My subconscious self always has to get around to reminding myself that I have my degree already.
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The reoccurring dream where you are back in University and failing your courses
- Thread starter Deleted member 56266
- Start date
Surprisingly, I had these nightmares all the time while I was actively in University but since graduating I can't recall having it a single time. I get plenty of other bad dreams to make up for it though.
Yup. I've had a recurring dream that I have a full curriculum of 4 or 5 courses that I needed to be attending each week and didn't go to any of them past the first class, with the anxiety that accompanied that. I was stuck in a spiral where I couldn't suddenly start attending class and thus admit to my blatant truancy.
I've had this for Mathematics in final year of high school.
That I've done all the exams and think it's over, that it's now time to go to university and have a good few years...but don't realise that tomorrow is actually the last one and it's mathematics. And I've not prepared at all for it, I've missed classes all semester so I've got no idea and I don't have enough time to self learn, and I am inevitably going to flunk.
Sometimes there's variation of this dream, where I basically forget that there's a mathematics exam and only find out the day after.
The funny thing is...I never flunked mathematics be it in school or university.
The only time I ever flunked was physics in 12th grade school.
I had the former when I was living with my GF and she was having her mental health issues and making sure she is taken good care of kept me stressed all the time. I had the latter when she left me and I started feeling like I'm going to be alone forever.
That I've done all the exams and think it's over, that it's now time to go to university and have a good few years...but don't realise that tomorrow is actually the last one and it's mathematics. And I've not prepared at all for it, I've missed classes all semester so I've got no idea and I don't have enough time to self learn, and I am inevitably going to flunk.
Sometimes there's variation of this dream, where I basically forget that there's a mathematics exam and only find out the day after.
The funny thing is...I never flunked mathematics be it in school or university.
The only time I ever flunked was physics in 12th grade school.
Hot damn...that actually makes sense.
I had the former when I was living with my GF and she was having her mental health issues and making sure she is taken good care of kept me stressed all the time. I had the latter when she left me and I started feeling like I'm going to be alone forever.
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Mine are about highschool instead of college for some reason. I can never remember my locker combination or find the class I'm supposed to go to since I can't get into my locker to get my schedule. I then walk around the school after the bill avoiding being caught while I look for the right room and gradually realize I am a grown ass adult with a job and have no idea why I am in highschool but I must have missed finishing a certain class or something. I never dream about college for some reason, must not have been stressful I guess.
I had those for 20 years. I blame dropping out of college early.
Now I'm in school again and getting a 3.6.
But when I graduate next year they'll come back I'm sure.
A couple times a year I dream that my entire class is informed that our diplomas are invalid and we have to redo our last year.
Now I'm in school again and getting a 3.6.
But when I graduate next year they'll come back I'm sure.
A couple times a year I dream that my entire class is informed that our diplomas are invalid and we have to redo our last year.
The dream I keep having is that I go back to college and then quit after a semester. I wait a year or two, then go back. And quit. Over and over and over. And for whatever reason, my friends are all still there but we always live in different dorms than the last time.
I graduated 10 years ago and these dreams still happen. The fear that you realized you missed a whole class all semester feels so real, despite that never happening to me lol
Ironically they didn't actually start happening until like 3-4 years after I graduated.
Ironically they didn't actually start happening until like 3-4 years after I graduated.
Dreams from middle school, high school and college are interesting.
youtu.be
Meaning of Dreams About School, Being in the classroom, Going back to school
What does school mean in a dream? Interpretation of dreams about school and classroom, being in the school that you went when you were a kid, dreams about be...
youtu.be
I had to take college-level french in Quebec as it's required to even graduate with the full diploma. Ended up having to do it over as a summer course but I think with it being in the summer its requirements or standards are a lot more relaxed since I was in no way fluently bilingual magically but thankful I got a passing grade. Otherwise, I would have had to burn a full fall semester just for french. ugh....
Immigrants have it even worse, they have to attend full french schools as far as I understand. I was grandfathered in due to my parents attending english school in Quebec. So I was a "historic anglo" and get the option of english services and newcomers do not. Some straight up dumbo rules.
Immigrants have it even worse, they have to attend full french schools as far as I understand. I was grandfathered in due to my parents attending english school in Quebec. So I was a "historic anglo" and get the option of english services and newcomers do not. Some straight up dumbo rules.
I never attended my Computer Algorithm class and just showed up to take the final exam and got the highest grade in the class (your final grade was your semester average or your finals grade, whichever was higher).
30 years after leaving school, I still have a dream every few months that I have not written an assignment for my English Lit class, or started reading the book yet.
Last time it happened I woke up in a total panic until the sleepy fog lifted and I remembered that I passed my English A-Level in 1994!
Last time it happened I woke up in a total panic until the sleepy fog lifted and I remembered that I passed my English A-Level in 1994!
Yeah, I have the "it's the end of the semester and I just realized there was a class I didn't go to at all" version fairly frequently. Not a fan.
This is incredible. I've been giggling to myself the past two minutes and I can't stop.
I definitely have multiple dreams of being in a certain class and doing incredibly poorly. I've often wondered if this was memories of one class I actually did take, or just something I imagined. I wasn't the best of students in college so it could be many different possibilities. It was some elective/outside my major...I might have just gone a few weeks and dropped it maybe. I suppose I could confirm with my transcript but I really don't want to look that that :P
I'm also one of those people that forgets most dreams almost instantly after waking up, which doesn't help.
I'm also one of those people that forgets most dreams almost instantly after waking up, which doesn't help.
Oh god I've had these multiple times. It's always a math class and I always go to it and realize I've forgotten to attend it in months and have a test. Lately I've also been having one where some kind of break is almost over and I haven't started some huge English project that's due at the end of the break when we're back in class.
This is almost identical to mine and it's always an English class for me as well. I can vividly remember looking at my class schedule and trying to figure out which room the class is in. It always dawns on me at that point that I haven't attended any of the classes.. then the bargaining begins. "What can I do to get out of this mess?"
I haven't had this dream in over a couple of years now which is in line with my anxiety levels dropping. These dreams are somehow more vivid and impactful than the worst night terrors I've experienced.
This is my reality I wished it was a dream but I am the queen of procrastinators. I can pass all my classes with an A, all I have to do is four easy tests this semester but I am too lazy and burned out. Majoring in computer science sucks.
Top Secret, the oft-fogotten middle child of the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker spoof movies (coming out right in between Airplane and Naked Gun 1).
I've had this dream a lot, more focused on secondary school rather than college, and I've been having it way more recently. The worst part is it I genuinely feel the passage of time during it. Like months pass during the dream where I keep saying I'm gonna study for this exam and it keeps getting closer. I feel like I age a year over night.
Interesting how the feeling on waking seems to be split. For me it's just like the movie clip, could wake up to getting punched and be like "thank goodness i don't have to deal with that mess anymore." There's always a huge sense of relief bowing out of that dream.
Yes. Less frequent now two decades later, but they still happen on the odd occasion. Normally the formula for me is that for unknown reasons I haven't attended any lectures for a specific module or done anything about it at all, but attend the final one before the exam, realise I'm almost certainly going to fail it and try to work out if I can get enough points whereby it won't stop me from graduating (in my uni you were allowed to get 30-39% in one module per year without having to redo).
I've had 2 recurring dreams in my life.
The first is I'm back in high school talking with friends in between classes and then I go to my locker and I can not remember the combination to the lock. I stand there freaking out, looking through notebooks for where I wrote the combo down but can never find it.
The second dream is I am back in the army, and it's almost time for morning formation and I can not find my hat, of course you can't go outside without your hat on and I'm freaking out tearing my room apart looking for my hat.
Edit: just remembered a third one, I've had it a few times but it's was never as often as the other two. This one I'd be back in high school and realize I am whatever my current age is at the time and for some reason I have to go back and pass classes again Billy Madison style. I always keep thinking, I graduated already why am I back repeating all of this again.
The first is I'm back in high school talking with friends in between classes and then I go to my locker and I can not remember the combination to the lock. I stand there freaking out, looking through notebooks for where I wrote the combo down but can never find it.
The second dream is I am back in the army, and it's almost time for morning formation and I can not find my hat, of course you can't go outside without your hat on and I'm freaking out tearing my room apart looking for my hat.
Edit: just remembered a third one, I've had it a few times but it's was never as often as the other two. This one I'd be back in high school and realize I am whatever my current age is at the time and for some reason I have to go back and pass classes again Billy Madison style. I always keep thinking, I graduated already why am I back repeating all of this again.
I can never remember where my locker is or what the lock combination is. PANIC.
The other dream I have involves two different cities, since I went to Uni in both. I'm always going to school in one and have to get to work in the other. PANIC.
The other dream I have involves two different cities, since I went to Uni in both. I'm always going to school in one and have to get to work in the other. PANIC.
I read this thread yesterday and I kid you not, I literally had a nightmare about it last night and another nightmare that my house was infested with a ton of cockroaches. I was at the end of the semester and there was a physics or chemistry class that I had not done anything for the entire semester and I was about to fail and it was going to keep me from graduating. I've had both of these kinds of nightmares plenty of times before but given the timing I can only blame this instance on me reading this yesterday.
In short, fuck this thread.
In short, fuck this thread.
Not only I get them, I got different flavors of them. Some it's high school where I am taking a test without knowing anything about the material. And then there is the one where I am college where I founded out I registered for a class that I did not attend until the final week somehow and I am basically failing. And there is the one where I am graduating but I am in an exam where I don't know anything.
Like wtf brain? Why are you torturing me?
Like wtf brain? Why are you torturing me?
I had dreams of me being in college for a few years after I graduated.
Though I wasnt failing or anything.
Just a nostalgic trip seeing people I knew....though it was a bit weird - it got mixed with people I knew from previous jobs, high school and current work at times.
Thankfully I dont have dreams like that anymore - I just have some other weird dreams like being in another world lol.
Though I wasnt failing or anything.
Just a nostalgic trip seeing people I knew....though it was a bit weird - it got mixed with people I knew from previous jobs, high school and current work at times.
Thankfully I dont have dreams like that anymore - I just have some other weird dreams like being in another world lol.
I used to have dreams with fears of failing classes in high school (or people finding out I didn't get some credits and my high school diploma was voided) during my college years. And then I had dreams I failed classes and my Bachelor diploma was fraudulent during my Master years and my Master diploma was a lie during my PhD years. After that it... disappeared? Might have had one or two dreams later on, but twelve years since getting my PhD I'm a tenured professor and honestly I don't really dream about work or school (same thing) at all anymore, let alone have nightmares about not belonging.
My theory is that this dream is related to impostor syndrome. That feeling that you are out of your depth trying to fit in and any day now people are going to find out the fraud that you are. What better moment to relive this fear than the time you got found out on the regular during exams, so in school. And there are few professions where impostor syndrome is worse than being a PhD researcher. For me especially, I was a lousy 6/D student who somehow got a prestigious PhD project at the same university, so the stares by faculty members were real. Either it's because I lived through it so vividly, or because at some point I figured out that everyone is an impostor just trying to not get caught, and we should just accept who we are and our place in an organization, but that feeling went away completely, and the dreams with it too.
That, or it's because I got children, and they're much more potent for nightmares.
My theory is that this dream is related to impostor syndrome. That feeling that you are out of your depth trying to fit in and any day now people are going to find out the fraud that you are. What better moment to relive this fear than the time you got found out on the regular during exams, so in school. And there are few professions where impostor syndrome is worse than being a PhD researcher. For me especially, I was a lousy 6/D student who somehow got a prestigious PhD project at the same university, so the stares by faculty members were real. Either it's because I lived through it so vividly, or because at some point I figured out that everyone is an impostor just trying to not get caught, and we should just accept who we are and our place in an organization, but that feeling went away completely, and the dreams with it too.
That, or it's because I got children, and they're much more potent for nightmares.
This is my regular one. So weird to see others have the same specific nightmare.
Yeah this is always an essential element, despite never having skipped a lecture in university. I also know the exam is coming and refuse to do anything about it
The universality of this dream is a super interesting phenomenon, and really a testament to the universal collective trauma of scholastic stress. I guess it's just an archetype for performance anxiety
I have this dream, but with the twist that all of my classmates are from an incorrect period of my lifetime. So sometimes I'm in college, but my classmates are my high school friends. Or I've had dreams where I'm in high school, but all of my classmates are my current work friends.
I have these all the time and it baffles me because I never had them when I was IN school. They are also very specifically set in some weird open world/back rooms hodgepodge school that looks nothing like anything I've ever attended.
I also usually get lost in them, which is doubly weird because I very rarely get actually lost. My sense of direction is better than my memory.
I also usually get lost in them, which is doubly weird because I very rarely get actually lost. My sense of direction is better than my memory.
I dunno. Waking up from the teeth falling out dream to find that they're all still in my mouth is pretty wonderful.