How do I get myself to study?

[meanbluepanda]

I am 15 and my IGSCE exams are coming up. They are very important in determining my future, and makeup 70% of my high school mark(it's a weird system and idk how to explain it in english). I know all of this, and yet I feel no sense of urgency or the need to study. Also whenever I do start studying I get bored out of my mind, and end up back on my PC playing. I NEED A WAY TO MAKE MYSELF STUDY OR AM SCREWED. Anyone who's older than me and has found a way to study, share any methods or advice.
Thanks in advance.
PS: sorry for the grammar if it's bad, I tried my best but english isn't my first language.

 

[Ribald]

First I would assess what I really wanted out of life and realize that some stupid test doesn't matter.

Or you could always pop an adderall or something.

 

[Kuu]

1) Have someone lock up your computer and not let you have it until your exams are over. (Hey, nothing is free)
2) Go to a place that is not your usual place, and try studying there.
3) Give up and accept your future as a lazy underachiever. People give too much importance to tests and papers that are largely meaningless.

 

[Rook]

I had the same problem as you in high school. Never solved it.
Now, in university, I still have it.

The answer is simple: Motivate yourself and force yourself to work.
Do it now, or your procrastination will become an almost unbreakable habit.

Sounds easy, but as time progresses, it will become harder and harder to snap out of it.





(((((4:20 Louis Pasteur
Useless sentimentality)))))

 

[Pyropyro]

I usually just make a contract with myself.

Say if I was able to study for an hour then I get to play/surf the web. I sometimes even unconsciously go over the 1-hour limit.

Those hourly reviews can add up after a week or so.

 

[Ribald]

I imagine that if I don't study, a donkey is going to rape me in the ass ass-rape me.

 

[meanbluepanda]

I think what you said is part of the problem, my brain knows that exams are not a measure of my intelligence. So it's like screw this its a waste of time. I also know what I want to do, I wanna be a doctor. Unfortunately that takes high grades to get into.

 

[Kuu]

I also know what I want to do, I wanna be a doctor. Unfortunately that takes high grades to get into.

Wrong. It takes a lot of effort to be a doctor. Good grades never made a good anything. Sure it's a bureaucratic barrier to overcome, but if you put in effort, grades shouldn't be a problem.

If you're bored studying what you claim you want to be, then you've got some mistaken ideas... and if you think it's going to be easy to be a doctor, and you can't even bother getting through some stupid meaningless exam, then let me tell you: you'll never become one because you're weak, and don't want it bad enough to suffer risk and effort for it.

 

[kaelum]

on how I study: choose one and only one source for study per subject. Make sure it has questions, answers and organised explanations that fit your style. I learned my study style needs to minimize confusion (conflicting information from different books, which happens when you use more than one book/question bank/source.)

then try the book's questions with the understanding that you will make a quick guess, look at the answer, understand the reasoning needed for answer and know the background of the wrong answers.

Then write notes on each question on google drive or whatever online document you prefer.

review notes once a day.

and forgive yourself for the days you do not study, but at very least, review your notes once a day.

edit: a preceptor once told me that it is a priviledge to be a student- to only have learning as a responsibility. Once you have the job, and make money - you don't have the time to both learn and do your work without making mistakes that can hurt people, especially in medicine.

 

[EditorOne]

Pyropyro and kaelum have excellent approaches. To put it in context: If the whole mass of test material looms ahead of you, procrastination in the form of gameplaying becomes too attractive. Slice it down into manageable pieces and make your study sessions, each one, about just one thing.
Compare it to going into a delicatessen and seeing a five-pound tube of excellent cheese. The idea of sitting down to eat five pounds of cheese is offputting. But if they put a plate of four or five slice of cheese in front of you, what you are facing is more equal to your actual appetite.
I've written several books, one chapter at a time. An entire book is a daunting prospect. One chapter: Not so bad.
Most of my life was spent in journalism, writing stories. A key rule to keep yourself sane in journalism is that "each story is about just one thing." Same with your study arrangements. Just focus on the one thing; yes, there are millions of connections and asides and possibilities, but just ignore them, consciously, and get on with mastering the content of the one thing. Your brain will quietly sort out the connections while you're asleep or something, you don't have to pick-and-shovel the task and figure out exactly how each nugget of learning is connected to every other nugget. It's one of the advantages of being an INTP.
This approach also keeps your focus limited to the amount of time you can probably pay attention without getting bored.

The concept: Rearrange the task to fit your predispositions of personality. But do get on with it.

 

[meanbluepanda]

Biology and medical things are one of my hobbies to study, but biology alone doesn't get your average high. I enjoy studying biology and about the human body, that's why i decided to be a doctor. Also if you read what I wrote previously I said "takes high grades to get into" not be good at.

 

[Pyropyro]

If you want to be a doctor then prepare for a lot of studying. This test that you talk of would look like pop quiz compared to what's in store for you.

I have a college batchmate who is a practicing doctor and a churchmate who's studying medicine. Both are brilliant girls. However, even they have to stay up all night for their studies.

They get to dissect human corpses though which is awesome.

 

[Grayman]

People remember things better they enjoy. It is also easier to study. Find a way to make it fun.

For me its easy as I enjoy challenge. I enjoy research. If there is something I need to learn but find it uninteresting, I find fun things that I enjoy learning that relate to this somehow and are practical.


If I have to memorize electrical equations I build a circuit that utilizes this knowledge to a practical and fun application.

 

[Architect]

Pyropyro and kaelum have excellent approaches. To put it in context: If the whole mass of test material looms ahead of you, procrastination in the form of gameplaying becomes too attractive. Slice it down into manageable pieces and make your study sessions, each one, about just one thing.
Compare it to going into a delicatessen and seeing a five-pound tube of excellent cheese. The idea of sitting down to eat five pounds of cheese is offputting. But if they put a plate of four or five slice of cheese in front of you, what you are facing is more equal to your actual appetite.
I've written several books, one chapter at a time. An entire book is a daunting prospect. One chapter: Not so bad.
Most of my life was spent in journalism, writing stories. A key rule to keep yourself sane in journalism is that "each story is about just one thing." Same with your study arrangements. Just focus on the one thing; yes, there are millions of connections and asides and possibilities, but just ignore them, consciously, and get on with mastering the content of the one thing. Your brain will quietly sort out the connections while you're asleep or something, you don't have to pick-and-shovel the task and figure out exactly how each nugget of learning is connected to every other nugget. It's one of the advantages of being an INTP.
This approach also keeps your focus limited to the amount of time you can probably pay attention without getting bored.

The concept: Rearrange the task to fit your predispositions of personality. But do get on with it.

Excellent advice.

 

[Grayman]

Excellent advice.

That would be bad for me. Maybe it depends on the person.

 

[Architect]

That would be bad for me. Maybe it depends on the person.

It's the nature of work, I don't see how individual preferences come into it.

 

[Affinity]

My best semesters have been the one where I practically lived at the coffee shop. This also can also be at the library or at the school.

 

[Spirit]

You remember what you want to remember.

If you are having trouble with the desire to study a subject matter, you need to pick a new topic.


You are 15 years old and an INTP? Don't obsess about studying for "life exams", focus on researching topics and critical thinking about topics you enjoy. This will give your mind multiple frameworks to work with and make it easier for you to learn new topics.


Study by not studying.

 

[walfin]

Why don't you discuss your studies with the other INTPs here; that might make it more interesting for you.

 

[The Gopher]

If you can find someone to explain the topic to it might help.

In uni I didn't "study" so much I just waited for my friends to ask me how to do it and then told them learning in the process. That said I obviously still studied to an extend you can't get around it.

 

[Steven Gerrard]

How do I get myself to make art?

 

[Etheri]

Wrong. It takes a lot of effort to be a doctor. Good grades never made a good anything. Sure it's a bureaucratic barrier to overcome, but if you put in effort, grades shouldn't be a problem.

This is the truth.

It's the nature of work, I don't see how individual preferences come into it.

I know it's a rather terrible method, but I've always found the procrastination into last-minute stress method quite helpful. By all means I've told myself countless times I'd go to the classes and put in the work, but it's never happened and I guess it never will. I don't think doing it all-at-once is necessarily a bad thing, as long as you manage to do it.

I dislike studying seperate chapters as if they're stand-alone entities. They're not, and losing view of the bigger picture makes you miss the value of plenty of classes. Nobody ever remember the details 10 years after anyway.

If you can find someone to explain the topic to it might help.

In uni I didn't "study" so much I just waited for my friends to ask me how to do it and then told them learning in the process. That said I obviously still studied to an extend you can't get around it.

If you like doing this, this is without a doubt the best method.

Find what interests you, focus on your interests. If skill is the issue, then practise is what you need. If motivation is the issue, then you really just need to find something about what you need to learn that you find interesting.

Sometimes I read through some insight questions of a book until I find one that spikes my interest, then I try to answer it. If I can't, studying that chapter goes much easier. If I don't even have a clue what chapter I should be looking at, clearly I have no clue what the fuck I'm doing and I'm likely to read the entire book.

 

[Grayman]

It's the nature of work, I don't see how individual preferences come into it.

When studying and brainstorming about books, programming etc... I maintain a complex structure in my mind that I build on. I call this structure an image but it is not just a picture but a object structure that interacts with data I add to it.


Remembering things is easy by seeing how it fits in this structure and how it interacts with the larger picture. It takes time to remember and rebuild this structure to its complete detail prior to when I start working. If I put it down to take breaks it can be bad. It can cause newer concepts to be forgotten or cause inconsistency within the structure. It also causes me to waste a lot of time rebuilding it and revalidating it. Data that relates to nothing seems to have no purpose and no interaction to my understanding so it is discarded. Rote memorization is impossible for this reason.

When working I am a force but I have a slow time getting started. I also have a slow time stopping to switch to a completely new off topic thought.


He seems to be indicating that this structure sorts itself out while sleeping but for me that is not the case. Sleeping is good if the structure is fractured in reasoning. It wipes away the old and makes way for something new and efficient taking only the best pieces of the previous structure. It is good when I need to look at things from new angles but does little sorting out my current understanding.

When you say "nature of the work" there is a place in this that I agree with you. The mind can only take in one piece at time and string it into your understanding. So yes the work has to be done piece by piece but the structure must be held in my mind and the pieces must be connected to it while they are introduced and taking breaks, as I have said, messes up my process. I am not also intimidated by the quantity of work. Seeing all the parts and pieces is good. It allows for more efficiency in sorting the data when you know all the parts. If you are building something, it gives you different ideas for outcomes. If you are cleaning it gives you different ideas of how to efficiently sort it out before organizing it on the shelves. If you are studying it gives you and idea of how the questions might relate and how they may support one another to help you understand a greater concept. It can also help you understand how the questions are being asked so that you know what kind of answers are expected.

 

[EditorOne]

"He seems to be indicating that this structure sorts itself out while sleeping but for me that is not the case."

It happens while I'm awake, as well, but it's not a process I consciously drive or am aware of. As you indicated, everyone's different and what works for one may not work for another.

Or, as I prefer to think of it, our superpowers differ. :-)

 

[EditorOne]

Steven Gerrard: "How do I get myself to make art?"
Visual art? I don't know. I know how to "make ideas," though, did it for years as a journalist. For me it came from content immersion: Dive into a topic, live in it for awhile until the content is pretty familiar and I know how, for instance, Savings and Loans worked, or what the financial and political workings of a regional sewage treatment plant involved. My creative bent involved synthesizing all the material and then figuring out how to explain it to people or, more fun, asking myself "If there were a crook in this mix, what would be the inevitable outcomes and where would the illegal activity unavoidably cross the public record?" Then I could write about it in ways people could both understand and enjoy. If I had to make a sculpture of it or convert it into an image, well, I don't know, my abilities in that arena have been quite pathetic.
Short answer: Content immersion. Kind of like preparing a pile of wood so when the spark occurs, there's plenty of fuel for your creativity to burn.

 

[Architect]

Steven Gerrard: "How do I get myself to make art?"
Visual art? I don't know. I know how to "make ideas," though, did it for years as a journalist.

How much creative writing (stories, novels) did you do? If you did any, did you find it easy or not?

 

[Happy]

I am 15 and my IGSCE exams are coming up. They are very important in determining my future, and makeup 70% of my high school mark(it's a weird system and idk how to explain it in english). I know all of this, and yet I feel no sense of urgency or the need to study. Also whenever I do start studying I get bored out of my mind, and end up back on my PC playing. I NEED A WAY TO MAKE MYSELF STUDY OR AM SCREWED. Anyone who's older than me and has found a way to study, share any methods or advice.
Thanks in advance.
PS: sorry for the grammar if it's bad, I tried my best but english isn't my first language.

This is probably because your method of study lacks structure and without any sense of direction, your extraordinary, yet lazy brain just tells you to play video games instead. Try this:

Grab different coloured stacks of post-it notes (one colour for each subject) and on each one, write a task for your study.

The reason for doing this is to note down everything you need to learn and get it out of your brain and onto paper. Every thing you are remembering to do is taking up useful brain power. You need this brain power for focus. (Don't make a list. It's too linear and gives you no freedom of choice)

Now, lets say you're studying maths, write down each lesson or topic or whatever you need to revise. Or, lets say you're studying literature or something. Write down a note for every theme you need to cover or whatever. On each note, set yourself a goal or milestone - when you reach that, the task is finished (e.g. 5 math problems, 2 paragraph summary, whatever)

Don't get bogged down by writing down everything in one hit, just write down what you can think of. If you write too many, you'll feel overwhelmed by the amount of work you need to do.

Now stick all your different coloured notes up on a wall. For each study session, take down a few and stick them on your workspace. Each time you get through one, stick it on another wall or make a stack or something so you can look back at how much you've accomplished and it should compel you to push forward.

N.B. DON'T REWARD YOURSELF WITH VIDEO GAMES! IT'S A TRAP!

While you're doing this, it's important to keep all your blank notes handy so every time you think of something else you need to study, write it down and stick it up on your wall.

Keep chipping away at your wall of post it notes and eventually, you'll either get through them all or run out of time, but by this stage, you'll be far more prepared than you would be if you'd been sitting around playing games. Either way, you win.

Good luck.

Edit: As for study methods, thats up to you. I suggest practice problems for math/science subjects and mind maps linked to summaries for theory based subjects.

Good luck again.

 

[Variform]

I am 15 and my IGSCE exams are coming up. They are very important in determining my future, and makeup 70% of my high school mark(it's a weird system and idk how to explain it in english). I know all of this, and yet I feel no sense of urgency or the need to study. Also whenever I do start studying I get bored out of my mind, and end up back on my PC playing. I NEED A WAY TO MAKE MYSELF STUDY OR AM SCREWED. Anyone who's older than me and has found a way to study, share any methods or advice.
Thanks in advance.
PS: sorry for the grammar if it's bad, I tried my best but english isn't my first language.

If you get bored reading texts in books, your learning style is different than those of many others. You may be a visual learner. Unfortunately, no one cares. So you have to row with the oars that you have.

Maybe you could study with someone else.

I didn't do much studying or homework. The necessary only and usually never enough. I got bored too and could not concentrate. I wanted to, but it was a dopamine issue (AD(H)D).

If you have persistent study difficulties, you better make it known to someone who gives a damn. There may be options in school so that you can absorb information better, other texts, books.

 

[Josteen]

Ask yourself the reason why you want to do it, after that ask yourself why you have that reason to do it, then think about what you really wanted instead of forcing things to yourself without asking why and ended up feeling unmotivated to do it.

Or the easiest way, just give your body a dose of psychotropic drugs to help you concentrate and get on with it.

 

[Variform]

Ask yourself the reason why you want to do it,

I want to lose weight. Be more healthy and supple.

after that ask yourself why you have that reason to do it,

I want to be more attractive, to myself and women.

then think about what you really wanted instead of forcing things to yourself without asking why and ended up feeling unmotivated to do it.

So I think about women and finding a partner. I feel no motivation. Hold on...wait! It may be coming....nol. Fail. There is just no dopamine in my brain.

Let me try again: 'Dopamine come, dopamine come....please come, dopamine. Oh Lord of Dopamine, give me some manna! Dopamine, let there be dopamine! I want women, dopamine! I want sex, dopamine! More! Go on the hometrainer, lose weight! Be attractive! Dopamine!

Nope. It isn't happening.

Or the easiest way, just give your body a dose of psychotropic drugs to help you concentrate and get on with it.

Methylfenidate does it. It is an amphetamine. You have any?

Yesterday I saw a man on tv, he was a media theorist. Of course at some point he needed to drag in ADHD into it, that there is a boom in diagnoses and more and more people are prescribed methylfenidate or some of the other medicine that works. He linked the rise of the dx to how we deal with internet and media. SO much information, some people just don't want to pay attention anymore. He was talking about how our media and gadets demand so much attention all the time.

Every cunt these days seems to have an opinion on ADHD or ADD. Everywhere they find explanations for it. It is a fad, a hype, these kids are not really having some disorder. It is society, it is the doctors bank account, it is a big lie by Big Pharma.

But did this guy actually know that ADHD is not a hype but has been around since before WWII? And that Ritalin is an old medication that has been around for over 40 years?

Do these people know that it is a dopamine issue? And I was not born and raised in the time of internet. I saw it all come up.

ADHD is a dopamine issue. If you don't have it, you cannot possibly know what it is and when you try to figure it out, it always reverts back to the notion that it is psychology: 'just realize why you want to do something and you will find the motivation.' Magic!

That has convinced me that there is a gap in understanding the condition. People who have a good dopamine system flowing cannot possibly ever imagine what it is like, they are neurologically incapable and so the more they try, the more they translate the problem as a motivational issue, a psychological issue.

It is like looking at a clock with a broken cogwheel and demanding it to look at itself and have more motivation not to be broken.

And whether it is about homework or a hometrainer, there is no difference. Images of future rewards do not work. Like, 'if I study this material hard now, in the future I'll have a better life because I earn more money'.

But motivation comes from dopamine. If you have a badly functioning dopamine system, you can project into the future what you want, money, women, power, all of them at once, it is not gonna be any motivation.

That is why I'd say the OP is fucked. If he has a dopamine issue the only remedy is not psychotherapy or a motivational speech or realization what it is he wants to do, but a proven medicine.

Dopamine has everything to do with motivation, attention, concentration. Many people with a bad case of ADHD have trouble taking even their meds because they cannot focus enough their attention, motivation and concentration to take the pill regularly.

You need attention to gain attention, you need motivation to be motivated and you need to concentrate to get concentration. It is that simple. And dopamine does it all.

 

[Happy]

lolwut? This makes no sense.

Just because he's having trouble getting motivation to study, does not necessarily mean he has ADHD.

 

[Ex-User (8886)]

if something is worth doing, you don't need to motivate, if you can't motivate to do something, it is not worth doing

 

[Steven Gerrard]

How much creative writing (stories, novels) did you do? If you did any, did you find it easy or not?

A bit.

More writting, I feel, than most people who call themselves writers. But less (none) finished product that I can show people and say "that's what I do", because nothing I do is good or sophisticated. One day I hope to make a genuinely exceptional work, so I'm I'm hesitant to just throw something out there.

I have a friend who keeps saving stuff and ideas we've been working on and it bothers me. I don't want people to see that.

Mostly it's lyrics on pages that go nowhere, with instrumentals in my head.
I want to do something no one has ever done before, because examining how it works while feeling, (while planning your own work, while examining the process of how "art" works) is that perfectest harmony I have ever felt. Anyways.

A Concept albums of how the album came together sounds interesting to me. If I could literally record everything I do, look at that data and let abstraction happen, actively and passively in turn, while examining my mind state, attention, and moods- both objectively and subjectively. The art could just as much be the (quanta and quala?) information I record, published seperately, and then I could also write a commentary on how that worked to the of my memory. The proccess could be just as much academic as classically artistic. I hope to maybe one day use art to push my theories forward, as much as making art for arts sake. But then again this is all in my head.

Thank you for the interest and editor one, it allowed me even this little bit of digression that I enjoyed.

 

[EditorOne]

How much creative writing (stories, novels) did you do? If you did any, did you find it easy or not?

Five novels, not many short stories. Much of the investigative reporting for newspapers required ingenuity if not creativity, to figure out the concept that tied everything together and was susceptible to factual proof. Kind of like a blue-collar thesis. :-)

The creativity required work on the front end in the form of content immersion, but once the writing started the only difficulty was staying on track, because ideas seem to come in clusters, or like a rock slide, and it's easy to get diverted. Easy diversion seems to be one of the mental snares for some of us.

Brother William's War: Wm J Watson, Miss Hanna Hemphill Coleman: 9781452887890: Amazon.com: Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41wbWdtN1WL.@@AMEPARAM@@41wbWdtN1WL

The Ludlam Legacy: William J Watson, Christopher Barry: 9780977489275: Amazon.com: Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51IG8TC215L.@@AMEPARAM@@51IG8TC215L

These are not particularly cerebral or contemplative. I save that for this forum.