Study Strategies and Habits

[TheKaz]

I am currently completing my second semester as a freshman in college. At the moment I am taking 17 units. My classes are Biology, chemistry, math, and english. Last semester my classes were a bit easier and I had alot more time and I earned a 4.0. This semeseter so far has been different. I am currenetly carrying 3 B's and an A (english) . The semester is about half way over and I am desperatly trying to raise these B grades to all A's with no such luck. I think my problem is my studying techniques.

How do you succesful students study, paticularly for the math and sciences?

P.S. Please don't reply "maybe you just aren't good at it..." type of response. I have heard that from two different students and well I think thats Bull****!

P.P.S. Nice forums

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[medicomel]

I am currently completing my second semester as a freshman in college. At the moment I am taking 17 units. My classes are Biology, chemistry, math, and english. Last semester my classes were a bit easier and I had alot more time and I earned a 4.0. This semeseter so far has been different. I am currenetly carrying 3 B's and an A (english) . The semester is about half way over and I am desperatly trying to raise these B grades to all A's with no such luck. I think my problem is my studying techniques.

How do you succesful students study, paticularly for the math and sciences?

P.S. Please don't reply "maybe you just aren't good at it..." type of response. I have heard that from two different students and well I think thats Bull****!

P.P.S. Nice forums

do practice problems over and over until you master the material. also, get a hold of some old tests if possible.

 

[rc4ch]

I am currently completing my second semester as a freshman in college. At the moment I am taking 17 units. My classes are Biology, chemistry, math, and english. Last semester my classes were a bit easier and I had alot more time and I earned a 4.0. This semeseter so far has been different. I am currenetly carrying 3 B's and an A (english) . The semester is about half way over and I am desperatly trying to raise these B grades to all A's with no such luck. I think my problem is my studying techniques.

How do you succesful students study, paticularly for the math and sciences?

P.S. Please don't reply "maybe you just aren't good at it..." type of response. I have heard that from two different students and well I think thats Bull****!

P.P.S. Nice forums

Holy crap. Thats like my exact situation. My first semester was a lot easier than the second. I too also earned a 4.0. I must admit that now its a lot harder. Im not even sure what my grades are right now. I even drop English to study more for Zoology. In my school we dont have Bio 2, insteadd we take Zoology and damn its hard. This is really strange how we have the same problems.

 

[TheKaz]

Bumping this. Does any else have anything to add? There's gotta be something you do different than I do

 

[DreamBig]

I know you have probably heard this all before, but here goes. I read the material that is going to be covered in class the night before. I also make it a point to go over it again within an hour after lecture. If its a math class I work ALL the problems in the chapter until I understand. I'm not a 4.0 student but I'm above a 3.0 Hope this helps.

 

[masterMood]

use your time more efficiently by using a scheduler than you can put in your front pocket. Even if your memory is good it will prove to be useful because psychologically it will make you want to do the work on time. FORCE yourself to do work in the morning as early as possible, and trying to knock out the homework assignments as early on in the day as possible. Think of it as a race before 4 pm when things become a drag. Go to sleep on time (11:30-12:30 1 am AT THE MAX!!!) and wake up on a usual routine (i.e. 8:30 or 9:30) but if your time is static i.e. 8:30 everyday and your first class isn't until 9:30 then make it a habit to stick around the stay time. Do not fluctuate too much around your "main stream" time i.e. 8:30 like don't go to 11:30 or 12:30, 10:30 am should make you feel ashamed that you slept in.

Schedule your classes in the future such that you don't have little gaps of time in between each class unless its for lunch (i.e. you don't want class A at 9:30-10:30 and then class B from 11:00-12:00 because you just wasted 30 minutes. i know it seems trivial but with several classes you could be wasting 2-3 hours a week that could be used for actual consistent study time.

Other advice, use Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays as days to study real hard. Just because its the weekend doesn't mean you should relax the whole day!!! Don't get into the habit of just stopping to do everything until Sunday because you won't finish all the work on time and efficiently. And this means waking up at 8:30 on Saturday or Sunday too.

When you begin reading, don't just begin reading make sure you preview the chapter or assignment that you are doing that way your mindframe shifts to that type of thinking. I.E. You're not going to buy a novel just for the heck of it without reading the blurbs on it, the back cover, and skimming the book and looking at pages here and there. THIS IS CRUCIAL.

Realize that you are not superman and nobody else here is and that you need breaks when you study. Take a 5 minute breather (and by breather i mean walk around the hall, get a drink of water, take a piss, stretch, do jumpin jacks whatever) to get the blood flowing and to prevent overthinking. It is important to note that when you don't take breaks frequently you will begin to overthink and also you won't think as logically as you did at the beginning of your studying. It's like driving a car on a trip. You are at your best at the beginning, and then at the middle and end you feel the worst, but when you take a break at the rest stop and begin the drive again you feel fresh (even though the time you rested at the rest station was much less than the total time you spent driving!)

grab old tests/quizzes/hw assignments from older students. make sure you ha ha you know what? I think i've said enough for now because i forgot what i waas typing and i lost my train of though since i left the computer to talk to a girl for the past 30 minutes.

 

[nekrogg]

maybe you just aren't good at it...



JK!

getting old tests is a biggie. teachers are lazy and enjoy recycling their problems (at least in my bio department). ALSO PICK THE RIGHT TEACHERS!

i studied an accumutalive of 15 minutes for my lab final, my friend for some reason or another picked the hardest lab teacher ever and studied his a$$ off for the final. We both got As but its must suck to be him seeing that he studied so much for the same result.

just be smart about it.