Damn, why am I so stupid.

[aguy]

Really this revelation came to me during my in class essay today. Well the essay was supposed to be about that great book Their Eyes Were Watching God, yet my teacher decided to pull a quoted from one of Thoreau's works and made us use this to write an essay. His reasoning is to prepare us for the AP exams. Yet it took me twenty minutes before I found a thesis I liked, yet even then it still sucked. Well in the end while everyone was finishing I was in the middle of my mediocre at best essay. So I finish and realize how pointless it was to even do it for the grade probably turned out to be a failed grade anyway.

Then unfortuntly there was an opportunity where i could have learned something interesting, yet I also lacked the neccesary intellegence to ask decent questions. This was when fmr. senator Howard Baker came to give a chapel talk. Well unlike other times I actually had time to go ask him a question or two after the talk. Yet I wasn't able to come up with anything decent or something someone hadn't asked when there was many possiblities. So what do I do? I just thanked him for coming. Ya what a great way to use that fucking oppurtunity. These two are unfortunently a few times where I showed my true intelligence. Really maybe I should be ranting on how I have oppurtunities yet I can't use them properly.

Ya this may be crappy rant, but I really don't care. All i want is to be able to do is to become a little more intelligent and not waste these oppurtunites. Well thanks.

[Renamon_S3]

I just want you to know, that being smart comes with a lot of pressure. Heh.

Anyway, Even if you aren't the brightest, you can still make a difference and do good things with your life. With enough effort, you can even become well knowledged. You don't have to be born with the ability to take information into your mind and be able to do what you want with it as fast as others. Study up, and practice forming thoughts. Can't think of any good questions? Then ask the stupid ones. You still gain from it. It may be embarrasing, but who cares? You gained more knowledge. All knowledge is useful.

I once helped a guy with his schooling. He had already given up on himself, but I told him what I'm telling you now.

You may be dumb. In fact, there is a higher chance that you are dumb then you are smart. You wont ever know unless you exercise your mind.
I got him to exercise his mind, I helped him with his papers and such, and near the end of the year, he was turning in pretty good work. He brought a 40 up to around an 88 I think. Being intelligent only makes it easy to learn. You just have to work a little harder. You can still learn, and with practice, you can write great papers, and pull a thesis out in moments.

Some people might tell you, "no, you aren't stupid, your just not motivated, or something". I don't subscribe to that.



Here's an analogy:

You and I are both trying to fill a bucket.

I am using a soda cap, and pouring water into the bucket with the cap.

You are useing a small thimble. You are also pouring water into your bucket.

I can fill the bucket more easily than you can. Does that mean that you can't fill the bucket? Sure, it will take more thimbles of water, but you can fill it.

The bucket is knowledge, and the cap and thimble are levels of intelligence.

The human mind is an amazing thing.

A diamond and a slightly flawed diamond are still diamonds.

A human brain is a human brain. You can do anything I can. I am no better than you, I was just given a better tool to use.


I hope you take that to heart, as did my other friend. Noone thought he could graduate, but he did, and you can write a damn good paper.

[aguy]

I got him to exercise his mind, I helped him with his papers and such, and near the end of the year, he was turning in pretty good work. He brought a 40 up to around an 88 I think. Being intelligent only makes it easy to learn. You just have to work a little harder. You can still learn, and with practice, you can write great papers, and pull a thesis out in moments.

How would you go about exercising the mind. Writing papers doesn't seem to work nor does talking with the teacher.

Also the problem with me is I need time to do something well. I have been having much more trouble with Lit this year than I was last year. Last year it seemed I was doing much better pulling in 90 papers, but now I honestly just lost it. I have been doing worse in Lit than I should be. I can't do as well as the other guys in the class can. To make things worse the exam is coming up and i have never taken an ap exam before, so now I am freaking out, because I know my teacher is going to choose something else from Thoreau or Emerson and then make us explain how the quote relates to one of the shitty books we read.

There is another thing I wanted to add. WHY THE HELL DO PEOPLE KEEP COMING TO ME FOR HELP? Yes I did do well on the Chem test, but i already forgot whatever the subject was about and I know I will just mess you up even more. Maybe everyone just expects me to know shit and have high expectations for me.

Some people might tell you, "no, you aren't stupid, your just not motivated, or something". I don't subscribe to that

Yes I agree with you and I hate it when people tell me that. My problem is thought that no matter what I do things just aren't getting better. So far the only thing I can think of is getting 10 hours or more of sleep, but with my homework load that is impossible.

[Renamon_S3]

I suppose it is too late to get out of the ap class huh?

What grade are you in? You just turned 17 today... 11th? I wouldn't know, because I was always younger than everyone else, lol.

Lets see...

I find that reading helps to exercise the mind a lot. It gives you a better vocabulary, which could help you explain yourself better in a paper.
Instead of playing a videogame, try reading a difficult book for 20mins a night.

Seeing as how I don't know your exact situation, the only good advice I can come up with at the moment for your exam is this: Chill-out.

Even if you know the exact same amount of information, if you go into a test relaxed and calm, you will do better than if you went in there anxious.

If you get yourself all excited and anxious, it will be hard for you to concentrate. Also, eat some pepermints while you take the exam. I'm not sure who proved this, but it really will help to focus your mind.

If your teacher last year recomended that you go into ap classes, maybe she jumped the gun. Then again, maybe she was right to have faith in you.

If you have the right mind-set, you can do so much better.

There is also a way to prepare for your exam, that is more than just studying. Think ahead about what you will most likely have to write about during the writing portion.

If there is a multiple choice, you can at least rule out one of the options. I'll explain a good system for this, if you want. Just ask.

For a fill in the black type part, look for sentence clues. If a word doesn't seem to sound right in the sentence, chances are that it is the wrong word.

As for the quotes... and how they relate to you... If you can't figure that crap out well, here is a trick that worked every time.

Give them a load of bull-shit. Make something up. How is your teacher gonna prove how you feel, or how it relates to you? That should be a free 5-15% of your exam.

[aguy]

I find that reading helps to exercise the mind a lot. It gives you a better vocabulary, which could help you explain yourself better in a paper.
Instead of playing a videogame, try reading a difficult book for 20mins a night.

Reading never really has helped, because I actually read quite a bit and I don't really have much of a chance to play games anymore.

Btw I am in 11th grade, the year your grades really matter.

[Renamon_S3]

Ah, that is what I guessed. I have to actually think about those things, because I graduated highschool at 16.

If readind doesn't help much, then the only other thing to do for english is to practice...

Very boring. Ask your teach for a mock paper to do, and then write it. Have her grade it, and explain things that you could do better.
Be sure to tell her that it is to practice with writing papers and such. I'm sure she will help.

It is a she right? lol.

[aguy]

No lol it is a man. Although if he wasn't married i would have to question some things about him.

i just don't know why I can't write papers well this year. One of the conclusions I have come to is that all, but one of the papers( the one I did very well on) have been very boring topics.

I did ask my teacher also and he said I had great ideas, but I just need to organize my papers better. Something I agree i do need to work on.

[Renamon_S3]

I've never had to do this, but you may want to try it.

Try making a thought tree, or something like one, for each of your points in a paper before actually writing them. It can help you to figure out just how you want to order your thoughts, and will greatly help with your organization.

[aguy]

Well I noticed somthing on the exam. I write much better when I am jacked up one sugar and caffeine. Probably stilll unorganized and I think i lost some points on it, because although I did make some good points and did what he wanted for the papers. The paper was also a satire in a way attacking the scarlet letter and also attacking the passage he chose about some girl climbing a tree and what an amazing experience it was.

Sorry if this passage is hard to read i wrote it a bit too fast.

[Renamon_S3]

Just imagine what you're able to do when you aren't all jacked up on coffee!