How do you guys read your content books?

[orthoboy]

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[Biebs]

A lot of people on here suggested that you take notes while you read to make the material "stick". However, I have been doing that with EK bio, and so far it hasn't been working very well. I'm spending way too much time with taking notes that I feel could be well spent just reading and understanding the material.

What about highlighting in the book? Would that help?

So do what works for me? Or is there actually a benefit from making notes of what you read?

Also on a second note, EK bio is too condensed! Should I use Kaplan Bio or BR Bio if I want a better more detailed approach?

Thanks!

I had the same problem, just reading the material didn't make it stick at all for me. What I have started doing was making chapter outlines from my readings.

I am reviewing bio content from TPR and making chapter outlines. Yes, they are long, maybe around 5 pages with .5 margins, but I find that typing these really helps me retain the information and at the end of my bio review--I'll have these nice little condensed "cliff" notes to review and not have to carry a 600 page book around. Yes, it takes time--but I think it has helped me a lot.

From these, I'll review and then attack some passages. I'll read EK, then make notes along my outlines from TPR stressing important concepts and adding their little tips and tricks for certain things. I found this to be a pretty good way to go about becoming familiar with large amount of biology information you have to be "familiar" with.

 

[orthoboy]

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[GreenRabbit]

There's a correlation between hand-writing notes and retaining information. There's no correlation with typing notes, or highlighting notes.

Do whatever works for you.

 

[Im Learning]

Make a learning map

 

[orthoboy]

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[Biebs]

Thing is I already have condensed notes from a few friends who already took the mcat so I'm not sure if I should waste my time writing notes if I already have some. And I suck at taking notes, never did before. I was more of a listening type of learner.

But is there an actual connection between retaining more information and writing (or typing) notes? Or is the only good thing about it is having the condensed notes to review later?

I know what you're talking about. I have all of physicsjunkies notes as well as some notes from friends who took the MCAT earlier. I still find myself typing notes and for some reason it just works for me. I like typing because I can do it 100x faster than writing. For me, it doesn't matter if I write or type--I still manage to have higher retention of the information if I were just to read and highlight it.

Also, I found that doing the above, reading your notes, then attacking passages is the best for retention. Obviously you can take as many notes as you want, but it will serve you no good if you don't practice what you're writing down.

I tried this technique for the second and third chapters for TPR and saw a huge increase in my biology performance.

However, no one is alike. Do what works for you. Once you find your niche, stick with it.

 

[Im Learning]

There's a correlation between hand-writing notes and retaining information. There's no correlation with typing notes, or highlighting notes.

Do whatever works for you.

Yes, reading and writing are two input methods, the third (and I highly encourage the trinity) being auditory input. You can do this reading out loud (reading in different accents, or as if you are an anchorman, relaying the info to others. Both these techniques work better than just reading normally) and if you want to go further, record yourself reading, and then listen back to it as you reread the chapter.

How often do you take breaks? Breaks, even if they are just one or two minutes long, should be taken every twenty minutes of studying to allow yourself to digest the information.

Also, you should always study in threes. This is because humans remember the first and last, while forgetting or confusing the middle. When studying in threes, you have the most first and last, and least middle. (yes, studying in threes is better than twos)

Taking those two pieces of advice and mushing them together, I would break the hour into 20min studying, 1—2min break, 20min studying, 1—2min break, 20min studying, 5-10 minute break.

Every time you start to study, you should sit up straight with your feet on the floor, close your eyes, relax your face and jaw. Hang your mouth slightly open with your tongue resting gently on the roof of your mouth. Take a few second to visualize yourself studying and remembering the material, recalling it at will. Visualize yourself recalling information at will. Smile and say, "Learning is easy, I will easily learn." Repeat this, take a deep breath, and open your eyes. You should feel focused and separated from your previous activities. You will have reviewed your goals during the visualization and reinforced your believe in yourself and your abilities. Remember, learning is easy. Retaining is easy.

Finally, review the information right after you wake up. It has been found that we retain information the best in the morning while are minds are fresh and clear.

You will be thrilled at how the information sticks.

 

[Im Learning]

Thing is I already have condensed notes from a few friends who already took the mcat so I'm not sure if I should waste my time writing notes if I already have some. And I suck at taking notes, never did before. I was more of a listening type of learner.

But is there an actual connection between retaining more information and writing (or typing) notes? Or is the only good thing about it is having the condensed notes to review later?

Typing notes is worthless and reviewing the notes is only partially beneficial. The benefit comes in inputing information into your mind as many different ways as possible. Only writing works.

Make a learning map

A learning map is when you take all the concepts and ideas and make a map of them (you may also consider it a web). This gets you to think logically and categorically about the concepts, engages you in the organization of them and and aides you in finding the interrelatedness of the ideas. You can make them as broad or as specific as you would like.

They are also wonderful tools to go back and review from.

 

[FattySlug]

Well I use a lot of highlights. It just works for me to highlight things I think important. They are usually concepts that fit into a bigger picture of the system. When I review I just read through the highlight parts. Taking notes for everything is not efficient. You are wasting your practice time.

Somebody mentioned using maps which I think is also useful. I make my own map for concepts that require memorization such as: metabolism, hormones, sugars...etc... and keep the map with me at all times.

The BS section is pretty much like VR about biology. I found that most the things I learn in the book didn't even show up on the actual MCAT and I took it 3 times. It's all reading and understanding experiments. So do not focus on the details. Spend your time trying to understanding instead. Do AAMC tests and you will see that you don't need to know a whole lot of details.

 

[elusiveCHILD]

@IamLearning What do you mean by studying in "threes"?

 

[bfarn30]

Here's what I did:

1. Thoroughly read the material one time around. Take broad notes if you'd like.

2. Read the material again and take notes on ONLY what you don't know well. Don't waste your time writing down things you already know. It's a waste of space.

3. Do problems from that subject to seal the concepts into your mind.

****Leave time between each of these steps. So intertwine with other subjects or go do a practice section, for example. If you do these back to back, you won't remember everything.

 

[ridethecliche]

Yeah.

Reading is part of it.

If you don't do practice problems and passages, you'll have no idea if you actually get it or not.

 

[wholeheartedly]

There are different ways to take notes as well. If you're just copying down words and info to copy it down it's different than if you're rewording and summarizing concepts. That's why typing isn't as effective, but you can run into the same problem with handwritten notes. Try to reformat it so that you're forced to think about it and organize the information before you actually write it down. Make sure your brain is being active about it.

 

[phnerd1105]

I read once through, then read another time through taking notes on harder concepts, and then do a CRAP TON of problems on the material. Problems are the only way to make the information stick and fill your gaps.

 

[Renaissance Man]

From left to right and top to bottom, but seriously first time I just read the whole thing front to back without doing anything. Next time I highlighted and/or took some notes on subjects I was not confident about

 

[Xcited392]

Some good points made so far by previous posters.

I also don't like reading and writing/typing notes, simultaneously. It gets very distracting for me.

I like being able to read through it once, getting a grasp and understanding the flow of concepts being presented.

Then, if needed, I will hand-write my bare outline of it. The problem, for me, with taking notes while reading is that you don't know the overall concepts until after you've finished reading. So, if you are reading and taking notes without knowing the main points, there's a big possibility of you missing the overall concepts and just writing down miscellaneous information.

 

[rjs2131]

Divide your studying so that you spend the least time reading and the most time doing practice problems/section tests/etc etc...I found that I was much more likely to remember something if I got it wrong in a question than if I just read it a few times. Reviewing wrong (and right) answers to lots and lots of prac problems is one of the best ways to study I think, and personally, I only really read at the beginning of my studying to make sure I knew all of the general ideas. After that point I only read if I was confused about a topic or if I didn't understand it completely. Good luck!

 

[NickNaylor]

I highlighted and took brief notes. I found that helped a lot when I would go over the material again later since I could skip the crap and focus on the important things.

 

[orthoboy]

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[NickNaylor]

How brief? For example, how many pages of notes would you have for a lecture in EK bio?

and how do you guys force yourself to spend this much time with studying? Do you let go of all distractions and go to a quiet place? Or simply just FORCE yourself to just sit there? I'm having a hard time focusing!

Very little, as in maybe a few extra notes per lecture.

As far as time, you just have to have a plan and stick to it. It's a lot of material as a whole, but when you break it up over time it's much more reasonable and less daunting.

 

[scorpiobeauty6]

thus far for me....flashcards, flashcards, flashcards and creating a "tip book" which I read about on a 30+ MCAT Score posting.

I also have heard that the same way that you study/or studied while taking your undergrad/grad courses to retain info is the same way that you should attack your MCAT studying b/c that is your learning style/study method that has proven (hopefully) to work for you.....