was1984 Posted March 31, 2009 Posted March 31, 2009 I've been out of school for two years now, and haven't studied the bulk of my subject matter for three. My job was in an area (manufacturing) that is far different from what I'm going to be studying (circuit design). I cracked a book about a week ago and realized how rusty I am! I've been reading through one of my old textbooks again, and it is coming back to me, but I've realized now I have a lot of work to do before I go back to school! Anyone else noticed this? This is probably more applicable to those of us in sciences and engineering.
ogopogo Posted March 31, 2009 Posted March 31, 2009 Definitely feeling rusty. I'll have been out of school for almost 5 years when I go back in September and, while I have been working in my field, in that time I haven't given more than a second thought to some of the more difficult subjects I'll be studying. yikes! I'm actually still too afraid to look at my old notes so you are a step ahead of me, and certainly not alone in needing to work off a little rust.
TulipOHare Posted March 31, 2009 Posted March 31, 2009 My study skills have totally disintegrated, that's for sure. I need to re-learn how to focus on textbooks. And I look back at my heaps of well-organized notes from undergrad and wonder... who did these?
Leahlearns Posted March 31, 2009 Posted March 31, 2009 YES. I've been out of school for 3 year and I've been teaching ESL. I'm very worried about writing papers. I haven't written anything that wasn't intended for ESL students in a really long time. I guess I wrote my SOP, but that was just a page or so and I spent forever on it, had lots of people edit it for me, etc.
fuzzylogician Posted April 1, 2009 Posted April 1, 2009 Yes. I'm actually still in school, which makes it even worse. Beside writing my SOP I haven't written anything worthwhile this year and I'm starting to think that I'm going to need to refresh my reading/writing skills before I'm able to do it again. Planned for the next three months: 1 MA thesis, 1 large seminar paper, 2 relatively smaller seminar papers. Ugh.
was1984 Posted April 1, 2009 Author Posted April 1, 2009 I take that back about being more applicable to science/engineering people. Being a mediocre writer myself, I didn't realize that it took consistency to keep up a high level of writing. Maybe this is why I always got B's in the various history courses I took for fun. Sounds like a good excuse, anyway!
lauraeli Posted April 1, 2009 Posted April 1, 2009 I graduated two years ago, moved to the south of france, and since then, i've been teaching to elementary school students. I don't remember how i ever sat through three hour lectures, took organized notes, and wrote papers longer, than say, oh, a SOP. And now i'm used to the french school work week, which includes Wednesdays off, two hour lunch breaks, and two 30 minute recesses during the day. And i also get Fridays off. I do maybe 1 or 2 hours of prep work a week for my classes, so once I'm done with my work hours, i basically don't have anything I have to do. (Yes, I am living the dream.) I'm going to have to relearn to be a student, quick. (and how to work like an American and not a French schoolteacher, dommage!!)
Stories Posted April 1, 2009 Posted April 1, 2009 A little bit, but I'll be only a year removed from my studies when I enroll in September. The nice thing is I've enjoyed my time away from studying and bringing work home with me, so I'm ready to be back in that environment
curious zygote Posted April 3, 2009 Posted April 3, 2009 I will sit down with a textbook for about 10 minutes before I get distracted. Two hours later while watching YouTube videos I'll be like, "oh, crap. I'm supposed to be reading". Then two more hours will pass... and then I will go to bed. Rest. Repeat. I am going to get pulverized!
TulipOHare Posted April 3, 2009 Posted April 3, 2009 I will sit down with a textbook for about 10 minutes before I get distracted. Two hours later while watching YouTube videos I'll be like, "oh, crap. I'm supposed to be reading". Then two more hours will pass... and then I will go to bed. Rest. Repeat. I am going to get pulverized! Seconded! eek...
was1984 Posted April 4, 2009 Author Posted April 4, 2009 I will sit down with a textbook for about 10 minutes before I get distracted. Two hours later while watching YouTube videos I'll be like, "oh, crap. I'm supposed to be reading". Then two more hours will pass... and then I will go to bed. Rest. Repeat. I am going to get pulverized! Sounds like me during my undergrad...lol.
willtherebestars Posted April 5, 2009 Posted April 5, 2009 Eek! Not only do I feel rusty in my content area... I'm also nervous about teaching. Gonna try to use the summer to get a start on the reading list...
TimRobbins81 Posted April 10, 2009 Posted April 10, 2009 Wow, I have been beating myself up about this for months. I went as far as to create a stringent reading schedule in order to get back on track for grad school...a schedule that I continue to keep putting off.
Morrius Posted April 10, 2009 Posted April 10, 2009 Six years removed from undergrad here. Help, I'm old!
TulipOHare Posted April 10, 2009 Posted April 10, 2009 Wow, I have been beating myself up about this for months. I went as far as to create a stringent reading schedule in order to get back on track for grad school...a schedule that I continue to keep putting off. Same for brushing up my Spanish!
flit Posted April 11, 2009 Posted April 11, 2009 lots of us old folk around Morrius.... I'll be >50 by the time I get my PhD. You'll get back into it
nandelle Posted April 26, 2009 Posted April 26, 2009 Haha yeah, before doing a campus visit I *totally* freaked out and spent half the night huddled with old statistics textbooks, freaked out that they'd ask me to work some proof and I wouldn't remember how (totally baseless fear, fyi). But it did remind me that I have a lot of work to do! i worked as a math tutor and taught some math classes this year, so I have a good foundation and intro stats I'm totally solid in (probably moreso than while I was doing my undergrad)...it's the upper level stuff and the software that I'm going to need some reviewing with!
yacobito Posted May 5, 2009 Posted May 5, 2009 Same here. I've been out 4 years post master working in industry and am going back in the fall to pursue a Ph.D. in Materials Science Engineering. I too thought I would start reading ahead and struggled make any headway. I then went to MIT's open course site and found an undergraduate course on a topic I need to brush up on. This one in particular had videos of the lecture. I found it was much easier for me to watch a video lecture than start cold reading a text book on Thermodynamics. After watching a couple lectures I picked up the textbook they used from a local library and started reading some of the chapters. I found I was able to go longer reading without falling asleep as I had more of an interest! It worked for me, maybe not for others. They also have homework and quizzes, sometimes with answers if you want to get back into problem sets. Good luck everyone!
was1984 Posted May 5, 2009 Author Posted May 5, 2009 Same here. I've been out 4 years post master working in industry and am going back in the fall to pursue a Ph.D. in Materials Science Engineering. I too thought I would start reading ahead and struggled make any headway. I then went to MIT's open course site and found an undergraduate course on a topic I need to brush up on. This one in particular had videos of the lecture. I found it was much easier for me to watch a video lecture than start cold reading a text book on Thermodynamics. After watching a couple lectures I picked up the textbook they used from a local library and started reading some of the chapters. I found I was able to go longer reading without falling asleep as I had more of an interest! It worked for me, maybe not for others. They also have homework and quizzes, sometimes with answers if you want to get back into problem sets. Good luck everyone! Thanks for the great idea!
poetaguerrera Posted May 7, 2009 Posted May 7, 2009 yeah ive been out of school for 2 yrs...definitely feeling rusty. lol i dont know how i am going to get myself to read dense anthropological material when lately i read kid's stories to keep myself from feeling anxious. lol i have been reading philosophy but thats nowhere near the extent of dense theories. ahhh
purplepepper Posted May 10, 2009 Posted May 10, 2009 yes and yes. I've been out of school for 4 years...and now I wonder how I ever worked like a machine when I was doing my masters (3 seminar papers, 20 pgs each, every 10 weeks!) I tried to do the whole get caught up and read during the summer, but I don't even have the attention span to get through a few pages at a time... oy vey. yeah. it's gonna be a fun 1st semester back at school.
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