[Mogura]

I occasionally have dreams about college exams. The dream usually involves me being in college and my having to sit for an exam. Always I am unprepared in the most heinous fashion (e.g., I have never attended a single class lecture, I have never done the assigned problems/homework, I wasn't aware that I was enrolled in the class, I didn't study at all for the exam, etc.).

Of course, the impending doom of failure stresses me out, both within the dream and after waking up. Though I would admit that I wasn't a stellar student during my college years, I did attend every single lecture (health permitting), and I did do the assigned problems/homework, and I was generally aware of the course schedule (scheduled exams, etc.).

I have been out of college for more than 10 years and these dreams still stress me out--more than any other dreams (e.g., adbduction by aliens/anal probe, etc.). Though I experienced anxiety over exams and grades like most of my peers, I didn't obsess over them.

Anyway, just wonder what is going on. Does anyone else experience this?

[Monte314]

I know this will seem crazy, but I have dreams about this all the time (at least a couple of times a week)... even going back to high school exams.

The other dream I have is realizing during finals week that I signed up for some outrageous technical course (usually Physical Chemistry, or something like that) and forgotten about it... I haven't gone to class, I haven't handed anything in, and now I have to take the final!

I've been a prof for years and I STILL have these dreams! It must be some kind of "cosmic payback" or something.

So, Mogura: did you commit some heinous crime before being reincarnated as... uh... whatever you are?

[Mogura]

Monte,

I shall have you know that my most distressing dreams seem to focus on exams involving technical subjects (Math!) I went to a liberal arts college, so I took courses in a wide variety of subjects--biology, Russian, archaeology, theatre, poetry, etc. But never once have I had a distressing dream on one of those subjects. Always something math-oriented.

It probably wouldn't be off-mark to say that I have some sort of anxiety condition when it comes to math.

Since you're a math pro, is it that your distressing dreams focus on some coursework that mathematics majors typically hate (English lit, Poetry, etc.)?

As for the heinous crimes of my past lives, God only knows but my guess is that I must have tortured somebody to death for providing the wrong answer in a mathematics problem a la Spanish Inquisition style...

[larkin]

I've said this before, but my take on these are that they're straight up anxiety dreams, and unless you have a reason to think they're specifically related to the past there's no reason to think it has anything to do with college.

Take stock of what you have going in your life that you feel underprepared for that are causing you anxiety. Pay special attention to the resolution in dreams exactly - i.e., did you go on to take the exam and still did okay? Or you took it, knew you failed, and thought you might not be able to graduate? That kind of thing.

[Latro]

The fact that xkcd has mentioned this makes me think even stronger that it isn't all that uncommon:

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[Mogura]

	Originally Posted by larkin To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	I've said this before, but my take on these are that they're straight up anxiety dreams, and unless you have a reason to think they're specifically related to the past there's no reason to think it has anything to do with college.

I collect anxieties like a philatelist collects stamps. But whenever my anxieties manifest in dreams, for some reason I am able to recognize that it's "only a dream". But these mathematics exams dreams are different. They really disturb me. They stress me out and add one more anxiety onto my plate of anxieties. Now I have anxiety over dreams based on anxieties. Whew!

	Originally Posted by larkin To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Take stock of what you have going in your life that you feel underprepared for that are causing you anxiety. Pay special attention to the resolution in dreams exactly - i.e., did you go on to take the exam and still did okay? Or you took it, knew you failed, and thought you might not be able to graduate? That kind of thing.

That is what I don't get--I never failed an exam. There were times when I didn't even study for the exam and I still managed to pull of a curve-busting score. It was freakish. But oh, God, the sense of dread I felt when I walked into the classroom before the exam--fully knowing that I didn't study/wasn't prepared was unreal...

---------- Post added 05-17-2010 at 12:31 PM ----------

	Originally Posted by Latro To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	The fact that xkcd has mentioned this makes me think even stronger that it isn't all that uncommon: To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

I saw that comic some time ago and when I saw it I instantly thought, "That's ME!" to a T...

[rbc]

With me, it is always an essay test in literature class for a book I haven't read. However, after a few seconds of panic, my self-awareness kicks in, and I say to myself, "Wait a minute! I'm 36 years old and I have a master's degree. What the heck am I doing in high school again?" These dreams never last long, but they do arrive with distressing regularity (about once a month).

[Monte314]

In my dreams I just don't show up for the exams, but there are never any explicit consequences; just anxiety waiting for disaster to strike. The whole thing is very strange, because I never had any real experiences even remotely like this.

Just as awful as the impending failure in these dreams is the idea of having to face a professor whose class I have apparently blown off. I usually spend the rest of the dream wandering around hoping to avoid whatever awful fate awaits me.

[larkin]

	Originally Posted by Mogura To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	I collect anxieties like a philatelist collects stamps. But whenever my anxieties manifest in dreams, for some reason I am able to recognize that it's "only a dream". But these mathematics exams dreams are different. They really disturb me. They stress me out and add one more anxiety onto my plate of anxieties. Now I have anxiety over dreams based on anxieties. Whew!

The theory is that recurring dreams, or dreams that provoke emotion that last beyond the experience of them, are indicative of something going on in your life that is causing a more significant emotional response than normal. In this case, anxiety. You're not paying enough attention to the emotional experience in your waking life, the idea goes, so your subconscious will keep re-explaining it to you until you do.

	Originally Posted by Mogura To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	That is what I don't get--I never failed an exam. There were times when I didn't even study for the exam and I still managed to pull of a curve-busting score. It was freakish. But oh, God, the sense of dread I felt when I walked into the classroom before the exam--fully knowing that I didn't study/wasn't prepared was unreal...

Again, don't think of it as something related to college or school specifically. That's often the last time the dreamer recalls feeling such direct anxiety about being underprepared in their lives. Think of what you might feel unqualified for or underprepared for in your life today. Some reason why you might feel in over your head.

Then, the goal is to imagine a different resolution from the one that's causing you the anxiety.

Originally Posted by Monte314 To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

In my dreams I just don't show up for the exams, but there are never any explicit consequences; just anxiety waiting for disaster to strike. The whole thing is very strange, because I never had any real experiences even remotely like this. Just as awful as the impending failure in these dreams is the idea of having to face a professor whose class I have apparently blown off. I usually spend the rest of the dream wandering around hoping to avoid whatever awful fate awaits me.

"Anxiety waiting for disaster to strike" is the way most people experience anxiety. That is, the actual resolution is never as bad as you imagine. The worst part of anxiety is always the waiting for the other shoe to drop...in this case you're literally imagining that the resolution never arrives. You're forever preparing for a worst case scenario that never comes.

Again, the goal is to imagine a better resolution - in this case, any at all.

[Vagrant]

Don't have the dreams right now, as they seem very real being in college. But I'm sure I will have them in the future.

[daydreamer]

not about exams per se, but about being in the 8th week of the quarter and realizing that i forgot to attend one of my classes all along... showing up finally and it's like the prof is speaking another language. one that i don't know lol usually some science or some obscure math class that i didn't even know i needed - something unrelated to anything else i was taking. no chance in hell of understanding it. yet apparently crucial to my unlocking the secrets of the pyramids or any other indiana jones fantasy an art history student has.

and i still have the dreams about missing the school bus as a child, running across fields in attempt to catch another bus on a different route. there's some reality to that.

[plushbug]

These are all variations on "The Dream"--basically an anxiety phenomenon so common it's been formally studied, and from what I recall of an article read about it within the past 2-3 years, it borders on being diagnostic for exactly the sort of conscientious academic high performers who will never, ever, guaranteed, never get themselves into anything like this sort of trouble.

I had it too, back in university 30 years ago, and while it's much less frequent these days, some variant still pops up on occasion.

[zibber]

Your brain is trying to communicate that there are some issues to be resolved. It's possible to do so. The fact that other people share these dreams does not mean they are "normal" (in the sense that "it's all right"), it just means you're not the only one who has issues.

[Night Runner]

Yaaay, so I'm not alone...

	Originally Posted by Latro To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	The fact that xkcd has mentioned this makes me think even stronger that it isn't all that uncommon: To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

I completely forgot about this comic. Who knows, if enough people step forward and admit to having these nightmares, maybe we could lobby the AMA and get the official "Post Collegiate Stress Disorder" diagnosis with a handicap parking sticker, a handout from the guvmint, etc.
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Originally Posted by larkin To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

The theory is that recurring dreams, or dreams that provoke emotion that last beyond the experience of them, are indicative of something going on in your life that is causing a more significant emotional response than normal. In this case, anxiety. You're not paying enough attention to the emotional experience in your waking life, the idea goes, so your subconscious will keep re-explaining it to you until you do.

	Originally Posted by zibber To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Your brain is trying to communicate that there are some issues to be resolved. It's possible to do so.

There may be some truth in this, but personally, I have these dreams only in December and May (that's when I used to have final exams in college). There's quite a bit anxiety in my life, but the fact that these dreams show up at this specific time of year contradicts your hypothesis...

[daydreamer]

	Originally Posted by zibber To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Your brain is trying to communicate that there are some issues to be resolved. It's possible to do so. The fact that other people share these dreams does not mean they are "normal" (in the sense that "it's all right"), it just means you're not the only one who has issues.

some of us resolve a lot of things in our dreams
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[Antares]

Post Collegiate? Hardly. I've been having them for most of the year. I'm a Junior in high school. I was taking an AP Music Theory exam. For some reason, the time was called and I'd BSed a grand total of one sentence on that exam. I've never taken AP Music Theory. A little like now (Well, it's 1 AM now and I've been done with my homework for more than an hour), I was working on several projects at 4 AM in the morning, due next morning, and have piles and piles of work. Several more dreams involving inability to finish work/fail major tests. Et cetera.

Originally Posted by plushbug To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

These are all variations on "The Dream"--basically an anxiety phenomenon so common it's been formally studied, and from what I recall of an article read about it within the past 2-3 years, it borders on being diagnostic for exactly the sort of conscientious academic high performers who will never, ever, guaranteed, never get themselves into anything like this sort of trouble. I had it too, back in university 30 years ago, and while it's much less frequent these days, some variant still pops up on occasion.

Oh yes. Once, I got so stressed out. I didn't know when the major project was to be handed in. So I stayed up the whole night and finished it. A week before time.

[dodobird]

I've had the same recurring dream about missing the Corporate Income Tax final. This dream has only come to me post-graduation. The frequency of this dream isn't as much as it was before.

I've had other recurring dreams too. As I child I was chased by Pirates. As a university student, Kamala (former WWE wrestler) would sit in a tree outside of my house and threaten to jump on (and squish) anyone who left my house.

[Vagrant]

Maybe I daydream all these scenarios so I don't have to deal with them at night.
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[katrin]

I have these dreams all the time. Well, I used to have them all the time but they've settled down now. The difference is that I actually did spend my entire junior year of study abroad skipping class to the point where I couldn't remember where the classrooms even were! Having to repeat an entire year of college....Yes, that was just awesome. Not.

[heartland]

Originally Posted by Mogura To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

I occasionally have dreams about college exams. The dream usually involves me being in college and my having to sit for an exam. Always I am unprepared in the most heinous fashion (e.g., I have never attended a single class lecture, I have never done the assigned problems/homework, I wasn't aware that I was enrolled in the class, I didn't study at all for the exam, etc.). Of course, the impending doom of failure stresses me out, both within the dream and after waking up. Though I would admit that I wasn't a stellar student during my college years, I did attend every single lecture (health permitting), and I did do the assigned problems/homework, and I was generally aware of the course schedule (scheduled exams, etc.). I have been out of college for more than 10 years and these dreams still stress me out--more than any other dreams (e.g., adbduction by aliens/anal probe, etc.). Though I experienced anxiety over exams and grades like most of my peers, I didn't obsess over them. Anyway, just wonder what is going on. Does anyone else experience this?

Apologies if this has been said already, but in my opinion it could mean that your subsconcious is nagging at you and trying to tell you that there is an element of your life that you have not developed yet to the extent that you are capable of. In other words your subconscious feels that you are not tapping your full potential.

It is not really a dream about the past. It is about right now, and your potential future.

---------- Post added 05-21-2010 at 03:34 AM ----------

	Originally Posted by katrin To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	I have these dreams all the time. Well, I used to have them all the time but they've settled down now.

That's interesting. What, if anything, did you change?

I had this type of recurring dream on an off for a long time, but found that I found that when I directed my career to a place that was more suited to my talents, it happened a lot less frequently.

---------- Post added 05-21-2010 at 03:36 AM ----------

	Originally Posted by zibber To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Your brain is trying to communicate that there are some issues to be resolved. It's possible to do so. The fact that other people share these dreams does not mean they are "normal" (in the sense that "it's all right"), it just means you're not the only one who has issues.

Er, yeah. This.

[katrin]

	Originally Posted by heartland To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	That's interesting. What, if anything, did you change? I had this type of recurring dream on an off for a long time, but found that I found that when I directed my career to a place that was more suited to my talents, it happened a lot less frequently.

Like you, once I got into a stable job, the dreams began to settle down. Also, reducing intake of caffeine and alcohol helped me improve my sleep quality so I don't feel as anxious. Now I only have 1 cup of caffeinated coffee per day and maybe a drink or two per week with a meal or when out at a pub with friends. Not like I was ever an alcoholic but would have a glass of wine with meals more frequently or drink up to 3 or 4 drinks when out with friends.

[Thinktress]

I still have this same dream. I'm back in college and I've some how neglected to attend one or more classes all semester and its too late to drop them and now I'm going to fail them. The entire thing is much more dramatic than it would be if it really happened. Anyway, I've been told that they're fear of failure dreams.

[Ryokurin]

As mentioned you have some unresolved issue. I used to have them about high school (in particular one where I'm my current age playing someone school age repeating it all) and a couple of other ones on various things. I still haven't figured out the school one, but another which had to do with a church I attended growing up was some deep feeling that I had to please the people who attended there. It was a major weight off my shoulders after I figured that out.

[NanINTJ]

This is my only recurring nightmare. I wake up and feel like I am still in school and have to take the exam without having been to the lectures or done any of the work. It NEVER happened to me, but I still have these nightmares. Didn't realize they were so common ha ha!! I've been out of college for 15 years and out of grad school for 8 years and I still have them!

[sircockburn]

You don't get written evaluations at work, do you? I'm no dream-reading expert, but it'd be a logical link.

I don't actually dream of these things, but I'll wake up around 3 AM and spontaneously start stressing out about something. If there's nothing obvious I can find for my heart to pound about, I think of something. [HIDE="Goddamn 3 a.m. dialogue..."]Common dialogue:

Scenario 1 - I took my Econ Final (which I had later got an A on...)
"Oh my god. What if I skipped a page of questions?? I don't think I remember doublechecking! This is 30% of my grade! What if the other questions were trick questions, I easily could fail this class!! I didn't show up to half my classes, what if I missed a huge project?? I'm DOOMED, I'm going to end up being a dog groomer for a living. I need to get up NOW." (I get up, pace around, turn on the light, drink some water, turn on the TV, and then calm down, pissed that this happened AGAIN.)

Scenario 2 - There's nothing on my mind, but 3AM is 3AM
*Scritch scratch*...*scritch scratch*... why is my elbow itchy? OH MY GOD, it must be SCABIES!! It must be, scabies is itchy at night! NOW I HAVE MITES BURROWING IN MY SKIN, and what if it's NORWEGIAN CRUSTED SCABIES!? Wait, it kind of burns a little (note: because I scratched the shit out of it to "get the bugs off") it must be FLESH EATING BACTERIA, and now I'm going to have to get my arm AMPUTATED!" *hyperventilate* (I get up, douse my arm in alcohol, DRINK some alcohol, turn on the TV and google pictures of people with flesh eating bacteria...)

And people wonder why I need to drink 3 Red Bulls a day.[/HIDE]