Ever cram for a test knowing your going to fail, but try to study regardless?
 

Have you ever put off studying for a test, and then (say the night before) realize that there is way too much material to cover, and that you are going to do very poorly on the test, but despite this, you attempt to study anyway?

It's almost as if the studying is a formality that allows you to "feel" like you studied, and thus makes you more at ease, even though you know damn well you are going to bomb the test regardless.

Can anyone relate to this? Also, to those that can, how did you end up doing on the test after all?

i did that monday. imangine my surprise when i saw that i got a B:)

HAHAHAHA, that's what I'm doing right now...

I think you HAVE to do that, it would be better to study a bit before hand as well, but studing right before keeps things fresh in the mind.
I have a quiz on wednesday that I barely knew half the material. I tried studing for a couple hours before the quiz, but ended up falling asleep. I woke up w/ my head literally on my book, looked @ the clock and had to RUN to the bus stop in order to make it to class in time.
Still waiting to see the outcome.

I just did that last night and this morning. I did very poor...I'll be realistic and hope for a C' at best.

I kept on telling myself to never put myself in the same situation again, but when the next test rolls around, it's the same thing all over again...arggg!!! Good times!

Nope, six hours ago I was playing pool instead of trying to delude myself into thinking that twenty minutes of studying would help.

If you know your screwed, then it matters very little what you do the night before, it aint gunna sink in. Learn by the experience and dont let it occur the next time. Life is all about living and learning.

I just did that this morning, and I think I did pretty well. I rarely suck at tests though. This prof wrote the most ambiguous questions and answers (multiple choice) known to man though. :(

yeah, ive done that before....depending on the subject, ive either passed or failed.

trying to learn 4 weeks of math in 1 night is a recipe for failure though, of that I can assure you

Spent a week studying for a test I had last week, including all night the night before and reviewing the day of. Walked away with the worst test score in the history of my academic career. Shoulda just blown the whole thing off, probably still would have done the same.

Yeah.... I have done that on three tests... on one I got an F and on the other I got a D...and on the last I got a B. Go figure... I'm probably going to drop the class I got the F test grade in. I really need to stop cramming at the last minute... it kinda sucks.

That's literally what I do on every single test. I've never studied pre-emptively before. I always study the night before and basically xerox my notebook into my brain. I feel kind of bad since I've never bombed a test, yet I've never actually put forth effort for any of them (more than tetra-cramming the day/night before - or in the worst case scenario, the morning of).

Actually, I had two tests yesterday, one today and one on Monday, and a paper due Tuesday. I think I may have bombed my first exam yesterday on one of them. We'll see.

I definately know the feeling of thinking the crash studying will be useless, but try anyway. At least for me, crash studying has pretty much always worked, at least when I've seriously done it. If your dedicated to the cramming, you can pull off some suprising stuff.

I did fail a class a few semesters ago (calculus functions of one variable ii) but that was one where I gave up shortly after the drop date and didn't even make an effort to catch up. I would've had to ace the final to pass the class, and the likelihood of me learning an entire semester of calculus before the final wasn't too good. With some effort, I could've learned enough to pass the final, but it would've been useless as I still would've failed the class because of not studying for earlier ones. All in all, it was a shitstorm, though it is very freeing to fail a class.

But back to what I was saying, thats what all nighters are for. Just chip away at the mound of material, try to figure out what parts can be skimmed and what parts you need to keep coming back to every hour or so. Pace yourself since you know how many hours are before the test and have goals of 'this chapter for the next 40 minutes, then general review for 20, then the next chapter for 40, then more general review...' etc. You may not do as well as someone who studied plenty beforehand, but you can still get a pretty good grade on it usually. Works for me at least.

Oh yeah, and I highly suggest shutting down AIM and avoiding any general non-study-related websites for the duration, unless in small measured periods as a kind of reward for getting through an amount of studying. And don't clean your room, its fine till after the test, that one always gets me.

That's all I did in college.

Study, Drink, Get Laid, Drink, Do drugs, Drink, Get Laid, Study, Drink, Drink, Drink, Do Drugs...

Did that for a test yesterday. Got a 71. I was so burned out from the other 4 midterms Id been studying for that I just didnt give a shit anymore. Its an elective class, Im burnt out, so I said fuck it. And my grade reflected that ;)

I got spoiled or developed a bad attitude about studying, maybe because my basic intelligence and common sense got me by "good enough" (usually in top 10%) through much of school until I ran into more challenging stuff in engineering school ...Heat Transfer, Fluid Dynamics, Advanced Thermodynamics, for example.

Then I did what you're describing a few times. Afterwards I felt really disappointed in myself since I "wanted" to do better, but only after my second college year did I change my ways. But there's hope: now even most of that "esoteric" stuff seems second nature to me so I guess it sunk into my thick head and now I be a injun ear.

Gotta try,no matter what.Atleast you'll get abit higher mark maybe.

I did that last sunday night... I can relate

All the damn time, still graduated with a 3.5 though. They used to know me by name at the local Denny's, I'd always go there night before a big exam and drink a pot of coffee while I crammed. But damn am I glad my college days are done...

First semester of college. General Chem for majors. Needless to say I was not a science major long and ended up with a BA in History. :)

Happened last weekend with my Art History class in college. I studied all weekend and knew there was just too much to remember. I studied anyway and on Monday I took the exam. I left feeling like I had guessed on a lot of answers. On wednesday we got the results back...surprise-surprise...57%

I'm so glad I wasted all last weekend inside studying for a fucking 57%...makes me want to study more for the next exam! :thumbsup:

I think every college student does that at least once a semester. Or if you are like me, you don't bother craming and accept your fate.

LOL, that's my whole semester thus far... then again, I've been sick multiple times and missed several classes thus far... It's really hard to take 17 hours and miss lots of classes, and then catch up all in one week before your tests. =/

I did that thursday, spent 15 minutes studying for a typography test, that i then aced ^_^

Exactly, Need every point I can get. But it happens way too much. I personally blame video games.

Story of my life, man....

College would be great if it weren't for those classes...

What i do is study hard like a week before, let it sit in the back of my head, then the night before, i'll do little bit of light studying, just to refresh my memory.

Did this a few times in my college/high school career (mostly college). I tried to go to class so I at least was familiar with the material, and if the situation was hopeless, more often than not I just picked my area/areas to be good and tossed the rest. It was actually somewhat of a relief to know, "Well either I'll get lucky or I'm boned", versus when things were tight and I felt I had to buckle down. Granted, things often worked out much, much better when trying to master that last 20% of the material than being pretty sure you had no chance with ~50%.

That's why I've always done, and I've never failed a test in my life. Of course, that means you actually have to care about doing the work.

I do that all the time. But I usually end up getting an A or a B.... I'm always surprised too. Maybe I shouldn't be?