CLICK HERE FOR BLOGGER TEMPLATES AND MYSPACE LAYOUTS »

Monday, August 31, 2009

Stressed

So I'm only a week into my Anatomy class and I feel like maybe I bit off more than I can chew.

We read one chapter a week and have to post a discussion and take a quiz. Sounds easy, right? Well, the chapters are about 30 pages long, and the handwritten notes I took on it were about 9 pages! I also did all of the activities, games, and practice quizzes....so I'm guessing I spent a good 6-7 hours last week on school work.

I was SO nervous to take the quiz last night! I just bit the bullet and totally freaked out. They give you 30 minutes, so I sort of rushed through the first 5 questions. When I clicked submit, it said I was done! Needless to say, I didn't do as well as I'd hoped. Which is SUCH a bummer because I think I just got major test anxiety - I knew the information! UGH. The GOOD news is that we can drop our 2 lowest test scores, so this will definitely be one of them.

I am kind of loving Fit Nut's lists right now. :-) I LOVE lists! So here is my goal to try and change this thing around:

- Set aside at least one night a week JUST for school work

- Make sure house is quiet and I'm not tired/hunger when taking quiz

- Print off Power Point Slides prepared by professor (tongue twister!) and take additional
notes on them after reading chapters (instead of writing them all out by hand)

- Close out of Tweet Deck prior to starting quiz. ;-)

- Don't get discouraged.

Whew. I feel better already.

Normally I deal with stress in bad, bad, ways. You know, hittin' the bottle and such. LOL - okay not really, but I do eat when I'm stressed and I'm determined NOT to let this get to me.

I just finished "The Power of Now," and I love that it focuses on being content in our present state. Basically, it says that at THIS moment, we don't have any pain/problems. Most of our pain and worries comes from thinking about past events or future events. This is SO true for me. So whenever I get stressed now about something that hasn't even happened, I just repeat "The Power of Now" to myself (in my head, don't want those weird looks) and remind myself to just BE.

In good news, my knee is feeling better!!! Not 100%, but I'd say it's definitely 80% better. I just have some achiness in the morning and sometimes throughout the day if I'm climbing stairs or something. I go Wednesday for Muscle Activation Technique (MAT) - fingers crossed! I definitely think the Active Release Technique helped, so let's hope this will get me back to 100%.

Sorry this is boring and blah...just wanted to say "hi" and hope you're all having a great Monday!

12 comments:

Robin said...

Thanks so much! I'm so excited to be an aunt. It still feels unreal!

And don't be too hard on yourself about the quiz - it might take a while to get back into the school thing and get comfortable. You'll do great.

And that's totally the part of the book that I liked - it totally clicked with me. It still takes practice though :)

Emily said...

I love the idea of that book!!! I think EVERYONE could learn a lesson from it! I know I could! I might have to see if they have it at the library.

So glad you're knee is doing better! Mine is too!! Fingers crossed for you!!! :)

Anonymous said...

I bet you'll get into the swing of things with school in a couple weeks. Sometimes it's just stressful when there is a big change in your life, you know?

Suzie Q said...

You'll get back into the school groove soon. I am all for printing the slides out and writing on the pages. For me it was the best way to have some kind of outline to start from.

I hope you have a nice day tomorrow

Missy said...

Try not to stress too much about school! It is just one quiz and I'm sure you'll do better once the anxiety rolls over. Glad your knee is feeling better!

Nicole said...

Good luck with Anatomy girl! I'm in one too and my prof said look at 12 hours a week of studying. Ugh. week 1 i probably did 3-4. shoooootttt!!!

I have noticed when its quiet, computer is off and no one is around to bug me, i can focus. But i have crazy energy spurts when i cant run and bounce off the walls from sitting still for so long AHH! :)

Have a great week!!! :)

Anonymous said...

I think it's so important to stay focused on *right now*...because really, the present moment is all that we have. Sounds like a great book.

Don't worry too much about the tests/studying- you WILL get into a 'groove'...first few weeks are always really rough until your brain is back in study mode.

Thinking of you!

Every Gym's Nightmare said...

time management is hard. i have to STOP myself from working, cause writing is the kind of job that you can just keep going with emails, commenting, notes, research, blah, blah, so setting strict timelines, either to keep you from working too much or too little is a good idea. havent quite mastered it yet, though, lol

Erica said...

School is so stressful! Don't worry though- it was the first quiz, now you know what you need to do and know what to expect. I bet you'll rock the next one. So glad to hear your knee is feeling better!!

Anonymous said...

I feel ya on the stress thing. I sometimes wonder if changing jobs was such a good idea after all. Sure I make a lot more money, but the stress more than makes up for that!


Don't worry though, I'm sure you'll stress out for a little while but you'll fall right into the groove of studying soon enough. Just keep trucking through it..

Anonymous said...

I'm awful at tests. Give me essays to write any day!

As for your question on your last post, I ALWAYS handwrite all of my notes. I find that if I do it on a laptop, I don't really process the information. And if I get a handout from the prof, I often still don't process the information as well as if I had written it out myself. You just have to develop your own shorthand :D

- Sagan

Kim said...

That "power of now" technique sounds like a really good one! I think that could come in handy for me.

It sounds like you have a good plan on how to tackle your class. I hope your next quiz goes better!