Better study habits

[wingedhelmet]

Hey everyone,

I've got a question for the board, and I hope that this hasn't been beaten to death in previous threads but, I'm a current M1 midway through our courses in bio-chem and physiology. So far, I've been writing out all of my notes, which is a huge time suck. It takes me anywhere from 3-4 hours to go through a one hour lecture the first time. This method has worked okay for me so far this year (I'm about middle of the pack for our class), but I want to be doing better and I'm curious if there is a more efficient and better way of studying than spending so much time on each individual lecture especially as I normally don't finish all the lectures till a day or two before the exam. Any help and insight into the study habits that made you successful would be sincerely appreciate.

Thanks,
wingedhelmet

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[Jabbed]

Hey everyone,

I've got a question for the board, and I hope that this hasn't been beaten to death in previous threads but, I'm a current M1 midway through our courses in bio-chem and physiology. So far, I've been writing out all of my notes, which is a huge time suck. It takes me anywhere from 3-4 hours to go through a one hour lecture the first time. This method has worked okay for me so far this year (I'm about middle of the pack for our class), but I want to be doing better and I'm curious if there is a more efficient and better way of studying than spending so much time on each individual lecture especially as I normally don't finish all the lectures till a day or two before the exam. Any help and insight into the study habits that made you successful would be sincerely appreciate.

Thanks,
wingedhelmet

1. Don't write notes.
2. Set a strict schedule and follow it.
3. If you're taking a break, you're taking a break. Don't quickly pause the lecture or look up from your book to check e-mail/fb.
4. Don't get bogged down in a lecture and go too slowly.
5. Preview the slides before listening to the lecture. The key point with this is to try and integrate all the information presented and draw your own analyses. I typically try and do this the day before I watch the lecture as it gives me time to passively forget some details so that they can then be reinforced by watching the lecture.
6. Watch the lecture on accelerated speed and prevent yourself from annotating everything that the professor says. Only write something down if 1) You misunderstood it when you read through the ppts intially or 2) It's obviously important information that wasn't included in the slides. Anything that is in the slides, but you're only noticing in lecture should be highlighted.
7. Review all lecture slides with your annotations on the weekend after you've made them. This is key as it not only allows you to review the information, but also allows you to integrate information that you've learned on Friday into your Monday lecture.

The idea is to efficiently go through the material as many times as possible and focus your attention on things that were not immediately apparent to you or are critically important. At this point you've also completed three full passes of your lectures before you've even started studying for the exam.

 

[Jabbed]

Once you've gotten to the point that you can quickly get through your lecture material, consider integrating outside sources. This gives you the twofold advantage of reviewing the same information in a different context while also supplementing your lecture material with a more complete resource.

 

[seminoma]

How many times do you go over each lecture and how long do subsequent passes take you? During MS1 I spent about 3-4 hours on my first pass through a 1 hour lecture too, but then I only had to go through it a second time (in about 1.5-2 hours) and I knew it very well. If you're in that same boat, I say don't try to add any shortcuts. Nothing wrong with slow and steady if it works.

 

[wingedhelmet]

How many times do you go over each lecture and how long do subsequent passes take you? During MS1 I spent about 3-4 hours on my first pass through a 1 hour lecture too, but then I only had to go through it a second time (in about 1.5-2 hours) and I knew it very well. If you're in that same boat, I say don't try to add any shortcuts. Nothing wrong with slow and steady if it works.

Normally, I go over them about twice. I spend so much time going through the lecture the first time and trying to learn it then that it doesn't really leave me much time for review. I usually finish all the lectures about a day or two before each exam and then spend those last few hours going over and the material rather quickly, second pass is roughly 30 minutes per lecture unless there was a particularly difficult concept (although when I do write out my notes, I watch the lecture and write them down as we go, so I don't know if that'd count as 2nd pass through as well). This has worked for me in the past, as I mentioned I'm right in the middle of my class, although I want to improve and start honoring instead of simply passing.