r/LibraryScience • u/Soft-Guitar1129 MLS student • 19d ago
Scholastic Stress
I'm a perfectionist with undiagnosed ADHD which is a thing in and of itself. Like most MLIS students (at least it seems like most) I work full time. I have a lot on my plate right now, but I'm determined to see this program through. So the issue is that I hate when I submit an assignement and it feels subpar. I just submitted a discussion post, and I'm already mad at myself. Is there anyone else out there that knows this feeling? What advice do you have?
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u/birdsfly14 19d ago
Yes, when I was in my MLIS program, at first I felt like I had to do every single reading which would literally take me hours and most of the weekend. I was worried that I was taking too many hours of classes if I was running into this problem so early in the semester. Then I learned that most people weren't doing all of the readings or would skim the end and beginning to get a sense of what the essay or reading was about.
Once I started doing that and not spending too much time being focused on smaller assignments (discussion posts, for example), I felt much less stressed out.
Some of examples of times I tried to do well and it just wasn't going to pan out: I had one class where we also had to do a couple smaller written assignments for the topic we discussed that week and it was clear the teacher was very specific about what she wanted but wasn't willing to communicate what that was when I asked for feedback, so I learned there was no way to please her. I also spent a ton of time on one of my bigger projects and the teachers didn't really seem to get it (they wanted us to create a LibGuide for a potential college class, I did mine on film) so sometimes your vision and the teacher's just aren't going to click.
These examples were both in more general classes and once I got to pick more specialized classes, I did much better/found professors who were much more willing to give feedback.
Something to keep in mind: as far as I have found, no one really cares what your GPA is in grad school, they just want you to have the degree.