I'm currently pulling an allnighter...

[Lynz778]

And I really should not have left it this late. It'd 2:01 am and I have a stats exam at nine. Anyone have any brilliant techniques on how to pull this thing off?

Am I the only one who does this? I have had nothing to do for the last two days...but here I am at two in the morning...

 

[indra]

Go to bed and get some sleep. I never found cramming did much good -- if I didn't know it by a day or so before the exam staying up all night and not getting any sleep didn't help any either. I think a bit of rest will help more than anything right now.

That said, I rarely started any projects/essays/papers earlier than 24 hours before they were due. I work best under pressure.

 

[Galeongirl]

Sleeping for only a few hours has proven to be better than studying or whatever and staying up till late. That was a research under students, and the one who had a few hours of sleep actually got better grades.
So go to sleep!

 

[Lynz778]

Well, sleeping only works if you know the material.

 

[angelordevil]

Well, you’re likely asleep now, but I can relate. I’ve pulled all-nighters frequently with writing papers, etc. Some of my best stuff came out during those times! My code was this: If I was up at three in the morning, and something was due/I had an exam four or five hours later, I’d just stay up and keep at it. I found in that window, I could be really productive…maybe even more than the people who’d slept. It was only after the exam, and after the morning submission time that I’d start getting giddy and subsequently crash…usually around early afternoon.

If you don’t have a fixed daily schedule, I wouldn’t be worried by the occasional all-nighter. The ‘eight hours of sleep’ rule with sleeping isn’t very kind to last minute moments of brilliance or career procrastinators.

Of course, there's always caffeine to assist. You might end up here, however: http://www.u2interference.com/forums/f201/i-have-a-caffeine-problem-190944.html

Good Luck.

 

[Angela Harlem]

I sympathise. I hope you did well/are currently doing well in your exam! Hang on, you're in Canberra I hope it went well!

I did my first " 'til 3am'er" in a long, long time just recently, and once more I vowed to never do so again. But life is life. Sometimes things all pile up at once and you have no choice. Caffeine, music, whatever it takes to get you through!

 

[Lynz778]

Good old Canberra. I have been around this board for a long time, and I remember you're an Aussie Angela Harlem

Us cool folk have to stick together

My exam was pretty average. I drank a can of Red Bull before it. Hopefully the marks reflect my hours of tired slog. Here's to just scraping through the boring parts of life. I mean...stats...honestly.

 

[Galeongirl]

Well, sleeping only works if you know the material.

Not at all! that's totally not the point!
What I meant is that the research said that when you study all night and stay up, you actually produce less coherent answers because your brain can't link the stuff you studied with the questions anymoer. when you sleep, you refresh your brain and even if you don't know much of the material you can still use common sense. And score higher.

 

[last unicorn]

No. The brain NEEDS sleep for you to remember what you've studied.

If you only study and don't sleep you'll forget most of it, because memory can only function with enough sleep.

Your body needs sleep to regenerate, otherwise you won't be able to handle the stress.

 

[achtung_girl]

Not at all! that's totally not the point!
What I meant is that the research said that when you study all night and stay up, you actually produce less coherent answers because your brain can't link the stuff you studied with the questions anymoer. when you sleep, you refresh your brain and even if you don't know much of the material you can still use common sense. And score higher.

Maybe she meant that she can't sleep not because she not tired, but because you have awful thoughts like 'I didn't studied enough'. This applies to me. I can't go sleeping when there's still an exercise left, cause I'm scared that exactly this will be asked in the test the next day...-->

 

[indra]

Hope you did ok on your exam.

 

[last unicorn]

Maybe she meant that she can't sleep not because she not tired, but because you have awful thoughts like 'I didn't studied enough'. This applies to me. I can't go sleeping when there's still an exercise left, cause I'm scared that exactly this will be asked in the test the next day...-->

There are herbal essences that helps you relax and get stuff out of your head, or meditation, or certain kinds of music. There's actually a lot you can do to find some peace and rest.

 

[achtung_girl]

There are herbal essences that helps you relax and get stuff out of your head, or meditation, or certain kinds of music. There's actually a lot you can do to find some peace and rest.

Even if 10 people tell me that I don't need to do this, I still have to do it. I think nothing really helps, cause it's a weakness of my character. (I'm a control freak)

 

[randhail]

'I didn't studied enough'. :

did you pull an allnighter before typing that?

 

[Galeongirl]

Maybe she meant that she can't sleep not because she not tired, but because you have awful thoughts like 'I didn't studied enough'. This applies to me. I can't go sleeping when there's still an exercise left, cause I'm scared that exactly this will be asked in the test the next day...-->

Hm, I only have that when something's REALLY bothering me. But then again, if you're trying to pull an all nighter, there will be a moment when your brain shuts you down. It's a physical reaction that you can't control. Some people have this badly, like me. Whenever I get tired, I have to sleep. I can't keep myself awake at all. When I sleep less than 8 or 9 hours, I feel horrible. I can sleep anyplace, anywhere anytime. Like, a wedding with a rockband playing.. me: the kid asleep at the table..

 

[achtung_girl]

did you pull an allnighter before typing that?

yeah,like every day!

 

[achtung_girl]

Hm, I only have that when something's REALLY bothering me. But then again, if you're trying to pull an all nighter, there will be a moment when your brain shuts you down. It's a physical reaction that you can't control. Some people have this badly, like me. Whenever I get tired, I have to sleep. I can't keep myself awake at all. When I sleep less than 8 or 9 hours, I feel horrible. I can sleep anyplace, anywhere anytime. Like, a wedding with a rockband playing.. me: the kid asleep at the table..

I know what you mean...and I know that this kind of studying is useless, but at least I can say I tried. ->dumb logic.

 

[Angela Harlem]

Good old Canberra. I have been around this board for a long time, and I remember you're an Aussie Angela Harlem

Us cool folk have to stick together

My exam was pretty average. I drank a can of Red Bull before it. Hopefully the marks reflect my hours of tired slog. Here's to just scraping through the boring parts of life. I mean...stats...honestly.

Definitely!

Glad your exam is over now. I hope you do OK. What kind of statistics is this? Research? I've got 3rd year stats coming up soonish, and I'm SO not looking forward to it.

 

[Lynz778]

Well, I have a feeling that the staying up all night wasn't the best idea, cause I couldn't really concentrate in the exam, and it was three hours...so I really needed it.

So here's your message all you young students out there. Don't do it man. It's not worth it!

I should have listened to the wise voice of Zoo.

The stats that I'm doing it just first year stats, but it's all science based since I'm doing a med science degree. Heaven freaking knows why I need stats. Well actually I can sort of see it, but I'm not going to admit it...

 

[randhail]

Heaven freaking knows why I need stats. Well actually I can sort of see it, but I'm not going to admit it...

So you can read the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, etc and have an idea of whether the data actually mean something.

 

[VintagePunk]

Definitely!

Glad your exam is over now. I hope you do OK. What kind of statistics is this? Research? I've got 3rd year stats coming up soonish, and I'm SO not looking forward to it.

Poor thing. What topics does that cover?

So you can read the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, etc and have an idea of whether the data actually mean something.

Or, in some cases, to prepare you to do your own research.

 

[~BrightestStar~]

All nighters?

Pffft......been there, done that, have years of incoherent posts all over the board to prove it.


And you may have done better than you think, I'm usually pretty pessemistic after having severely limited sleep, but it usually turns out better than I thought. Hope it turns out for you too.

 

[Angela Harlem]

Poor thing. What topics does that cover?



Or, in some cases, to prepare you to do your own research.

I study criminology, so it's criminological research methodology, formulating research hypotheses, analysing and writing criminal justice policies. It comes complete with formulas. Me and formulas go way back. I can bullshit my way out of almost anything, but when it comes to black and white stuff like this?

Or did you mean the actual topics the unit covers? It's things like field, experimental and survey research, causation and validity, data collection and sampling, interpreting data, records, content analysis and secondary data, evaluation research, etc. Is this what you do, VP?

 

[Carek1230]

I pull all nighters all the time. I'd prefer being awake all night and sleep days actually. I've been looking for work and I seem to accomplish much more during the peace and quiet of nighttime sending resumes to job ads and searching for jobs on the internetz rather than doing the same during the daytime. I've always been a night owl though since my son was born.

 

[VintagePunk]

I study criminology, so it's criminological research methodology, formulating research hypotheses, analysing and writing criminal justice policies. It comes complete with formulas. Me and formulas go way back. I can bullshit my way out of almost anything, but when it comes to black and white stuff like this?

Or did you mean the actual topics the unit covers? It's things like field, experimental and survey research, causation and validity, data collection and sampling, interpreting data, records, content analysis and secondary data, evaluation research, etc. Is this what you do, VP?

I see from the other thread that you now know what I do, lol.

My program is very research intensive, the sadistic bastards. I've taken 3 courses teaching research methods, which covered the things you've mentioned, along with psychological scale construction, where we learned how to design our own tests right from the bottom up - how to select questions, how to word them correctly, right through to validating them and testing for reliability, various biases, etc. As well as that, I've taken 4 statistics courses ranging from intro to advanced that dealt strictly with crunching the numbers, for the most part. Everything from what are means, modes and medians, doing T-tests and Z-tests (I needed this, it had been a long time since I'd done any math academically) to correlations, ANOVAs, multiple regression analyses, testing for mediation and moderation effects, factor analysis, and I got a bit into Structural Equation Modelling (that's like an upper grad level procedure), along with a zillion other minor statistical procedures you need to know how to do and when to apply, for various purposes. Also, we also had to learn to use the statistical software, which they probably spent a grand total of maybe 10 minutes on in all my classes, ever. We essentially had to learn to use it ourselves.

The hard statistics part - the numbers, the data crunching - all of that was a struggle for me. We had to learn the theories and know the formulae so we could do the simpler procedures without a computer. What the fuck for, I have no idea. It's not like I was ever going to be out in the wilderness somewhere and think to myself "I'd really like to do some statistics right now! If only I could do it without the aid of a computer!" When I finally started really learning it and feeling more comfortable with it was in doing my thesis, working with and running my own data. I owe a lot of that to my advisor. He taught me far more than sitting through those god-awful classes ever did.

That turned out to be a long rant. So I'm guessing you're familiar with a lot of this, too?

 

[Angela Harlem]

Rant away! I feel your pain. ANOVAs, T-tests, chi squares, all of it you've mentioned. It caused me great anguish. It's made worse because I get the feeling it will eventually 'click', but it's just taking a while. I should have done the units consecutively, but I was so glad to be rid of the 1st year one that I went on to psychology and law, "to break it up", before getting bogged down again. Plus, I'll have to really nail this if I want to do research in my post grad, which I may want to do.


... I think. I don't actually know anymore. I have a forensic psych. exam next Tuesday. I wish I could borrow your mind for the coming week just to absorb more of it, lol.

 

[VintagePunk]

Rant away! I feel your pain. ANOVAs, T-tests, chi squares, all of it you've mentioned. It caused me great anguish. It's made worse because I get the feeling it will eventually 'click', but it's just taking a while. I should have done the units consecutively, but I was so glad to be rid of the 1st year one that I went on to psychology and law, "to break it up", before getting bogged down again. Plus, I'll have to really nail this if I want to do research in my post grad, which I may want to do.


... I think. I don't actually know anymore. I have a forensic psych. exam next Tuesday. I wish I could borrow your mind for the coming week just to absorb more of it, lol.

I know exactly what you mean by hoping it will click. While I was taking the classes, I always felt like I was so close to getting it, but that it was just a little beyond my reach. A very frustrating feeling! Like I said, it wasn't till I was all finished the classes and doing my own research that it came together for me. It's such a bottom - up, step-by-step process that you really get a very good feel for it, as opposed to sitting in a classroom, learning the concepts and doing the work in a more piecemeal, convoluted way, working on assignments and things that really don't relate to each other in any way. I've bitched to my advisor about this many times, and he said that for one, it does all seem to come together more effectively when you're working on data that are meaningful to you, and two, that our program could teach stats in a much more organized, integrated way, that would help it make more sense to the student. Have the steps follow in a way that makes it seem intuitive, rather than being taught as separate, almost unrelated concepts.

I guess that's my long-winded way of saying hang in there, that probably the majority of students have no better grasp of it than you do, and that it will eventually all come together for you. I know with me, I had to work my ass off to get very average marks in stats, but I got through it, and I did eventually learn. Also, if you have the chance, definitely do the research. You'll get so much more out of it than you do from a classroom setting.

Forensic psych My advisor worked in a forensic criminal justice setting when he first got out of school, and I've heard some interesting stories. Good luck with the exam! If you ever need anything, send me a pm!

 

[cobl04]

Trust someone who did 3/4 psych this year, sleep the best option

I've never studied past 10pm. It's impossible for me. Even earlier sometimes. 9:30. There's other things I'd rather do at that time.

 

[Lynz778]

Ugh. Lets just never mention the word ANOVA again.