I have found that many more students talk to me after an exam than before. Many more.
The conversations span all kinds of test-related topics, chief among them, anxiety. For example, any number of students will tell me, “I’m not a good test taker.” The bolder ones will flat out say, “anxiety kept me from studying properly before the test” or “anxiety kept me from doing my best on the test.”
So it’s good to know that help for anxious test-takers may finally be at hand.
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Have you seen the movie trailer for Inception? If you have, you will be able to appreciate the movie trailer for Mechanism.
You could say that Mechanism is an organic chemistry student’s worst nightmare, but if you did that, you just might have to face something even worse: Synthesis.
Can I get your attention for a sec? Just a sec. I know you’re really here to do some o cheming, but just hang on to that thought for a moment and take a quick look at this:
Maybe worth a chuckle, but see my point? See how far you are from whatever brought you here? The mind naturally drifts, gets stuck, drifts. What’s unnatural is sitting still for 30 minutes to study o chem, write a paper, learn a part for the spring play. But that unnatural activity is a big part of the job description for a Reed College student: “will sit still and focus for up to 30 minutes at a time and repeat.” Expect more posts on the unending war between study and distraction. I’ll tag them “distraction” and/or “study habits”.