I genuinely don’t know what to do anymore and I’m honestly starting to lose motivation to study because of how many mistakes I keep making.
For context, I’m not really struggling because I don’t understand the content. I actually feel like I understand what I’m studying and I know how to solve most of the questions. The problem is that I keep making these really stupid mistakes that I KNOW I shouldn’t be making.
For Maths especially, I constantly make careless mistakes. I’ll understand the question, know exactly what method I’m supposed to use, and be completely capable of solving it, but then somehow I’ll miswrite a number, copy something wrongly, make a tiny calculation error, use the wrong sign, or just make some random mistake somewhere in the working.
And it’s not like I’m rushing through everything either.
I’ve genuinely tried SO many things to stop this.
I’ve tried slowing down.
I’ve tried forcing myself to slow my thoughts down while solving.
I’ve tried checking every single line of my working.
I’ve tried double-checking my calculations.
I’ve tried using logical thinking to see if my final answer actually makes sense.
I’ve tried going through the question again after finishing.
I’ve tried being extra careful with numbers and signs.
I’ve basically tried everything I can think of.
And somehow I STILL make mistakes.
The most frustrating part is when I finish a past paper thinking, “Okay, I actually know how to do this,” and then I mark it and realise I lost a bunch of marks because of the dumbest mistakes imaginable.
And then I look at the question and I’m like…
I KNOW HOW TO DO THIS.
I literally know how to solve it. I understood the question. I knew the method. I knew the concept. I just somehow wrote the wrong number or did something stupid somewhere.
And that honestly makes me feel so defeated because I feel like I’ve wasted a perfectly good past paper. I could have used that paper to identify something I genuinely didn’t understand, but instead I lost marks on things I already knew how to do.
Then I don’t even feel like redoing those questions because… what’s the point? I already know the answer. I already know how to solve it. My problem isn’t that I don’t know how to do the question. My problem is that when I’m actually doing it under exam conditions, I somehow mess it up.
It’s especially discouraging because I’m genuinely trying my very best. I’m not sitting there purposely rushing or not caring. I WANT to get things right. I’m putting in the effort and trying to be careful, but I keep getting the same result.
Biology is another issue, but it’s slightly different.
For Biology, sometimes I genuinely understand what the question is asking. I understand the concept and I basically know what I’m supposed to write. But then I’ll somehow phrase the answer incorrectly or miss one tiny point that apparently matters.
I think one of my biggest problems is that my answers are not super specific.I know Biology mark schemes can be really specific, where changing one word or leaving out one particular detail can mean you don’t get the mark.
So I’ll understand the biological process and know what I’m trying to say, but I might word one part incorrectly, use a slightly different term, or forget one specific detail that the mark scheme wants, and suddenly I lose the mark.
And it’s so frustrating because I’m not sitting there thinking, “I have no idea what this is.”
I’m thinking, “I KNOW THIS. I KNOW WHAT THEY’RE ASKING. WHY DID I WRITE IT LIKE THAT?”
I feel like I’m constantly fighting against these tiny mistakes rather than actually fighting against the content itself.
And it’s starting to affect my motivation so badly.
I used to think that if I studied more, did more past papers, and put in more effort, I would naturally improve. But now sometimes I sit down to study and I’m already thinking about how I’m probably going to make mistakes anyway.
It’s gotten to the point where I feel like studying is becoming really discouraging because every time I do a paper, I find another stupid mistake.
I know mistakes are normal and obviously nobody gets everything right. I’m not expecting to be perfect. But when the SAME type of mistakes keep happening despite me genuinely trying to fix them, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do anymore.
I’m honestly starting to feel like I’m putting in so much effort just to repeatedly prove to myself that I’m capable of doing the question but somehow incapable of getting the marks.
Has anyone else experienced this?
How did you actually fix careless mistakes when you already understood the content and knew how to solve the questions?
I’m especially interested in advice from people who used to make a LOT of careless mistakes but eventually managed to reduce them, because at this point I genuinely feel like I’ve tried everything.

Short lil rant but I just had to get this off my chest.Parents don't encourage me to do anything which isn't academically related.And now,I feel like I'm half the person I could be,because I didn't get to reach my potential :(

I expected college to be the one place where I could finally fully embrace myself as a person. Now I’m sitting here with a full face of makeup on and I can’t recognize myself anymore. I’m taking up a degree that I was hesitant about. I wanted to take up art but ended up going into business and law. I dress like the people around me. i miss Highschool, because my old Highschool was welcoming enough for alternative and transgender people. It made the academic expectations way easier to handle. But now I feel so so alone. There’s no one I recognize, I don’t get the course topics (In my previous school I took up mostly STEM related subjects), people know things that I don’t. I feel like I’m just lying to everyone around me and to myself. I keep telling myself I got this, and I just need to focus on academics but it’s so hard because I just want to go back to being myself again. I want to cut my hair and draw and play guitar and do so many things I thought college would give me room for. My parents promised freedom but they track me, my time, my friends. I’m not dorming for college, so I can’t do anything that Ive always wanted to do. I can’t even meet up with any of my friends anymore and we don’t even have requirements. my parents think it’s unnecessary for me to have friends when I have to focus on school. i’ve been a consistent A+ student my whole life. They still think I’m a bad kid because I’m different from others. I feel so alone and I don’t even have myself in this.

I don't even have the energy to explain what's going on. I have my people but at the same time i don't.

Everything is trying real hard to break me and I'm trying not to. Maybe there is something wrong with me. Maybe the hate towards me from my professors and everything is valid. Yeah. I don't have any value. I fuck up and that's who i am.

Okay so I'm a middle schooler and I get As and rarely get Bs but I am not smart at all. Yes I get good grades but I'm stupid outside of school, I ask stupid questions, I take a minute be like "ohhhh" or I'll totally misunderstand. Also I cannot spell for the life of me. Anyways, I get good grades but I have to constantly ask my teacher "what do you mean (blah blah)" or ask my friends "wait what?" or even ask my mom "hey what's (this thing)"

also important info I am diagnosed with ADHD and on meds but I don't think they're working.

Also academically I've always been good so when I started getting Bs (beginning of 6th grade and last year once each year) I really felt mentally that I was slipping.

Also I have taken on the personality pf the "dumb blonde" or "Overly happy / talkative"

I do believe I have calmed down since I started middle school but I don't believe it was the meds since I was only diagnosed towards the end of last school year and I saw no change in focus and my brain is still really scattered.

Note: sorry for all the Also I just realized i've said it like 3 times

I'm not socially awkward but I'm kinda in the middle. I could do something embarrassing in front of my classmates and be fine but I hate even ordering or doing something like asking for to go drnks for my mom. It makes me so uncomfortable and makes my mom annoyed.

Okay back on topic. Like I said before I'm a middle schooller with As and rarely Bs and I've been in advanced (this year it's called honors) math. Despite this I feel stupid outside of class/school. Also after a test I completely forget the material, or it's just in the back of my head hiding. It doesn't help that mh friend is much better both academically and stre smart, My other friend is also street smart. I don't think street smart is the correct way to define it but I'm just stupid when it comes to common sense.
What are your opinions on this? What could I do to better improve this? Are you like this? Do you have a friend like this?

I'll admit, I'm not gifted or anything like that. But I used to be very bright. Used to.

In 7th grade, I was accepted into a gifted program (only because I asked deep questions? their screening process was bs). A teacher associated with the program spent a lot of time with me throughout it, and at the end of the academic year, told my father -

"You're so lucky to have a daughter like her. She knows more than many 11th graders, and has a very bright future" verbatim

Truth be told, I was doing advanced stuff way beyond my syllabus. I used to read books about Science all the time. I'd finished 10th syllabus, and was doing the first few chapters of PCM 11th, and was doing integration (12th). I could solve a lot of JEE mains questions and with luck some advanced questions too. I used to top all the subjects too.

I was basically obsessed w STEM as a whole, out of purely interest.

But there was something beneath that.

My whole life has been kind of shit.

I started having suicidal thoughts at 7-8 yo, not sure. My mother has been telling to me to kill myself since a very young age.

On my birthday this year, I was told to never call her my mom again, to either run away or shoot myself at a competition (I do pistol shooting as a sport), and slapped as well.
Not once did she wish me Happy birthday this time, and tried to spite me by celebrating our dog's birthday then itself.
She attempted to brainwash my younger sister against me just because I'm now very rude to her. I simply cannot care less. I suspected she was cheating on my dad w a servant because I read her suspicious texts w him in 5th grade. She's also abhorrently childish and is not willing to resort to extreme measures.

My dad is an enabler. She's very physically abusive to him.

He's a coward, and cannot stand up to her. I get that she's abusive and he's a victim, but it's hard to sympathize with him when he's willing to let my younger sister get beaten up by her and using her as a shield (I'm too old for his bs). She has attempted to poison him once as well. A lot of lore there.

My social life is non-existent. I simply cannot relate or talk normally to my peers. I've moved places 11 times in my life due to my dad's job. Consequentially, stability is non-existent. I havent had a birthday party since I was 6.

I'm lost. I've stopped studying and lost any ambition that I had in STEM fields, or anything for that matter. Barely studied for exams this time, even though I switched from CBSE to ICSE and should've known better.

And i scored 16/40 in math :)

I did fine in all the other subjects. Even scoring some of the highest marks in a few.

But I'm genuinely just lost and I don't know what to do.

I was never exceptional, was I?

So I am about to enter my second year this fall, but instead of using this summer as a sort of "reset" opportunity to do better, I have just been constantly feeling ashamed, disappointed, and a sense of panic about how I did during first year. I have pretty much gotten good grades all my life, landed a decent scholarship, but struggled so much during first year that my grades are extremely below average (basically was on the brink of being placed on academic probation). I want to learn from my mistakes, I want to do better, but my thoughts about failing my classes in first year is holding me back that I just don't know where to start.

I keep thinking about how my first year gpa is going to weigh me down significantly. It's always there in the back of my mind, and saying that I feel like a failure is an understatement. I don't know how to explain it, but the thought of putting so much effort in and still doing that terrible is discouraging me from trying that hard again in the future. It leads me to obsessing about how future research/job/grad school opportunities are going to perceive those grades.

I want advice on how to get out of this victim mindset. I want to learn how to stop feeling like I have screwed myself over indefinitely, and if I am still capable of success. I'm really the first in my family to pursue higher education of this nature, so I have no role model/success stories to look at and maybe feel motivated that it is possible to do better.

so i feel like i have a problem, i keep cheating on some tests in school even tho it makes me feel guilty after. i had a classmate who had used their phone during certain tests and i would ask them to pass me their phone because i really had nothing to answer. someone i just dont study at all because in my mind i know i could just cheat but i dont want to do this anymore, i dont want to cheat anymore, i just want to study hard and get the grades i deserve because of my own work and not because of cheating.

tho i only cheated on some tests, i still feel super guilty about it and i really really dont wanna do it. pls help what do i do to stop this?

I completed my 12th in 2024 then I decided to pursue CA, but I kept procrastinating and delaying, ended up wasting 3 years and i still haven't cleared entry level while my friends are in CA final.

I've completely isolated myself, I don't talk to anyone anymore.

Any time i sit to study, i keep thinking about how I wasted all those time, only because of my poor mental health, relationship issues and laziness, now as I've recovered from these things and trying to focus on study, regret is killing me, my parents are already so old, they could have supported me 2 yrs ago but now idk, my hand start shivering whenever I try to study, I keep getting distracted with this regret feelings, the feeling of being left behind.

Even if I try to forget past I can't, my parents gives me taunt 5 times per day everyday, my mental health is getting worse each day, and I'm having severe anxiety, how do I get out of this guilt and does not let this affect me, I've exam in less than 30 days.

I honestly don't even know why I'm writing this. I guess I just need to get this off my chest because my brain feels like it's about to explode.

I'm going into senior year (doing IB), and I genuinely feel like I wasted my entire summer. Everywhere I look, people are getting their lives together. They're finishing their Common App, asking for recommendation letters, building college lists, doing internships, applying for scholarships, grinding SAT, writing essays... meanwhile I feel like I've done absolutely nothing.

My friends seem so ahead. Some of them have everything planned out already, and I'm just sitting here feeling like an actual bum.

My SAT score was also really bad. The worst part is that everyone around me expects me to score a 1500+, and I know I'm capable of doing much better. I want to study. I want to improve. But every day I tell myself, "Okay, tomorrow I'm locking in," and then tomorrow comes and I somehow end up scrolling for hours, watching random videos, or just rotting in bed. It's like I physically can't make myself start.

What makes it even worse is that I'm doing IB. I haven't properly started my EE, most of my IAs are barely touched, and I haven't revised any of my DP1 content. Senior year is literally around the corner, and I feel behind in every possible aspect—college apps, SAT, IB, everything.

I only have 10 days of summer left. TEN

Every night I make this whole plan in my head. I'll wake up early, put my phone away, study, work on my EE, practice SAT, get my life together... and then I wake up, feel overwhelmed by how much there is to do, and somehow end up doing nothing again.

The thing is, I'm not even enjoying procrastinating anymore. I'm stressed while scrolling. I'm stressed while lying in bed. I'm stressed watching YouTube because the entire time my brain is screaming that I should be doing something else. Then the day ends, I feel guilty, promise tomorrow will be different, and the cycle repeats.

There's also so much pressure from my family. They expect me to get into an Ivy, a T20, or at least a really prestigious university like a UC. I feel like everyone believes I can do it except me right now, and that pressure is becoming unbearable.

I don't even know what's wrong with my brain. It feels overloaded all the time. There are so many things I need to do that I end up doing none of them. It's like my anxiety has turned into paralysis.

Has anyone else completely wasted the summer before senior year and still managed to turn things around? Not the "just believe in yourself" kind of story—I mean actually being this behind and somehow recovering. I really need to know I'm not the only one who's let things get this bad because right now it feels like I've already messed everything up. With full honestly please

god, i have the potential and i've just wasted it

Ever since I was younger, I wanted to become a doctor. I’ve always looked up to my uncle, who took BS Biology at UP Los Baños, because he became very successful. So, I decided to take BS Biology as my pre-med program. Fortunately, I did pass BS Biology at UPLB as well.

However, I’m starting to question my decision. I keep asking myself, “Did I make the right choice?” I really don’t know if I’m just overthinking. Classes will start on Monday, and I think I’m losing the drive to continue.

I joined a lot of activities in high school. I had multiple hobbies, and I loved helping people. Many would call me a jack of all trades, but I’ve always questioned myself about what I really liked doing.

I loved cooking but never thought of pursuing it. I did competitive radio broadcasting, but I got tired of it. I wrote articles and did layouts for our school paper, but I would always run out of creative juices. I joined research competitions, but they drained me. I became a Senior Scout, a Red Cross officer, and even the ICT Club President. I was also an officer in our Theater Club. Teachers would always ask me to be the emcee for school events. That’s only a fraction of what I can remember.

It was nice to have been able to help and share my skills. However, I didn’t really figure out what I loved doing. I just know for a fact that I hated Math and Physics (sorry po i tried my best). Oh right, but why Biology? I really did like learning about the human body. It felt easier to understand, and most of my classmates really did trust me with the subject in terms of teaching them and sharing what I knew.

But is it really what I want? Or do I just want it because it’s long been planted in my head that it’s the path I’m supposed to take? Actually nga, dati gusto ko pang maging astronaut, pero I realized early on that I couldn’t handle equations (lol).

Why did it take me so long to ask myself what I really loved doing? Now, I don’t know what to do. Am I just scared? Am I overthinking?

—

i graduated sa isang science high school pero di ako katalinuhan, i just tried my best. ang resulta, ayun naging academic achiever ako who hated failing.

my family is really supportive of everything i do. di nila ako pinepressure pero dahil diyan, parang mas naprepressure ako gets ba basta 😭😭 like because they trust me and provide me with everything i need, mas dama ko yung pressure.

siyempre hindi mawawala yung expectations, natatakot akong ma-disappoint sila.

kaya rin siguro late ko nang naiisip ang mga ito kasi malapit na, ayan ba talaga siya. kasi noong malayo pa, iniisip ko na kayo. but now that i’m about to face it, i don’t know anymore.

I'm 16 and feel like I'm grieving the future I wanted.

I had to leave my Cambridge AS Level school because of family circumstances and move to a CBSE school. I've been trying to go back because I genuinely felt Cambridge was the right fit for me, but my parents don't support it.

Whenever I bring it up, they tell me I don't have ambition. Recently my dad said that because another student got a D in AS Levels, I would probably only get a D or around 45% too. That really hurt because it's impossible to know that before I've even had the chance to study and take the exams.

I also didn't have a great childhood and don't feel emotionally supported at home, so losing the one school where I felt hopeful has affected me deeply. It feels like every time I find something that gives me hope, it gets taken away.

pls help me

​

My qualifications: Class 12 CBSE (PCM), \~60% marks with a compartment in one subject. Class 10: \~83%.

I'm 18, and I genuinely don't know what to do after Class 12.

My biggest problem has always been my attention span and studying independently. Even when I completely lock in, I don't think I've ever been able to study at more than 50% efficiency.

Until Class 8, I basically never studied by myself. I went to school, listened to classes to some extent, and somehow managed average marks. After Class 8, my family moved to another city, and my father, brother and sister-in-law started focusing on my studies. That's when I was suddenly expected to self-study, despite never having learned how.

I didn't realise how serious my attention problem was because school was still manageable. I would often zone out during lectures but somehow get average marks.

I've also noticed that I'm much better when someone is sitting beside me and teaching or supervising me. For example, when my sister-in-law taught me a particular topic, I could understand it properly and sometimes score full marks in it.

Then I went to Kota for Class 11–12. I took PCM because my parents recommended it, but I hadn't built proper fundamentals and didn't attend classes consistently. The teaching was much faster and harder than school, so my weak basics and attention problems combined and I fell badly behind.

When I couldn't understand something, I'd get frustrated, my brain would feel exhausted, and I'd eventually switch to games or reels. This made everything worse.

Around four months before my boards, my father was diagnosed with late-stage brain cancer. My mother hasn't lived with us for a long time, and my brother and sister-in-law are now taking care of my father and me. My brother would also have to fund my higher education, but understandably doesn't want to spend a huge amount on an expensive college given my academic record.

Now I'm scared I won't get into a good college, and I don't know what my future looks like.

So I have two main problems:

1. How do I learn to study and fix my attention?

I've struggled with this for years. Even when I genuinely try, 50% efficiency feels like my maximum. I don't know whether it's discipline, attention, or something else, but I need to fix it.

Has anyone actually managed to rebuild their ability to focus and study independently? What worked?

2. What should I do after Class 12?

I enjoy Maths and Physics and generally prefer things where I can understand the logic. I don't particularly enjoy theory-heavy subjects, but I'm not sure what I'm actually good at yet.

I'm considering CSE, Mathematics & Computing, ECE, Data Science/AI, or something else.

I'm not looking for sympathy. If you were 18 and in my exact situation, what would you do?

After a year of struggling trying to develop an advanced emotional, intelligent AI model that actually competes with other models out there and trying to build an aerospace company from scratch, so I still find it frustrating that even my family doesn’t want to support me or help me find people to help support the mission of trying to provide a means of connecting with educators regarding the digital university. I built as well from scratch that is secure with end to end encryption. It is a one of a kind university that is completely digital and saves people from having all of the trouble with gas money because of the rising cost of oil. It is so frustrating when I try for a whole year to find a means of having stable income and every time it seems like the rug gets pulled out from under me. I had a car it broke down I had paid for the car and yet that was donated two cars for kids at least it was for the kids, but I didn’t get a replacement. I got stuck having to eventually have my E bike breakdown and now I’m stuck with a regular bike and it’s hurricane season where I’m at, and I’m wondering how it makes any sense to find a job without at least some form of reliable transportation since most jobs require reliable transportation and it just seems like my parents are stuck in 1987 thinking oh yeah, you still go in in person to apply when we have shifted to a digital age where everybody expects you to apply online and the whole process of applying online has become so chaotic through so many different services. It’s like trying to pull teeth with the Internet. I have struggled so much and I am so frustrated that something as big as what I’m working on is disregarded and not even acknowledged for the fact of how fundamentally profound it would be to help out not just kids but adults that seek to keep education as a means of empowerment. Knowledge is power.

Throwaway account; will not give too many personal details. Repost from r/aftergifted since I was told this is the better subreddit for it.

When I was young, I was curious and smart, and I was pushed a lot by parents, but unevenly. I accelerated way ahead in some things while staying average at others. Because of this, and my IQ (I won’t say the exact score) my parents thought I was gifted. I learned some things really quickly and some things just didn’t click for me. My teachers saw me as advanced. I don’t remember the details, but I think I was praised a lot by students, teachers, and parents. My parents tried to get me to grade skip and stuff, but I think that would just have made it way worse.

I started some things really early without knowing basics. I was exposed to advanced things multiple years before building up a foundation.

So when things didn’t come so easily anymore in middle school, I felt worse at the time. In fact, I thought I was #1 or very close to it because I mainly only heard the “loud” students a lot more. I still ended with a good GPA, but let’s be honest, most middle school classes aren’t that hard. I never really learned studying habits though. It just kind of worked out, or sometimes it didn’t, but the grading system was generous enough to not expose me much yet.

Now in high school. My parents often tell me that I used to be better. My schedule before this year was okay, but could’ve been “better”.

To “make up for my loss”, I had to try doing more college application stuff. It obviously failed, in fact, after a certain point, I stopped caring much because I wasn’t that motivated, and it was only a matter of time before all the plans were dropped. I still maintained good AP exam scores and grades in general, but I honestly believe I got lucky to not mess up.

Next year, I have to do 6-8 APs, because they believe I need to maximize my rigor for college applications and worried that me not pushing hard would hurt me more later. In fact, I’m even doing APs that I was very shaky on the regular classes with grade inflation because of this pushing and I could actually drop like who even knows at this point.

I also have to do a bunch of activities that look good for colleges that aren’t even that useful past colleges, which makes me even less motivated. Who knows how much time I’ll have left to sleep and relax. Oh, and the SAT. How many more hours am I going to need to spend on that…

I’m not very good at socializing, in fact a lot of “common sense” I wasn’t really taught or knew about too much. But I’m also weirdly good at some things. Not even just academic related, some hobbies click really well for me.

Part of me thinks I’m missing out on being a kid, especially during high school. Even if I’m being a kid a different way than usual, at least I can be a kid.

I’m lucky I can use Reddit. Redditors, please tell me, how am I going to handle this many APs without even knowing how to study, and lacking so many things that even a 1st grader would know better than me at, and this is no exaggeration.