Last year, my wife literally could not do my coursework. I was doing okay. So to speak, but she kept making comments that the material was “meant for professionals” or that I should be trying to find a “different way to do this”. This went on for almost a year, even though I was going through the material quite well. She would come home with test questions and would quizzes to help her gauge my comprehension.

She kept telling me to study harder and to get my grades up, etc. I tried lots of things, including taking more classes, trying to get better grade average, etc. None of it worked! I actually gained a few grades but not nearly as much as she thought I would get!

Anyway, when I spoke with her about this, she got really frustrated with me and told me that if I didn’t improve my grades fast, I’d never get into grad school. I guess I never heard that kind of talk before from someone I didn’t know. So needless to say, I stopped trying to study more, and I stopped trying to get better grades. I even bought the textbooks myself since they were so expensive, which was really unnecessary since I could borrow them from the library.

I even skipped lunch once, just so I wouldn’t have to deal with going to the library again. I could go out to a nice lunch instead, but I figured that I could probably eat better anyway. It didn’t help that I couldn’t even think of the materials I needed for tests, so I would just borrow the books from the library if I needed to. It worked for a while, but I was always late for class and by the end of the semester, I couldn’t even take the test for my degree because I was so behind.

If I’d known how badly I was going, I would’ve taken a different approach to getting ahead. And I’m sure other people could relate to this as well. Some people don’t really try because they think they’ll be sorry if they don’t do anything. When they find out that it really doesn’t matter, they get mad and then they start to procrastinate even more.

When you‘re dealing with something like getting an advanced degree, it’s really important to try hard. When you’re not doing anything, you need to learn how to forget things and get rid of bad habits. Some people think that since they’re working on something, it doesn’t really matter. This is wrong. You should actually focus on getting good grades and trying to forget any tests you might have missed.

For example, I once went to college and sat in a test area for two hours. When I got home, I tried to go online and answer email. I failed four times and wondered why I couldn’t do it. It’s true that I didn’t sit down and try to answer the questions but I also literally couldn’t remember anything I had read or learned that day. And I know that this happens to a lot of people.

One way to alleviate this problem is to make sure that you always have notes. Don’t write down everything you read, but instead, write down the main points. This way, you know exactly what you need to study for the next day. And if you need to, you can even print out your notes and read them over before class. Doing so would allow you to get into the habit of actually reading instead of just listening.