Hey everyone,
So I just finished the first semester and I wanted to know how other study/ had studied for basic sciences. I managed to do ok (3.5), ranking estimating to be about middle of the class. I pretty much lecture capture (watch lecture videos), take detail notes by hand and study. The problem that I have been encountering is that i feel it takes too much time hand writing all my notes, but when I type my notes, I feel like nothing gets stuck in my head.
Any suggestions on how I can improve my studying skills?
Thank you,
I had the same.exact.problem as you.
So this is what I did for bio:
1) Attend class, take notes on printed powerpoint slides, but mainly listen....no need for detailed notes here.
2) Within 24 hours after class, log on to the lecture capture, and watch at a desirable speed while typing FULL NOTES (high level of detail). Save this as "TopicName-Summary"
3) Within 1 week of creating detailed typed notes, I transition to ACTIVE LEARNING (this is the most important step):
Copy and paste all your detailed notes into a new word document, and save it as "TopicName-SELFQUIZ" and then go through and rephrase EVERY SINGLE CONCEPT as a question. Save again....so everything is now in question form. So you'll have 1 page just with questions (and screenshots of necessary diagrams for the questions), and then the remaining pages in the document (still the self-quiz document) will have the answers.
4) This is the last step! Copy JUST THE QUESTIONS to a new document (leave this untitled), and TYPE answers to them...Do NOT do this orally as typing will show how you can put it into words. Once this is done, check with the answers section.
RINSE AND REPEAT. THIS WILL BRING YOU SUCCESS.
For Chem:
-Created summary study guides (basically just re-typed all chem notes since chem is more conceptual) and re-did all the problems that I had trouble with during the unit (I marked these as the course progressed so that I knew how to identify them when the exam came)
For Orgo:
-Still in this course (OChem II), but I have a process for this too:
1) Read textbook's chapter completely before the topic is discussed in class.
2) When the topic is discussed in class, go through the textbook and do all questions pertaining to it and actually the full chapter.
3) Write down all questions that you even doubt yourself a teeny bit on....and do them again.
Hope this helps!
