Studying for the Quiz

I was surprised to get so many comments on the way I study and the amount of studying I do. I have always been a good student and made good grades mostly because when I was younger, I equated the attention I received for good grades with being loved.

My mother and I had a very odd relationship where I was an Invisible Child. She ignored me as much as possible and I did my utmost to be ignored. I got attention from my father who was very proud of the fact that I made good grades and was obviously from an early age destined for college. Now, being just a child, I equated this pride with love and got it into my head that if I was not an A student, he wouldn’t love me any more. So, of course, I worked insanely hard to be sure I was loved. And, for some strange reason, I also thought that I had to pretend that these good grades came easily to me! I can remember setting my alarm clock for the small hours so I could study for a test and then saying nonchalantly the next day that I didn’t need to study!

One good thing that came out of the bad situation at home was that not only did I learn to study, but I also learned quite early in my school life that I did not retain facts if all I did was read them. I was reading fluently at four. I can remember being surrounded by a group of adults and reading The Wind in the Willows , which is not a children’s book , before I started school and in England, children started school back then when they were five. {Well, they may start at that age now but since I haven’t lived there for a long time, I don’t know.} Now, what I was doing at five was not comprehending what I was reading but just word-calling. Oh, I knew the book was about a rat, and a mole and a badger {and especially a toad –I loved Mr. Toad’s "Oh, bliss! Oh, joy!’" quote even as a child!} but even that young, I knew I wasn’t understanding a lot of what I could read so fluently. As a child, reading was an escape for me and not my primary way to learn. I learned then {and now} by writing .

This morning I got Fred to dictate the elements of design to me and I wrote the definitions out correctly with just one minor fault–a substitution of one word for another word. I am ready for this quiz!

TheWoodsprite

May 26, 2005

I’m a voracious memorizer and studier too. For the same reasons you started out being so! So I have enjoyed reading about your studying. hugs, Weesprite

^..^Kat

Good job!! I started school in Scotland at age four. I was able to keep it up when we moved back to the States and was 16 when I graduated high school.

Shi

Good luck in your quiz, though I suspect you are ready and won’t need it due to your hard work preparing.

Girl-Interrupted

Good luck with the quiz. It’s always hard when doing well in school was equated with love. I think a lot of kids deal with it. I know I did at some level.

thrifty nickle

Good luck on the quiz!!!!! 🙂 Perhaps you can post some of your work on here when you have completed it!!! I love looking at other people’s designs. 🙂 Have a good one! Josh

tae's heartbeats

I always felt I had to do well in school because it was expected of me also, that it pleased my parents, I was in sense a show piece for them. I have tried with my own children to encourage them to do well, because they want to, but not make it a requirement, I hope I have been successful in that area. 🙂

gray tabby

i’m sure you will do fine on your quiz! take care,

Niles Crane

I know what you mean about being able to read from a young age. My mum says I was disappointed when I first went to school because I could read at a more advanced level than they were teaching, and I could already write my name, which the school spent weeks on!

Cheesestiks&Students

I always did well in school, because I always did well in school. There were a few things that I didn’t get (like higher math and Spanish) but the rest of my core classes and electives I breezed through with A’s without, in some cases, even cracking the book open. This made for horrible study habits in college where at first I struggled but then once again excelled after changing a few bad habits.

I don’t understand why you have to spit out the definitions with the exact wording if you can explain the meaning. I guess I’m a rebel at heart. Anyway, you are sure to ace the test!

Healthy competition with ones mind is a good thing….I hope. 🙂

Telynor

Since my diagnosis and the meds, I have to work much harder at memorization, but it’s also become easier to concentrate on some tasks. I suspect that you will do very well indeed on your test.

musiclover1414

One of my favorite students of all time was a bit older than you are now … he, like so many, had had to quit school to work during the Depression. When he was rich and retired, he came back to school and loved every minute! I’ll bet you were an excellent teacher – those who want to learn things themselves, purely for their own pleasure, almost always make fine teachers.

Have a safe and enjoyable weekend, Dear 🙂

Jafael

Way to go!

greeneyes&sunflowers

May 27, 2005

I think you are awsome! *huggs* Trust me, I know about being invisible and desperately wished I was when it came to my mother. I never could get into the “Wind in the Willows” book, no matter how I tried.