Its been a few tough days. The midterm was a challenge that I met full-force, but burnt out immediately after. It took almost three days to mentally recover, and during this time I kept dragging myself to a library to study for the two practicals that I had the following Tuesday. This strategy proved a failure. A friend suggested just taking entire days off and actually recovering, instead of creating a non-stop flow of stress, and while this never felt right for me, its something I need to consider should the situation arise again.
One fact about studying I was taught a month before arriving, which has proved invaluable to preventing failure thus far: what feels right isn't always right. As in, while it feels better to study to 1AM and completely catch up for the night, that strategy shoots yourself in the foot. While it feels like a waste of time to hit the gym when it means you create one more hour of work to catch up on during the weekend, the stress it relieves keeps you working throughout the week at your best, and in fact minimizes your overall work. Taking a quick break every 30 minutes may seem idiotic, but it gives your brain time to memorize and store everything it just learned.
Thus, the fatherly advice I've been given my entire life of "work all day and night" nearly cost me to fail two practicals from the overwork. Over a short period of time, I can see that advice being helpful, but over a period of four years...well, following that mantra, you won't last four years here. Sometimes you have to move sideways in order to move forward.
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