When I was in school, I can remember being very distracted, and then eventually stressed out, during finals. I actually pulled off very good grades in high school, received a college scholarship, and later graduated from college but the educational process was a challenge for me. In college, I joked that I had the cleanest apartment in town because I would obsessively clean it just to avoid whatever scholastic task was at hand. Then I would completely stress out at the last minute, cram, stay up all night, and somehow manage to pull off decent grades most of the time. But in hindsight I realize that I lost out on some great learning opportunities due to my procrastination and "motivational paralysis." I would have loved to have learned more in school rather than just memorize things at the last minute and then regurgitate it all. I learned that reading eight of Shakespeare's plays in two days isn't the best way to process and retain information even if you do end up technically passing the test.
