Tuesday, November 21, 2006

My brain hurts

Even learning it piece by piece, the scale of what we're expected to know is seriously scaring the crap out of me.

Week fifteen now and I've almost filled my third ring-binder full of PowerPoint presentations, lesson notes and miscellaneous reading.

How the hell am I supposed to digest all of that?

Even slimed down to the basic 'definition booklet' which is the core of what we'e supposed to learn, there's still over a hundred basic definitions to memorise; verbatim. I'm not talking one-liners either... Paragraphs worth, for each.

Some of us are planning revision meetings when it gets to that critical time before our final exams, because learning alone is not particularly conducive.

Plus it just reminds me about being cold and lonely anyway.

Which accurately describes the bed also, to which I will soon retire.

4 comments:

Roses said...

The problem of being asked to learn three ring binders worth, is that you're doing it out of context. Or rather the context is over there at the moment. Once you actually start policing, you'll be using those ringbinders worth of information in context and then they'll make proper sense to you.

I don't do group revision anymore...I liked the bottles of wine and gossip far more than I did the work. But that's only because I'm easily distracted.

Get a cat. I'd definitely recommend getting a cat. They won't mind your strange hours, they'll put up with you worshipping them, allow you to feed them and will cuddle up to you on cold nights.

I know virtual hugs aren't worth the paper they're written on...but the thought is here *hugs*

Anonymous said...

As roses says sometimes it's hard to learn out of context. I get given big fat 500 page manuals to read for my projects that make no sense whatsoever. Then about a year later, when I've almost completed the work on the project having spent hours and hours flicking through the manual everytime I had a question I have a eureka moment and it all slots into place!

Have you done a learning styles questionnaire? when I was initially struggling in my work someone recommended it to me and I realised that the way things were being presented just wasn't working for me and my picture orientated brain - now I know how to re-jig things to make me get it and make it stick.

Don't let it get you down think about how far you have come already in 15 weeks...virtual hug to spur you on, as Roses says - not ideal but they sometimes do the job... *hug*

Inspector Monkfish said...

I do still think you can crack this, Ing.

Mostly, I think that because I know you want to, and I believe you'll be good at it.

But also... Even if you do fail an exam, what happens then? Can you not just take it again?

I mean I started off pondering a response to this, thinking about driving.
See, when I learnt to drive, there was a whooole lorra theory to learn. And I apply all that theory now every day, but I couldn't sit down and tell you about it.
I think that a lot of it will sink in, and come to the surface when you need to use it in a practical situation, rather than a boring and stressful theoretical one.

Certainly, I hated learning theory of programming when I was at college. Well, I used to actually skip those lessons and hang out in the computer room where I could do some proper learning ;)
Ok, this isn't exactly the same thing I know, but I can't help but think that there will be things and situations that will help you to both learn and apply that knowledge.

And as for three ring binders full of PowerPoint presentations... No wonder it's depressing ;)

Umm I'm a bit tired now, and I can't remember exactly where else I was heading in this comment, so I had best hope I got there :)

In the end, what it comes down to... I still really believe you can do it, because even although it's bloody hard, I think you'll be bloody good at it.

You've got brains, balls, and heart. I reckon you need a good balance of all of those to be a good copper, and I reckon you've got it.

So there.

'Cause I'm not giving you a hug ;)

Northerner said...

Again, thanks so much for all the advice guys.

I'm not sure what else to say (forgive me if I'm a little tired).

Long days...

But I really do appreciate the support.