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eskielover · Mar 02, 2012, 02:42 AM

Oh yes, I had to work so hard for my grades & if I didn't cram for the mid-term or final right before I was taking it, my memory was GONE & I would blank out on the tests. I also had to know that I knew all the material or I would panic & choke on the tests & end up failing them.

Took me 8 years to get my BS. The first 3 years I spent getting my AA degree in Music.....then I decided to change majors because I was never going to be good enough to get my BA in flute performance......so then what???????? I first thought strictly Computer Science.....but some of the classes I knew I would never pass, like the 2 years of calculus & the engineering classes that I had no idea what they involved......so I decided to go with an Accounting Information Systems Major & the Computer Science minor.....that way I could program either business systems or engineering or if I was desperate, I could try to get my CPA.

My junior year, I ended up meeting the guy I would end up getting married to the next year after he graduated with his Computer Science degree. The first year after he graduated & finally got a good position, it took him to Roma Italy for 5 weeks & I decided to go along....figured I would never get another chance like that in my life.....so I took that semester off. Then I ended up getting pregnant & kept up with my school because I ended up having our daughter 10 months before I graduated. Managed to have her the week before Easter vacation from school, so that gave me a couple of weeks off after having a c-section. Went right back to finishing off my semester.

Graduated that 10 months later with a 3.25 GPA & had several job offers to choose from before graduating.

It took me so much work & focus which made my husband mad. I remember one weekend before a really huge test, he wanted me to go with him & a group to Disneyland. I had been to Disneyland so many times, I wasn't about to take time away from studying for that huge test. He held that over my head as being controlling all 33 years of our marriage.

Many times I would rewrite my notes from class & organize them in a way I would understand them better. I would also rewrite notes out of the book to incorporate them with my notes & then go over them & go over them until I could picture my notes in my head & see every point I thought I needed to know for the test. It worked the best for me most of the time. Back when I was in college, I wasn't dealing with the depression or anxiety that I ended up suffering from later on in life.

I remember going back to school & taking more classes after graduating & we had moved quite a ways away from my work & school.....right before the test, I remember having my notes in my hand on the steering wheel & trying to drive & last minute cram on my drive to class. Interesting however, it seemed like it was easier to retain the material after I graduated than it was before.

I graduated HS back in 1970......I graduated with my AA in 1973, graduated with my BS in winter 1978. I started out programming for Citi-corp's credit card system, then after a year changed companies to the one where my husband worked & ended up as a firmware design engineer working on military computer systems.

When the aerospace industry took a down turn in 1994, I ended up loosing my career completely when I couldn't stand the position I ended up in (glorified secretary with an engineer's salary......long story). I ended up having a break down when that happened. I tried to go back to UCLA & take classes in computer graphics, but kept ending up in the psych hospital. I pretty much was a basket case from 1994 until 2003, in & out of psych hospitals & eating disorder treatment center......then I really thought I was doing better & decided to go back to the junior college & work on their Interior Design certificate program. I actually went to the disabilities office & got special help like longer time & a quiet place to take tests, the ability to record lectures because all my wonderful note taking abilities just ended up in anxiety attacks. I however got so involved that first semester that I ended up being treasurer of the on campus interior design club & the leison to the professional groups & to the interior design club at the university I had graduated from with my different degree. The classes went so well, it was really shocking to me how easy they actually were.....but it did help to have the extra time & help that the disabilities office provided.

Sadly, my mother had been diagnosed with cancer the year before & was going through the chemo & radiation that year. That summer after I finished my first semester in the interior design classes, she had the surgery. The end of summer right before school started again, I ended up in the hospital because of an asthma attack I had from the smoke of a forest fire that settled over the valley I lived in. I had been out in the smoky air because I was on foal watch with my mare who was expecting any time. She took longer to have her foal than we expected. Right after that, I ended up with a mild sun stroke. I physically wasn't up to going back to school & all the work that I would need to put into it which I guess was a good thing because 3 weeks after my foal was born, she got injured & it took all my energy to nurse her injured leg. It was a wonderful bonding time with her, but it took a lot of work.....then everything fell apart with my mother's health & I went through a trauma with the home care person who abused her & me in the process in a very scary situation. Know I would have definitely rather been in school taking classes than how things ended up that's for sure.....my mom died that winter & dealing with the PTSD & the anorexia that the stress caused left me too messed up to even try going back to college again.

Think I am just now getting to the point where I could handle taking classes again, but have focused my learning on Bible studies rather than college classes. I am enjoying reading books that I never had enjoyed doing before. I would get so burned out on text books & technical manuals that I couldn't even enjoy reading a book.....even a fun book.

One thing I have found....interesting enough is that after I started taking the Omega 3 EPA/DHA at 1600mg/day (2 teaspoons of the liquid fish oil), my memory really improved. I started taking the Omega 3 EPA for my depression as I had a wonderful pdoc that was into clinical studies & alternative natural treatments. It really helped my depression also & my energy level & to my surprise, it really helped with my memory & remembering the things that I read. Wish I had known about that when I was in college because I definitely would have taken it then. I am sure it would have helped with my retention of materials for tests.

May be something you might look into trying. Study methods are important.....but if you struggle with retaining anything like I do, any outside help like the Omega 3 definitely can't hurt.....besides, it's good for the body along with the mind.

Don't worry about how long it takes you to get through to get your degree. I came to the conclusion that it's better to take longer & have a higher GPA than it is to push your way through & get a lower GPA because you are trying to take so many classes to get good grades in them all.

My husband graduated with a 2.0 GPA & the company he wanted to get a job with wouldn't hire him because of his low GPA.......where with my 3.25 GPA, I had 3 job offers to choose from. Yes, it was definitely a different economic environment back in the 1970's, but companies will still pick the graduate with the higher GPA when there are so many to choose from.

Keep working at it & don't give up out of discouragement. It's an accomplishment that can't be taken away by anyone & it definitely gives you a better chance at getting a job/career than without......with that in mind, there is nothing more important for a woman than to have the ability to be independent & be able to care for yourself. If for some reason you end up in an abusive relationship (seems they are more prevalent these days) you will have the means to pick up & leave without being financially dependent on an abusive person.

My best wishes for your future