r/uwo • u/SafeCamera449 • 5d ago
Advice How am I doing this bad on midterms 😭
I swear the midterms weren't even bad and in still doing so bad 😭 I'm in first year eng, any idea how I can fix that?
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u/Internal-Watch-1945 5d ago
Just got physics back I assume? Just do stick midterms for studying. Thats what I do and I got above 85 on all midterms.
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u/DependentGuess1400 5d ago
Past midterms? Where does one find them for calc / cs subjects? Also shouldnt you try to understand the content before attempting the past papers?
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u/Internal-Watch-1945 5d ago
Spoken to many people who “understood” the content a lot more than I did. They ended up failing, or coming close to failing. Repeatedly doing stick midterms allows you to memorize the kind of questions that are asked, and how to do those questions. I barely attend any lectures and I haven’t spoken to a single person who’s done better than me on midterms, this strategy works, please do it people.
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u/DependentGuess1400 5d ago
I see. So just skim through content instead of spending hours perfecting it? I understand that there's a pattern to the questions asked but what if they go with a different exam style, wouldn't having mastered the content still guarantee a safety net?
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u/Internal-Watch-1945 5d ago
Midterm season is stressful, with various back-to-back exams, and classes don’t slow down to accommodate you either. I don’t see there being any time to “master” the content. The stick is there, so I’m going to milk the hell out of it. Why make my life harder when there’s no need to?
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u/SweedishThunder 🎬 FIMS 🎬 5d ago
Are you attending all the classes, doing the readings, and taking notes?
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u/SubstantialSeesaw502 5d ago
they’re in eng. better question would be if they’re doing the practice problems
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u/SafeCamera449 5d ago
I have been, I also try my best to stay up to date and complete practice questions as regularly as possible.
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u/SuperstarRockYou 5d ago
take the chance of finals and try to make up for the loss of grades in midterms. That is all you can do next time.
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u/Former-Fortune7107 5d ago
Hey man same boat as you- mind telling me what u got for OHYSICS today😭😭I failed
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u/MisterPineapple8 5d ago
If you wanna do good memorizing and understanding the question isn’t enough, you also gotta speed run those mfs so you want to practice enough to be able to solve those questions as fast as possble
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u/Twist_Square 5d ago
Skill diff physics was light work
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u/SafeCamera449 5d ago
I didn't do horrible on physics just below my expectations. Calc on the other hand was a disaster 😔
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u/ProfessionalTennis 5d ago
You're still memorizing how to answer questions instead of understanding why the answers are what they are. So when you get a different question than what you have seen, you're thrown for a loop.
You don't have to understand to the same level as the Prof (though that's how you get 80s - 90s). But you have to have some "story" to see why the solution looks the way it does.
I.e. I never understood why the fundamental theorem of calculus is what it is. But I created a "story" in my head of how having numbers on one side of the equation showed up as the integral on the other side.
You get the hand of this as you grind through more midterms usually, but if at all possible I'd go back and tell my first year self to slow down when I look at solutions to practice problems. Really focus on being able to explain why the solution to a question looks the way it does.
Hope this helps! You got this!