Posted by javableue on May 15, 2006, at 21:26:35
In reply to Re: Argh., posted by Racer on May 15, 2006, at 12:45:25
> I'm sorry you're struggling. I had the problem of falling asleep in statistics, even though I sat in the front row and tried hard to will myself to stay awake. For that matter, I was even interested in teh subject! But the prof had this great, sexy, late-night-jazz-DJ voice, and the class was midmorning, so every single blessed class session, I fell asleep, with my forehead resting on my hand, and hoped to goodness I didn't snore.
No sexy voice here... actually, my professor always sounded angry (a mix of the pitch of her voice and her accent), which is probably the only thing which kept me awake at all.
> I don't know what to suggest about the falling asleep, but I do know what I would suggest about the grade: do you have access to a tutor? Find yourself some tutoring, and do all you can to get past the final.
I don't have access to a tutor... at any rate, for this semester, the grade is largely decided, so I need to consider what I'll do if I need to go to summer school. Obsessive problem-solving and haunting the prof if possible seems to be the solution.
At any rate, my program coordinator has offered to ask about the grade on my behalf, so that may go better than if I had gone myself. (I'm in a pre-university program of all of about 30 students, and the nature of the program puts crazy demands on us so he often has to step in and help.) I'm just glad I don't risk breaking down in front of a professor I barely know now.
> What I do, in my current math class, is to do all the problems that have answers in the book, even though they're not assigned. I figure the practice gets it stuck in my head, and so far it's mostly been OK for me. Even sections I wasn't clear on, got clear when I'd done a hundred of them.
>
> Hope that helps. And I do know that it's hard to do this sort of thing in summer classes. They're so condensed.I think earlier practice would do me good... I would do upwards of fifty problems the night before the exam, but by the time I stopped I was so braindead that I couldn't really make use of whatever I had learned. Coffee can only do so much.
Thanks for the post and tips. I'm going insane not knowing. Thank goodness that, after this, I won't have any math courses apart from statistics. Studying in a second language doesn't daunt me nearly as much as trying to study something (science) I'm really not made to study does.
jb
poster:javableue
thread:643271
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/studs/20051123/msgs/644489.html