Is uni meant to freak you out?

[Lonelysoul]

Hi everyone.

I am currently doing a Master's and my exams are a few days away.
Of course I am experiencing stress. But it has gotten to the point where thinking about uni gives me the creeps and I am even dreaming about it every night, even when I don't have exams.

I just wanted to know if others feel that uni or college is controling their lives, if you are experiencing night time anxiety and how you deal with that.

Thanks a lot!

[Edward]

I think uni is not for everyone. My parents always say that the years of a student is the most beautiful time in person's life. Well, for me it was my biggest nightmare. Like you, I was dreaming about studying and sometimes I couldn't even fall asleep because of stress about the next day. I realized already after the first year I was studying something I'm not interested in and I had lots of failures, because we had so much study material and it was impossible for me to do it all. I made it, but I only have Bachelor and that's it. I ran away from that place as fast as possible, without even thinking about Master's.

[sillyboy86]

I had a different bad experience, but... But many acquaintances felt the same of you.
If you think you cannot go on, before doing something, think about where you are now. First year? Did only few exams? Or you surpassed the half of this 'journey' and you're not so far to the end... Etc.

[Ekwarph]

I was stressed about it when I was in my first years of studies and my speciality depends on the results I got, but now, I'm in my last year (equivalent of Master 2) and I pretty don't give a fuck since I just need to have my diploma...no matters how.
I think this sentence of Bill Gates helped me to relax :biggrin: : “I failed in some subjects in exam, but my friend passed in all. Now he is an engineer in Microsoft and I am the owner of Microsoft.” Just to say in 10 years, nobody will care about how good you used to work at the university.

Just work normally, have a break the 2 or 3 days before the exam (very important) and it will be okay. You may not be perfect on everything, but if you're ok on more than a half of them you get at least 10/20.

[Evan88]

In my case, it freaked me out only in the first few weeks but i did not became anxious. I feel you, masters is really far harder than bachelor's degree.

I was 15 turning 16 when i entered Uni, and i was quite culture shocked since i was used to a small school. I felt for once i was out of place, so what I did is just to show people that i have brains. The moment I showed them what im capable of, i gained friends and i became more enthusiastic to go to school everyday.

Do you have friends there? It really helps if you have a friend whom you can share notes with, or review with before exams..

And what exactly makes you feel anxious? Is it about just the exams or the whole master's thing? If its just about the exams, maybe manage your time so you can have ample time for reviewing and for sure it would make you really confident. When i was still studying, i make a schedule for reviewing, time management is the key. If its about the whole masters thing, maybe think about it for a while if that's what you really want..

[Homer]

I'd think most people would stress out anticipating to take the comprehensive exam and complete projects in grad school. I did! The comprehensive exam was quite tolerable, but one particular project gave me a mental block. Crunching the numbers was easy, but writing up about what the results supposedly predict was a nightmare! Oddly enough, I never use it again in my life so far, except a simplified version. So, why did that professor torture us? Good luck in yours. Keep us posted on your progress!

[Bowyn Aerrow]

How important is University? Well it decides the outcome of your whole life - the next 50 years of your work, how much you earn, what you accomplish in life will depend on how well you do in University.

If you didn't take that seriously at all, I would suspect there is something dreadfully wrong with you.

The whole adult responsibility thing has kicked in. You are either going to fly when you flap your wings are you are going to fall to the forest floor and be eaten. You have every right to be in a near state of panic and to have horrifying nightmares of failure - your life depends on you doing the right things.

It does get easier the older you get.... Oh no - just kidding, the older you get, and the less stable things in the world, like economy is, the more stuff there is to panic about.

Its the way of life. Sorry.

[Lonelysoul]

hehe, wow Bowyn that was brutally honest, but so true lol Thanks a lot for all your responses

In today's economy it gets more and more difficult to find a job with just a Bachelor's degree. I guess that's why I stress a lot.
But I guess part of the problem is that after school I dreamt about doing other things than what I am currently studying. However, I sacrificed that in order to obtain a degree which would give me a stable income. But I guess today nothing is stable anymore, so... Then, over the years I realized that I would be unable to do what I initially wanted (my passion), due to my personality traits. And now I am basically in conflict with myself, where I keep thinking of my passion and at the same time I have to succeed in something that is very demanding and that is not all that inspiring.

I hope this makes sense lol

I do interact with people at uni (not sure I can call them friends yet) but I guess that's not enough.

[Jake]

LOL I don't know if it was you on another thread... don't feel the need to respond (because it was sent Anonymously) but it seems to be awfully the same message so instead of just re-writing the same thing I'll just direct you to it

http://gayspeak.com/showthread.php?p=369756#post369756

* Well judging from your age it wasn't you... after checking... but I believe you'll find it interesting anyway

[Ekwarph]

How important is University? Well it decides the outcome of your whole life - the next 50 years of your work, how much you earn, what you accomplish in life will depend on how well you do in University.

If you didn't take that seriously at all, I would suspect there is something dreadfully wrong with you.

The whole adult responsibility thing has kicked in. You are either going to fly when you flap your wings are you are going to fall to the forest floor and be eaten. You have every right to be in a near state of panic and to have horrifying nightmares of failure - your life depends on you doing the right things.

It does get easier the older you get.... Oh no - just kidding, the older you get, and the less stable things in the world, like economy is, the more stuff there is to panic about.

Its the way of life. Sorry.

I precise I talk about engineering since I don't know how it is for other fields. Even if I'm sure it's pretty the same everywhere.

Two years ago, the last of promotion of my college was also the one who earned the most money after leaving college. He managed to have a placement in a Swiss bank.
Why that?

Because nobody care about his result, the most important was his personnality.

I don't know how it is in the US, since lots of companies in the US require a minimum GPA to work in.

In Europe, nobody cares. You're someone clever, talkative and with potential, you can succeed very well, unless you validate your years to graduate.

And that's not few marks that will tell the company whether you have the potential or not. Except few exceptions, nobody will ask your results.