Do you study for a class ahead of time?

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Parklife

Parklife

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Do you study and/or read for classes ahead of time? I know some people who read all of o-chem the summer or winter break before. Others try to get head in week before classes.


Do you try to read ahead for your classes? Do you think it's a good idea or do you find yourself just burning out/not retaining any information?

Personally, I like to plan ahead, but from experience I think there is only so far you can go without taking a quiz or an exam or something.
 
Worthless IMO. Just stay up with the class material and you'll be fine.
 
How can you drink if you're studying for classes before hand?

Priorities...
 
Parklife said:
Do you study and/or read for classes ahead of time? I know some people who read all of o-chem the summer or winter break before. Others try to get head in week before classes.


Do you try to read ahead for your classes? Do you think it's a good idea or do you find yourself just burning out/not retaining any information?

Personally, I like to plan ahead, but from experience I think there is only so far you can go without taking a quiz or an exam or something.
Click to expand...

I think there's an extent to how much studying before a class is useful. If you keep up with every chapter you should be fine. The system is designed like this for a reason.
 
I'm actually taking O-Chem in the fall and I picked up Organic Chemistry As a Second Language from Amazon to read this summer and get a head start. IT IS AMAZING and very easy to understand. Best $30 i've ever spent
 
While front-loading can't hurt you in the long run, be aware that your school's curriculum can impact how valuable your prep work is in the short-term. I began watching Khan Academy videos to prep for Gen Chem I and II summer sessions, only to get the syllabus on the first day of class and discover the curriculum at my school jumps all over the text and doesn't remotely approximate the order of the Khan material.
 
vsankuratri said:
I'm actually taking O-Chem in the fall and I picked up Organic Chemistry As a Second Language from Amazon to read this summer and get a head start. IT IS AMAZING and very easy to understand. Best $30 i've ever spent
Click to expand...

+1 the book is brief enough to teach you the absolute basic concepts so that you can expand on them when school begins.

Sent from my SGH-T959V using SDN Mobile
 
I think it's much more effective to spend a lot of time mastering the material after you've covered it. This way you always knows what is being covered (many professors don't cover everything "by the book") and it stays fresh. More importantly, I find it's much easier to motivate myself to study stuff that we've already covered than to try to be a week ahead or something and keep putting that kind of effort in.
 
There are some lectures on places like Academic Earth and iTunes University, or even podcasts. These can be better than reading a textbook, and they're free.

You have to shop around, but some are really good.
 
One semester I got all my books early and studied during down time at my clinical job over the summer. I had an especially heavy course load that fall and looking over the material ahead of time was a good way to use my down time.

However, if your other responsibilities don't involve paid down time (emergency responder, etc.) you can definitely find a better use of your time. They pay off was definitely not even 1 to 1 as far as how much I studied to how much I remembered.
 
vsankuratri said:
I'm actually taking O-Chem in the fall and I picked up Organic Chemistry As a Second Language from Amazon to read this summer and get a head start. IT IS AMAZING and very easy to understand. Best $30 i've ever spent
Click to expand...

Same here, only this is my second attempt at the course. The first time I tried it take from a PhD at a community college, and she was soo full of herself no one could give her suggestions on how to teach better. So regardless of how bad my next teacher might be, at least I'll be prepared. 👍

And yes, I'm slightly bitter.😳 I''ve learned more from that book mentioned above than a half semester of crappy teaching (before I left with a W).
 
Xenops said:
Same here, only this is my second attempt at the course. The first time I tried it take from a PhD at a community college, and she was soo full of herself no one could give her suggestions on how to teach better. So regardless of how bad my next teacher might be, at least I'll be prepared. 👍

And yes, I'm slightly bitter.😳 I''ve learned more from that book mentioned above than a half semester of crappy teaching (before I left with a W).
Click to expand...

Yea, I can totally see that happening and why she was so full of her self lol. There's only one teacher for all the sections of o-chem and the reviews aren't the greatest. I'm probably saving my self a lot of time and frustration reading ahead.
 
vsankuratri said:
I'm actually taking O-Chem in the fall and I picked up Organic Chemistry As a Second Language from Amazon to read this summer and get a head start. IT IS AMAZING and very easy to understand. Best $30 i've ever spent
Click to expand...
That's exactly what I'm planning on doing! It's arriving by mail this week🙂
 
I usually don't unless I'm bored and have a lot of free time. The time I spend prereading before class could be used to study for the last class.

EDIT: I WILL be studying ahead for organich and biochemistry though. And by studying ahead, i mean i'm going to watch live lectures online so i can learn everything ahead of time. That way I can guarantee an A. My GPA is already ****, so trying my best to make it better 🙁
 
I took notes on the chapter/power points before class for the entire Gen Chem I semester and I pretty much destroyed that class so I guess it helped
 
+111111 to Organic Chem as a Second Language.

THE BEST textbook read ever. Anyone taking orgo, READ THIS BOOK. Even if your prof goes by the book, this is gold. I don't recommend it for orgo 2 though...
 
vsankuratri said:
I'm actually taking O-Chem in the fall and I picked up Organic Chemistry As a Second Language from Amazon to read this summer and get a head start. IT IS AMAZING and very easy to understand. Best $30 i've ever spent
Click to expand...

I've been hearing a lot of this book and i recently picked up the second edition used on amazon (It was around $15 cheaper - every dollar counts when you're a broke college student!)

Is the third edition significantly better than the 2nd?
 
Skim the chapter I guess. If you had professors like I did though it won't help unless you read the chapter several times, because they care more about minute details.:boom:
 
bluebillion said:
I've been hearing a lot of this book and i recently picked up the second edition used on amazon (It was around $15 cheaper - every dollar counts when you're a broke college student!)

Is the third edition significantly better than the 2nd?
Click to expand...


I was looking at both but from what I saw on the description there is a bit more information in one of the chapters. Not sure which and different (maybe more ?) problems for each section. Honestly, you'll get get same information out of it though. Not so much of a difference you'll be at a disadvantage.
 
Hell, I barely studied DURING class. I was too busy consuming alcoholic beverages.
 
Not during the academic year (i.e. reading ahead before lecture), but some reading during the summer before the semester starts, sure.
 
Parklife said:
Do you study and/or read for classes ahead of time? I know some people who read all of o-chem the summer or winter break before. Others try to get head in week before classes.


Do you try to read ahead for your classes? Do you think it's a good idea or do you find yourself just burning out/not retaining any information?

Personally, I like to plan ahead, but from experience I think there is only so far you can go without taking a quiz or an exam or something.
Click to expand...

The semester I took 22 credit hours....I emailed all of my professors and requested copies of their syllabi before the semester started and read/took notes....ended with all As....
 
I drink, heavily, beforehand.

While the other preprofessionals caved under the pressure of coursework they found overwhelming, I was too busy reflecting on my awesome life to care and ended up performing better.

Logic, hell if it works.
 
You guys are too intense.

tumblr_lx93ksJvqE1qzupcl.gif
 
The only time I ever did that was when I memorized the AA a couple of week before starting biochem. Best thing I ever did.
 
I have a fake calendar and fake clock in my room, so that I "cramp", but in reality im study ahead of time.
 
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