How do people attend lectures without going to sleep?!

[Sharkith]

Do you get lectured 8 hours a day at work non-stop without interruptions?

Some courses are crazy Bugz - I dunno how people survive degrees like that. Vocational degrees and so on can be really tough for this reason, that and all the mad assessments.

 

[itcheh]

Basic advice: get a good night's sleep and don't eat a big meal just before your lecture

 

[Jeros]

Just got myself a shiny new mp3 player, as its 16GB with plenty of space im using it to record lectures, allows me to go back and re hear what was said at my lesuire, also these days it seems all unis put the powerpoints on the networks for download.

Just an idea.

 

[00dave]

during my basic training I had a similar problem, although I have no sympathy as we were being deprived of sleep during these lessons/lectures. 5 hours sleep a night tops plus a mile march to the classes in the morning, sometimes following a heavy training session in the morning. Red bull and pro plus were banned from camp too, you got caught with that you were kicked out.

Did pick up a few tips for staying awake though.
Lucozade tablets and drink, fizzy is best but don't take too much as it can give you heart palpatations after 4 bottles and loads of tablets.
Plucking whatever you got, pubes, armpit hair, eye brows, eye lash plucking takes away the heavy eye feeling, and if you get really desperate go for the nostrils, the pain will jolt you back to life lol.

 

[Bodhi]

Me and me mates has a corking way of dealing with lectures, we just didn;t go. We stayed up until 5 in the morning drinking and imbibing drugs, or playing Pro Evo. Most of them are Doctors now, I'm an IT Consultant, and another is a Financial Analyst, so I'd say we lost the sub total of fuck all by not going, and we gained an awful lot into the bargain. None of us dropped out, we all got to the next stage of life fine.

University is the last time you will have to properly enjoy yourself, so if you don't, you really are missing out. If you decide to get a work ethic 10-12 hour days will be the norm for the next 30-40 years, do you really want to start early?

After seeing what happened to me dad (worked his ass off until he reached Director level with Michelin, did very well out of it, but died at 65) I would have to agree with the view that we're not here for a long time. We're here for a good one.

Make the most of uni while you can. You WILL regret it if you don't.

 

[old.user4556]

After seeing what happened to me dad (worked his ass off until he reached Director level with Michelin, did very well out of it, but died at 65) I would have to agree with the view that we're not here for a long time. We're here for a good one.

I agree with these sentiments, my dad's best friend was frugal with cash, always sensible, worked very hard and saved very hard for a good retirement. He died at 64, barely touching on the wealth and life he had planned.

Fuck it, I'm off to buy an EOS 7D.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

What you're forgetting Bods is that it's perfectly possible to be a drug addled mess, still go to lectures, do all the work and come out with a good result. You don't have to go one way or the other, I didn't

 

[Garaen]

If you're spending any more than 6 hours a day working at Uni then you're doing it wrong.

 

[old.user4556]

There's obviously the quality / quantity angle to factor in; I remember sitting there for hours pouring over notes without a single thing going into my head.

 

[Bugz]

I generally alternate an hour of work; an hour of gaming/relaxing etc; an hour of work etc during the week and give myself Saturdays off.

I've used that mentality right from GCSE up to Uni life and it hasn't failed me yet.

I don't know how people can pour over notes 10+ hours straight a day. My retention rates drops off dramatically after an hour or so.

Also - instead of reading the paper as I enjoy a sterling crap - I will instead take my notes and read those!

That is - in short - the key to success!!11

 

[Dukat]

When I was in basic training we almost always used to have two hour lectures immediately after intensive PT sessions. We'd normally be low on sleep anyway because of being up all night ironing etc, so almost everyone would be doing '10 second blinks' from being so tired, it was in the middle of summer too, so the warmth only made it worse Seeing as "falling asleep on duty" was dealt with rather severely we all got quite good at dealing with that sort drowsiness.

I know what we were learning probably wasn't as indepth as whatever it is you're studying, but I picked up a few tricks to keep me alert when I began to nod off - some might be obvious but hopefully some of these will help:

Drinking water,
Sitting up straight,
Doodling between note-taking,
Taking several deep breaths in fairly quick succession,
Tap out a favorite tune or 'hum' it silently,
Fidget in your seat,
Look about the room every so often so your eyes get a break from focusing on just the front of the lecture hall.


Thats all I can think of off the top of my head but basicly just take a break from focusing on just the lecturer every so often, and other's have said, avoid eating a big meal before-hand too if you can.

 

[Ctuchik]

Listening to someone talking about a subject and going through slides for 55 mins is so damn boring.

Consequently I have attended 2 out of 12 lectures in the past fortnight. Go me!

Did anyone else do the same as me (i.e. learn the material at home) or did they just endure the boring, suicidal world of lectures....

loads of coffee before going in, caffeine pills and redbull while in there and more coffee when its over.