University of Pittsburgh - Owl Yearbook (Pittsburgh, PA)

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Cram session: good grades the hard way By Marc Duchin ll took me a pot of coffee and a half a pack of cigarettes to get through my first midterm cram session. I began studying around 7 p.m. and finished up around 5 a.m. — a complete wreck. For the first hour of studying. I was comfortably sitting at my desk, reading, underlining. supping some coffee. But within the next few hours. I slowly changed into an alter ego — a pathetic, panic-stricken, frantic psychopath. 1 tried to study a week before the exam, but it just didn’t work. There was always something more immediate that had to be done. I told myself I worked best under pressure and blocked the test out of my mind. It worked for me until midnight, the night before the exam. That's when my nervous breakdown set in. I was reading along, concentrating on the material, when I made the drastic mistake of stopping to check how much more I needed to study. I counted the page numbers, added up my notes, and I foil increasingly nauseous. My notes seemed to be stacked up to the ceiling, and I felt like I was trying to move a building. 1 reached for a cigarette, took a long drag and tried to continue my concentration where I left off in the text book. However, it was never the same. All of a sudden, my reading speed decreased about 50 percent. My eyes wandered back and forth from my book to my reflection in my coffee mug. Five minutes went by be- fore I realized 1 had been staring at the same sentence. The chair felt like a rock, and I began to pace. After a couple strolls around the room. I felt a little calmer and went back to my desk. Most of my concentration returned, and for the next hour. 1 moved steadily from page to page. Around three in the morning, some bizarre thoughts were coming in. I was doing an equation when suddenly 1 thought about Snuggles, the fabric softener bear. Images of Snuggles drifting down in to pile of laundry cheerfully saying. Hi. it's me. Snuggles! played over and over in my brain. 1 rubbed my eyes, massaged my temples, pulled my hair, but I couldn't get Snuggles out of my head. At this point. I was certain I would fail my exam and began to shout out every piece of foul language I could think of about my professor. When I finished my recital of four letter words. I started thinking about taking a vacation. Once my winter vacation was organized. I folt a little more relaxed and decided to resume studying. When the last chapter was done. I dragged myself to the bathroom to brush my teeth before going to bed. I-ooking in the mirror was a disgusting experience. It reminded me of the remake of The Fly. I slept for a couple hours, got up. drank some more coffoc. took the test, in a very shaky frame of mind, and returned homel sleep. A week passed, and I. normal agai checked for my exam grade posted outsjj the classroom. I scanned down the rows of social secu numbers to find my familiar code. 1 got an I stared at my computer-generated for about a minute trying to get some satisfaction from it. After all. I went thr hell to get that A. I was on top of the cl distribution. I should have felt great. It was a letdown. Looking at my score. I v content and relieved, but I didn't feel gw Was I crazy? I thought back on the exam and could oj remember fragments of my answers. All I hi to show for my hardship was a score. But what the hell, that's all I needed fori class. It made the professor happy. What di care? Perhaps I felt cheated. My father once ti me that college is the last opportunity to| everything you always wanted to knj spoon-fed to you. Maybe I lost the hunger to learn. Mayb was content on only achieving what wase peeled of me. Maybe that's why 1 went a lit] crazy the night before my exam. Marc Duchin is the News Editor for Thef News. 28 Studying

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Greek Week 27

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Studying 29 Marshall Clark