Studying Habits

McAllen

A topic about advice and tips on how to focus yourself when you study.

I took my last summer college course(ended yesterday), and I swear I was at the breaking point of reading and studying. I don't have any diagnosed mental disorders, but I felt that I could hardly push myself to finish the last thirty pages of a book or chapter. I try and motivate myself that it would be stupid to pay money and not put much effort into the homework, but even if I give myself a break I find it hard to get back on track.

What has been the most successful ways of studying for you? Do you read and copy the chapter word-for-word, do you muscle through it, or do you read and that's that?

LoveIsUnity

What exactly are you studying for? You probably won't study the same way for an Anthropology exam as you will for a Math exam, and that's a good thing.

Kyougu

Highlighting phrases and passages while I read worked wonders for me.

LoveIsUnity

Kyougu wrote: »

Highlighting phrases and passages while I read worked wonders for me.

This would probably work for memorization type stuff, but it probably won't do much good for literature and philosophy type stuff.

If you're studying for a literature or philosophy class you want to engage with the work more than just highlighting or underlining, which are passive activities. Instead, I would recommend writing margin notes or buying a pack of post-its so you can write comments, questions, and all that good stuff. If a passage seems out of place, make a note of it. If you're seeing similar situations arise, make a note of it. If Nietzsche keeps talking about how women shouldn't be allowed to read, make a note of it.

Anarchy Rules!

For me writing out key points, and then revising primarily off those notes, then if time permits, condense those notes down into more specific notes. Admitedly, I do study a science, so it's a lot easier to seperate the wheat from the chaff when writing notes.

VisionOfClarity

I schedule everything very specifically and switch off every once in awhile regardless of being finished with one thing because it keeps me from getting bored. Doing one thing for too long makes me lose interest so by switching it up I stay interested. Also, putting in down time gives me something to look forward too and knowing I have a couple hours to relax later means that I'm less likely to wander from work to something else.

Reckless

McAllen, it sounds to me like you were just burnt out at the end of your summer classes. Did you go right from the Spring semester's Finals into your summer session? Because then it's totally understandable you'd be frustrated and tired of reading by the end of that.

As far as study habits go, as others have said, it's pretty much on a class-by-class basis. My Econ courses involve a lot of online practice questions and graph manipulation, in my Law courses I find it helpful to organize a study group, and in my Language courses I make it a point to see a student tutor once a week just to have a no-stress situation to practice speaking and listening.

Taximes

For math/science/engineering courses, I usually skim the chapter to get a general overview of what's going on, then do homework/example problems that cover all the relevant ideas (which will cause me to go back to the chapter and read anything important that I might have missed or not completely understood).

You might be able to do the same kinda thing for other courses, assuming they have some sort of homework/concept questions.

Aside from that, set a schedule. Determine beforehand what you think you can handle, giving yourself plenty of break time, but also giving yourself enough time to cover all the material. If you've got a test coming up that covers five chapters, start a week early and do a chapter a day.

Liiya

I found it hard to study for exams when I wasn't that interested in the subject. Now I'm studying something I enjoy I find it easier, I simply write out my notes when I have a theory/written exam, highlighting and making key points. This was I'm reading it from my book, reading it as a I write it down and then ask family members to test me. The same goes for flashcards with colours that represents certain subjects. That's how I commit things to memory, but enjoying the subject is what helped me.

mrcheesypants

I'm ADD so in order to compensate I've learned that the best way to study is to make studying as time efficent as possible. Personally I find the most important time for studying is during lectures and that the internet can provide a better place of study than any textbook if you use it correctly.

For classes that include heavy critical thinking and mathematical logic, try and abstract what the professor is saying and think about it in your head. Make conjectures, try and figure out what the professor is going to say next. If you think the concept is a bit out of the scope of the class, go online and research it. When you're assigned problems by the professor, don't just open up your book and do all the problems in order. Instead, look at all the problems and group them in concepts. After you've grouped them by concepts, circle the hardest problems/the ones that focus mostly on the concepts. Start at the back of the question section and work your way to the front. Once again, focus on understanding the concepts rather than the number of problems completed. Pick a few of these problems and be sure you're able to finish these correctly with little to no trouble. If you're having difficulty solving one of these problems, then go back to the easiers warm up exercises and then go back to the hard ones.

As for classes that require a good bit of memorization, I find that if I write my lectures notes going left-to-right one line and then right-to-left the next that it forces me to read every single line instead of glossing over and skipping. Notes should be the important material that can be obtained by skimming so skimming the notes IMO is a bit unproductive. The right-to-left thing takes a while to get used and it's a bit weird, but it becomes no harder than writting your notes the "correct" way.

Oh, and when you do look over your notes and do your exercises, get as far away from the computer and distractions as possible. Researching related concepts is good and all, but there is a time and place for it.

Reckless

mrcheesypants wrote: »

Personally I find the most important time for studying is during lectures

Oooh, this. Don't just sit around semi-idly and take notes in lecture. Think about the concepts being presented and start the studying process right there in class.