Why do I keep dreaming about failing my Finals?

[Unfucked]

Sat my Finals over 20 years ago, got a low 2:1 but already had a graduate milk round job lined up so not too disappointed. I’m still ticking along fairly happily in that career, still happily married to my uni boyfriend, life was good before Covid and hopefully will be again.

Yet I have begun having a recurring nightmare at least once a month that I have failed my Finals, or have mixed up the exam timetable, or missed the bus to the exams. Always wake up heart racing, drenched in sweat, and then an overwhelming sense of relief.

What is my psyche trying to tell me please?

I’d like to know this too. It’s A Level English for me and I haven’t read any of the set texts, let alone attended a class in years. Sometimes I can’t work out which block it is on the timetable or which room I’m supposed to be in. Whatever the circumstances it’s extremely stressful.
I actually got a B in my A Level English and graduated with a 2:1, also English, so there’s definitely no need for a resit.

That you are anxious or worried about something (but not your finals)

Ooh sometimes - often - it dream I'm back at school somehow doing A levels again and then I realise I have them already and a degree but I still want to take them again.

And sitting exams and the pen won't write or my hand writing is illegible. All very weird.

Maths A level for me. I arrive at the exam and suddenly remember I never copied up the notes for a block of lessons I missed, and don't know anything. I took the exam nearly 40 years ago!

I get these dreams too! I turn up for an exam and suddenly realise I haven’t revised for it. I’m wandering around the corridors at uni/school not knowing where I should be. I’m 49 and haven’t sat an exam in nearly 30 years!

I have those dreams and I finished 20 years ago too. I dream that I haven't attended any lectures or handed in any assignments for one particular module but no one has pulled me up on it. I'm aware that when it gets to calculating my final result they'll eventually cotton on.

I graduated 15 years ago and since December have been having recurring dreams that it's the day of my finals but I completely forgot to attend uni for all of the final year.

Lockdown for me is a little similar to those last days pre exams, tiny social circle, not leaving the house much, working all the time . . . I think this is what's behind my dreams.

I did well on everything and I still have these dreams 25 years later. Most often I don’t even know where my classes are and can’t find my timetable.

One night I actually got ahold of my schedule and read it!!. I didn’t have the dreams again for almost a year. Then Covid hit and they started again in earnest.

I think they are just a manifestation of my anxiety in general and not really related to school at all.

Isn’t it nice when you wake up, though?

I used to have a recurring dream - over 30 years later! - about my German A level - the literature paper was imminent, and not only had I not read any of the books, I didn’t even know what they were!

Goodness knows why - I did fine at A level, and never dreamt about the other two languages I took.

General stress presumably. I also used to have a Christmas shopping nightmare - it was 4 pm on Christmas Eve and I’d forgotten to buy any presents, not to mention a tree, crackers etc.

And the dinner party nightmare - it’s 11 pm and the potatoes still aren’t cooked....😂
Lovely to wake up from them all, though!

I’m slightly anxious about everything at the moment (aren’t we all?) but not to any marked degree. We’re coping well enough with lockdown, and optimistic about school reopening and normal life resuming. So these nightmares - and the extent to which they unsettle me for a couple of days afterwards - are probably the worst thing happening.

I would guess anxiety too, OP. I graduated many moons ago, and I still dream that there is a large amount of coursework I haven't even started. I always put it down to anxiety.

Oh yes to the anxiety about not being organised and prepared. Definitely might be onto something there!

I have this! I became a teacher in 1978 and had the same dream about once every two years. That I hadn’t finished or handed in my thesis ( think it’s now called dissertation) and therefore was not fully qualified! Since I’ve been retired for a couple of years I haven’t had this dream.
No idea what it means but it seems to be common.
When I was a teenager I had a recurring dream that I had a tiny baby, kept putting him/her down somewhere, forgetting to feed it and then very nervously looking into the box it was in to see if it was still alive. Fortunately once I became a mum this dream stopped.
Another recurrent dream I had was being in an old fashioned train compartment and whenever the clock reached ten past 9 I was due to die. Hope my end doesn’t happen like that!

Oh yes, the misplaced baby dream was another one of mine! Used to leave me feeling absolutely sickened.

It’s such a relief to know these are common nightmares. Could really do with a remedy to stop them though. I’m cutting down on caffeine and on a bit of a health kick so sleeping better than I have in months - except when these nightmares suddenly erupt from nowhere.

I’m a bit relieved that someone else in the world has had the baby dream unfucked!

I graduated nearly 30 years ago and have regularly had a dream that I've left it too late to revise for finals. I'm looking at huge lever arch files of topics and no way to learn it all in time - and then, thank god, I wake up!

I get these dreams when I am anxious or worried about work things. The worst is where I have a math exam and I haven't been to a single class.

I often wonder if it has anything to do with "Imposter Syndrome," something that has plagued me in the working world. Where you are successful but you keep thinking it was a fluke and you will be discovered sooner or later.

That syndrome has affected a lot of accomplished professional women in demanding jobs.

Mine is failing A-level geography - I didn’t do A-level geography.

It’s happened on and off for years and seems to be when I have a tight work related deadline to meet.

I invariably fail A level English... but on the plus side I nearly always get an A in Physics. Which is slightly odd, as I didn’t take Physics.

Mind you, two nights ago I was in my PhD viva, begging them not to fail me for plagiarism...

I get this so often! It's always my finals and I suddenly realise that I haven't attended any lectures and know nothing.

Sometimes I have a follow up dream where my uni calls to tell me that they've made a mistake and I don't have my degree anymore.

It could be imposter syndrome actually. Interesting to hear others have the same dream.

Bloody hell! I have similar dreams, I've either failed my degree, missed an exam or need to do a resit. When I wake up, it takes me a moment to remember that I graduated in 1999!

Yes I think I’ll google it. I have often thought during my teaching career, omg I’m responsible for these 30 little ones learning to read, write and be sociable. Who decided I was able to have that role? Etc etc

This is so interesting with the link to imposter syndrome! I have these dreams and definitely have imposter syndrome!