I'm an "unprepared for exam" kind of guy.
I've been out of school for a number of years, but I still have recurring nightmares about finals I didn't know were coming.
Never exactly the same (tonight was an exam on logical operators? which I know pretty well out here in the real world?) but some things are usually constant:
- I always find out days before a final exam that I was enrolled in a class I needed to graduate, but never attended because I didn't know it was on my schedule
- I'm always the only person who is unprepared, and the Professor is always cognizant of this fact
- I always decide not to study in the buildup, and completely wing it (c'mon, dream me! Get it together!)
- The exam is always "high stakes" -- meaning there will be very negative consequences if I don't pass.
- The exam room always feels like it's oriented incorrectly -- this one is hard to explain, but do you ever walk into a room and everything is oriented right-to-left instead of left-to-right?
- I always wake up right as time for the exam runs out, so I never find out the results
And for what it's worth -- I did very well in school. This never happened to me, so I don't know where this one comes from, save for general preparedness-anxiety.
Sometimes I wake up and read up on the topic ... for next time.
What about you, kbeans / Lemmings? What haunts your sleep?
My reoccurring nightmare is being surrounded by a swarm of bugs. It’s usually wasps, but it can be other stuff too. It always takes place in my childhood bedroom. I always clamp my hand over my mouth because I’m afraid if I scream they’ll fly in my mouth. But I always end up screaming and they fly in my mouth and I wake up.
I’m not sure it has a very deep meaning to be honest. When I was a kid part of my room was a finished attic that was connected to our real attic which apparently had a very bad wasp nest. Everyday during warm months I’d find one or two in my room and have to deal with them. Now that I don’t live in a place with bugs I don’t have this dream anymore.