I’m an “unprepared for exam” kind of guy.

I’ve been out of school for a number of years, but I still have recurring nightmares about finals I didn’t know were coming.

Never exactly the same (tonight was an exam on logical operators? which I know pretty well out here in the real world?) but some things are usually constant:

  • I always find out days before a final exam that I was enrolled in a class I needed to graduate, but never attended because I didn’t know it was on my schedule
  • I’m always the only person who is unprepared, and the Professor is always cognizant of this fact
  • I always decide not to study in the buildup, and completely wing it (c’mon, dream me! Get it together!)
  • The exam is always “high stakes” – meaning there will be very negative consequences if I don’t pass.
  • The exam room always feels like it’s oriented incorrectly – this one is hard to explain, but do you ever walk into a room and everything is oriented right-to-left instead of left-to-right?
  • I always wake up right as time for the exam runs out, so I never find out the results

And for what it’s worth – I did very well in school. This never happened to me, so I don’t know where this one comes from, save for general preparedness-anxiety.

Sometimes I wake up and read up on the topic … for next time.

What about you, kbeans / Lemmings? What haunts your sleep?

  • davetansley@kbin.social
    3·
    1 year ago

    I’m nearly fifty, thirty years since I last did a school exam, and I still have recurring dreams about them. Weird, because I didn’t have any stress or anxiety at the time… at least not conscious stress.

    My dream takes the same basic form as yours. I am approaching a time when I know there should be an exam, but I haven’t been to the class at all for the year. Mostly the dream consists of me hoping no-one will mention the exam and I can just kind of pass it by default. It makes no sense.

    Other recurring dreams:

    • I stumble on a previously unknown room in my house
    • My Grandad, who has been dead over 20 years, is suddenly alive again. Everyone knows he should be dead, no-one really mentions why he’s alive again, and there’s a weird feeling that he’s hanging around on borrowed time.
    • namesare4squares@kbin.socialOP
      1·
      1 year ago

      An extra room in the house? Sounds like a dream to me, haha. What kind of stuff do you find in those?

      cries in nowhere to store things

      • davetansley@kbin.social
        2·
        1 year ago

        I never actually go into the room, weirdly. The dream is more focused on the shock and confusion of finding a door I’d never noticed before.