I hate my way of life.

[Compaq888]

All I do is work, go to school and go to the gym.

I barely get anymore sleep. The last week I have maybe gotten 5-6.5 hours of sleep per night. This weekend I barely got any sleep. I have not slept at all this night. I have to be in school at 9am to see a counsler about some classes then report to work after that. Then go to school after work.

This is the hardest teacher I ever had by far. I can't drop this class because I'm taking it for the last time. I can't take this class again for a couple of years. He basically gave us 60+ pages of material and he's going to ask a question about anything in those 60 pages. It's an essay form answer, no scantrons. So basically if you don't know it then you can't write anything about it. Which is an automatic F on the test.

Last time I got horribly lucky. A dude came up to me before class and pointed out which item was going to be on the test for sure. He was sure it was going to be on it because there was a table for it that explained it. I memorized that table and all the pictures in a matter of 10 min. I got very very lucky.

The test that's today is going to be is even harder than last time's. I outlined 6 very important items I hope to memorize them by the time the test starts. 2.5 pages of written material!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't stop going to the gym because I have a very weak immune system. So I have to keep it up or otherwise I'm out of breath if I go up a flight of stairs. My buddy works full time and goes to school. He's stressed out like crazy. He barely sees his new wife. He broke up with his last wife because he barely spent any time with her.

It's a good thing I'm still single, I don't even have to go anywhere with some girls or do some stuff with them. It would be nothing but arguments why I don't spend enough time with them and only work and study. I go to sleep in my book and I wake up in my book. I'm so used to the book it's my freaking pillow

It's a good thing that winter vacation is 3 weeks. I only have to work in that time, no school. I'm going to be on girls like I'm part of their dress set.

[rh77]

We hate your way of life too.

Just kidding!

Buckle down and "Git 'er Done" -- it's not the end of the world. At my small College in Ohio, there were 2 professors that taught Organic Chemistry. One had Mercury poisoning and would start to teach for 5 minutes and then spend the rest of the hour telling fishing stories from the 1950's. He was on "sabattical" when I needed O-Chem.

Then there was Dr. P. She is from Sri Lanka and is the most vile professor I ever met. For one thing, OC was, and is, the toughest course I've taken in my life (I was usually able to work through other classes, but this was a different animal). In class she would call us "Stupid Americans" for not getting it, and made it even more miserable. 1/2-way through, I realized that there's no saving it, so I dropped it (first and last since). I came back next year, gave it my all, and got a 'B'. I wasn't about to let this witch ruin my academic record. Odd thing was, outside of class, she was one of the nicest people you could meet

Moral of the story -- hang in there, look at all of your option and realize this:

It's not meant to be an easy time.

Best to ya man...

RH77

[onegammyleg]

Could always blow it all off , buy a surf board and move to where the palm trees sway and the girls and warm.

Thats what ide do., except my wife wont let me.

[GasSavers_brick]

All you can do is tough it out and make the best of it while you look ahead to better times. School is hard, but it's that way for a reason. It's like working out: the more you challenge yourself, the easier it gets and the more you can take take on later. It's the slackers who have too much fun that wind up stuck in a rut and can't get out.

[Silveredwings]

That sounds pretty stressful. Hard work isn't easy. Even the non-partying slackers who quit, do end up in ruts that can be much harder to get out of. I did that. I dropped out and went to work. But then I got so tired of doing my best, only to be passed up for better positions. The worst was having to train the new grads to do the job I wasn't allowed to have.

After a few years of that kind of motivation, I went back to finish my degree. In some ways, it was much harder. I was working full time, doing 18+ credits/semester in mostly engineering courses, and on the weekends attending officer candidate school (designed to be a maximum of stress). For that 2 year period, I averaged about 4 hours a night sleep. When I got to OCS, they tried to tell me that I'd only get 6 hours of sleep and they were miffed that I thought that was a treat. My girlfriend was very supportive but said she got tired just watching me run from place to place. The thing was, noone could do my work for me. It was all up to me and I was able to get it done by staying in the moment. I didn't have time to think about 'what if I fail,' or 'when can I sleep,' though it was very tempting. I did fail a very hard required math course to a prick of a prof who also was my advisor. I had to take an even harder course to make up for it. I kept track of what I had to do like setting up bowling pins, and kept knocking them down. I slept when I could, and knew it ultimately would be temporary only if I finished. I didn't think I would make it, but I was determined. I know that the mind quits first. This time my body would have to break, they'd have to fire me, kick me out of OCS, or flunk me but I was not going to be the one to give in.

I had never worked so hard or since. In hindsight, I'm glad I did it and I'm glad I didn't let the overwhelming odds worry me. The truth is that I was able to do it. And I never look back and say to myself "gosh I wish I hadn't worked so hard," or "that wasn't worth it." Instead, I say "why didn't I do that the first time around?"

I wish you all the best.

[Matt Timion]

I really hate to sound like a jerk, but welcome to to the real world.

I worked full time (40+ hrs), went to school full time (4-5 classes), and was married.

It was VERY stressful, and I usually had no more than 4-5 hours of sleep for 4 years. The weekends were my only time to relax, which I utilized to their fullest extent.

Anyway, we all make sacrifices to get what we want. I wanted a degree, so I made the appropriate sacrifices.

Now that I"m done with school, I'm glad that I did it so fast. I can't imagine prolonging school just so that I could save an hour or so of sleep each night.

And as for the class, odds are you've known about the exam for a while now. I had a few tests like the one you describe, and they definately suck. It sounds to me like you're doing it the right way. YOu need to figure out which ones are the most likely to be on the test and study for them.

I took a class called "The history of science" once. The teacher was going to make us write an essay on two of six concepts. I chose to study for four concepts, knowing that the odds were in my favor. Sure enough, one of the concepts I didn't study for was on the exam. I BS'd my way through it and still got an A on the test.

Ah, college... good times

Anyway, just keep on truckin'. Winter vacation is soon

[Compaq888]

RH77 the weirdest thing my teacher is like that too. Outside of class or when we just talk about stuff he's a pretty cool cat. But when it comes to class he's the meanest ******* ever.

I didn't sleep the whole night. I'll get some sleep this upcoming night.

[Compaq888]

Matt, I read the material more than twice now. I just hope I can try to BS him if I vaguely know it.

[nonnef]

Good luck! =)

[BumblingB]

Remember there are lots of people who have it lots worse than you do. I have a VERY VERY VERY good friend who is regularly away from his family (wife and kid) for 3 to 6 months at a time. He gets called away at a moments notice, usually 1-3 days. While he is gone he can't even tell his family where he is so they are in limbo as to what he is doing. Whenever he is away where he works, he works 12-16 hours a day - NO DAYS OFF!!! While he has been gone he has had numerous friends & family members die/get ill.

Just like Matt said, sacrifices must be made to get what you want. My friend retires in 3 1/2 years and will be one of the happiest individuals on this planet when he does.

Keep your chin up because when you get finished with school you could either get a cake job or step it up a notch and go for EVEN MORE $$. My wife is a professional student, feels lost when shes not going to school. I have a sister the same way, been going to school forever, once she got her masters she decided to go for more. Nutcase if you ask me, but she has been so involved with school I guess it doesn't give her time to spend $$$$. Maybe you can try that.