So here I sit, eight months away from graduating uni, and one class stands in my way. After some pretty serious missteps, I need to produce 80+% work on the remainder of the quizzes and tests to pass.
A little pressure like this definitely goes a long way toward getting my ass in gear, but I study just as much, if not more, than I do for other classes and manage to come away with worse results. I'm hoping you guys have some time-tested techniques for test preparation that you can share and help me get through this thing.
By the way, this class is upper-level Electrical Eng.
Set up a study schedule that spaces your study time evenly and gives you plenty of time to prep for tests. Follow it. Be sure to do studying early so that, should you not be able to grasp a concept, you have time to bring it to your professor/TA and get help. I haven't studied engineering, but if you have to answer questions regarding practical applications of the theories you learn (which seems likely) doing huge numbers of practice problems will really help in a test situation.
It'll help if you set your goal not as passing a test or memorizing formulas, but of understanding the content. If you can plow through a series of problems and wield the proper formulas and achieve the right answers but you don't really understand why your method works, that's not good enough, and you're going to fail as soon as the prof throws even a mild curve your way.
ElJeffe on
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Study groups have always helped me the most. When i dont have that then i use my game-reward method.
A while back i had to study for a career test regarding my job (stupid military crap) so what i did was i went through the text book page by page and every few pages i picked up my controller and regulated some folks on COD4. Once i was done with a game, i came back through the last page i read to see if i remembered it. Surprisingly, i did really good on the test and i ended up getting to level 55 a few times through on the COD4 MP. Also, i find that i study best early in the morning or late in the evening since youre brain is fresh and you'll marinate on things if you sleep right afterwards.
Luck3ySe7en on
0
HachfaceNot the Minister Farrakhan you're thinking ofDammit, Shepard!Registered Userregular
edited November 2008
Is it possible to withdraw from the class and re-take it with a blank slate?
Is it possible to withdraw from the class and re-take it with a blank slate?
Nope, it'll postpone my grad date if I don't pass now. I have a half-hour quiz coming up on Monday that could provide me a good start toward passing if I ace it.
Luckily the professor provided some new practice problems for me to work on today.
What class is giving you problems? I'm a grad student in EE.
Communication Systems.
Wow, I thought you were going to say "solid state electronics" or any other physics-heavy class. Anyway, too bad I never took a comm systems class, was outside my area. That means you get my generic EE advice instead of something specialized:
-Never ever ever study in your dorm/apartment/whatever. Go to a library or study lounge. The best advice I ever received was "3 hours studying in a dorm room is worth 1 in a library."
-Always do the homework with other people, and understand what you're doing. Copying is for high schoolers and secretaries.
-Start studying for a week in advance for any exams
-READ THE DAMN BOOK. That's in caps because people never seem to do that. They always think going to class is a substitute or that reading the book is for history majors. The book takes a while to read, but it should piece together what you get in class.
-When preparing for a test, write out a note sheet as if you get to take one in. You might not get to, but doing that makes you remember the key concepts.
-Do you have access through a student organization or anything to old tests? Though, depending on your school's policies that might not be allowed (it was fine at my school, and the profs all knew about it).
-When you get homework back and you don't get 100 on it, actually rework the problems you got wrong
-For that matter, before a test redo the homework questions you got right
-Do some other questions in the book, or at least glance at them. They might show up on a test.
What class is giving you problems? I'm a grad student in EE.
Communication Systems.
Wow, I thought you were going to say "solid state electronics" or any other physics-heavy class. Anyway, too bad I never took a comm systems class, was outside my area. That means you get my generic EE advice instead of something specialized:
-Never ever ever study in your dorm/apartment/whatever. Go to a library or study lounge. The best advice I ever received was "3 hours studying in a dorm room is worth 1 in a library."
-Always do the homework with other people, and understand what you're doing. Copying is for high schoolers and secretaries.
-Start studying for a week in advance for any exams
-READ THE DAMN BOOK. That's in caps because people never seem to do that. They always think going to class is a substitute or that reading the book is for history majors. The book takes a while to read, but it should piece together what you get in class.
-When preparing for a test, write out a note sheet as if you get to take one in. You might not get to, but doing that makes you remember the key concepts.
-Do you have access through a student organization or anything to old tests? Though, depending on your school's policies that might not be allowed (it was fine at my school, and the profs all knew about it).
-When you get homework back and you don't get 100 on it, actually rework the problems you got wrong
-For that matter, before a test redo the homework questions you got right
-Do some other questions in the book, or at least glance at them. They might show up on a test.
Yeah, I've chosen to concentrate on signals-related classes for most of my upper-level classes.
Anyway, thanks for all the tips. At least two days a week, I'm stuck in the library anyhow, so I'll try to make better use of that time for sure.
Comms was my highest scoring module in my 3rd year, but I have no idea how similar our EE courses are so YMMV on my advice.
What I found really helped is doing a lot of early packet analysis on the computer, and practicing the algorithms a lot on paper. Pulling apart lots of real internet traffic and monkeying around with telnet and ethereal made all the lectures and canned examples much easier to grasp. Most of the people who struggled on my course were just trying to memorize everything rather than trying it out themselves.
The earlier you gain experience and a solid understanding of the basic hows and whys of the protocols, the easier it will be to really take in what the lecturers are saying.
Posts
A while back i had to study for a career test regarding my job (stupid military crap) so what i did was i went through the text book page by page and every few pages i picked up my controller and regulated some folks on COD4. Once i was done with a game, i came back through the last page i read to see if i remembered it. Surprisingly, i did really good on the test and i ended up getting to level 55 a few times through on the COD4 MP. Also, i find that i study best early in the morning or late in the evening since youre brain is fresh and you'll marinate on things if you sleep right afterwards.
Luckily the professor provided some new practice problems for me to work on today.
Wow, I thought you were going to say "solid state electronics" or any other physics-heavy class. Anyway, too bad I never took a comm systems class, was outside my area. That means you get my generic EE advice instead of something specialized:
-Never ever ever study in your dorm/apartment/whatever. Go to a library or study lounge. The best advice I ever received was "3 hours studying in a dorm room is worth 1 in a library."
-Always do the homework with other people, and understand what you're doing. Copying is for high schoolers and secretaries.
-Start studying for a week in advance for any exams
-READ THE DAMN BOOK. That's in caps because people never seem to do that. They always think going to class is a substitute or that reading the book is for history majors. The book takes a while to read, but it should piece together what you get in class.
-When preparing for a test, write out a note sheet as if you get to take one in. You might not get to, but doing that makes you remember the key concepts.
-Do you have access through a student organization or anything to old tests? Though, depending on your school's policies that might not be allowed (it was fine at my school, and the profs all knew about it).
-When you get homework back and you don't get 100 on it, actually rework the problems you got wrong
-For that matter, before a test redo the homework questions you got right
-Do some other questions in the book, or at least glance at them. They might show up on a test.
Anyway, thanks for all the tips. At least two days a week, I'm stuck in the library anyhow, so I'll try to make better use of that time for sure.
What I found really helped is doing a lot of early packet analysis on the computer, and practicing the algorithms a lot on paper. Pulling apart lots of real internet traffic and monkeying around with telnet and ethereal made all the lectures and canned examples much easier to grasp. Most of the people who struggled on my course were just trying to memorize everything rather than trying it out themselves.
The earlier you gain experience and a solid understanding of the basic hows and whys of the protocols, the easier it will be to really take in what the lecturers are saying.