Study habits, or methods

[Requiem]

Hey, since I've now officially finished my finals I've found myself with an abudance of free time. Free time that I'm unaccustomed to, so instead of studying i'm interested in hearing how others go about studying - the entire process in general.

For example, do you attend lectures? Or do you do completely independent study.

When you're studying - do you avail of caffeinated beverages: coffee, espresso, tea, energy drinks (red bull, full throttle, etc)

As you're reading material - Do you simply encode the information directly from the textbook / handouts, or as you're reading do you make your own notes to study later? If you do make your own notes, which I don't, I'd think you'd lose time making notes on such sheer volumes of material. (i.e. anatomy)

Do you listen to music while studying? An interesting tidbit, a psychology study showed that more extroverted people listened to music as they studied, opposed to introverts. Extroverts were shown to need more stimulation to acheive focus, hence always communicating with others, etc.

Independent, Group study, or a combination of both?

Short quick bursts of study, i.e 40 mins to an hour, then break? Or just non-stop reading for hours on end. (I think the latter has been shown to be less effective, but study is highly individual.)

All-nighters, or do you absolutely require X amount of hours of sleep per night.

Any other comments or habits are appreciated! It's interesting material, post your habits.

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[pinkyrx]

1. Yes, I attend all lectures for our big classes. (ie. pharmacology/medchem/therapeutics etc) I do skip from time to time in some of our easier classes, but those are few and far between, so I'm usually in class. Hearing the presentations really helps decrease the amount of time I need to spend studying. Also, when I'm in class, I'm actively listening and taking extra notes. I try not to daydream or doze off, but its tough sometimes.

2. I don't usually drink caffeinated beverages, I try to stick to water.

3. I try to study on a daily basis (keyword there is "try"! ). I rewrite all my class notes and then use my version of the notes to actually study with. Just the fact of writing things down really helps me and leaves me with a good handle on the material. After that I just review or memorize small details.

4. I only recently started studying with music playing. I always thought it would be distracting, but I got and IPOD for a gift so I tried it out and turns out I love studying with music. (classical)

5. I prefer to study independently, but as strange as this may sound, with others that are also studying independently. That way if one of us has a question we can ask it, but 99% of the time we are still studying by ourselves.

6. I study in hour long sessions with short 5 minute breaks in between. (this is of course when I'm in major study mode, like the weekend before a big test)

7. No more all nighters for me. I study much better when I've had my minimum 8+ hours of sleep. I'm most productive in the morning and by early evening I'm ready to quit.

 

[dgroulx]

My attention span is about 15 minutes, so I study in bursts. Fifteen minutes, then a break, another fifteen minutes, etc. I tend to zone out during lectures. 50 minutes is too long for me to concentrate. For exams, I'll start studying the day before.

Sometimes I like to make charts. Typing things into excel and color coding them helps. When I take the exam, I can remember the picture of the sheet, and the colors which tells me where it was in the chart.

 

[rxforlife2004]

For example, do you attend lectures? Or do you do completely independent study.

I do attend lectures. However, sometimes I skip them, too. It depends.
When you're studying - do you avail of caffeinated beverages: coffee, espresso, tea, energy drinks (red bull, full throttle, etc)
Nah...I don't want to depend on anything.

As you're reading material - Do you simply encode the information directly from the textbook / handouts, or as you're reading do you make your own notes to study later? If you do make your own notes, which I don't, I'd think you'd lose time making notes on such sheer volumes of material. (i.e. anatomy)

Most of the time, I just read handouts from teachers....try to get the main points. If the concepts are too hard, I'll look up on internet/or textbooks.

Do you listen to music while studying? An interesting tidbit, a psychology study showed that more extroverted people listened to music as they studied, opposed to introverts. Extroverts were shown to need more stimulation to acheive focus, hence always communicating with others, etc.
Yes, but soft music only

Independent, Group study, or a combination of both?
Independent study first, then 2-3 days before the exam, I tend to group with my buddy (my best friend, too)...and we review each other....always working so far

Short quick bursts of study, i.e 40 mins to an hour, then break? Or just non-stop reading for hours on end. (I think the latter has been shown to be less effective, but study is highly individual.)
15 mins break in between one and half an hour...
All-nighters, or do you absolutely require X amount of hours of sleep per night.Nah....not recommended.

.

 

[ultracet]

i was a class skipper

no caffine

some classes i went back through and re did my notes and added stuff from the books but only if i was really struggling

i typically don't listen to music...
i have a stack of movies that are my "study movies"
that i've seen like 500000000 times that play in the background...

i like groups...
i like to talk...
i learn more from it...


considering i never studied as i went i never had the option of short bursts... i mean.. i guess i always do short bursts but not really i never take a real "break"

no all-nighters but i do know those who do it and it works for them

 

[usi]

I study in long streches of 1.5 hours, break for 10-15 minutes.
Nurse a tea or a coffee cup all day.
Must not exceed 4 cups of caffeinated drink or I won't sleep
NEVER EVER pull allnighters. Need a minimum of 7 hr sleep. Prefer 8.5
NEVER EVER listen to music. I was a music major,, so I start wandering, what key is the song in, are the sounds from new or older electronic equipment, and on and on...
I wish I could always skip class, and just study and work 50/50.
If I go to groups, I only enjoy it if people got their **** together. So I pick and choose who I get together. Must complement, not suck my energy out.

 

[ilovepharmacy]

I did decent for my first semester but my new year's resolution is to start studying earlier and more regularly I'm one of those people with lots of potential but little motivation to tap into it..... Anyways, this is what I did this semester...

I probably attended ~50% of the lectures we had and I did decent. I ended up doing a lot of independent study and all at the last minute. So, this upcoming semester I think I'm going to try going to all the lectures and paying attention too because I think I may be able to do better that way

My home becomes riddled with coffee mugs and coffee cups on every counterspace and tabletop. I become a resident of Starbucks. Coffee is the reason why my credit card bill for December is 2 pages instead of just 1 page.

For most courses I need to organize and re-write my notes, especially when they come from multiple sources (handouts, books, classmates' lecture notes, etc).

I can handle the music that starbucks plays - jazzy, background music. Even christmas carols I can handle =)

Ok... no one shun me but, I can't do group study at all! I'm very picky about who I study with even if its just to go study somewhere. I can't handle people who ask a lot of questions about things because most of the time I'm so behind I can't answer anything! Even if everyone (incl. myself) is prepared for a group study session I don't have the patience to devote time in that way. So, I stick to waking up at 6 AM and running off to the nearest coffee shop so that I can study it up alone before the rest of the world comes down there to study in the afternoon.

I like pulling a few hours of non-stop reading and then taking a break. Usually its because I can't afford to take that many little breaks and my little breaks would turn into longwinded naps! I can't do all-nighters anytmore.. a sign that I am aging? I can run on 3 hours of sleep though and still be functional.