<p>I’m about to cry. I have too much reading. I think I WILL cry.</p>
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<p>I don’t think she’s suffering from depression - she’s just realizing how much Caltech sucks.</p>
<p>“Depression is real and should be dealt with. Please go to the medical center and discuss these issues with a physician. You might be very surpised at the amount of help you can get.”</p>
<p>Excellent advice. Depression isn’t due to a weak character, lack of willpower, etc. It’s a medical problem, and you need to seek medical help and also use your college’s counseling center.</p>
<p>If you get diagnosed with depression, you also could have the doctor or therapist write a letter that you could show your professors, who may be willing to let you do things to make up the work that you got low grades on earlier in the semester.</p>
<p>My advice is from the perspective of a former college prof who also has had depression.</p>
<p>As someone who has had similar problems, I’d advise seeing a counselor or looking into medication. I regret not doing it sooner. For many semesters I’d be so depressed that I just couldn’t force myself to get any work done with everything that was going on, and I’d end up cramming months worth of work into a night. During my sophomore year, I rarely attended any class. It wasn’t healthy! </p>
<p>I’ve gotten help and I feel so much happier. I now attend class regularly and my grades are back up to the A-range. It’s really a worthwhile investment… if you know something’s wrong and that you’re depressed, don’t try to fight it or think you have to be alone. Try to study with friends in the same courses, and seek some help. Don’t wait too long or the depression will keep crapping on your grades. College is stressful, and depression just makes it that much worse. It isn’t something you need to put up with. That is, things can and should be better.</p>
<p>The fact that you are looking for things to kill yourself with breaks my heart. Things are not as hopeless as they may seem – please seek some external help because once you’ve hit the point where you seriously look into suicide, that’s a sure-fire sign that you should reach out to others for help. The problem isn’t necessarily academic in nature. You’re smart enough to handle it. By fixing the problem at its source, the grades will come naturally when the depression is being kicked out of the equation. Believe me, I was insanely depressed. My father was killed, my brother was having troubles, my mother was having issues, my girlfriend had left me, my grades were slipping, my money was dwindling, my relationships with my friends were strained… the list goes on. Many days I thought about taking my own life because things seemed so hopeless and I didn’t have the motivation for school or for learning. Seeking help was the best thing I could have done in this situation. It’s very helpful to have someone to speak your mind to and to receive very valid advice from. Medication helps facilitate the recovery process and it’s such a relief to have those feelings of depression eliminated, because they’re oftentimes nothing but needless obstacles.</p>
<p>Anyways I’m rambling now, but if you would like someone to talk to, please shoot me a PM. Just remember that you’re never alone and help is just around the corner – all you need to do is make a few phone calls, and you’ll be on your way to a happier college experience.</p>
<p>Life sucks. Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate suffering. If your life sucks, you need to at least accept that your life sucks, and go from there. You’re basically suffering and doing a whole lot of crap that you don’t want to do no matter what, so you might as well do it in a way in which you have some control.</p>
<p>Okay, so that econ exam I spent the past, like, 48 hours for, I uh failed it. Like FAILED. It’s okay though, everyone else failed too.</p>
<p>^^ posters following the OP
If you’re offering advice, it’s useful to know that fizix2 is at Caltech, which makes this a rather special case.</p>
<p>“Okay, so that econ exam I spent the past, like, 48 hours for, I uh failed it. Like FAILED. It’s okay though, everyone else failed too.”</p>
<p>That’s not okay at all.</p>
<p>It’s okay because it’s curved.</p>
<p>“^^ posters following the OP
If you’re offering advice, it’s useful to know that fizix2 is at Caltech, which makes this a rather special case.”</p>
<p>I don’t know much about Caltech - what exactly makes Caltech a special case?</p>
<p>Here are the URL’s for a few Caltech courses. The first group are all fall-term math courses,Math 1a, 2a, and 5a. Freshmen usually take one of these courses. The second group are physics courses; the first (Physics 1a) covers Newtonian mechanics in the first term and the second (Physics 1b) second-term freshman course (analytical sequence) in physics. If you take a serious look at these, I think you’ll see what I mean.</p>
<p>[[Ma1a</a> - Fall 06-07] - Calculus of One and Several Variables](<a href=“http://www.math.caltech.edu/classes/ma1a/index1.html#hand][Ma1a”>http://www.math.caltech.edu/classes/ma1a/index1.html#hand)
<a href=“http://www.math.caltech.edu/classes/ma2a-An/07Ma2AnHW1.pdf[/url]”>http://www.math.caltech.edu/classes/ma2a-An/07Ma2AnHW1.pdf</a>
<a href=“http://www.math.caltech.edu/courses/07Ma5aHW1.pdf[/url]”>http://www.math.caltech.edu/courses/07Ma5aHW1.pdf</a></p>
<p>[Physics</a> 1A: October 2008 Course Calendar](<a href=“http://www.its.caltech.edu/~tmu/ph1a/]Physics”>http://www.its.caltech.edu/~tmu/ph1a/)
[Physics</a> 1b (Analytic)](<a href=“http://www.krl.caltech.edu/~bmck/ph1b/]Physics”>http://www.krl.caltech.edu/~bmck/ph1b/)</p>
<p>Sorry, my last post wasn’t very coherent and the links weren’t all correct, either. My spouse has built a firewall that precludes editing the post, at least at the moment.</p>
<p>To try again: Here are a few links to introductory Caltech courses in math (first set) and physics (second set). The ones in the first set are Math 1a, 2a, and 5a (all first term) and the ones in the second set are Physics 1a (first term, Newtonian Mechanics), and Physics 1b (second term, E&M, analytical option):</p>
<p>[[Ma1a</a> - Fall 06-07] - Calculus of One and Several Variables](<a href=“http://www.math.caltech.edu/classes/ma1a/index1.html#hand][Ma1a”>http://www.math.caltech.edu/classes/ma1a/index1.html#hand)
[[Ma2a</a> - Fall 05-06] - Differential Equations - Analytical Track](<a href=“http://www.math.caltech.edu/classes/ma2a-An/index1.html][Ma2a”>http://www.math.caltech.edu/classes/ma2a-An/index1.html)
[[Ma5a</a> - Fall 07-08]](<a href=“http://www.math.caltech.edu/courses/07ma5a.html][Ma5a”>http://www.math.caltech.edu/courses/07ma5a.html)</p>
<p>[Physics</a> 1A: October 2008 Course Calendar](<a href=“http://www.its.caltech.edu/~tmu/ph1a/]Physics”>http://www.its.caltech.edu/~tmu/ph1a/)
[Physics</a> 1b (Analytic)](<a href=“http://www.krl.caltech.edu/~bmck/ph1b/]Physics”>http://www.krl.caltech.edu/~bmck/ph1b/)</p>
<p>My worst quarter at school I didn’t leave til 10pm for the final 3 weeks.</p>
<p>How bout spending 48 hours studying for one test, and then going in the morning after and FAILING said test?</p>
<p>Makes me feel like I’m not smart enough for NYU.</p>
<p>you know which business is always a failure in the world?.. Education! So much torment… pressure…accountability…obligations…
Well all these are a result of lack of contact (continuous contact) between client and server…ie. student and teacher…It should be more like the client is helped individually to achieve his desires…U knw like normal businesses…??
only then can the product (us students) be finished and polished.
Well all that’s utopia…
TO the OP … my point is all around the world evry1 SUFFERS studying…some do it everyday…with passion focus…others have masked their initial interest with the most dominant charcter in humans…listnessness..or laziness…its normal…just get out of it for now !!! Just go get some solid study time for urself…and reward urself …maybe u cud play videogames or whatever u find fun…BUT REMEMBER… creative incentive to work is very important in doing academic/ routine/ boring/ necessity work properly. Hopefully ur spitrits are higher now.</p>
<p>Message to futurenyustudent:</p>
<p>Stop. Seriously. I was in a mindset similar to yours for my past 1.5 semesters (summer semester and fall semester) majoring in engineering/english with a pre-law focus and it started to eat away at me. Yes I worked my ass off and did really well (3.8), however as soon as classes started to get harder I realized things need to be taken into perspective before you lash out at yourself and fall into a perpetual cycle of depression and lethargy. Seriously if you get a test back and it isn’t what you feel you deserved, relax, take it all in, realize your mistakes, and perfect your study habits. Cramming information for 48 hours seriously deprives your mind of the ability to REASON, which is needed for taking college-level exams. You need to study to the point where you understand the material and can think your way through every problem, and if things don’t go well, so what? Go talk to the professor, check your results with the class average and don’t take it out on yourself and call yourself stupid. You can’t dwell on things that you can’t change, you can only prepare (intelligently) for what is in the future. If NYU doesn’t work out, there are plently of other good law schools that would happy to have someone who cares about their academics like you do.</p>
<p>For example, I just got a 76 on a diffeq exam last week and I was a little upset, but I took it with a calm mind, saw what I did wrong ( a lot of stupid things, not like I didn’t understand the process) and then later I found out that the class average was a 60, and bonus points will be awarded later in the semester. Problem solved. I learned to check my work more carefully and I won’t rule out my chances for an A in that class.</p>
<p>I think you should find a group of students in your classes or with the same major as yourself and study with them. I think when you study in groups, you end up keeping each other in check and studying doesn’t become as boring anymore. The downside is that you might end up wasting time. My friends and I sometimes goof off and waste time when we study together, but that’s only a small fraction of the time actually spent studying. So I think it’s definitely worth it. You just need to buckle down and work hard. All my friends that have struggled their freshmen year and bounced back were the ones that really made the extra effort to get good grades. They went to office hours, went to all their classes, formed study groups, took copious notes, reviewed their materials every night, and kept to a very routine schedule. Hope this helps!!</p>
<p>I totally know what you are talking about. I get that feeling so much, especially when I’m on the computer. Everyday I plan to go home to finish homework so I won’t have to stay up so late every night or leave incomplete. BUT, it NEVER WORKS. I’m a Junior now, and I don’t have much time left for improving my grades, which are decreasing as we speak.. So far, I’m projecting that I’ll have four courses that I’ll get B as final grade. That basically screws me up for applying to any top schools.. In addition..my teachers these year are ruthless. I guess I just have to accept that fact and just try to work harder. My method of studying is just to find the time that I’ll be most awake, but then again…I haven’t been to successful with that… </p>
<p>If you are depressed about your grades, don’t be. It’s never too late to start working, especially when you are a freshman. Most colleges don’t even look at freshmen grades since it’s a transition between middle school and high school. SO, just try different ways and figure out which way is best for you, that’s what high school is about.</p>
<p>^ The OP IS in college. This is the college life forum.</p>
<p>Caltech has health center and staff psychologists who are supposed to deal with these types of problems. They are probably a better resource than venting your anger online.</p>