> I once had a teacher who gave us open book, open note, etc... for chemistry. The trick was, you had ~60 minutes to do it. If you didn't practice, you'd never finish the test in time.
I hated tests like this... because I was a lazy kid who coasted through school and didn't understand why "simply understanding the material" was insufficient. In college (Cornell) the chaos continued, I got poor grades in calc because despite getting all the bonus questions right (which tested your understanding of the material), I couldn't finish the actual test in time because I hadn't done the problem-set homework (these problem sets took 6 hours to do btw... coming from a high school that only started challenging me towards the end, I was completely ill-equipped to handle that level of self-discipline).
Of course, in the working world, it turns out that persistence/commitment/self-discipline is the real payoff. I had to learn that the hard way later on.
Yeah, I failed calculus three times because I was working two jobs to support a failing business, and I just had no time to do the assignments. Finally I found a class that graded only on the tests and got my A.
I failed it twice: first because I got too cocky when the previous semester ended without incident. Second was due to the fact that I already had a part time job.
On the third attempt I had a different lecturer - an old guy who favoured attendance over anything else and gave the same problems each year. I knew most of the material already, so I got 80% out of that.
I learned nothing from that experience though and went on to fail 22 courses over the seven years I spent in college.
It was actually youth, arrogance and stupidity. The same things also kept me going.
After my junior year I found a job through a school friend whom I helped preparing for his exams and from that point on I started weighing whether on a given day I should go to lectures or make money. My family was in a precarious situation financially and I only needed two full days to finance repeating a course, so the choice was obvious at the time.
I almost dropped out after two semesters because I failed too many courses (four - two was the limit after the first year), but I talked the dean out of deciding to kick me out - we had that option back in the day.
I spent the remainder of my time on what you could consider a Performance Improvement Plan - took 14 courses for the third semester, failed three, but thanks to that I was just three short starting the fourth, which was acceptable.
Four years of winging it like that and after a total of five years(instead of the planned four) I had my Bachelor of Engineering degree.
In hindsight I should have not went to do a Master's Degree because I never finished my thesis due to not being satisfied with the scope(or the lack of it).
I'd suggest doing so. Also a sleep study to see if you have sleep apnea, because it also results in frequent job changes.
I unfortunately have both (although both are now being managed and my stability has hugely improved). There was a lot of drama before the diagnoses, and I'm still working through having taken it personally...
I hated tests like this... because I was a lazy kid who coasted through school and didn't understand why "simply understanding the material" was insufficient. In college (Cornell) the chaos continued, I got poor grades in calc because despite getting all the bonus questions right (which tested your understanding of the material), I couldn't finish the actual test in time because I hadn't done the problem-set homework (these problem sets took 6 hours to do btw... coming from a high school that only started challenging me towards the end, I was completely ill-equipped to handle that level of self-discipline).
Of course, in the working world, it turns out that persistence/commitment/self-discipline is the real payoff. I had to learn that the hard way later on.