the beauty of focus, cramming and success(?)

My first major cram session was in high school. I had a 10 page paper due the next day. I had completed the reading yet had failed to begin writing the essay that I learned would only continue to creep up on me until I defeated it.

I earned an A- and was completely shocked. I told myself however, that although I performed well in that particular instance, I would never leave something so HUGE until the last minute..

There was then this biology course I took at my former university. Man..that was a period of much distraction. AD/HD tendencies were in..overdrive. It was a deep struggle.

I messed around all during that class due to being bored. I would chat at full volume to whoever was lucky enough to sit next to Mr Chatterbox-the-rain, Me.

I remember my prof had me take 3 of my exams in this..closet-room-thing.

Before the final she told me it was optimistic in assuming I would earn a “D” in her class, that I should re-take it the following semester.

😮 I could not have that. I met up with two tutors who made my professor appear highly pessimistic. I earned a B on the final, learning the entire semester of content in less then 2 weeks.

I earned a B- in the class overall. Man, that felt great. It was like..whoa. What a feeling.

That was some time ago. I’m sort of facing something similar at my current school. I have my final for classical political philosophy this upcoming Tuesday.

Truth be told I haven’t opened any of the books since the very beginning of the semester. I’m not ashamed to say this either. I considered going to speak with my professor but then I realized I have yet to figure out what I do know so I can ask him about all that I do not know.

Through the years I learned professors don’t mind you not knowing, you just have to know what it is you have questions about. With this particular dude, Sir  Teacher of the Class, I want to know exactly what I want to say memorized before I get to the floor of his office.

He’s..intimidating. I mean, I heard much about my econ professor having served as the economic adviser at one point to the Shah of Iran. I went to him nervous with my first questions but realized he’s completely “chill” and goodhearted.

This isn’t to say my professor of classical political philosophy is evil or malicious. I don’t really know him. We never really had a conversation. Just everything about him screams AHH! I HAVE MY PHD, DID YOU HEAR ABOUT ME? IT’S FROM HARVARD, YO! Or not necessarily the “yo,” but if you’re a student, I’m sure you know what I mean. I’ll devote another post to that..

Back to my original point -oh, I get distracted often, if you haven’t figured it out… 😛

Yes, original point..I’m trying to cram for this class. I earned a B on the first essay, a B- on the most recent one. I have to do well on this final. I’m trying and am promising myself this will definitely not happen again in the future. No more procrastination at this level in the semesters to come.