Admit your weakness !

[Royston]

I received the marks and feedback for my second assignment yesterday, and it was very dissapointing, a drop of 15% from my first, and after an hour of sulking, and beating myself up over the result (something I'm really good at) I took it as an opportunity to make a concerted effort to do better.

 

It's very easy when you compare yourself with other students, and people on here, who seem to reel out equations, and counter intuitive principles almost with no effort, to think that they never struggled with certain concepts. Despite getting high marks, you never see the points where somebody is tearing their hair out till 3 in the morning with frustration, and I'm sure many would not like to admit they do.

 

So this is to share those problems, concepts, principles et.c that you really struggled with. Or, what is your main weakness, that has caused problems whilst studying towards your A-level, degree, Phd et.c That you'd probably rather not admit to.

 

My tutor pegged my weakness perfectly, I forget basics, I can tackle harder questions with no problem (probably because I think too much), then make a right guff, later on in the question because I forgot some basic principle. I'm also careless with problems I feel I'm familiar with, and make some really stupid mistakes, because of over confidence and not considering the question with nearly enough thought. (TBH, it's been good to of been brought down a peg or two with my last assignment.)

 

I also get easily confused with the wording of some questions, and I have a bad habit of going into too much detail with written questions, which is a big no no with physics, precise, concise statements is something I really need to work on.

 

So share your struggles through your education...or are you just damn perfect

[Daecon]

I'm so perfect even Mary Sue writes fanfiction about being me.

 

I'm also very modest.

[John Cuthber]

I used to be conceited; now I'm perfect.

[CDarwin]

Mathematics. I think that about sums it up. All the numbers and squiggles and AH, chaos. No one can remember all that.

[Dak]

I'm lazy, and if something boors me (eg, maths, which i'm actually naturally quite good at) i'll have a great deal of trouble bringing myself to study it (hence why i've overcome my natural talent and managed to become hopeless at maths).

 

The number of entire university modules that i learnt the week before the exam is stupid

[PhDP]

I dislike experiments and I lack the patience (accuracy) to do them correctly.

[Rev Blair]

I wrote a thing on child soldiers once that made Mrs. Rev cry when she read it.

 

My weakness now is that I tend to judge the success of my articles (at least that type) by her emotional response (she's not very emotional, as a rule)when she does the first proofing. I tend to overuse that technique. It's backfired a couple of times when I've emphasized for emotion over fact.

 

My other weaknesses are tobacco, coffee, and beer.

[CDarwin]

Of course there's Kryptonite, too. I'll make that joke now before anyone else does.

[5614]

I struggle with revising, it makes me bored and irritable and I sadly have little self-motivation to do it, although I do of course force myself to do something.

 

And I hate memorising formulae and constants, it's pointless and I can't do it! Same for those mathematical proofs where you need to remember special little tricks to do it.

[Graviphoton]

String Theory gives me a headache, so i tend to stay away from it.

[SkepticLance]

I finished my degree 35 years ago. I was always disappointed with my marks, getting Bs and B+ marks, and never getting an A. Since I knew I was smarter than the guys who got As, I was puzzled. I didn't work it out till a couple years ago, when I went back to university to do more papers, and got A+s.

 

It was simple - as a junior I had a wandering mind (girls, girls, girls) and had a problem concentrating. My lecture notes were incomplete. Even though I knew my stuff at exam time, since I never gained all the data in lectures due to lack of concentration, I did not have it to regurgitate at exam time.

 

Back at university this time, I had the maturity to concentrate in lectures. The rest followed.

 

Had I known this as a junior, I would have borrowed other people's lecture notes to fill mine out, and got those As.

[thedarkshade]

My main weakness is selfishness. I can be really really selfish and this has brought me a lot of trouble so far. And I have no patience at all. But taken generally, I manage to survive:D

[Daecon]

I can't do mathematics in my head.

 

That's why I never decided to pursue a career in theoretical physics.

[Reaper]

My main weakness was basically my work habits and the tendency to procrastinate in general. Needless to say, this is something I've gotten much better at avoiding now.

 

Another weakness of mine, and this happens in math, is carelessness. Sometimes I will make careless mistakes, and they often have adverse effects on my grade. I'm still working on getting rid of this one...

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

I have never studied (revised, for you Britishers). This will probably screw me over in the long run, but it's served incredibly well so far.

[PhDP]

I can't do mathematics in my head.

 

That's why I never decided to pursue a career in theoretical physics.

 

What ?

 

At the university, I've nearly lost my ability to do maths in my head. I'm so concentrated on the concepts that I open Matlab for simple calculations.

[Softix]

Mathematics has been my down fall for years now and i think when i fall it just gets worse i really need to make it a strengh

[Mr Skeptic]

I have a pretty bad weakness too, I'll post it later though.

 

---

My biggest weakness seems to be procrastination, or a lack of initiative to do uninteresting things.

[foodchain]

I have spent so much time learning about everything that when I decide to do something all of my brain cells create world war in competition and I never get anything done; aka I cant decide on a major to save my life.

 

I just need to create my own hybrid field and recruit others like me so we can sit around and talk about such problems.

 

I also agree that doing uninteresting things is absolutely painful.

[JohnB]

I have trouble finishing things I

[falcon9393]

porbably that i cant fallow through with anything i find something new and move on

my other weekness is probably myself i guess i cant explain it very well so nevermind

[Royston]

I have spent so much time learning about everything

 

I can imagine that would take some time.

 

At the university, I've nearly lost my ability to do maths in my head. I'm so concentrated on the concepts that I open Matlab for simple calculations.

 

The ability to do long division in your head, for example, is redundant these days...not so much a dumbing down, but just completely unnecessary. However, I've actually tried to avoid using Mathcad for my current course, I'm quite enjoying the scribbling of equations onto paper, for some reason.

 

JohnB, I completely symp

 

Not sure if JohnB's comment was solely a joke, or if he does have trouble finishing projects et.c I tend to be the opposite, in that I can't relax until something e.g an assignment is finished, or I've resolved some problem I've been stuck on.