Studying and Helping Others

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I have no need for studying. Actually, I do worse on tests that I study for then I do on ones that I don't study for because of the way I recall and store information in my brain. However, I spent the entirety of my exam week helping other people study for their exams (not just people who had the same classes as me either) or come up with arguments for their final papers or give them the confidence to do well in their final presentations ect, ect. I had five exams to take as well, and so when I wasn't taking an exam I was usually helping someone else with theirs.

By about Thursday I was starting to feel ill from having no time to myself/not sleeping enough and I had two exams back to back on Friday. One of my friends wanted to study on Thursday afternoon and by then I'd just finished helping someone else with a paper and my attention span was incredibly short because I wasn't feeling all that well. I felt obligated to help her because she'd asked me weeks in advance (we're in the same class) and so I went up to study with her. I couldn't focus at all though and kept getting distracted while she wrote down the information we would discuss together. I have a bunch of friends who live on the same floor as her, they're all neighbors essentially. I ended up getting distracted by what they were doing. My friend eventually managed to drag me back to help her with her studying with the help of one of our other friends. By then my attention span was gone and I really didn't want to help her study. I told them that and they told me that if I didn't help her and she failed then it was my fault and the whole "You don't want me to fail, do you?" guilt trip.

So, I stayed and helped her study as best as I could considering. But, I don't think I did a very good job of covering the information after that. What if I didn't cover it well enough and she did badly? Is it my fault? I feel terrible about it and it's been bothering me for the past week.

Rhapsody, it's your friend who's taking the exam, not you, and it's your friend who's supposed to have learned the material, not you. You're not responsible for your friend's grade, so it's not your fault if she fails. I don't know your friend, but it sounds like she needs to take some responsibility. She won't always have you to help her out.

It sounds like you did the best you could. In a perfect world you'd have the energy to help everyone, but if you can't, that doesn't mean you did something wrong. Please feel better.

You tried. That is good. But ultimately it is not your responsibility. It is not even the teacher's responsibility if the student does not do well.