Preparing Norc, no, Eldo for a life of college debauchery. Though it won't exactly be college; the grad school version of debauchery being far more refined.

Eldorion wrote:Good luck Norc! How long does it need to be?

thank you, i am having a nervous breakdown. The web-page where we are to deliver the exam has a countdown. it has to be 4800-6000 words, which means i'll have to poop out around 3000 well formulated words tomorrow or something idk.. probably gonna sit from 9 tomorrow morning until like over midnight... i am so stressed.. if i fail i don't know what to do, don't know if i have the will to continue..

4800-6000 is a good chunk. Being wordy is not itself a good aim, my advice would be think about what you are writing about, think about something that rely interests you in what you are writing about, something you have a strong opinion on, and spend a good chunk of your writing getting into that part. You'll quickly find you write too much, at least that is the hope.

I have the opposite issue of you, I write far too much, and my thing, delivery in a month, is max 40.000 words, so that is saying smth

malickfan wrote:Reading threads like these makes me both a) jealous I never had the brains/money/drive/interest in persuing an academic career or going to uni and B) thankful I don't, sounds rewarding but hard work

Never too late, never too late, Malick

I abandoned an accademic career around age 30, and went back to it 8 or 9 years later.

Norc - Blue's advice is good. Stop worrying about the damn thing and find some facet of it you find interesting enough to enjoy writing. Passion drives everything, most especially intellectual endeavors.

That's a pretty hefty amount, yeah. My advice would be to not worry too much about making it you're best writing and to mainly focus on writing as much as you can to get to the target, preferably towards the upper end of it. Then you can go back and try to edit things into coherence. Knowing you, I suspect that even with minimal editing your writing would still be above average, but at least you'll have something to turn in that meets the requirements, which is always better than nothing. That's what I like to tell myself to try to combat my perfectionism anyway (my success rate isn't amazing though ).

If this is a topic that you are genuinely passionate about then I would echo halfy's advice but if you're stuck with a topic you're not super interested in for the exam and are unable to change it then I would focus more on brute-forcing it.

remember if you study drunk you should take the exam drunk.- Halfy


{{Without which sound advice I would not have had a 30 year career in the wiping strangers arses business for minimum pay! }}}

Embellishment can help pad it out a bit, & bringing in a 3rd 'imaginary ' friend if its a subject your not so cool with. Let your 'friend' have a point of you especially if you can make it argue with yourself. Does sound a bit schizo but, sometimes it can produce a flow, which makes chat, makes words, lots of lovely written words. I don't agree with sitting at it & thinking so hard. It makes your brain freeze & seize up. your no good to yourself like that. Do something outside, go fishing or other activity. See how the world ticks then write that paper with air flowing between your ears. Open your mind & you will win.

halfwise wrote:Norc - Blue's advice is good.  Stop worrying about the damn thing and find some facet of it you find interesting enough to enjoy writing.  Passion drives everything, most especially intellectual endeavors.

but i literally don't have a passion, i just have panic attacks..

thanks for the advice though, but i am a mess.

Do you have anyone you can get a hug from ? You feel a mess & are having panic attacks because your brain is alone & is going into over drive. You need someone for comfort, to soothe you down. We all twist our brains & take it for granted thinking the brain will keep going on & on, It needs a break, calm & a cuddle now & again. your brain is fighting you back, you need to find peace. After you've smashed the place up, had a swearing fit you need to chill out & unload everything onto a good friend. Tell them everything. You need to untwist your mind to let thoughts flow, without the headaches, without the panic attacks.

thanks, i called my mom also, now i have 2000 words.. only 2000 more and then 800 and hoping for an E.

also my roomie lit the fireplace..

I know this is zero comfort but I couldn't study when I was in my 20s, I just couldn't be arsed with all the aggro and hard work, I just wanted to party and have a good time with my mates, I was a flibbertigibbet, mostly hung over and stoned. I got chucked out of Uni twice because I couldn't find anything I liked enough to go through 3 years for, so I gave up and concentrated on doing what I did best, having a wheeze with boys and vodka. anyway I get to 30 and I try again, this time it was much better as I had got most of the savage out of my system and I was less mentally unstable, so I did a degree and miracle of miracles got a good one. then from 35 onwards I have been a student, because I love it and it suits me, I don't have any bosses telling me what to do because I have problems with authority figures, I have physical freedom which I crave, because I get anxious and depressed in offices and my mental health goes in the danger zone, so I just don't do offices, anyway I do something I love because life goes too fast to do anything else. now all I do is study and my mentality is at the right age to take it seriously. So enjoy being young and do young things, don't blame yourself for being young and wanting to enjoy yourself, do what your instincts feels right. if you want to study do so, but if you do it later in life that's ok too. its never ever too late. until it is.

thanks, figgy no i won't take your advice.. not yet at least ;P

i have 800 words left until i reach the minimum requirement.. but what i have wirtten is utter garbage.. what the fuck..

Good luck with the (hopefully speedy) editing process, Norc! If it means anything, I think most people tend to be more critical of their writing than anyone else is.

eeeeh... i don't have an editing process... i'm just gonna sum it up, read through it, and hope i'll pass....

Making minor corrections while quickly reading through is what passes for editing for me when I'm doing school papers at the last minute (which is almost always). But either way I'm confident that you've got it!

Once you have your thoughts down most good editing consists of careful distillation. But with a looming deadline it's not clear you actually have your full thoughts down yet. Still, it's best to be too long before an edit.

as i said, it is utter garbage what i have written, i'll just have to squeese some reflections out and just idk.. hope for E...

There is an american phrase that goes "do it, puke, and get out".

If you're not enjoying it, get it over with and the moment the thing is handed in you move on.

why not get a friend to read it through to see if it makes sense to someone who has no idea about the subject matter, sometimes fresh eyes can pick up something you could have missed. if you are working constantly on a piece of work you can get bogged down and other people can see it from a neutral point of view.

Figg that is a great tip, and i did do that but because of the time that was given on the assignement, there was little room for a lot of that kind of feedback. also, i realised way to late that the reason my paper sucked is due to like core-failures, things i should've done from the start, and when i realized that, i had too little time to fix it.. but fingers crossed!

also, i did deliever it and forget about it! Delivered it, went and spent 700NOK on make-up and a little more on a good lunch/dinner and then i bought a bottle of wine, went to a pre-game (vorspiel), then onwards with my classmate to a shady looking club, 100NOK in entrance money, almost the same for a beer and even more for a drink. Got absolutely hammered, danced swing, got carried away by a tall handsome man in my class until a guard told us to knock it off (thinking we were drunk and might hurt someone/each other), then i headbanged (which i today regret because my neck is killing me), got chatted up by a 20-year old (although he didn't know how to lead in a boogey and that's not sexy) and he told me, when he heard i was a 94-model, that i was too old. i left. my initial dancing partner, from my class, got kicked out after preforming his air-guitar solo. rip. i've been terribly hungover today, but i went and saw star wars AND OMG IT WAS FUCKING GREAT!

Wow. After one of my finals I usually just went home and read a book.

Edit: What the heck on 23 being too old relative to a 20 year old. Too old for what?

i was so tired i have no idea how i managed that.... like, i slept bad wed-thu, and then woke up like 5:30 on thursday, worked until 2 in the night, and then got up early again on friday, so after i delivered it i was a mess, my body felt like shutting down and i almost fell asleep on the bus.. so my body hates me right now and omg everything in here is fucking expensive!! whatever you buy has an average of 12 dollars ...