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Why can I not work unless I'm under pressure?

I have an exam on wednesday and I have only revised about 10% of what I need to, leaving 90% of it to be revised tomorrow. Whenever I sit down to revise for it, my mind constantly wanders off and I find myself browsing the internet, thinking about stuff, etc.

It's only the day before exams where I seem to be able to have the motivation to revise for them, and I'm normally quite good at cramming everything in but I believe I could be capable of so much more if I was able to concentrate my mind on a task without my mind wandering off when I'm not under pressure to complete it. I'm absolutely terrible with coursework for the same reason.

Any tips on how to achieve this would be appreciated...!

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 1

Aramiss18

Because you're a normal student.

Reply 2

Mr. Tizzy XII

Original post by Aramiss18

Because you're a normal student.

I try to study early for exams, and i've definitely improved over the years and relied on cramming less, but it's still my main strategy. :dontknow:

Edit: My tactic: dwell upon the consequences of drastic failure in exams, that usually gets me in the working mode for a while. And I set myself a 40 minute on / 30 minute off schedule throughout the day, that get's a lot of work done with a fair bit of free time.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 3

MusicTechnologyStudent

There is probably some study support or study skills office at your uni. Get in contact with them and work on your problem.

Otherwise, try getting into a mutual support situation with other students where you remind and help each other to plan, manage, and actually DO continual revision throughout the year.

Reply 4

Joinedup

General principle... Often You need a bit of stress to motivate you to do something you find boring. Otoh too much stress causes your mind to start panicing, and that's not very productive.

Guess you need to find something like the pomodoro technique to condition your mind into accepting boring work before the stress of a looming deadline kicks in.

Reply 5

member520746

I'm exactly the same. All my coursework this year was done at the absolute final deadline, staying in after school to do it cause it wouldn't even be started when I came in, hadn't even read the books I did my English CW on. I dunno why I'm so useless, I just am