Pamplin School of Business: Tests, tests, and more tests. Oh My!

October 4, 2011

Tests, Tests, and More Tests. Oh My!

You know you’re in college when it’s 2:30 AM, you’re on your third energy drink, and you’re trying to cram philosophers into your head like it’s nobody’s business.

That was my life for the past week. I had a HUGE philosophy test coming up and I was panicked. I had been studying on and off for the past couple of weeks but it isn’t until I was facing the deadline that I thought ‘Oh god, did I even learn any of this?’
So I crammed. I crammed a little. Then I crammed a lot.

It was a 24 hour session of a panicked freshman freaking out her roommate and flipping through every page of her philosophy book. I learned a valuable lesson that day! This is my advice to all incoming freshman and to myself:

This isn’t high school anymore! I actually have to study for more than a day to be successful. I guess it doesn’t really hit you until you realize that you weren’t prepared to take the test. Then the panic sets in, followed by bouts of hysteria, and a cramming session that would impress even the worst of procrastinators. But somehow some of it stuck. I’m not saying I’ll pull another panic study session, but somehow it was effective. I went into the test ready to declare myself a failure and came out thinking ‘Wait, how did I know that?’

Learn from my mistakes. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to pull a cram session like that again without spontaneously combusting. I’m definitely going to take more advantage of the learning resources here at UP. I never knew how just talking to a professor about what problems I’m having can massively improve the situation.

I’ve mentioned it before but I can’t stress about how important that is to student life. I’ve never been at a school where professors are as involved in your education as you are. They want to help you and they aren’t afraid to take time out of their day to make sure you understand what’s going on. Needless to say, I’ll be taking advantage of that in the very near future.

Goodbye procrastination!

On a final note – if anyone has any questions at all, feel free to get in contact with me! You can find my contact info on that handy little sidebar to the right of the blog and I’ll answer any questions anyone has! Whether it’s about classes, Portland itself, or what life is like here on the Bluff, I’ll be happy to answer anything.

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