Losing motivation at uni

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I get exactly how you feel. A Maths degree can do that to someone - it's quite different to doing A-level and STEP. I also doubted myself in the first year and wondered if this was really the right course for me. Sometimes I still do, but then I remember that this degree is exactly what I need to do what I want in the future. Perhaps you should remind yourself of your goals in the future, rather than why you came to uni to study Maths.

I think that you're being too hard on yourself. Like you said, it was your first exam. in a way, it being your only January exam, that can make it more difficult than it seems to be and there's a bit of added pressure. Whereas if you had 4 or 5 over the few weeks, you might've got into the swing of things and your first one would've been the worst.

But that's natural and it'd be silly of me to suggest 'don't overthink' or 'you did fine' because it's natural to feel like that. But it's in the past, and you're more likely to fail if you're stuck in that mindset, whereas if you try to your best to let go and have no expectations when you get the result back, who knows, you may be pleasantly surprised. Regardless of that, you might feel a bit more motivation to do better in the summer exams - I know I did after the results this time last year.

You're still in your first year so being involved in things is not awfully important, but it'd be a huge plus if you were. Maybe you can get involved in some kind of volunteering, a student newspaper or a sport or even be a peer mentor next year if they do that at Warwick. I s'pose it just gives you something to do, even if it's not easy to make friends in that way.

Maybe this is just the 'dip' that happens in the first year. Maybe it isn't, and you'll keep associating negative thoughts with trying to study the Maths on the course. If that's the case, maybe it's time to start thinking about alternatives - maybe there's another course that involves much more easy Maths amongst other things, like Accounting and Finance, that gets you to where you want to go. But don't make such decisions lightly.

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You'll definitely be able to get a decent job with a degree in maths from Warwick, so don't worry about that! I understand how you feel guilty about doing maths not relevant to your course, but you shouldn't feel bad about wanting to learn other things. Learning maths not directly relevant to your course is a good thing because you'll develop skills/techniques that you might be able to use sometimes on your course material.

You mention your interpersonal/practical skills. Is there anything you can do to improve these? As SeanFM mentioned, even volunteering or just writing for the uni newspaper would be a really good idea. My uni does something called RAG week (raising and giving) and they take volunteers on for that to help out, so something like that would be great to get involved in because you'll get to meet people and also develop skills you can talk about on your cv.

Are you a member of any societies? I know you said cost was an issue, but does your uni not offer a bursary or anything to help with the costs of joining them? (I know Newcastle does). If you could join like the maths society and go on a night out with them it would be good because you'll get to meet people on your course. Even if you can't do that, could you just join the societies Facebook groups and talk to people on there? I'm a member of the gaming societies group at my uni even though I'm no longer a member, and there's always people talking about games and stuff on there.

Do you know when you get the results for your exam?

Aw that's nice your girlfriend should be coming there next year. That'll definitely make your year a lot better next year!

I see that your university gives you the opportunity to do a year in placement between years 2 and 3 - something I've talked a bit about here. Perhaps that is something that you could work towards, and it'd definitely help you when it comes to getting a job. So this could be something that you could do for the rest of the academic year - do a bit of research, draw up a plan, think about what industry you might want to go to. I don't know how good your interpersonal / practical skills skills are but I am sure that this is something that you could imrpove on between now and then.

Yes, that's more than reasonable, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were people suffering in silence.

The thing with Maths is that you might be in a lecture, following what's being said at the start. Then for a lot of people, including myself, there comes a stage where we stop following and just start copying things down mindlessly without understanding things. We look over it and it doesn't seem to make sense at first. But the key is to keep going over it until you do, ask your tutors questions and attempt the problem sheets - sometimes, googling things helps. Only a very good student would be able to perfectly follow everything that's going on and get 100s in their exams - the rest of us just have to work hard and let the information be absorbed over time. I've found that, during revision, things I didn't get earlier clicked for one reason or another, so don't give up hope just yet!

I see, I can understand that. It's just that you good get a great degree classification and not get a job at the end of it because all of the competition, and you have to get involved now or regret it later on. But if cost is a factor.. that is quite problematic.

I could imagine your timetable being quite hectic, but perhaps applying for part time jobs might do you some good? To give you some routine as well as money and things to look forward to(!).

I see - what are the options like in second and third year? Who knows, maybe you could fill up your options with all of the abstract stuf. As for finding motivation, that's a toughie. There'll come a time (namely about 1 month before your first exam) where you'd regret not working over the semester. Learn this lesson now and you'll do well.

I thought I had to apply for that beforehand. Thing is I'll probably be a burden in such a scenario. I can't think of a single "normal" job, specialist or basic, that I wouldn't mess up. When I did work experience a few years back I even messed up cleaning windows lol (not that that was what I signed up to do but still..) I just don't seem to be able to function as everyone else does; I feel there must be something clinically wrong with me. Should probably see a doctor.

Yeah I get that feeling a lot. Problem is I think I hone in on the problem sheet questions, specifically the assessed ones, and my focus is too narrow; I inevitably learn something in working them out but will tend to just use the lecture notes for reference rather than properly studying. So I do well in the assignments but I don't have the best understanding I guess.

Part time job would kill me to be honest..and as I said, there's nothing I could do. I'm not joking or exaggerating; I really think based on past experience I would mess up massively even working behind a till or a bar.

I do enjoy tackling the assignment sheets to an extent. Got a couple today and been finding some satisfaction despite negative feelings. But I don't think they're enough really.

I'm sure there is plenty information, and plenty of threads, on this already, but I need to vent and my situation may have some unique elements. When I came back to uni on Monday (first year Maths) I was already not feeling particularly motivated. A little interested in the prospect of new maths, but mainly focused on my only January exam, which was today. That exam went pretty horribly (okay, I am not a great judge of myself, and I could get a 2:1 which obviously isn't horrible, although that's if they don't lower/scale your marks, it was an easy exam; I was just stupid) and now I really don't feel any confidence or drive to go forwards. I had hoped that in the event of this I'd be able to say to myself that it was my first exam, and I can do better next time, but it was so easy in hindsight (well, even during, I recognized that my brain was just being stupid rather than the questions being objectively challenging) that I don't know how I'll cope in the future and any interest in any part of my course is immediately crushed by the thought "yeah but you'll do **** in it anyway".

Basically coming to the place where I'm supposed to be inspired to study my subject has essentially killed all the positive things about maths for me; I could do maths for fun and to relax before but now the association is just far too negative. If I'm doing maths not relevant to my course I feel guilty and inefficient, and doing anything for my course just brings up the aforementioned negative thoughts. I did really well in assignments before, but this exam is much more important and I feel like, despite the fact it is worth less than 2% of the degree overall, this will signal nothing but future failure. It doesn't help that when I feel crap like this I have no friends at uni and I never go out, and can only go on here and facebook my friends at home to get any kind of interaction with people. These things were tolerable when I was doing really well in the first term, but I really cannot stand both doing crap on the course and being a complete loner with it. If that's the case, I am failing at uni in every possible way, and it is doing nothing for me. I just don't know how I can motivate myself or make my situation better. In the past if I did badly it fired me up to some extent; I would at the very least feel anger over dejection, now I just feel numb and hopeless really.

tl;dr: I performed way below my expectations in my first uni exam, and feel like I will continue to fail in future; university is making me hate maths and I feel no motivation to study it, my situation is worsened by a lack of any real diversions/"fun" which is due to not knowing anybody here and never going out.

Uni is absolutely pants. A complete hoop jumping exercise in order to prove to someone somewhere that you are capable should the need arise. I hated every moment of it. Pathetic, PC drivel. Would be nice to learn about things that are relevant to chosen careers sometimes rather than Bernoulli's theory. Pissed me off to no end, that, and the lectures were about as much use as a chocolate teapot.

Better, Mechanical engineering. Genuinely, worst experience of my life. Bar a boat trip I nearly died on. Finished near top of the group with a Distinction but had no life for 3 years.

I don't know about reaping the rewards, but financially I'm doing extremely well for my age compared to most people I know. What's better, my employer wants to send me back. How about, no?