Studying
How To Effectively Cram (School Girl)
So you haven't studied. Things got away from you and all of a sudden you realize that that huge exam is tomorrow. You could not study, but that's dumb. So now you're going to cram. But not all cramming is created equal. There are some ways for you to cram more efficiently and hopefully do a little better on that exam. Before you read this article and think "oh how wonderful! I'll never have to study again!", please remember this: Cramming is a last-minute resource. You should not rely on cramming as your only method. I understand that it happens, but you will do exponentially better and retain more information over time if you do actual studying. The following article was found at a website called DegreeDirectory, I suggest you poke around there, there are some great articles. Also, I didn't include the entire article, so if you'd like more information, the article can be found here.Four Starting Steps
- KNOW WHAT YOU NEED TO STUDY Knowing how much information you have to cover to be prepared for an exam is essential. Be realistic and make a list. Put the things you already know at the bottom and the things you are clueless about at the top.
- KNOW HOW MANY HOURS YOU HAVE TO CRAM Since it's the night before the exam, your cram session is sure to be limited. Determine how much time you have. Again, be realistic. If you are confident in your ability to successfully pull an all-nighter, by all means do so. But if you know you can't function without sleep, you're better off setting aside time to get some zzz's.
- DECIDE WHERE YOU WILL STUDY You'll need to find a quiet, well-lit place that's completely devoid of distractions. This may mean leaving your room, your house and possibly even your town.
- DECIDE YOUR PLAN OF ATTACK Coming up with some sort of game plan before you get started will save valuable time. To start, decide what study techniques you'll be employing and what you'll need to accomplish your goal. Then, make a schedule or a to-do list to help you execute your plan in a timely manner.
Cramming Techniques
MEMORIZATION TECHNIQUES
- Repeat information over and over again. (Do this until you can easily repeat something ten minutes later.)
- Rewrite information that you want to retain. (Rewrite at least three times for maximum retention.)
- Act it out. (Make up a dance or hand signals to remember whole sentences.)
- Make rhymes and songs out of important dates and facts. (Who can forget that in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue?)
- Use acronyms to remember facts. (SIM translates to Sedimentary, Igneous and Metamorphic--the three basic rock types.)
- Use acrostics to remember words in a specific order. (My Dear Aunt Sally = Multiply and Divide before you Add and Subtract)
USE A TEXTBOOK
Reading an entire textbook is not an effective way to cram for an exam. Instead, try concentrating on the summaries that appear at the beginning and end of each chapter. Chapter end questions, illustrative examples and other sections that are located throughout the book may also prove helpful.- Look for bolded words. Words in a bold or italicized font are probably important. Take note of these words by writing them down, highlighting them or flagging them in some other way.
- Know how to answer chapter end questions. Lazy professors pull their exam questions straight from the back of the book.
- Use the table of contents, the glossary and other overlooked parts of the textbook to get an overview of key information.
- Read introductions and conclusions. These parts always include important points.
USE YOUR NOTES
Hopefully you have class notes. If not, it's time to think about making photocopies of someone else's--preferably someone who takes good notes. If the professor made a specific point of emphasizing specific subject matter in class, it's likely that at least some of this subject matter will appear on the exam.- Look through the notes and try to find things that have been underlined or highlighted in some other way. This information is probably important.
- Scan the notes and look for key information that you can highlight or flag with Post-it notes for easy reference later on.
- Rewrite key information from your notes. This will help you memorize and comprehend important points.
- Read some of your notes aloud into a voice recorder and replay them later.
Tags: how to, studying, school girl, last minute, cramming, cram
Your Lectures, Online (Getting In)
Lately I've been reading a lot about how many schools are putting audio of lectures online. While it seems technologically progressive it seems to run into opposition from professors who fear that it will drive students away from attending class.
I'm wondering what you all out there on the internet think about lecture material being posted online. Would it make you somewhat more casual about attending class? Do you think you would use it as an additional study tool? Or to maybe flesh out your notes! I'm genuinely curious!
I'll share with you my experience: I didn't use it. When I attended Simon Fraser University back in 2004/2005 most lectures were recorded and made accessible to students registered in those classes. I knew exactly how to retrieve the lecture audio, but I felt like without the visuals I'd miss the context and it would just not be of great benefit to me. However, I know that my opinion is not the only one out there on the issue and neither is my experience. But for me online lecture content never drew me from class. No, the overriding factor in my poor attendance was a desire to have fun!
Tags: getting in, studying, controversy, opinion, online lecture notes, studying in college, instructors, professors, lectures, college life
How to Read Your Textbooks (School Girl)
The most common model for effective textbook reading is the SQ3R method. This method is:
- Survey: before really reading, scan over the headings, figures, and pictures in the assigned reading to get oriented
- Question: ask yourself some general, yet important, questions to answer while you read
- Read: read for comprehension, this is probably the most overtly time consuming step of this process
- Review: go back over the reading with an eye for key concepts and potential exam questions
- Recite: commit those key concepts to memory for the long term
Surveying is probably the easiest of the five steps. To do this effectively you need to look for basically everything that is not plain text. So look for titles, headings, bolded and underlined text, diagrams, tables, figures, and photographs and images. When you survey you will basically be orienting your mind to what you're about to read.
Questioning takes a little more skill to do effectively. When you're "questioning" a reading you want to be thinking of what the key concepts and lessons to be learned in this chapter are. For each section of the chapter (or even each paragraph if they're long enough) come up with a quick quiz-like question to answer in your next step. These questions don't have to be particularly detailed, and even if you ask yourself "what is the most important sentence in this section?" that WILL help!
Reading is the most time consuming part of this process. Make sure you're in a quiet place by yourself at a time when you don't feel particularly rushed (that might be asking a lot, but if you can get relaxed you'll find your comprehension is greater). Read for comprehension, this isn't for pleasure! As you go along, answer the questions that you came up with in the previous step. This is also an opportune time to use your highlighter. Though try to not highlight more than one sentence per paragraph, this is to keep you more focused and to help in the next step.
Reviewing is like coming up for air after your reading. Here you want to briefly go over the answers to your questions answered while reading as well as reviewing the content that you highlighted. Here you want to make sure you've got the key points down.
Recite, or commit your reading to memory, the information! This is tougher and likely one of the most personal steps in this process. For some people, the best way to do this is to write down the key items from the reviewing stage, for others the best way to do this could be by using flash cards. To effectively master this step you need to really evaluate how you memorize information for exams from lecture notes and the like.
This method is only one that can help you with reading your textbooks more effectively. Hopefully it will be more helpful than anything else. Also know that like any process, this is a process that you can modify if parts of it don't quite fit with your style. Each person is unique and will have different experiences with each thing they trip.
Tags: reading, studying, school girl, exam prep
Jamie Needs to Learn to Stop Procrastinating (Day In The Life)
Jamie: May 3, 2010
Sorry for the delay since the last time I updated; I've been super duper ultra busy of late. It's finals week! And for far too many of us, that means it's time for a heck of a lot of stress, way too much caffeine, and nowhere near enough sleep. Really, I'm speaking more particularly of myself, but even one person is too many! Forgive me if I'm rambling; I'm a bit tired.As of right now, it's approximately four o'clock in the morning; four o'clock in the morning is not a fun time to be awake on a school night, admittedly, but I'm very busy. I have a final (take home) exam due in about six hours, and it's still not quite done! (Don't scold me for being on Purple PJs instead of working on it; I'm taking a well-earned break.) In addition, I have another exam later today. Today will be... interesting, to say the least.
Tomorrow will be a very exciting day, though, as it's the day that my fiance comes into town! Though I saw him a little over a month ago - which, for us, isn't very long at all - I'm still super excited that he's visiting! So try not to be too disappointed if I don't get a chance to update again for a while; I'm sure to have tons to say after his visit!
Well, it's back to my studying/homework-ing. Good luck to any of you who are working on finals or something similar (and wish me luck in return, pretty please! I'll need it).
Tags: studying, day in the life, homework, jamieg, finals