Blanked out on my final?

[frosted_flake]

Bad news. Today during my statistics final, I completely blanked out. Literally forgot everything I have studies for the past two weeks. I could not even remember what alpha was, the definition or its significance. I had a solid 95% in the course going into the exam, and I ended with a B+ (81% on the actual final exam). Has this ever happened to anyone else? Have you just forgotten so much that you can't even 'fake it?'

I have a 96% going into my biology exam two days from now, and I am terrified the same thing will happen again. If this has happened to you, how the heck did you manage to overcome it. I am super disappointed in myself for drawing a blank that bad and losing the A that I worked my butt off for. Forgot to add, this is the first time anything like this has ever happened to me! I felt as if I was looking at all new material. It just felt foreign once I started getting 'worked up' over it.

Thanks everyone, and good luck on your finals!

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[WSUWarrior2014]

First of all come down. The B+ won't kill but I understand your frustration. I believe (through past experience) this normally occurs not because you actually forgot anything but because the instructor threw a trick at you that you weren't prepared for and if you just memorized feeling adequately prepared maybe you weren't anticipating what was on the test but perceived it as something you learnt or forgot. If you truly blanked out, that might mean you're thinking too fast on the exam. Slow yourself down. This is especially true for calc, physics, stats, and chemistry. Recalling how one concept works might unlock several important problems further down the final. As for biology, make flashcards and go in strong. You have two days. You got this, GO!

 

[plumhill]

Yeah same thing happened to me in gen chem (went from an A to a B+). It really sucks, but the best you can do is try and shake it off so that it doesn't happen to you in biology. If you stress yourself out too much, you risk this happening again. You know the material, so there is no reason to stress out!

 

[mk04447]

I worked in collections for a number of years... This is a commission position and every month you start over. After ten months there was a trend I failed to see... My boss said to me what did you do last month, I said x, he said what did you do the month after that, I said x, again he said the month after that, I replied x, he said when are you going to accept your capability and the pattern you've established? In other words, how many college classes have you taken and what was the outcome? I'm betting it was similar to previous courses and ill bet this one is no different... Have faith in yourself.

 

[Goro]

Just a thought, make sure you get a good night's sleep the night before the exam. Lack of sleep is not conducive to learning.

Go have a chat with your school's learning specialists while there's still time.

You want to get this fixed before you even think about the MCAT.

Chat with them about exam anxiety. If this is a problem, get it fixed, or med school will kill you.

Bad news. Today during my statistics final, I completely blanked out. Literally forgot everything I have studies for the past two weeks. I could not even remember what alpha was, the definition or its significance. I had a solid 95% in the course going into the exam, and I ended with a B+ (81% on the actual final exam). Has this ever happened to anyone else? Have you just forgotten so much that you can't even 'fake it?'

I have a 96% going into my biology exam two days from now, and I am terrified the same thing will happen again. If this has happened to you, how the heck did you manage to overcome it. I am super disappointed in myself for drawing a blank that bad and losing the A that I worked my butt off for. Forgot to add, this is the first time anything like this has ever happened to me! I felt as if I was looking at all new material. It just felt foreign once I started getting 'worked up' over it.

Thanks everyone, and good luck on your finals!

 

[knv2u]

I'm sorry that this happened to you; the one B+ won't kill you. Just relax and study for the next exam; you can do well on it. Just don't fret too much about the statistics exams (stress can adversely affect your memory). Good luck.

 

[bambam92]

Could be from anxiety, try to calm down--if you know the material no need to worry! And the B+ in the stats class isn't a big deal, but in bio you want to hold onto that A you currently have! Try to stay calm, get a good night sleep prior to test as others are saying, but must importantly make sure you know the material! I find that most anxiety stems from not being FULLY sure of your prep, so rule that out and prepare extensively. I know some people need a certain amount of sleep, this varies from person to person though. Me myself personally I am a bit of an outlier, and what I mean by this is I will stay up all night to master the material before going to sleep and just giving up. In my case I can get a better grade if I spend all night studying the material versus calling it quits and getting that 8+ hours of sleep. I view it as if you don't know the material- you don't know the material! The sleep won't provide you with the material. However, I am not advising pulling an all nighter!! I don't do this unless I procrastinated and dug myself into a hole. But during finals week don't feel shame if you aren't hitting 8+ hours of sleep a night. I find some people here on SDN over emphasize the whole sleep thing, i.e. if I don't know all the material the night before the test I will just give up and go to bed to get my full 8-10 hours of sleep. I find that crazy! I would rather cover all the material and go into the test on 4 hours of sleep, but hey thats me. Myself and many others can function adequately on 5-6. But figure out what your body needs, and stay calm!