Horrible Semester

I withdrew from a course, managed to get an incomplete for one, am hoping it's still possible to get another, and failed another. (I managed an 87 in one; had I properly prepared for the final, I would've done much better, because it was a real easy course).

So... yeah.

I'm going to underload next semester, hope I get better... what else can you hope for?

Darn essays.

Sounds like you are wise to cut back and try to do well in the courses you do take. Sorry the semester is was not a good one.

Have you considered going to the school's academic support center to help you work on how to do a better job with essays? I think most all schools have them. Or are you contrasting their difficulty with multiple-choice test items, where at least the correct answer is present?

Our semesters are kind of off, so final exams are only ending this week. Spring semester starts the end of the month.

We have a writing centre... but I know the kind of thing you are talking about, and no, we don't have one. The writing centre is staffed by volunteer students and possibly instructors. They might be able to help once I have something written down, but I can't even get to that stage.

And then I start thinking that I'm making excuses, being lazy... as if anyone would choose to fail courses they want to do well in due to laziness.

Part of it might be thinking that the research I'm citing already has all the information you need: go read them. They'll say it better than I ever could. And if I do try and force myself, my mind blanks out and I get anxious as hell. When my mood is better, it tends to be easier, though: that's what I'm banking on.

Yeah, I know what you mean Bark. But as an instructor, I can assure you we're not expecting students to say anything new, but we're evaluating a student's ability to either comprehend and/or apply a given theory or concept, at least in the social sciences.

I have always found that taking advantage of the library's research support is helpful, especially when it comes to research essays.

Don't hesitate to message me if you have any questions about paper-writing, I teach about this all the time!

RJ

I went to the Dean's Office today. With one course, I should be fine, so that's two incompletes. For the other, I'll hopefully either get an incomplete or get dropped, in which case I would get a W instead of an F.

I seriously hope my professor doesn't hold a grudge against me. Professor and chairperson... not a good mix.

Does your professor know of your struggles? Surely he/she won't hold your decision against you if he/she knows some of the circumstances. If not, and you sign up again for one of his/his classes--and obviously when you see him/her for advising--you might tell enough to indicate you didn't really want to drop and you hope things you go better in the future.

There can be a lot of different ways to start essays but just starting is the key. It might still help to visit the writing help center as they might have some tips that can help for some processes/methods to get them going and to help stay organized throughout the essay or paper.

Glad to hear that they helped to get some of the classes changed as you needed them to be. Best wishes in getting them completed and good luck in the next semester!

I gave most of my professors notes from my counsellor saying I have a mood disorder, am being seen by a psychiatrist, etc. He is also a psychology professor. So yes, he knows.

Thankfully I have a different professor as my advisor and I might actually be able to stay away from his classes in the future (we get a choice of required courses, so another course could compensate for this one).

I've written a variety of research papers and there hasn't been a single one where I wrote it from start to finish without jumping around. Normally, I write the introduction section but I don't write the thesis sentence/statement as I find I constantly tweak that. After I'm done writing a paragraph or a few paragraphs, I go back, try to re-write them in a way that sounds better. If I cant or if I have a train of thought going, I keep writing. I tend to ramble off topic pretty often, so I find it's best to always look back at what I'm meant to be writing and whether any of it is supported by the research I've found.

As I'm writing each paper, there's several paragraphs that are pretty much the same, just re-worded differently. I keep them there, look back at them later on and figure out which is best or make a new one. I may not finish the introduction right away and instead jump into the body. Afterward, I do the conclusion, then finish the introduction, re-read everything, re-write stuff and eventually it's finished.

I don't know what your strategy is for writing essays and papers but try changing it to see if it helps.

I've realized that I really don't have good study skills or writing strategies. Now I'm actually trying to do something about it. I've collected a bunch of information about things I could do, and I'm going to try and implement them.

I don't know if I have ADHD, but a lot of the tips sound really good and helpful. And they're bite-sized, too.

Thanks everyone. I'll update this thread around Tuesday, by when everything hopefully will have been sorted out.

I haven't read through the whole thread, so I apologize if some already mentioned this. But I used to work at a writing center on a college campus, and we would help people with ANY step of the writing process, including brainstorming. So even if you don't have anything written down yet, you should still be able to go to the writing center for help.

I'll read through the rest of this later -- I have to leave for class myself right now! (First day of my semester!)

Take care

Good luck!

And someone did, but it's fine.

There is a tip I found valuable: Don't write and edit at the same time.

I've heard from so many people that I should just start writing anything whatsoever, and keep going, and I'll at least have something to work on then. Problem is I'm already editing in my head. I was just agonizing somewhat over a short e-mail that I was typing up, trying to have it worded well and correctly and so on. And in response to some e-mails I've got, I get replies without capitalization, grammatical errors, and so on. I don't think people would actually notice that the verb doesn't agree with the noun or if the pronouns agree with the subject in number or....

Bark, It sounds to me as though you care a lot about good English. I see nothing wrong with that. It also sounds like you may be a bit prone to perfectionism. That can be a huge problem. I think it's often a case of compulsiveness related to anxiety. That sort of thing can be a huge impediment to getting things accomplished. I've experienced a lot of that, myself.

If you try to record ideas as fast as you think them - when your mind is particularly fecund - it's kind of impossible to dot every i and cross every t. If you think you never experience that kind of mental state, then you are possibly over-censoring yourself.

It can be real ego-deflating to look at what you wrote yesterday, or last week, and find yourself thinking, "What a bunch of tedious junk." (Happens to me everytime I come to PC. ) Maybe over-sensoring is a strategy to spare ourselves that pain. Not a good strategy, though.