Quote from: Ryex on July 31, 2014, 11:13:25 pm
my priorities were warped in the beginning, I was trying to treat school as something I was doing "in the meantime" while my real goals were side projects like ARC ect.
I think that's your answer.
There are a couple of things you can do. Some of them are just to increase efficiency in studying, because there is a chance that you're just approaching the whole thing the wrong way.
1. Make a quantitative analysis about how much you study. In other words, ask around how much people study for certain classes and see if your time spent studying matches up or it below some average that you could find out.
2. Find a tutor. Really, it's not the worst thing in the world to ask for help. You don't have to find one for every class. Just try to find one for the classes you are seemingly struggling with.
3. winkio has a very good point. But for the beginning you should definitely try some discipline. You could make a half-flexible schedule if you have enough willpower to pull through. e.g. Say that you are going to study for 6 hours next week, but you can distribute it however you like. You can do it all at once or do one 1 per day or whatever combination you like. Ranges are also good. Say that you are going to do a minimum of 4 hours, but a maximum or 8 next week.
Flexibility is very important when you are trying to learn a new habit. If you go too hard on yourself, you might get fed up and quit after a short while (most people give up after about 2 months which is also about the time it takes to acquire a new habit). So take it easy with the new habit of studying.
4. Take notes on actual paper while studying. The point isn't even the notes, but there's just something that improves learning if you write down new knowledge. It might take a bit longer, but you also remember more afterwards.
5. Study with others. When you study with others, you will exchange information that each of you learned and learn faster together. By repeating and explaining that information to others, you will also solidify it in your own mind.
6. Try self-tests. This is a pretty good concept if you can't find others. After you go once through the materials, go through a second time and simultaneously try to put together a set of questions (preferably write them actually down on a piece of paper). The day after studying try to solve your own questions (again, write things down on a piece of paper.) Why a day later you ask? Knowledge is processed and permanently stored during sleep. I have had exams where I studied the same day and I couldn't remember shit only to have that exact knowledge pop into my head the day after! So always get a good amount of sleep before solving your own tests and before actual exams as well.
There is one last very important thing that you have to do: Think of yourself as a total newb and retard. Don't ever say "No, I don't have to study for this class" or "No, I'm above that shit". Instead just take things at face value and take them on like that. If there's something simple to do, do it. You have to consider the fact that you are possibly on a low level of knowledge (much lower than you think) and that your studying habits are crap. By doing even the most trivial of tasks and assignments (along with the other stuff obviously), you will condition yourself to be more thorough and this will help you with everything else.
Look at it this way: If you are playing an RPG now, maybe those little things will give you only low amounts of XP. But the mere fact that you spend time on doing it anyway will increase your overall skill outside of the game. You have more time to experiment on simpler things and even optimize them. Maybe the extra XP won't help much when you get to a boss fight, but the mere fact that you maybe fought an annoying enemy a couple of times has taught you at which point in time it's best to heal and when you have to stop attacking and focus on healing and buffing until you are strong enough again to resume attacking. Have you ever watched a speedrunner play a game? Watch a Super Mario 64 speedrun or a Megaman X, X2 or X3 one. It's insane how people optimized certain segments on the game. They probably spent countless hours on perfecting them, learning even the smallest details.
A good mentality here is that you don't try to go for a pass, go for the best possible grade instead. When your own bar is higher, you will perform better.