• grrgyle@slrpnk.net
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    2 days ago

    Back in school I literally helped other students cram 30 minutes before a test, using flash cards I made and used all week, only to have them breeze in and get a higher score than me.

    Do you know how great it would be to only barely try, and succeed anyway? I can’t even imagine.

    • Dozzi92@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I breezed through high school, everything was easy, never studied, was never really able to just sit and focus on stuff.

      Get to college, calc is hard. Physics is hard. Electronics is hard. I have zero skills from never studying; I have no foundation to learn. Didn’t make it in college. Still really good at mental math though! Still can’t sit and focus on tasks for long.

      • exasperation@lemm.ee
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        1 day ago

        Hitting that wall is pretty common. You learn the wrong habits as you breeze through and get good grades without effort, then encounter the first subjects that require non-trivial effort. And then maybe you take some bad grades until you eventually learn, or you drop out and never figure out how to work through more difficult learning.

        Some smart people might not hit that wall until pretty late (I know people who first encountered it in grad school), but regardless of when they encounter it, whether and how they get over that hump can determine what the rest of that academic path looks like for them.

        • Naz@sh.itjust.works
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          1 day ago

          Lol getting to grad school or a PhD without studying sounds like 90%ing a game or getting stuck at the final boss

          Getting that far on the highest difficulty level is already impressive IMO

    • M1nds3nd@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      I don’t think it’s that great. I was able to coast through high school but I was hindered once I reached the edge of my natural talent shortly into college. I had never really learned how to buckle down and study so I ended up struggling a lot. I can still pick things up pretty easily but I often give up when it gets to a certain point. Nowadays I feel kinda inferior to others that learned how to keep trying.

      • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
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        1 day ago

        I was all ready to come back at with how I wish I had your problem, but I can honestly see how being unable to buckle down would be a huge impediment.

        My results may not be as good as my peers and I may take longer, but I am able to get there eventually.

        For instance, I am currently on day 4 of 25 of the Advent of Code competition, haha.