How to study effectively?!

[powerfetish]

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Guys, if you have a really effective way to retain Biology and Psychology content, please for the love of God let me know!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After 19th Bio Chapter and 3 Psych chapters, I am about burned out by my studying method. I basically make study guides per chapter and study from the guide, lecture notes, and do end of chapter problems. But this takes too long. Do you know of an alternate studying method that is higher yield than mine?

As an example, here is my Psych chap 1 study guide:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bw706ZKAK15NWTlwSEFVS0VqZDQ/edit

Please share your secrets!!!!!!!!!! Sharing is caring!

 

[487806]

Guys, if you have a really effective way to retain Biology and Psychology content, please for the love of God let me know!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After 19th Bio Chapter and 3 Psych chapters, I am about burned out by my studying method. I basically make study guides per chapter and study from the guide, lecture notes, and do end of chapter problems. But this takes too long. Do you know of an alternate studying method that is higher yield than mine?

As an example, here is my Psych chap 1 study guide:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bw706ZKAK15NWTlwSEFVS0VqZDQ/edit

Please share your secrets!!!!!!!!!! Sharing is caring!

Don't cross-post. Have you taken the advice here?

It is good to be meticulous at first and then try to make your study methods more efficient later on. You will find later on, through college, that reading the book and "every detail" is low yield (however, keep what you are doing for now). A more effective method would be to print out the lecture notes, go over it before class, then go over it after class, and then look into the books for detail the lecture notes you don't understand. When you take more classes, you might find professors that not follow the books very much. The high yield material is usually stuff that is gone over in class. The low yield material will be all the miscellaneous material in the book that has not been mentioned in class.

My suggestion is the following:
1) Continue what you are doing for now
2) Now integrate what I have mentioned in the paragraph
3) This means printing the powerpoint/lecture notes (if there are any)
4) Skim over the note before class and make question points for material you don't understand or have questions on
5) Listen to lecture to see if these question points are answered and add in extra detail from the lecture
6) Review the material after class.
7) Those questions not answered from the lecture notes (whether printed or written in class) look in the book for answers to these questions
8) Have mini reviews at the end of the week for all the material (nothing too intense)
9) Study for the exam (use the best study techniques in your arsenal)
10) Take the exam and get the results back
11) From there, see what way of studying was most effective (was just looking at the notes enough or was reading every detail in the book necessary?)
12) Use the most effective strategies from here on out.


As for the Psychology class, I have no idea how the concepts on it will be reflected on the new MCAT. I feel bad for your situation because you are facing a new monster of an exam.

Hopefully the study tips have helped you though.

 

[powerfetish]

Don't cross-post. Have you taken the advice here?

The thing is that my teachers--especially in Psych where they only teach 1/5 of what is on the test--do not teach everything covered on the test. So I can't just rely on class notes.
my Psych teachers even admit that most of the stuff on the tests is in the books. So i need an effective way to extract and retain info from txts.

 

[The Kraken]

Millions of notecards, organized by chapter. Works wonders for pure content classes.

 

[IslandStyle808]

The thing is that my teachers--especially in Psych where they only teach 1/5 of what is on the test--do not teach everything covered on the test. So I can't just rely on class notes.
my Psych teachers even admit that most of the stuff on the tests is in the books. So i need an effective way to extract and retain info from txts.

Thanks agent B for helping out on this one.

Now this one is different but sadly this is how it is done for more "book based" exams. You have probably done some of these already but hopefully something new comes up from my explanation.

1) check for summaries in the back of each chapter of the book because this tells you the main message of the chapter.
2) Next skim the chapter and see the title headings and find out "where is this all going?"
3) Then start reading the first introduction
4) Then stop and try to rephrase what was said in the long paragraph into your own words (write it down or say it out loud in a room by yourself)
5) Then keep doing this for the whole chapter

6) If you are highlighting, make sure to read the paragraph first before you highlight. (otherwise it will turn into a yellow nightmare)
7) Then summarize into your own words and then pick out the keywords that were relevant to your made up summary of the paragraph.
8) Continue the highlighting technique through the chapter


9) Try to find questions in the back of the book
10) If there are, try to see if you can answer them
11) What ever you get wrong you go back to the book and look for what could be the answer


I have stated the norm of how you should read the book but NORMALLY for the majority of classes the book is low yield. Only do this if the majority of your tests questions stem from the book. (I really can't believe that 4/5 actually come from the book, I would be skipping that class if I found out 100% of the exams can be done from studying the book).

There is no easier way to really do this but this is by far the most effective way and probably what you are doing now. The test will show you exactly whether the questions were more book knowledge or note knowledge.

Hope this helps

 

[Ashley1989]

I read and highlight, and then make lists on blank pieces of paper. The lists are organized by a topic/word/phrase at the top with one page per idea. Then I jot down words, vocab, phrases and doodles that pertain to that idea ONLY. If your GBio book was anything like mine, information about the same concept was scattered throughout just in various degrees of depth. Actually, I think most of the organization of textbooks is complete crap when you're talking about studying from it. Also make broad essay questions from the material.

 

[lobo.solo]

This is a trial error process; what work for me might not work for you. You have to try a bunch of different things. For memorization, just go over your notes after class, re-write them, repeat concepts out-loud, etc.

 

[fallen625]

In undergrad I would just read the book before lecture, attend lecture / take notes on my laptop, and then re-read the book chapter after and add important stuff from the book into my lecture notes. I thought that strategy worked pretty well and adding notes from the book to lecture notes (which often overlapped) was much faster than taking notes from the book for an entire chapter.

 

[bpsydme]

Guys, if you have a really effective way to retain Biology and Psychology content, please for the love of God let me know!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After 19th Bio Chapter and 3 Psych chapters, I am about burned out by my studying method. I basically make study guides per chapter and study from the guide, lecture notes, and do end of chapter problems. But this takes too long. Do you know of an alternate studying method that is higher yield than mine?

As an example, here is my Psych chap 1 study guide:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bw706ZKAK15NWTlwSEFVS0VqZDQ/edit

Please share your secrets!!!!!!!!!! Sharing is caring!

I think that it really depends on A) your "intelligence", or how well you study and B) how in depth the course is

First, some people can read over something once or twice, walk into the exam and ace it. Second, this depends on the class itself. I had to really study for ALL my courses in college (I even thought psych 101 was hard!) everything from psych 101 to graduate-level neuroscience courses. This was at a top-tier school infamous for grade deflation. But then I took some courses at the current university I am working at and I probably studied 2 hours for each exam, read over some notes, made 20 or so flashcards and aced everything. So to give you advice on how to study without knowing how "hard" your course is won't really help.
Is your course pure memorization? Does it require critical thinking (i.e. essays)? For me, if I am able to go through each lecture slide, tell the story like the way the professor did in lecture, then that's good. Then any details in between, you can just memorize. It seems from your study guide that you have been focusing on rote memorization. "Who led this movement?" kind of questions. Why not try to tell a story? WHY did that person led that movement? Why does it matter in the context of things? How has the current conceptualization of psychology change because of these people? If you know how each of those bullet points relate to each other, it will no longer be memorization but understanding.
BUT I am also the type of person who hate to study from outlines. I learned more out of making the outline and then read it over once and never touch it again. I only use hte outline to make sure I know the details (i.e. memorization), but often used the textbook to make sure I see the whole picture.

 

[DrHart]

I think all the ideas mentioned above are great. I do think though that one of the best strategies you could use is time yourself as you study. Memorizing and retaining large amounts of information means you have to stay focused as you study. My friends who are in medical school have told me if you go 50 minutes of hardcore, no distractions studying... then take a 10-15 minute break... then another 50 minutes of studying and 10-15 break, you won't get as mentally exhausted and the information will stick in your head better.

When I took bio I read the text and made definitions of everything to study.
With psychology I pretty much just made definitions.

I do honestly think though that maintaining your focus while you study is more important than the different things you do (notecards, reading text, definitions, etc)

 

[AdrianVeidt]

That study guide is just pure memorization. Notecards, notecards and then more notecards.

 

[IslandStyle808]

I think all the ideas mentioned above are great. I do think though that one of the best strategies you could use is time yourself as you study. Memorizing and retaining large amounts of information means you have to stay focused as you study. My friends who are in medical school have told me if you go 50 minutes of hardcore, no distractions studying... then take a 10-15 minute break... then another 50 minutes of studying and 10-15 break, you won't get as mentally exhausted and the information will stick in your head better.

When I took bio I read the text and made definitions of everything to study.
With psychology I pretty much just made definitions.

I do honestly think though that maintaining your focus while you study is more important than the different things you do (notecards, reading text, definitions, etc)

Yep very true. This also applies for the MCAT as well.

 

[I am the Walrus]

Personally I would just rewrite all the diagrams and information (This is very true in biology =D)


Remember to use deep memoriztion to study

Here's a video to help 😳


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH95h36NChI

 

[I am the Walrus]

This


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH95h36NChI

 

[bigboiben783]

When I was in undergrad, I'd rewrite definitions and concepts to make them as concise as possible. When there was a pathway to be memorized, I wrote and re-wrote it until I memorized it. But, I believe the key to success is probably going over past exams - many times I would get marked off because I didn't answer something the way a particular Professor preferred. Going over their past exams really helped me understand what they were looking for when it came to grading.

 

[cerno]

Guys, if you have a really effective way to retain Biology and Psychology content, please for the love of God let me know!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After 19th Bio Chapter and 3 Psych chapters, I am about burned out by my studying method. I basically make study guides per chapter and study from the guide, lecture notes, and do end of chapter problems. But this takes too long. Do you know of an alternate studying method that is higher yield than mine?

As an example, here is my Psych chap 1 study guide:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bw706ZKAK15NWTlwSEFVS0VqZDQ/edit

Please share your secrets!!!!!!!!!! Sharing is caring!

Have you heard of the pomodoro technique (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique) ? Many of my friends have found it to be very helpful, but you do have to really enforce it on yourself.

 

[HughMyron]

I almost flunked out of psychology, so I won't be much help here. U mad or u mirin brah?

Anyways, you write wayyyyy too much on the study guide lol. Ain't nobody gonna memorize that stuff.