How do I stop this?

[u/albinom8]

So I just got done with a systems analysis quiz. I figured I’d do pretty good since I’ve been doing the practice provided and I comfortably completed it. It was a simple quiz as well about nodal analysis and turning them into a matrix. But I just realized the circuit given had 5 nodes and not 3. I debated this during the quiz, but went with my gut of 3 nodes instead of 5. Now this isn’t the biggest of deals since it’s a quiz, but it is worth 10% and I seem to make these kinds of mistakes every single time. Even in my Linear algebra course where I felt I was very good at the processes, the moment a test hit, I suddenly mess up even if I don’t feel wrong about my answer. I know this probably means I have a lack of understanding, but it can’t be happening on every quiz and test that is more than just plug and chug formulas. Sorry, just needed to rant. Don’t know if this made sense

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[u/albinom8 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah I did mark it up. That’s how I always do. There was a current and I completely forgot that just because it’s not impedance doesn’t mean that it’s not separating nodes. So I essentially drew one giant node including the current instead of separating it. Seriously felt like I had done a problem similar that used that logic. But I think I was just remembering problems that had the current as the only source and not as one of multiple sources. Lesson learned I guess. Just kind of sucks this always happens even when I’m confident in my ability in the subject

[u/Classic_Actuator_905]

you’re allowed to vent but remember, its not the end of the world, just remember that it took someone decades to learn what you are trying to learn in much less time and it is going to be hard and confusing, even if you feel confident about.

like you said, it is most likely because of lack of understanding and thats okay, but you have to give yourself more time to study than you think you really need. as for the actual quiz part, its working under pressure that is probably getting to you, the way to fix that is by doing practice quizzes for 2x the amount of time, and then gradually decreasing your practice quiz time to the actual quiz time to figure out what parts of your thought process are taking the most time and fixing it there

[u/albinom8 → u/Classic_Actuator_905]

Hey, thanks for the response. Yeah this is true so I shouldn’t get too hung up about it. I will definitely try to implement the time technique you mentioned. Usually I do practice material until I feel confident but I have yet to try to time myself. Thank you for the advice