Finals Week and Meltdowns

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The last two weeks of school have been awful, and I had so much work to do. I feel like I am in a daze, and I find I'm a lot more emotional. When alone, I have meltdowns, crying, and violent outbursts since I am so drained, stressed, and frustrated.

I feel like I am stupid and undeserving. Like I am not good enough, because I can't meet my goal of a 3.30 GPA.

If grad school is going to be like this, I am thinking maybe I shouldn't go. I just hate taking all these pointless undergraduate classes that have nothing to do with what I want to research and build.

People tell me all the time that I am smart, but I feel like my grades don't show it. Finals week just makes it worse.

Rant about finals here.

Well I couldn't make it through the first week of university. I got through community college ok, but had a meltdown the first or second week of university. Maybe you're putting too much pressure on yourself. Getting through college with a 3 something is an accomplishment in and of itself.

I really hate exams.

I've had amazing professors, and classes, that had no examinations at all. One of them was a film class on horror movies, another was a film class on animated movies. I wrote about Planet Of The Apes for the horror film class, and Angel's Egg by Mamoru Oshii & Yoshitaka Amano for the animation class. I adore writing papers about interesting subjects. I had a fun time writing a paper about The Forsakan Merman, but I had to think about it for awhile (a few days) to really know how to answer the question.

When I do an exam I feel like a gun is pointed directly into my face.
Starring at the exam paper is like staring down the barrel of a gun.

I begin to feel panic, and I don't want to stew in it. I want to bail. So I do. I know that is not the brightest thing to do but it is either that or stew, like a pressure cooker that wants to get off the range or something, and as I march home it takes me.. the whole way, and the whole day to relax

I've been offered private exam rooms, I am infuriated that the disability office has the gall to think that a solution, that is not my problem.

My problem is that my brain, being born in this body, whatever.. Makes it.. just about impossible to write a good exam.

My problem is that always, the exam questions are not really covered in class, if they are they're glossed over. You have to think and write about it in a room, like being presented a jack-in-the-box that you have to perform and not jump when the poppet comes out.

*

I'll come right out with it exams put me out of school.

I dropped out of high school towards the end, finished it in psychiatric asylum, and never wanted to look back. Now I am a University student, i am feeling the pressure again to bail on University entirely.

What ----angers---- me so much is that the University doesn't exempt me, and the exams dont have to exist. It depends on the teacher. I am not going to spend my years in University dodging exams like a minefield, but since they are not compulsory to every class I fail to see why I have to do -any- if I perform that badly on them.

I have a lot of trauma with them.

For me exam times define what Aspergers 'is'.
If some people here find exams easy how do you deal? I mean they -really- define for me what makes things in my life difficult.

its the ultimate trial by fire for someone with aspergers it really is

I wouldn't say that quite defines what Asperger's is.
I personally have never stressed too much about exams.

You either know the material or you don't. There's no sense crying over spilled milk, in the sense that once it's time to take the test and you're not prepared, you don't have to be stressed -- it's your choice to stress about it. I realize you said something about how the material on the exam wasn't covered in class or was just glossed over. That's okay. It happens. As long as you paid attention in class and studied, everyone else who did the same will feel the same. Professors usually curve these tests if the scores are too low overall. Really, if you study and really apply yourself, you can succeed. That applies to anything, actually.

When you're getting stressed over the exam, don't think you're the only one. NT's get plenty stressed about finals week as well.
You have to realize, though running away is the easiest method of feeling better right at the moment (sounds like you had a meltdown, really), the more intelligent choice would be to at least try the exam and see how you do. If you do poorly, don't stress about it! (Don't cry over spilled milk.) If you see questions that you have absolutely no idea how to answer/solve, then use the time given to you to at least try something. Try not to leave any answers blank, because several professors will give partial credit if they see you at least tried.

Okay, just telling you to not get stressed is perhaps one thing, but there are methods of relaxing yourself. One thing is getting plenty of sleep and alone-time to recover after long days of being in public places. Try to calm your breathing and think about things optimistically.
Maybe deep breaths or something. Whatever calms you down. Keeping yourself calm all the time is an indispensable skill in and of itself.

{Almost didn't post this. Not sure if this post actually helps anyone.}

I'm studying for a special exam (like a supplementary one but it isn't pass/fail) at the moment. My fault though, I decided to take on a fourth subject when I really should have just stayed with three this semester.

Anyway, for the most part exams aren't that bad. It's just different to assignments. In assignments you get given a part of your course and you have to expand on it. In exams you take the structure of your course and use it to fill in the gaps required.

Are you upset because you don't have enough practice in exams? Is it because you don't know what will be on the exam? Is it because you don't like the time constraints? Depending on what you can't handle about exams you can either decide to work through it or try to arrange in future semesters to have alternative assessment to exams. But for now you'll need to focus on working through the exams.

As a science undergrad I have rarely encountered a subject where exams did not make up more than 60% of my mark so I have some experience with big exams. The thing to remember is that the exam will try to cover the entire course but it can't cover every little detail.

The best plan of attack involves revising the most general stuff first (minimum detail) then filling in the gaps later on. It's better to have a general knowledge of all of the material rather than detailed knowledge of half of it. Most of the time the more general knowledge can be a trigger to help you recall the details. As well being able to give a more general answer is better than not being able to give one at all.

Also, if they have given hints about the structure of the exam use it to your advantage. Practice those type of questions, even if you have to create a practice exam for yourself. If they give you hints about the style or difficulty of the questions, practice those too. But, most of all stay calm. If you know your subject material and stay calm you'll get the best possible result you can. I always forget about a couple of things in my exams and it's fine because the other stuff I know makes up for it.

Four meaningless exams + three final projects + two giant portfolios + lack of sleep + financial problems + family matters + bad grades = I've been having meltdowns for a week now.

It's horrible. I have three exams today alone, the first one starting in fifteen minutes. It will me a miracle if I don't explode at least twice today.

It'll all be over tomorrow at noon. That's the only thing I have going for me right now.

Of course, then the grades will come, and I'll have failed all of my classes, and I'll have ruined my future.

Things are just wonderful.