"What score do you study for?"

[Publius]

I treated exam study sessions as if they were an actual course. When I took actual courses, I wanted the best possible grades I could achieve. I wanted my degree to show myself and future employers that I learned something; if I didn't bother to learn anything more than the bare minimum, what did that make my degree worth? Aiming for "good enough," to me, felt like confirmation of the stereotype that test-out options were cheats and shortcuts.

You've got some good points.

There’s two ends of the spectrum here. Study and study and study and study till one gets that perfect score. Then study as little as one can get away with. Most of us are going to fall somewhere in between.

When I say I study till I know I can pass, that’s not saying hitting the bare minimum. It’s sufficient. We could keep studying, but once you hit that point where you know you’ll pass, the only thing you’re obtaining is knowledge. Knowledge that I may add will likely be forgotten after so long. There’s a medium between studying to know the material, studying till you’ll be able to pass the exam, and using the amount of time you have in an efficient manner. I try to find that medium.
The time factor is huge, for me. It’s of better benefit for me to nock out 4-5 exams sufficiently, compared to 2-3 in the same time, but with high scores. Again, that’s not to say, speed and race through everything. It’s just efficiently using my time. When a 58 = 3 credits, and a 74 = 3 credits, I never could convince my brain.

As I said, you have some excellent and good points, which I respect. Just wanted to clarify that I’m (and probably many people out there aren’t) studying for the bare minimum.



Oh, and I forgot to mention! Great thread! Awesome idea. I've enjoyed learning people's prefrences and thought process as well.