Saturday, January 05, 2008

How To Study

Via CastingOutNines I came to this post on how to study. Good stuff, especially for you college-student-wannabes (or even you current college students!). Listed below are some things to avoid:

Bad Habit #1: Studying Without a Plan
Bad Habit #2: Skipping Classes
Bad Habit #3: Using Rote Review
Bad Habit #4: Studying After Midnight
Bad Habit #5: Not Taking Notes on Your Reading

The week after next is finals week at my school. Here are the two rules by which I lived during finals when I was an undergraduate:

Well rested, well tested.
Study too long, you're wrong.

The first of those is intuitively obvious to the most casual observer, but the second needs a brief explanation. The second assumes that the purpose of studying is to review material you had previously learned, not to learn new material. If you're trying to learn new material while studying for a final, you've probably already lost that battle. Make sure you know, extremely well, what you've already learned. Eat, sleep, study. Don't overburden your mind. Relax as much as you can.

Do well.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

if only every teacher were as gracious as you and let their students have 8 1/2 x 11 papers for whatever they so desired, eh? i think so.

Darren said...

Doing so requires something active (deciding what's important, then writing it down), helping students avoid Bad Habit #3.

Besides, if you don't know what you're doing, having even the textbook available to you won't be much of a help.

DADvocate said...

In college I developed the habit of doing everything on time. Before a test, I studied as necessary but never looked at my notes, etc. once I walked into the classroom. This worked quite well.

Anonymous said...

I dont agree with BadHabit #5 i think that reading and taking notes in english is ridiculous it distracts me from just reading and understanding what is going on always having to stop and jot down enough notes that will suffice if he were to chek them ...

bad habit # 2 ? what is rote review?

Darren said...

I don't read a (non-fiction) book without at least a highliter.

The linked post explained that "rote review" is just reading your notes over and over again.

Anonymous said...

highlighter is ok ... plus nobody wants to read the english books anyways ... any other book of my choice is another story

Anonymous said...

Agreed. It has always worked out very well for me to just review lightly before a test, maybe a few key concepts that I know I have trouble with. Other than that, if I don't know it by then I'm not going to learn it that night.