a half, which will certify me as a medical technologist and allow me to work as such all across Canada. It covers everything I’ve learned in three years of school and 8 months of clinical internship. that’s an awful lot of material to review.

I’ve done well. Not the top of my class, but right up there. I know my stuff. And the exam is pass/fail anyway, so it doesn’t matter if I kick ass or just barely make it. Nobody’s ever going to see the grade but me. But I still feel like I have to review everything, because I just can’t accept a lazy grade. If I miss something on the exam just because I forgot to re-read that one page in my notes, I’ll be mad at myself.

I need to set up a reward system or something, to encourage myself to study more. That or a horrible horrible system of punishment. :slight_smile:

Any ideas? Anyone else fighting a lazy brain these days?

2

I feel your pain, Antigen.

I’m having that problem myself. That’s why I’ve been hanging out at the SDMB so much today. I’m supposed to be working on my thesis, and I have to have a rough draft of the friggin’ thing ready by June 26. The thing is, I don’t give a rat’s hoochie mama butt about the thing. I really, really don’t.

I’ve got a bunch of reasons for my morale to be so low right now, but I won’t hijack your thread by listing them all here.

But I know how you feel. The best thing, I think, is to just give up for a while. Yup, that’s right–just give up. Go outside, get some fresh air, get some exercise, go shopping, hang out with your friends for a bit. Forcing it–and I mean, really forcing it–won’t help you much. I’m learning this now, and I’m learning it the hard way.

What are you trying to study, BTW?

3

Try setting a timer. Tell yourself that you are going to focus on your review for 15 minutes, or 10 minutes, or 5 minutes, whatever you feel like you can handle. After the timer goes off, set it again and do something pleasant to reward yourself. But when the timer goes off, go back to your studying.

Really concentrating for 50% of the time is better than doing a half-assed job the whole time, I find.

(I’m also writing a thesis. Turned in two chapters to my advisor on Friday. :slight_smile: )

4

When my husband and I were in high school, I used to help him study (he was a terrible student). Then we’d make out for a bit as a reward. Find someone to make out with you. :smiley:

5

Sweet! Good for you!

I had a methods section done, but now that I’m going to have to rework the whole nature of the thesis (thanks to crappy data–I can explain if you want, but I don’t feel like going into it here), which means that I’m probably going to have to edit the methods section to suit the analysis I do. Which I still don’t know exactly how I’m going to handle.

And if I don’t get my advisor a draft by June 26, I don’t graduate until Dec.

I could strangle my advisor, but that’s another subject, for a different thread.

6

Oh, please, feel free. After all, we have time to waste, no? :slight_smile: And I’ll share mine, while we’re at it.

I don’t care anymore. About school. My God, I’ve been in school for 20 years straight now. I want to be finished and start with real life. But by the same token, I’m so used to doing well that I know a half-assed grade would kill me. So I have to study, but I don’t care, but I do care… and my head’s going to explode.

Tomorrow, I’ll go study at a coffee shop downtown, far enough from home that it should probably save me from my distractions.

What else is on my mind? Well, for starters, my boyfriend is 500 miles away in Maryland and I haven’t seen him for two months. Long distance relationships suck. I’m seeing him in 10 days, because he’s flying up the day of my big exam to be able to meet me when I’m all done so we can celebrate. Unfortunately, I can’t use the makeout session reward system that yellowval’s suggesting, as much as I know it would help.

My clinical internship got pretty tough near the end, with some social difficulties between myself and a couple of classmates. Finding myself alone at lunch all the time, that sort of thing. That, and my outside-of-school friends have been dropping plans with me on a regular basis. So I’m feeling a bit lonely, with no friends or boyfriend nearby to help get my mind off things. At least my family’s been good with me, and are putting up with my stress without killing me. I have a great family.

I’m studying medical lab technology. Which means biochemistry, microbiology, transfusion science, laboratory techniques, safety and standards, histological techniques, immunology, molecular biology, and hematology. And I know most of it. I really do. I love this stuff and that helps a lot. But I’m stressing out because I know that there are bits that I don’t know. And I need to review it all at least once before the big exam but it’s not working.

What’s your thesis topic? You have to share too, Podkayne!

7

Wow, this brings me right back to my days as an undergrad. You’re experiencing pretty much the same things I did, right down to the pseudo-apathy and the social problems.

Here’s what works for me FWIW. I need background noise; I absolutely cannot study in a quiet room. I do my best work in front of the TV set in the living room with a quiet DVD going (Under The Tuscan Sun and various Hammer Studio films are the best). I like studying at coffee shops and restaurants too. If I absolutely must study in a library or another quiet place, I bring along a walkman and listen to Miles Davis. Nothing too loud. Just enough to jam my inner voice telling me to to find something more interesting.

As far as your other stressors like the fights with your friends and the long distance relationships, try not to sweat it too much. College is kind of a weird other-worldly environment. Real life is completely different. Having experienced both, I much prefer the real world, if for no other reason than you lose the sensation of living in a goldfish bowl.

Now just because I’m being nosy, what would you like to do with your major? Do you want to go into forensics or research? Good luck either way.

8

Actually, I’ve been there and done that, with regards to the college thing. I got my Bachelor’s degree in Physiology in 2003, and then I decided to take a step backwards/sideways to do this degree, because I enjoy lab work. The only jobs that seemed available to me after my degree were in animal research labs, and while I’m not against that sort of thing, I just couldn’t see myself doing it.

And I’m definitely looking forward to real life and the absence of exams. Imagine, coming home and not needing to open books if I don’t want to? Can such a wonderful world truly exist??

At first, I was thinking about forensics. But now that I’ve finished 8 months in the hospital labs, I’m realizing that I like it there. Very much. I already have a job lined up at the Blood Bank in one of the local hospitals, and I know I’ll fit right in. It really impressed me just how important the profession is, and how handicapped medical care would be without the technologists in the labs.

Ultimately, though, I’m hoping to write the American exams so I can work in the States and turn the long-distance relationship into something much more fulfilling.