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Other students with terribly bad motivation?

Discussion in 'Serious' started by Jipa, 13 Sep 2009.

  1. Jipa

    Jipa Avoiding the "I guess.." since 2004

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    It's so easy to sometimes forget I'm not the only one doing terribly bad in the school.

    The results of the first maths exam just came out - 60% of the class failed. :duh: or maybe :lol:. That really made my day as for a large part I thought just about everyone else had already studied the same stuff (matrix, imaginary(complex numbers w/e in English)) and all that in the college. Apparently not.
     
  2. boiled_elephant

    boiled_elephant Merom Celeron 4 lyfe

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    Just to throw in my 2c, I'm in second year and I still have HUGE problems with motivation. I mean gigantic. I'm 7 weeks in and I've done nothing. At all. I've literally written a few pages of notes and bought a large binder and read a bit about English Cathedrals in the library this one time. My essays are due in the next three weeks at various times and I'm absolutely shredded over it, I don't know how to force myself to start getting into this stuff. Education just isn't nearly as enjoyable as I thought it would be, and the fact that I'm paying a lot of money to not have fun stings.
     
  3. Jipa

    Jipa Avoiding the "I guess.." since 2004

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    It's basically gone from bad to worse, and I just can't see how I could make it any better even if I tried. Essentially I've F*d the whole first year, which alone wouldn't be too bad, but I've also noticed I seriously just don't like programming. At all. Also the maths hasn't started to make any more sense, which pretty much ruins any further technical studies for me.

    Not looking good.
     
  4. boiled_elephant

    boiled_elephant Merom Celeron 4 lyfe

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    First year is all about figuring out if it's for you, though, so you've realised it well in time. Also, if you decide to stay on, first year marks don't count towards your degree, if your uni's anything like mine.
     
  5. Volund

    Volund Am I supposed to care?

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    I'm doing part time in high school, and part in college for my senior year, and I absolutely hate my high school work. I only have 2 classes I need to pass for graduation, neither of which really matter to me.... I only have to PASS them to graduate.... not do well in them, and, as I'm getting an associates degree at a community college before I go on to a four year degree... those high school grades really don't matter anyway...

    Basically, I don't give a **** anymore, I busted my ass for 3 years, but now that I see I have no need to do well (so long as I pass), I don't feel the need to bother anymore.
     
  6. scq

    scq What's a Dremel?

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    I'm in my last year of a worthless BA in Architecture. I got all my portfolios and applications in for graduate school (Master of Arch. so I can at least do something of value) and I can say that I can't give any less of a **** than I do now regarding classes.
     
  7. stonedsurd

    stonedsurd Is a cackling Yuletide Belgian

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    Dude your situation sounds almost exactly like mine.

    I was a CompSci major last year and I had no motivation. I later realized that it wasn't a problem with motivation, it was a problem with me. I don't get off my ass to make any effort unless it's for something I truly like or want to do. Looking back, I see that Math, Physics, Chem and the like were just not my subjects. They didn't interest me, I couldn't self-motivate and bam, I was spewing out F's like a 16-year old after 8 Jaegerbombs.

    Then I got thrown out of Univ.

    That was the turning point, you might say. Prompted a lot of introspection and a lot of talking with my parents, friends and family to figure out what went wrong and why. When I looked at the grades of all the courses I'd taken for a year, I saw that I tended to do damn well in non-science subjects (History, Philosophy, Composition). And I really enjoyed those classes when I was taking them.

    Long story short, I'm headed back this summer, with a much clearer idea of what I want to do, what I should do and how I intend to do these things.

    I'm not telling you how you should handle your life, but since I saw a few similarities (neither of us like what we started out with, both of us have zero motivation) I thought I'd share how I dealt with my problem.
     
  8. Jipa

    Jipa Avoiding the "I guess.." since 2004

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    Yea I'm starting to feel like I might not be of the engineer sort after all. Back in college, and baccalaureate(?) my best subjects were history and English. Physics wasn't half bad either, but I only barely managed to fight through the maths. I also did trade-school with the college (electrics assembler or something), and even over there I figured I just don't like programming too much. All the down-to-earth installations and stuff were a nice breath-hole after all the college-bs...

    The thing is, though, that humanists have wayyyy lower chances of getting work after graduating. I'll admit I'm going way ahead of time even thinking of that, but how much would it suck to study another 7 hours just to find there's hardly any jobs out there. Sure things always change and some always get lucky, but compared to the 98%-or-so for computer science graduates, it's really a whole different story.

    One option would be to just take a year off and work, but right now it's hard to see myself ever getting back to school if I now leave it.
     
  9. stonedsurd

    stonedsurd Is a cackling Yuletide Belgian

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    Yeah, the job thing is much harder. Engineers can make a packet of money right out of university.

    And pilots too. Pilots make insane amounts of money for very little work (at least in India).

    Gah, deciding what to do with one's life is hard as hell.
     
  10. Jipa

    Jipa Avoiding the "I guess.." since 2004

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    Aye I end up feeling like I'm having a mid-life crisis at my 20's! Right now it seems like options are either to struggle in the school another 7 years, studying something else but ComSci, or trying to find a rubbish work for the rest of my life :D Neither seems too tempting.
     
  11. ou7blaze

    ou7blaze sensational.

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    Bad motivation, I think I and many people suffer from this. I put it down to me losing interest to things quickly, which is not a good quality to possess but I can't help it. I find it helps to put pictures of things you want around your work area to motivate yourself. For example I want to become a pilot so on my desktop I've got a nice HD pic of a plane I want to fly one day.

    Really?! That's the last place I would've thought pilots would get paid well.

    Also I think you're wrong with pilots making good money. They do but not until they reach the later stages of their career. This is also assuming they are in a good airline to start with, good as in well paying. I'm quite sure many other professionals earn more, doctors and lawyers in private practise come to mind.

    I'll tell you if the job is hard or not when I become one. :p
     
  12. Sloth

    Sloth #yolo #swag

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    Tried finding a part-time job, or an internship? That really got my life shaped together. In my first year at college and completely bombed first quarter and have botched this second quarter beyond repair, but am now very motivated for third quarter. Couldn't get myself to do anything after high school, almost didn't even continue my education at all. The problem being that I can't get myself to do anything if I can't see the purpose behind it. Getting a good grade isn't a purpose, if you get what I mean. My focus is on architecture/civil engineering so there is a great deal of CAD/art/physics mixed together to get a broad range of knowledge. Thing is, even though I enjoy it, I can't be made to actually do anything since it's all pointless. Gaining knowledge for the sake of it is pointless in my mind. Why draw up house plans that will never be built? But now with a job in the field I can take what I learn in class and use it the next day. It's really an amazing feeling to actually watch oneself grow and a huge confidence boost to see your real world performance :thumb:
     
  13. stonedsurd

    stonedsurd Is a cackling Yuletide Belgian

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    They key, at least in India, is making the switch to management when the time comes. What a lot of pilots tend to do is cut themselves off from the company, treat their job like it's the only occupation they'll have and that's it.

    It takes smarts to keep options open (within the industry of course), meet people, make sure you're on good terms with management. A degree or two doesn't hurt either. My brother is a pilot, and will financially outpace most of his peers for the next 5-6 years at least. Then his salary will plateau and his buddies with fancy business and engineering degrees will zoom on up. That's why he plans to get an MBA within the next 2-3 years so that he can stay in the field of civil aviation but move into a job within his airline that has better prospects for getting more money than your average captain.

    Of course, you can get really lucky and become the lead pilot (the top dog among the flyboys) in an airline. I know one of those dudes, and that seriously is a life to envy :D
     
  14. Nexxo

    Nexxo * Prefab Sprout – The King of Rock 'n' Roll

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    You want motivation? Visit a benefits office, and watch glassy-eyed zombies who have had their life, hope and dignity kicked out of them long ago queue up for ritual humiliation at the counter by some snot-nosed, stressed-out officious bureaucrat whose limited intelligence cannot balance the two conflicting demands of helping the destitute survive while sticking to government budget-cut targets that testify of a psychogenic fugue approach to dealing with an economy twitching in rigor mortis. Join the queue? Pull a number. It has six digits.

    Visit the job center and repeat the experience. Perhaps you get lucky and can do a minimum-wage job at a potato packing factory. Learn to keep up the pace with the Eastern European immigrants though, because they work something fierce --no motivation issues with them.

    The very fact that you can study at College or University at all makes you extremely privilliged. Sure, it costs and the debts are crippling, but that is all the more reason to choose your study subject carefully and focus on the purpose of it all. If it doesn't get you a job you actually want to do, don't study. If you do not have a talent for it, don't study. There are other ways to build a career. But a career is what you should be building right now.
     
  15. specofdust

    specofdust Banned

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    We can't go to the benefits office Nexxo, or rather we can, but there's no point. Students don't get benefits. Even if you're on a four month summer break, have had to burn most of your life savings to live while spending 3 months attempting to find a job, fruitlessly, and have little prospect of getting a job in the remaining month off uni you have. See, we're still classed as being in full time education even when you have no education funding from anyone. It's super!
     
  16. Nexxo

    Nexxo * Prefab Sprout – The King of Rock 'n' Roll

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    It sucks, but the fact that you can still access education at all (even if it involves large loans) is a significant advantage. You have brains, you have opportunity. What more do you need but to work hard?

    I'm not saying it is easy --it wasn't for me. The last year of my studies I was sofa-hopping with relatives because I was homeless. I had to emigrate to get the job I wanted. But them's the breaks and some people don't even have those.
     
  17. fev

    fev Industry Fallout

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    I had no motivation at all during uni and I left things up until the deadline. We're talking deadline @ 1pm and I'm finishing at 12pm with no time to read through it.

    I quickly came out of it in my 4th year - the realisation that I had to put some effort in to pass and get the job that I wanted.

    Coasting the first two years was easy, if there was a party I was there... if there wasn't I was making one.

    I pulled myself into reality and you can too.

    Living with engineering students was fun, working on cars... discussing physics etc. But they had no motivation at all, it just seems to be something to do with the course. If we could find a sunny hill to sit on with a 24 pack during revision week then that was it.

    But they all changed in their final years too (with the exception of Matt.. but he was just clever).

    Speak to your tutors and head of department, see what they say and reccomend. You're not the first person to feel like you do.
     
  18. Highland3r

    Highland3r Minimodder

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    The one flaw I see with that argument is - you've known for the last 8+ months when you're going to break up for summer. That's the time to be searching for work NOT as soon as the holidys hit.
    A bit of planning and you can have a regular job to head back to over the Summer.

    I worked my ASS off before even went to uni. 5-7 day weeks sometimes working 12 hrs a day. Job wasn't awsome BUT it got me cash AND a job to go back to whenever I wanted.

    If you put the effort in, you'll reap the rewards. Same with Uni. Put in a decent amount of effort and you'll get good things out. It IS hard to be motivated, especially if you're doing something you don't like or enjoy.
    You could just give up and join the dole queue as per Nexxo's post. You could look at your prospects after Uni and use that as your motivation to stick things out and carry on with your current degree.
    Could also try and switch courses - either totally or to something similar/related which may not require you to retake first year.
    Whichever way you want to go, speak to your tutors. They're not there to screw you over. They're not there to fail you. Get some advice and move on from there.

    Don't chuck away your chances though, the global economy is pretty crappy at the moment so get as much of an advantage over others as you can.
    Industrial placements are wicked, you'll get experience, contacts and if you're lucky a wage. Looks good on your CV, gives you that "edge" and might net you a job when you leave Uni...
     
  19. Jipa

    Jipa Avoiding the "I guess.." since 2004

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    To me that's more a part of the problem than a way of getting myself motivated. I know that's where I'm heading if I don't study, but also hate the studies ATM -> lose-lose.

    Anyway that said, being a student in Finland is piss easy, I don't have loan, I have a huge appartment and I don't work. Sure, I also don't have any spare cash/savings, but guess I'm still just a crybaby.

    I DO already have a "degree" as electonics assembler, so even if I DID end the school, I still wouldn't be an utterly useless dropout, only unemployed. And yes, I've been looking for a part-time job, but it's not looking good and if I score one, I'm pretty unlikely to keep studying even at the pace I currently am.

    EDIT: oh yeah and this thread has already drifted pretty far from the original idea. I searched for people in similar situation and found a few, I'm not really expecting a forum thread to solve my problems, that probably requires some counseling, maybe also seeing a doctor and preferrably a shrink.
     
    Last edited: 12 Mar 2010
  20. stonedsurd

    stonedsurd Is a cackling Yuletide Belgian

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    Shrinks are fun. Talking to someone allows you to realize things about yourself that you wouldn't otherwise.
     

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