Need some motivation for my exam in 2 weeks

May 20, 2024 4:25 AM

I posted here a couple of times about my previous exam, Advanced Taxation. I finally managed to just about scrape a pass, on my 3rd attempt . I now have my next one in 2 weeks and I'm finding myself procrastinating like crazy, I know this might seem like a repeat post but I need some support and encouragement

I have just over 2 weeks left. I have taken this week off as annual leave so I'm not working. The week before the exam I am back at work.

I have been through the video lectures at speed and absorbed almost nothing. I've started the exam kit of 80 questions and am making extremely slow progress, I'm on Q.4.

I keep procrastinating by watching YouTube true crime videos or the news, for literally hours. When my bf asks me how much studying I've done, I completely lie.

Over the weekend I did about 2 hours each day. The other 6 hours I was tidying up or watching YouTube. That's so so bad.

Finding it insanely hard to focus, is it because I'm terrified?

A couple of people on Reddit have said they managed to pass by studying for 2 weeks so it's possible. But the majority of people say that's insanely tough and most impossible, it's a vast exam.

I will be seeking an ADHD assessment but in the meantime I need to force myself to study for minimum 8 hours a day this week if I want to pass.

Please send me words of advice, support and encouragement.

posted by Sunflower88 to Work & Money (19 answers total)

is it because I'm terrified?

Maybe. But what's the worst that happens if you don't pass it? You take it again another time? You have my blessing.

Study now so that, if you have to take it again, you'll be starting from a more advanced point and have a bit of an easier time. Should that turn out to be enough to pass this time, great. If not, well, your preparation is a gift to future you.


In the meantime, turn off the internet. Take a deep breath, hold it in, let it out slowly. Breathing is more real than an exam. Put on some relaxing music, work through a question or two, take a break, work through a few more, have a snack, work through a few more, go take a walk and maybe work through some more at a coffee shop or park, etc. Take a few seconds for deep breaths throughout. At the end of your 8 hours, or at 7pm, whichever comes sooner, put your stuff down, stop thinking about it for the day, have a nice evening and some good sleep, and pick up tomorrow.

Personally, I would take at least one day off completely.

After your exam, treat yourself to something nice, even if you don't think you deserve it. You do.
posted by trig at 5:16 AM on May 20

Is it possible to switch to working now, and annual leave/study in the days before the exam? If you've got ADHD, that might be too long a time horizon for studying to feel urgent, and you're not going to be able to study at last minute if you're at work.
posted by Elysum at 5:53 AM on May 20 [4 favorites]

Have you tried a technique like Pomodoro? Do a short amount of work, followed by a short break. Eg. Do 20 minutes of study, followed by a 10 minute break. Repeat several times, but don't overdo it. Rest is important, as is eating well and doing some exercise.

I think that I have read that it's a good idea to do some study, sleep, and then go over the material again after waking up.

Try a variety of forms of study. Practice questions are important, but you might need to change it up. If watching videos or doing reading, make handwritten notes. Take a look on YouTube to see whether anyone has made videos in a format which makes sense to you. Explain the concept to a person or animal.

It's certainly possible for you to learn the material and pass the exam.
posted by kinddieserzeit at 5:56 AM on May 20 [1 favorite]

Do you want to pass?

I don't mean it to sound like a stupid question, but your post history is a stream of (1) don't do well in tests on this topic, (2) not motivated to study this material, (3) not doing well in this job/field.

It doesn't seem like you have any interest in doing this work. If that's true, you'll never be motivated to study and pass the test, let alone anything else that follows.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 5:59 AM on May 20 [34 favorites]

I also have the impression that you loathe accounting, and that this is your subconscious pulling out the clue-by-eight because all the previous clue-by-fours haven't seemed to work in sending conscious-you the message.

Is this really the way you want to spend the rest of your life?
posted by heatherlogan at 6:17 AM on May 20

Hi, you had a very similar previous question to which folks provided various tips and advice. Since you did pass the exam, looking back, did you try any of the suggestions, and what worked (and didn't work) for you? Can you try again for this exam what worked for you before?
posted by needled at 6:22 AM on May 20 [8 favorites]

When my bf asks me how much studying I've done, I completely lie.

Stop lying. Say out loud exactly what’s happening. Your tendency to lie under pressure has harmed you before, but it also reinforces this really stressful dichotomy you’ve set up for yourself where you don’t do the work and then struggle with the consequences, sucking out the energy to either do the work or address the underlying issues.. (I’m sympathetic- I don’t think you have to do this accounting work to be successful in your life long-term. But this pattern is really unhealthy.)

So, tell your bf. Maybe text your bf when you stop studying and he can encourage you to get back to it.maybe you can go for a 15 min walk together and then study in a cafe.

Also stop reading Reddit and posting here. You are playing with hypotheticals (what’s the magic button to press? Do other people pass?) rather than studying.
posted by warriorqueen at 6:54 AM on May 20 [8 favorites]

Textbook ADHD! Hurry up on that assessment, medication will help a lot.

1. More caffiene! Tons of caffiene!

2. Body doubling. Get boyfriend to sit with you. Teach him the course - question by question, read it aloud and talk through the answer.

3. You won't be able to study for 8 hours a day, that's insanity, but you can probably manage 4 hours a day and ADHD people tend to be smart so that's probably enough.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 7:16 AM on May 20 [6 favorites]

Go to the library. Leave your phone at home.
posted by koahiatamadl at 8:30 AM on May 20 [1 favorite]

Body doubling sounds like it is going to be key here. Accountability that is not real-time (ie your boyfriend asking you how much you’ve done after the fact) is not working. See if you can make regular study dates with someone you know or try a virtual option or both.
Some options in this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/1188e22/body_doubling_online_for_free/

Also, see if you can get yourself to just do it for 5 minutes. Literally 5, with a kitchen timer. I find that the starting is the hardest part for me when I’m procrastinating —after starting, it’s usually easier to keep going for a while.

Good luck!
posted by music for skeletons at 9:13 AM on May 20 [1 favorite]

I have ADHD and the pomodoro technique ended up being so effective for me that I was highly annoyed I'd not tried it sooner.

You can do almost anything for 25 minutes if you know that you get to stop in 25 minutes.
posted by Jacqueline at 9:15 AM on May 20

I'm going to guess that you're still with the same terrible boyfriend who has appeared in previous questions. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

If it is the same guy, I get why you might lie, and why you might feel trapped into doing this exam/being an accountant, because you rely on him for housing. I really hope that's not the case. If it is, give yourself some grace. You feel stuck in an unhappy situation and you sound like you have an undiagnosed mental illness. Studying will be extra hard. I'm sorry that this sucks. I personally would accept I might fail and focus on strategies for breaking up and moving out as an alternative win and way to move forward in life.

Again, I would love if that is NOT the case so please do correct me if I'm wrong.
posted by guessthis at 9:17 AM on May 20 [2 favorites]

Do the video lectures have transcripts, some kind of material you can search? What about the internet, can you google the questions and assemble an answer (I mean one that is correct, not AI made-up garbage)?

You're just a panicked penguin right now, flapping your wings. Stop flapping. Take a breath.

Work the problem, as they said in Apollo 13. I think you're applying test anxiety to the studying, aside from just being generally dysregulated on the topic. Reframe this as research or investigation: there are a series of questions and you need to find the information to answer them, because you need this knowledge. Invariably, as you go research the answer to Q4, you're going to skim through information that contains the whole or partial answers to Qs 9, 17, 34, and 52. As you work on Q5, you're going to catch answers to some of those Qs and others. It will start to accumulate. You will start to remember where you saw it before, and then you will start to remember the actual answer.

Another tactic, if you don't have a searchable transcript, watch the videos at 1.5 or 2x speed and just index them - in a spreadsheet or document categorize each spoken block of information with keywords, and every couple of minutes when they pause for a moment you can type a minute-mark for the video. Now, when you get to Q6 that is about the Widget Regulatory Act of 1927, your spreadsheet tells you that answer is 22 minutes into lecture 3. You cannot study for 8 hours a day straight, but you can easily put in 4-5 hours of just this task today, even though it's kinda boring, because it'll at least be highly useful boring, and if you are using your eyes and your hands simultaneously you cannot doomscroll or otherwise wander off. But do set a timer for maybe every 30m of indexing to stand and stretch and drink some water and go pee and then right back to indexing. That is your job the next couple days, to index these videos.

If you DO have a searchable transcript, it still wouldn't hurt to drop it in a text document and chunk it out into topics and keyword them for any important terms that aren't captured in the transcript.

Also go through the sample questions and keyword tag those too - no answering, just tagging, on the first pass. Define what the Q is about, so you can then go find the answer.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:36 AM on May 20 [3 favorites]

Best answer: I keep procrastinating
Forgive yourself. The link says "moderate procrastination can help give your brain time to mull over a task or problem, and create space for greater creativity and innovative ideas." So, it's okay to procrastinate! Please don't beat yourself up about it (or anything, really). Your mind is working in complex ways. An advanced taxation exam is something I do not foresee in my future!!

Over the weekend I did about 2 hours each day
That's great! Keep it up! You're almost there!
posted by HearHere at 9:43 AM on May 20 [5 favorites]

Honestly, it could also easily be high anxiety with avoidant features, so it’s impossible to say if caffeine* and body-doubling will help with that; I think the latter is worth a try if you don’t feel judged by your boyfriend.

I really sympathize with your problems with studying and assessment, I have similar issues and still struggle with these things often! Here are some thoughts based on what you said:

-True crime in this context is a terrible combination: negative and pretty stimulating, and you’re probably spending some mental energy on it after viewing, especially if they’re unsolved cases etc. Maybe try lighter and more discrete forms of downtime, e.g. a mediocre 30-minute comedy you’ve seen before, and you can go back to studying after 1-2 episodes max.

-It seems like you’ve struggled with procrastination issues like this your whole life, and yet you’ve still passed exams before (who cares if you scraped by!). Passing is still possible even if your procrastination is very stressful and not the best for your health, it doesn’t make you any less intelligent and you’ve worked with it before. This is not a crisis, it's something you can still work with in the short term, so:

-Please stop reading reddit threads about what is theoretically possible to accomplish in 2 weeks: you’ll always be waffling between the few who say they did it (so it’s OK for me to watch TV and relax, yay!) and the many more who claim it’s impossible (oh no, I watched so much TV and now I’m screwed! Better watch some more to avoid thinking about this) and will put you on an up and down cycle of relief and anxiety without actually making any progress. I would use a program to block reddit, personally.

-I think a concrete study schedule might be helpful if you don't have one. The eight hours a day requirement is something I’ve said to myself a million times and it’s never been helpful or realistic. Try to identify what you need to do as a minimum in the next two weeks, and if you have time you can go further. This might be something like: finish all 76 remaining practice questions in week 1 (I don’t know how long each takes, so try and allot more specific questions/day) then spend the next week revising weak spots from the practice qs. This way 2 hours a day isn't "bad," it might be all you need or you might need to spend more time on questions/reviewing.

Good luck! Please feel free to message me if you want to discuss further.

*It seems you might have problems with caffeine; you can experiment with pills if you think it helps you focus but since you’ve had problems with coffee/tea previously it might not be worth the literal headaches at this time.
posted by hejrat at 9:46 AM on May 20

Oh also - people with ADHD tend to have Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria - in other words, they feel like extra bad absolute shit when they are self-blaming or being blamed or criticized, and it adds to their paralysis, avoidance, and procrastination.

So your boyfriend checking up on you after the fact, and trying to catch your failure, is making it harder for you to study all week. Tell him to stop doing that. If he wants to help you, he should help WHILE you study, by sitting with you and letting you teach him the course. WITHOUT criticizing you or making you feel dumb. Criticism VERY BAD. Body doubling VERY GOOD.

Also, this seems like it contradicts the above, but somehow it's true - people with ADHD often LOVE domestic unrest and conflict, because it gives them adrenaline jolts which act like cocaine and wake their brains up. Actually kind of makes sense why you persist in sticking with this guy. When the exam is over, maybe this is something for you to think about / take to your therapist!
posted by nouvelle-personne at 11:15 AM on May 20 [5 favorites]

Wait, I'm back again (hi ADHD!)

Do you actually WANT to get this certification?

WHY do you want the certification? Write a list of reasons.

Reading between the lines, I feel like you might be doing this to please others. Is that true? Be honest. If the true answer is, "I don't want it" or "I'm just trying to succeed at SOMETHING" or "someone else is pressuring me to get it"... those are bad reasons to do something!

You are allowed to: change your mind, quit, be a quitter, who cares, let someone judge you for quitting - judging you for quitting something you hate is a sign that they're not a healthy influence for you. So walk away, waste the money and just do something else. There's no point becoming an accountant if you actually hate it! If you don't like the job, you'll just feel exactly like this every single work day, and life is too short to spend 8 hours a day hating a job.

But if you DO want to get this certification, then align yourself with your purpose. Write your purpose on paper, and stick it to the wall! Studying will get a bit easier when you actually align yourself with why you WANT the thing.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 11:22 AM on May 20

2 hours of actual focused studying a day is pretty good, for one topic! 4 hours is a good goal. If I get 6 hours of brain work done in one day it is a seriously good top-notch day for me.

I'm gonna suggest something specific: instead of yelling at yourself in the back of your mind while you are watching your true crime videos or whatever that you should be doing X instead, try just stopping.

Give yourself a quiet space. Stare at the ceiling for a minute. Can't tear yourself away from the TV? Point your eyes at the corner of the room instead. You don't have to take control of your attention, just your eyes. Hold your eyes somewhere else for a minute and see if the noise in your brain can quiet down a little, make it easier to close the video or go turn off wifi or put your phone in a drawer.

The goal is when you start feeling the distress that's making you reach for your soothing videos, try to just sit with it a minute and let it pass. Like mindfulness meditation, if you've ever tried that. Don't focus on the distress, don't go run and do anything, just look at the tree leaves move outside your window or stare at the ceiling or stare blankly at the rug until you start feeling yourself able to think and make choices again. And keep doing this every time you notice yourself having mindlessly fallen into videos and distractions you didn't choose. (And sometimes, let yourself choose them! But make it a choice about what you WANT to be doing, not falling down a hill.)
posted by Lady Li at 11:32 AM on May 20 [1 favorite]

Mock exams are a great way to study.
So, there are 80 questions. Make your progress visual.
On a piece of paper, mark out a grid 8 rows of 10 cells each.
Colour each square as you do it.
Use a different colour for each day so you see your progress.
(Or use a spreadsheet if you prefer).
There's no rule that says you have to do them sequentially.
Jump around. Make pretty patterns on your grid.
Reward yourself with a little thing after a few squares.
You can do this!
posted by dum spiro spero at 11:43 AM on May 20