Stressed

[bitter_suite]

I'm not extremely stressed out or anything, but there is definitely some stress appearing. Yesterday I was most stressed about an assignment due Friday that I hadn't started. I'm now halfway through, and will get more work done on that tonight, so some of that stress is disappearing. Unfortunately there's more to take it's place, some if it in the form of other assignments. Although in general those aren't too stressful.

Other than specific assignments, comps is the thing stressing me out the most. And it doesn't help that every time I go to the SIS homepage it tells me how many days are left until comps. Really, that only serves to kind of freak me out. I haven't done a whole lot of studying yet, and I actually woke up in the middle of the night a few weeks ago panicking about that. I've studied some, but I need to do more.

Next I'm still looking at job ads and sending out resumes. I can send the same resume to all the openings, but obviously I need to write a new cover letter for each ad, and that takes some research and time.

Finally, I have to give a short talk on usability in class on Tuesday. Dr. Bilal will be away at a conference, so she asked if anyone who had taken HCI if they wanted to give a short talk. I did not speak up. I really am not fond of talking in front of people (even my classmates), so I kind of hoped she had forgotten I was in that class. Instead she came up to me personally and asked if I would be willing to talk since my group did a "wonderful job" on our project for the class. I'm glad the project was good, but I'm still not thrilled about talking about it for about 30 minutes.
Dr. Bilal: How long do you think? 30 minutes?
Me: Uh... sure...
I asked her to make me a copy of the assignment because I don't have one, and it would be really helpful to refresh my memory on what my group did.

On the plus side though I'm really enjoying my practicum. I think I'll have to go in a few extra days to pick up some more hours, but that's not a big deal. I'm learning a lot, and I'm having fun.

Comments

[seyrah.livejournal.com]

If it makes you feel better, I haven't started my Critical Paper for my art class, which is due at midnight tonight.

I know this advice is sort of useless, but as one Virgo to another, don't stress out too much on your comps. Do your normal studying, but make sure to take time away from it and do something you enjoy as well. You don't want to frazzle yourself out trying to remember every possible thing.

[loose-pages-sd.livejournal.com]

Seriously, you have absolutely nothing to worry about re: comps. I didn't start to study until 2 days before comps (not that I recommend that, or anything). If the comps wiki is still around, use that, because they have the similar questions already grouped together by subject, and it will look a LOT more doable--the questions in each group really ARE so very similar (if you don't have the comps wiki, though, you can do it yourself. I was lazy, big surprise).

When I took the exam, I really really knew 2 answers, and had to fudge my way through the third. And you get to choose which ones you want to answer. The variety of questions was really very good. And I didn't write a lot (I think I wrote way less than everyone else I spoke to-- 1 1/2 pages for the longest, 2/3 of a page for the shortest).

YOU WILL BE FINE, I PROMISE. :-)

Re: the presentation, that SUCKS ASS. I am so sorry. Good luck!

[dracschick.livejournal.com]

good luck with the academics.

*hugs*
do take care,
Chris

[magnetmind.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you'll do fine when it comes to comps. It may help you to think up a kind of study plan or schedule so you can tackle things in a systematic way.

Similarly, for your talk you may want to write an outline first. That will help you remember what points to cover without having to backtrack or repeat yourself. And don't feel you need to fill the whole 30 minutes. Twenty or 25 minutes with time left for questions and comments should be fine -- and probably a relief to your classmates. I'm sure you've also had to sit through "30 minute" presentations that dragged on for an extra 15 to 20 minutes.