Homework V.S Robotics

[Basel A]

It's going to be a challenge. Last year, I juggled 4 AP classes (and two others) during a harrowing build season. Like Andrew suggested, there was some learning of time management and some weeks with 5 hours of sleep total. This year, I'm continuing the over-working trend with 3 APs and 2 college classes, but decided to step down my robotics involvement. There simply wasn't any other choice.

My best advice: minimise your waste and maximise your time. Work on homework during school as much as possible (including lunch). Once you get home, don't lollygag like I am right now; get right to work. Most of all, get a good night's sleep on Sunday; you can't overcome a bad start (I've tried).

[math311]

At the moment I just finished my Digital Electronics Hw, and am studying APUSH. My math will get done in a few. Problem with team is that we are highly dysfunctional due to lack of leadership.

[Akash Rastogi]

[Edited per Andrew's request]

On the subject of the OP, AP classes are easier to manage once you develop a study strategy and schedule for them. There's certain ways and sources to study from for AP so it's really not too difficult to balance it with robotics. Bring work with you to robotics, let your robotics teachers/mentors know what work you have to complete and time you need. Do AP homework in school if you get time. Biggest help that we have on our robotics team is that we have robotics classes for all 4 grades, so any student in robotics classes is generally allowed to use the Robotics Engineering class period to do their homework. Senior year, a bunch of us had double block Honors Robotics, so this time added up and helped us do our work. If you concentrate, and your teachers are aware of the whole 6 weeks of robotics commitment (MORT's main teacher emails our teachers of all events/build season), you should be doing somewhere around 2.5-4 hours max of homework a night- also depends heavily on the teachers and school mentality towards robotics team.

[math311]

No mentors at the moment. I may have stated that in a way that could be embarrassing to our team, but the bigger thing is we simply have no idea how to handle it.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

I think instead of insulting and embarrassing your team, you should try to bring these problems into light and discuss it with your mentors.

Just to clarify, that would NOT be on CD.

This isn't the place for it and it isn't the place for outright insults to team members. I'm all for being honest but there are a lot of awfully nasty things said in the fourth post of this thread and I would recommend that the poster edit/remove it. (Also Akash, if you would mind unquoting it so that the OP can delete some of it?)

[math311]

Sorry for brutal honesty, but i'll get rid of it. Thanks

[WizenedEE]

My suggestion is to never do homework when you're extremely tired. In my experience, you don't actually get it done and you're still losing on sleep. Just set your alarm early and drift off -- you'll end up getting more sleep total, since you'll have the slight panic factor of "oh I have to get this done by 7:30", you'll be more awake to do it, and (bonus) you'll be more awake for classes.

[math311]

Thanks.
Sorry for the complaining and whining. What I posted earlier was uncalled for, based off of being tired, stressed and trying to figure out the final part of the marketing robots electronics layout using our old IFI gear. I'm not passing blame off to those things, but acknowledging that I posted somehting misguided and self destructing, with those thoughts helping to drive my words. I accept that I posted that, and apologize to my team and to you.

[Cuog]

My junior year of HS was pretty rough. I don't remember my course load(I don't remember much from that year honestly). I managed with 4 hours of sleep a night for a few months including build season and surrounding.

Some of the pitfalls: I was sick a lot. I'm usually sick once a year if that, that year I was sick four or five times. This was not only caused by lack of sleep, but also helped make it worse. My classwork suffered, and my team involvement suffered.

There are two things you can really do. First is to manage your time, decide exactly how much time you have for each task you need to do. This includes sleep. Sleep time isn't decided by whatever is left over after everything else is done. Budget 6-8 hours for it. If you're exhausted move up bedtime and wake up earlier. I've found that waking up 2 hours earlier is easier and more productive than trying to stay up just a half hour later than when your body begins demanding sleep. Second know where to cut. If 24hrs aren't enough to get everything done for the day its time to start taking things off the to-do list. Maybe leave the robotics meeting an hour early to get HW done if you have a heavy load that day, or skip it altogether. I don't know how your team is, but I have a hard time telling students they should be focusing on FIRST at the detriment of their studies. It doesn't help to inspire students towards STEM, then shoot them in the foot accidentally by disallowing appropriate homework time.

Also as tempting as it is to start drinking energy drinks, mountain dew, caffeine etc. stay away from that stuff as much as you can. It helps in the short term, but over the course of a semester or build season, it all starts to catch up with you.

[Taylor]

Originally Posted by math311

Problem with team is that we are highly dysfunctional due to lack of leadership.

I know this selection has been discussed, but not in a constructive way. There's a saying that floats around a lot of FRC teams - "After your rookie season comes your mentor season." Leadership doesn't have to come from folks old enough to remember the Challenger. In the absence of strong, dedicated adult leadership, take it upon yourselves as team veterans to help organize the tasks that need accomplished in the team. Do it now, before the school year :really: starts.
I think you'll find that when the students take a stronger and more thoughtful role in the team, the adult leaders will respond and reciprocate. If their workload is lightened, they'll be more productive on the things they can do.
Good luck and I hope to see you in STL.

[JaneYoung]

Work smarter.

Manage your workspace well: your home area where you study, your school locker, and your backpack. Organize all of them and keep them organized. If you think that it takes time to do that, you are right. If you don't keep them organized, it will take more time playing catch up and trying to locate the assignment, the schedule, the paper, the book. Homework isn't just assigned - it is meant to be a process that is problem-solved through to completion. It is also meant to be taken care of in a timely fashion without procrastinating. If you are a person who is not strong in the organizational side of things, seek out someone who is and who can help you get yourself more organized. A school counselor or adviser could be used as an organizational resource.

If you find yourself whining, complaining, or blaming - stop. Become productive and helpful, contributing to solutions rather than harping on the problems. Maturity plays a big role in the productivity of the team and in the development of the individual.

Jane

I know it may seem downright impossible, but try to stay off Chief Delphi for a while. I know I check it more than Facebook sometimes, and with a similar course load (though I'm a sophomore), I find I can get a lot more done if I stay away from Chief Delphi, or even just shove my laptop under my bed. Out of site, out of mind, my mom used to say, and it's true. If you can't see it, you are usually not thinking about it. Like the homework supposed to be done while you're on CD. So, I'd say eliminate distractions as a first. I also recommend some things said previously on the thread, about waiting until you are feeling tired, because then you are more motivated. BUT, I wouldn't recommend doing that all the time. Like said earlier, you should try to do as much work as possible during school, and lunch. I know how the battle between eating with friends and doing homework t lunch feels like, but you've got to prioritize. Would you rather have your social time at a 1/2 hour of lunch, or during the entire robotics meeting? Plus, There are a great number of resources available at school for you, so if you may need any, lunch is usually the perfect time to do it.

School>Robotics, but as I always say, School=Education, and Robotics=Education, so therefore school=robotics (That probably makes no sense.)

WHat I'm saying is it's important to do both. While school is a bit more important than robotics, the education and experience you get from a FIRST robotics team is more valuable than most of what you can learn in school (that is, until Amir Abo-Shaer changes it).

Just my $0.02, but I hope it helps.

[~Cory~]

just do robotics.

Or you just not sleep (3 APs, 1 actual college course. I get about 5 hours. On weekends I sleep for about 18. the extra rest really helps)

[math311]

Cory, are you at Arrowhead by chance?

[EricH]

Originally Posted by ~Cory~

just do robotics.

Or you just not sleep (3 APs, 1 actual college course. I get about 5 hours. On weekends I sleep for about 18. the extra rest really helps)

Neither of those is the right choice. Robotics, as fun as it is, cannot replace your coursework, which you'll need to graduate. Sleep is essential as well. If I try to go beyond about 2-3 AM without sleeping, I start becoming less and less functional, and caffeine doesn't do much to extend that time. All-nighter? I'll try to get a couple hours of sleep in beforehand, and I'll be functional for another several hours before needing food/sleep/caffeine again.

How important is sleep? The design lab here at college put closed hours in place, running from 2:00 AM to 7:30 AM, to get students out to get some sleep and do homework (the ones that were still functional enough to do homework). Note, this is the rough equivalent of a robotics team's shop...

For someone like me, the priorities are: Homework, sleep, design team(s); I try to get out of the lab a bit every now and again, doing various things to have fun.