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I didn't burn out for the past 12 years, I can handle another 3.
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<p>If you were pulling four all-nighters in a row back in fourth grade I think that definitely points to a problem with your work habits.</p>
<p>I was always amazed in school how most of my friends that had the most classes and activities tended to be the fastest at doing homework. I had one friend that could sit down and do entire homework assignments in one sitting without ever getting up, checking e-mail, having a snack, or anything. It would take the rest of us 10 hours because we couldn't focus for nearly as long straight, but he'd be done in about four.</p>
<p>star star do you by any chance post on the Mortigi tempo boards?</p>
<p>i think (no matter what other think) nyu is exaggerating. no sleep for 4 days is biologically not possible. unless , of course, you're a zombi. or you don't do it often. if u do 4 days & nights straight w/o sleep once in a week...you're probably a 100 pound person...lol...(but i know its exaggeration)</p>
<p>i wasnt going to say anything but i have to take up for nyu. i mean once you get past those couple of hours of extreme exhaustion your body goes into turbo drive and you are just a monster. all u have to do is drink so soda and get some good music to get your through those couple of hours and you will be fine. i have stayed up for 3 nights in a row (never 4 though) doing this.</p>
<p>also remember that some people simply dont require much sleep</p>
<p>What I find funny is that many people on CC Boards talk/boast about staying up night after night to get their work done. The reality is that many people who are far more successful than these people get by without taking such extreme measures.</p>
<p>So if you're staying up 4 days straight (which I somehow doubt), you should take a day or two off to think through how others are getting by without doing this.</p>
<p>Is it really necessary to sleep that little? I also go to a top school, and all my friends manage at least 4-5 hours a night. Most sleep 6+. It's not enough, but at least it's humane! This semester I've made a promise to myself to sleep at LEAST 7 hours a night, and because of that handling my academic workload has become so much easier. During the day, just cut out time on Wikipedia or CC or w/e, and work on papers, etc. </p>
<p>You'll get your work done so much more effectively if you can think coherently -- ie if you've gotten some sleep. As much as you THINK you're functioning just fine on no sleep, you're not. I've been there, and I've seen the difference. Last semester when I was functioning on very little sleep, I was constantly feeling nervous, stressed out and overwhelmed. I would have to read something three times to understand it, and it took me ages to write a 6-page paper. Now that I've started sleeping enough, I'm much happier, and about 10x more productive. </p>
<p>You're looking at 3 more years of college and 3 years of law school. </p>
<p>Also, don't be too perfectionistic - there's some point where you have to tell yourself that you've done enough. Go to sleep, for the sake of your own health. One of my friends did what you did until halfway through this semester, and ended up turning a small virus into a serious pulmonary problem!</p>
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Also, don't be too perfectionistic - there's some point where you have to tell yourself that you've done enough. Go to sleep, for the sake of your own health.
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<p>One of the most valuable things that I learned in college was what not to do or study. I don't mean sneakily avoiding assignments, cutting corners, or cheating. I just mean learning to prioritize, learning my own limits, learning when enough was enough, learning when it was necessary to put things off or to sacrifice one pursuit for another. As a perfectionist, this was a tough but incredibly important lesson! I know kids who've never learned it, though. For the most part, they do okay, but they tend to be the kids who are pulling the frequent all-nighters, the multi-all-nighters, and who are constantly stressed and over-burdened. Many of them wonder why they seem to be working so much harder than anyone else, when they're comparably intelligent people. It's largely just a study skill. </p>
<p>In HS, we used to joke about slacking being an 'art'. I don't mean that literally, because I'm not trying to advocate scraping by, putting in minimal effort, whatever. Even for the most effective studier, long hours are often necessary. I'm not saying that the kids at the top aren't working their butts off, nor am I saying that long hours + lots of stress automatically indicate inefficiency. I just think it's important to know when to say "enough", and to understand that at some point, that can actually be more productive than plowing ahead.</p>
<p>Well, I had the second lowest GPA at my school of anyone who got into NYU. I figure once I'm here, since everyone's smarter than me, I had better work twice or three times as hard to get better grades than them.</p>
<p>And yes, I know plenty well about the law of diminishing returns.....I'm an econ major, for god's sake. Yes, I know I'll fight tooth and nail for the last 5 points to take me from a 95 to a 100 but I'm willing to fight tooth and nail for it.</p>
<p>Perfectionism's in my nature though....I can't help it. It must be like, genetic or something. I feel like it's never enough until I've gotten to perfection. And then once I get to perfection, I turn around and tell myself that's STILL not good enough. I'm not depressed, I just keep feeling inadequate. Might be some sort of complex.....like feeling like I have something to prove because I got in with such a low GPA. (Well wasn't that low but comparatively)</p>
<p>That might be a problem once you get to the point when you'll be in a position where you need to learn to give up at "good enough" and leave something as it is. When things tend to have a more definite answer, such as homework sets, it's not too bad to keep at it until you have everything. However, once you start to get to research or very open-ended problems, you'll start to see there just isn't enough time to explore everything you want to, and those time-management and study skills that seemed kinda silly in school really start to come in to play.</p>
<p>Student is completely correct -- it's so important to learn what you don't have to do. Like every page of the reading -- it's just not going to happen. </p>
<p>Don't just accept perfectionism as part of your personality. I used to be a crazy perfectionist -- I would, like you, fight tooth and nail to get that 100%. But I've learned over the past few years that it's just not worth it. I'm still a hard worker, but I know when to stop. My happiness is more important than my GPA (up to a point, of course). So I have a 3.85 instead of a 4.0...who cares. I'm doing well enough, and I'm incredibly happy! It's possible to stop being a perfectionist -- but it does take time and effort. You'll be happier in the long run, seriously.</p>
<p>oh gahh... talk about lack of sleep. for the whole quarter, i've only slept 3-4 hours every weeknight, and sleep in during the weekends. the time i sleep during the weekends add up to more than the hours i get during the week. i realize it is a time management thing, but here's the problem. i get a little behind, try to catch up on that, then get more behind on the stuff that keeps piling up. i stay up late and try to finish that, but there's just so much to do. and by the time i'm done or close to done with catching up, i'm so exhausted that even if i don't want to procrastinate anymore, i'm just working way too slow to be efficient.</p>
<p>I got an 83 on my criminology test. I'm even more upset by the fact that I got a perfect score on the essay and then failed the multiple choice part rather than getting commensurate grades on both parts. That tells me I know the material, yet I STILL bombed the test. I'm going back over spring break and memorizing the entire book freaking verbatim. Up to the point where I can recite entire chapters in my sleep. There is no way I'm getting anything below a 100 on the next midterm. Maybe my french test will lift my spirits....just a little. The grade on that thing better have 3 digits. I had a 3.4 last semester so I need a 4.0 this semester to bring it up to law school caliber. I think I'm gonna sit in a corner and cry.</p>
<p>It's a pattern. I can't change who I am. I'm going to be one of those people who get upset because they didn't get a perfect score on the bar....even though they passed by a long shot. It's less about perfectionism than about not knowing when to say enough.</p>
<p>Did I say I was intelligent? I'm smart, but I'm by no means intelligent.</p>
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time management is a bunch of BS. just get the work done. that's what it's all about. doesn't matter when you do it, whether it's a week in advance or 1 hr before its due.
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I agree. Long as its done.</p>
<p>And someone talked about getting it done 'well'... Well the thing is if you are not used to working weeks ahead, that probably means you'll just do a half assed job to start out with and just be like "i'll fix it later since I have one more week or so..." and then never fix it. So in the end it'll be the same. If you are perfectionist when it comes to your work, you are still going to do a really good job even at the last moment. And if you suck to start out with... well there you go.</p>
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I'm going back over spring break and memorizing the entire book freaking verbatim.
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<p>I hope that you were just exaggerating. </p>
<p>Remember, its not what you know, but rather what you can do. Abilities are far more important than knowledge. I would rather have the ability to memorize 100 facts in one hour and just forget it in the next 48hrs than have the skills to memorize 30 facts in one hr and remember it for yrs.. Because that would get me through college with straight A's( in most classes, i.e doesn't work for math). Moreover, it really doesn't matter because most professional schools don't require prior knowledge. </p>
<p>Just think about how you are approaching things. If you are not smart, then get smart. Play memorization games to improve your short term memory and yes, if it that important to you, your long term memory as well. Do logic games. Look at the LSAT. I hear that test requires plenty of logical thinking. So do some practice problems from time to time. If you have a great memory and strong logical reasoning skills, then you'll be set for any task. Be it, practicing law or performing surgery.</p>
<p>I'm not kidding. I'm gonna memorize the whole book. Freaking verbatim. There's gonna be nothing the professor can ask on a test that I can't figure out.</p>
<p>If I suck at multiple choice, I guess the only way to do it is study so much I know the answer to the question without even reading the whole question.</p>
<p>Great. My spring break destination-the library.</p>
<p>FNS: You know yourself, your courses, and your studying needs better than anyone else here, but here's what stands out to me in your post:</p>
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I'm even more upset by the fact that I got a perfect score on the essay and then failed the multiple choice part rather than getting commensurate grades on both parts. That tells me I know the material, yet I STILL bombed the test. I'm going back over spring break and memorizing the entire book freaking verbatim.
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<p>On the last test, you knew the material. Knew it well enough to get a perfect essay score! Knowing the material doesn't sound like it's your problem, so memorizing the book may not help. Yes, obviously you need to have the facts down, but if this is a well-written multiple choice test, the facts alone may not get you all the way through it. Go back and look at the MC questions you missed. If factual details tripped you up, then yeah, there could be a fair bit of memorization in your future. But if you were missing questions because you were misinterpreting them, because you were answering too quickly (or were pressed for time), or because you didn't know how to "play" with the facts, there may be other issues. </p>
<p>If you're studying like crazy and still not getting the results you want, the solution probably isn't studying even harder in the exact same way. It might be, but be reeaaally sure that it is before you hole up for your entire spring break :(</p>
<p>Best of luck on the upcoming tests. I'm sure you'll work things out.</p>
<p>ETA: I'm thinking back to HS, when the class average for our first APUSH test was in the 40%'s. Learning how to pass that class wasn't about memorizing facts. Yes, they were important, but doing well was more about learning how to tackle (and effectively study for) an entirely new type of question and test. Personally, I spent a lot of totally useless hours memorizing before I really caught on to that, but I've had to revamp my methods for many courses since, so it was a worthwhile lesson.</p>
<p>4321234, it's a common misconception that you can lose 10 hrs of sleep throughout the weekdays and make them up during the weekends. The hours of sleep are lost and can't be made up. There's a point in fact when sleeping too much isn't even healthy. It would in fact be healthier to get less sleep than needed than to get excessive amount of sleep. So I learned in my Health class.</p>
<p>Amazon.com:</a> Reinventing Your Life: The Breakthough Program to End Negative Behavior...and Feel Great Again: Jeffrey E. Young,Janet S. Klosko,Aaron T. Beck: Books</p>
<p>I would recommend that book. I don't read many books but someone passed it along and it covers many life traps people fall into. Perfectionism being one of them. I think once you can see the pattern and recognize what you're doing it becomes easier to address it and come up with solutions to avoid that bad habit you have. And yes I have to agree with the other comments here. If you study a lot and still can't get perfect scores on a multiple choice test but can get a perfect score on an essay, then studying MORE is NOT going to improve your abilities in taking the multiple choice test. You need to adjust to the questions and learn how to take the multiple choice test and apply the knowledge you already have to that test. At this point it isn't about gaining more knowledge. It's more about being able to apply it to the questions you get, and eliminating the incorrect choices. Reviewing the exam will help you tremendously I would say.</p>