Is there something wrong or am I just stupid in school?

During class I feel fairly confident cos I always understand the lesson and I already know I have bad memory so I make sure I write down EVERYTHING even what I don’t understand just in case I figure it out later. But thing is its been getting out of hand lately…

I can’t do seat works without looking at my notes and I’m failing my tests solely because I can’t remember equations. I’ve tried memorizing but I forget immediately when I try to Memorize another equation! It’s as If I don’t have space in my brain anymore! Even when I am interested in the topic! Whenever there’s a test I make sure to rewrite my notes 2 to 3 times yet I still forget. It’s as if I didn’t study. I’ve tried so many study methods and I’m so frustrated and I’m about to give up…

What should I do?

I feel so stupid because all my other classmates have no difficulty whatsoever. Is there something wrong with me? Like a learning disability or am I just stupid? I try really hard yet I still fail.

Category: Education Tags: School asked November 18, 2014

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Pizza

8 Answers

Dont try to memorise everything with an empty meaning :) make sure you understand what you memorise and it'll come to you naturally, what I like to do is to memorise important things right before I go to bad because thats the time period in which your brain takes your unimportant temporary memories and washes them away while taking the important memories you need ( including recent memories ) and grounding them into your unconscious mind so they become easier to recall. :) works for me ^^. Just try and concentrate on getting the topic and being able to use it instead of memorising it without learning it. :P

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Dan

581

Sounds like something to talk to a guidance counselor about. You sound like a good student, and if you're already trying hard to remember things and you can't, then you've probably done everything you can do alone. Your guidance counselor can refer you to someone else to test you for a learning disability, and then you might be able to get accommodations during tests like using a cheat sheet.

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Anybody

904

Are there any new stress factors in your life right now?

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anon

You're an intelligent student just becoming too dependent on writing everything down and its leaking memory. You're doing fine, deal with the stress, its not healthy for you.

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DarkStar

116

I had the same problem when I was at school doing maths. I'm still not great at it now if I'm honest. But I found the best thing to do was to link the equations with something I enjoyed. I used colours and music. So if I was doing a certain equation I'd think of the song I listened to while I practised it and it would jog my memory and I'd remember the equation. The same with colours. I'd write certain notes down in certain colours so when I had to remember it I just needed to remember the colour first. Don't worry too much. Stress isn't going to help you remember. If you're trying to cram everything in over hours things won't stick. Try doing half an hour studying. Then have 15/20mins relaxing; have some food, a bath/shower, watch some tv. Let your brain relax a little then go back to it. After doing that my grades got higher and I found studying wasn't as horrible as I thought. Let us know how you get on in your next test :)

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Taylor6884

120

I don't think it would hurt to get tested for a learning disability, but a counselor may be able to find you a tutor or your parents

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Man Of Wisdom

364

Also sometimes when you try too hard to learn something your brain just overloads and can't take any of it. Take a break, look at other ways of learning, such as a song for particularly difficult parts etc and relax. For years I learnt by writing things out many times but now that does not work for me, so I had to find something new. You're not stupid, your brain is just so used to thinking, it no longer does any learning when you write stuff down. (I'm currently studying Japanese, so I can tell you different learning methods 100% help)

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takenoko

Apply what you learn to a real life situation. Preferably, a situation you specifically would encounter.

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GBWest