Is it normal to not be able to remember anything during burnout?

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Yes. This is a common consequence of burnout.

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Normal effect of burnout.

Retake because of the grade you expect to receive? Or retake to absorb the concepts better on a second go around?

If the latter, I recommend studying independently instead. There are so many online resources now that are better for learning than the traditional college lecture model.

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Get in contact with student support services, most universities have some sort of mental health “crisis” support system. (Crisis between quotes because what they can handle varies wildly). They can not only help you with your burnout, but also get in contact with your prof and let them know. You could (likelihood depends on the university) get a second chance at a later date without having to retake the full course.

Unfortunately, burnout and similar health issues have skyrocketed between university students since covid, the universities try to keep up, but… funding processes suck, so it really depends on the state/county/specific university.

All the best!

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It's called a blackout. It's common, yes.

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Yes, it's common. If you have the time, I recommend spending a day or two just literally doing nothing stressful, giving yourself permission to relax and not work. Or maybe an afternoon. Or any hour. Hell, a single minute, or one single good inhale and exhale. Imo, the best way to do this is to go out into nature where there are few people around, and just have leisurely walks or maybe read a fun book under a tree. Or else spend the time with friends, sitting on the porch in the sunshine drinking tea or coffee and chatting. Avoid electronics devices or driving vehicles (especially in traffic) as much as possible. If you don't have the time, I recommend trying to find some time to do this after your exams, before your next semester begins.

Imo, it is good that you anticipate re-taking the course next semester. Now you get to study and take the exam as if it is just practice for next semester.

Also, as you study, my bet is that you will find the concepts come back to you faster than you learned them the first time. It is quite common for us to forget how to do things, expecially things like academic math which is seldom used outside the classroom. We remember things more easily when we learned them recently, when we repeat them more, and when we can relate them to other useful and important things in our lives. Hence why I could probably tell you the exact order of operations dor disassembling and reassembling a motorcycle clutch, but I could only tell you that the Hamiltonian has something to do with matricies.

Remember that the most important thing you're learning is that you can do hard things. Look at you, right now, burned out and feeling terrible, but still giving this exam your best shot! Knowing calculus, passing this class, getting good grades, getting a degree - those are all nice. But what will really help you succeed in life is exactly what you are doing right now - perservering. Trying your best even when success is far from guarenteed. Remember, you have to be the hero in your own story, and it's not a good story if the hero never struggles!

Take a deep breath, accept the fact that you are stressed, accept the fact that remembering this stuff is difficult. And then try to appreciate the fact that you're showing a lot of character by doing something so difficult. Be proud of yourself, and get back to studying.

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Its not that severe I don't think, though it's good to know that's an option, I think I just need to do what I can on this final and move on for now, I already get an extra hour for my disability, but I would love nothing more than to just take the test and be able to not think for like a week or more, ugh, and not look at converging functions

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When I was a student, I tried to take rest days before exams if possible. During my bachelor I had a strict rule of never studying more than 6 days a week, 10 hours a day (including commute). Having some time off was fundamental. I dropped that rule during the master and barely graduated

Now as a teacher, I often see students not able to pace themselves, giving it their all and collapsing half way through exam season. Understanding your own limits is rough… in particular when it had worked for so many months. But they overlooked how each month took a toll and at some point you can’t keep it all together.

If you see your burnout lasting more than a couple of days of rest, reach out. The sooner the better.

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I also feel like a lot of students don't know how to set goals for studying. For instance studying for math may be solving x problems in y time, which roughly mimics test time. If you can't do that, time to reach out for help rather than spinning wheels.

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You sound like me at uni.
If you can, go and try get your exam deferred, take a decisive week break and get back to it at a pace that works better for you.

I have 4-5 realllly dark spots on my transcripts because of my stubbornness. Didn't help in job searching very much.

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It could get pretty bad pretty fast if you are not careful. Been in the situation a couple of times, thinking "meh. I will push through it". And then it got ugly. Please take care of yourself and take all the help you can get.

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Mini-rant incoming

There is that, sure, but also courses are structured to make sense as a whole, such that the end connects to all the pieces you have been gathering along the way. Therefore, it is often easier and mire fulfilling to study at the end of the semester, when the end goal of the techniques studied is shown. On the other hand, postponing all to the end is obviously a bad plan. So to avoid that, courses are structured with mid-terms and homework hand ins and so on to force students into learning a bit at a time, thus often loosing track of the global picture and making studying feel harder and less motivating. Plus, constant testing is a source of increased stress and lower productivity (who would have guessed).

I don’t know the solution to this conundrum, I just rant about it.

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Yeah that's true, I think I need to get better about actually taking breaks every single hour instead of pushing on.

Whats not helping is I'm no longer working and bills are coming hard and fast, so I'm actively trying to think up a way to make money while doing all this

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I've taken junior level college classes that relied on concepts taught from freshman year without any class in-between reinforcing that knowledge. Hell, I've had college courses continue concepts that were last taught to me in middle school.

I feel like part of the problem is that students demand full understanding as to why they need to know a specific something immediately while having little context as to why this may be important. There are also cases where it may be important to some students in the class, but the school doesn't know which students yet because those students aren't there.

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I remember studying until I forgot. It's normal.One year I had 4 final exams on one day - it was a real "Jesus take the wheel" moment...

Attention takes cognitive energy, and once that energy is depleted you go stupid.

Best practices:
-Sleep around 8hrs, mandatory, helps with memory consolidation,error correction and resetting the battlefield for next day ( see "Why we Sleep" by Mathew Walker of Stamford).

-Exercise or vigorous activity -break a sweat -it'll refresh the neurochemical soup in your brain.

Sugar snacks and caffeine before and during studying - brain uses a shit tone of energy and it loves glucose,, and the caffeine does some Dopamine stuff that helps. Spread it out through the session, don't smash it upfront and crash an hour later.

-Creatine monohydrate supplementation 20grams/day will supercharge your cognition when burnt out/sleep deprived- plenty of research on it- it's a precursor to ATP and brain loves it some ATP.- check out the studies/protocols on it.

Other things Nicotine gum- boosts memory.

Modafinil /Adderall and Vyvanse etc.. get your dopamine roaring- spiking focus, cognition and memory- but they are like flipping a switch. But be mindful of state dependent learning, dependence ,legality, clean supply etc.

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Stress and being short on sleep are two things well established to make your brain worse at forming memories.

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For learning calculus?

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Yes.

During prolonged and extensive stresses, a brain temporarily loses some of the ability to pay attention and remember.

When the stressful part is over, your memory will restore. I would not advise to strongarm through it, though - find a way to unload yourself and find better rest before your body forces you to by introducing stress-induced health issues you'll have to address.

Been there, lost a lot of health to it, don't recommend.

Also, agree with others saying you need to sleep well. Sleep is essential at sorting your memories and preparing you for the day. During the periods of stress and processing a lot of data it is more essential than ever.

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How the hell did you have 4 exams the same day? Are your professors that mean?

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What about that type of "nothing I do matters" burnout, where you wake up at 5 am so you can sit in the kitchen with a cup of coffee for an extra hour, not wanting to go to work because everything I do is wrong and nothing really matters..?

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ive done that in college, especially with very tough stem courses like gem chem, gen bio, and gen biochem. basically have to reread all the material from last semester, plus googling things to remember.

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Is it normal to not be able to remember anything during burnout?