What to do when you think you have done it all...

[Backwoods Boy]

Hey everyone. This may sound odd but I am sure that we have all experienced it at one point or another.

Let us start this out with story time, shall we?

Well, I had an exam last week in one of my classes. I had studied off and on the week before the exam and last week I studied about an hour daily early in the week (Mon-Tues) and 2-3 hours later in the week (Wed-Thurs). At that point I felt like I had a pretty good handle on the topic at hand. Well, Friday rolls around and I take the exam, low and behold I felt as though I knew the material and for the most part I did... Or so I thought. I got the score back today to find out that I got a 34/50

So... Long story short, what do you do when you feel you know the material and find out that you don't as well as you thought? I mean, I took the test prep quizzes (averaged 85-90%) and studied the diagrams/figures/etc. So, where did I go wrong?

Of course, I am sure I will hear that I should have studied more but that is not the only thing I am looking to hear...




On a side note, I found out that hornet stings suck. Three days and still have a lump on my arm... Yippee!

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[dgm]

Unfortunately, this is probably one of those things you are just going to have to experiment with to see what works for you. You didn't mention what class it is, so it's tough to give you specific ideas. It's possible you're putting in enough time, but just not studying in the right way. Look over your exam and see where things went wrong. Was it a failure of memorization, or application of concepts? Did the test approach things in a different way from what you'd practiced? Did you focus your studying on areas that weren't emphasized on the test, and not devote enough to other areas that accounted for a lot of points? Did you study with any classmates? If not, that might be something to try next time. (Conversely, if you did, maybe you should try going it alone next time).

If you tell us what class, some people (though maybe not me) may be able to give you ideas of what worked best for them.

 

[Backwoods Boy]

It was for an Intro to Animal Diversity class. The first exam transitioned from Evolution into taxonomy into Porifera into Cnidaria.

 

[scb44f]

My first post (yeah!).

How familiar are you with your learning style? An assignment in one of my classes earlier this semester was to go to http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html to take the quiz. After that, go to the Learning Styles Descriptions link at the bottom. I can't find the link that was most helpful to me... but this will give you a good place to start. I know it's an engineering site, but I think/hope the information will be useful. After I took it, I realized some of my tactics were kind of a waste of my time...

Other than that, I learned a technique just last week. As you go through your notes and/or book, write down the big ideas of each section, and reword the whole point in about 3 to 5 words. When you are done with one section, reread the bullet points you made from the first part. Then go through the next section making bullet points in your own words. When you are done with that section, go back and reread the first AND second sections, and so on and so forth. This is useful because you see the material more than once or twice. I don't use this tool in engineering classes because I'm not required to memorize anything, but in bio classes it's handy.

 

[aspiringDVM]

Go talk to your professor! I may have been spoiled by going to a tiny school and having amazing teachers, but your professor will be able to point out weak spots and give you suggestions about studying, and possibly general tips about what the course is focused on and what they want to emphasize in the exams. Also, it never hurts to show them that you WANT to learn and do well and have a great work ethic .

 

[david594]

Well, Friday rolls around and I take the exam, low and behold I felt as though I knew the material and for the most part I did... Or so I thought. I got the score back today to find out that I got a 32/50

What was the mean, median and standard deviation?

And have you gotten the actual test back, or just the grade? There is also the possibility that you did something stupid like skipped a question and your answers were misnumbered or misread a set of directions so you actually did know the material and just boggled the test.

 

[sunshinevet]

Do you guys get given learning objectives? At the start, I was just desperately trying to learn everything ever covered in lecture - and no-one can learn all that! So now I just go through the learning objectives and learn them really solidly, and it works for me soooo well!

 

[Backwoods Boy]

Correction: I got a 34/50...

The mean was 36/50 or a 72%...

 

[xcrunner423]

I wish that I could help, but unfortunately I'm having the same problem.

I'm a first-year college student and I just took my first Biology exam and I'm scared to death that I failed. I studied for probably a total of 24 hours for it. I didn't study much in high school and took college level courses and graduated with a 97/100 average. I attended the QA sessions and SI sessions. I don't know.

Some of the questions weren't covered in lecture. We were able to see last years test and I thought that one was easy but this was one difficult and I ran out of time.

I hope that we each figure out the answer to our problem soon!

 

[TrocarKarin]

Do you have a goofy friend? Because I just found a good way to study, that has turned out to be really effective. I ask my silly husband (who is a musician, and doesn't even know what I'm asking him to help me with) to come up with mnemonic devices for me. It almost helps that he's not sciency, so he's not bogged down by knowing what he's talking about. The stuff he comes up with (complete with acting it out) is so funny, I can't forget it.

For example, I asked him to come up with something to remind me that selenodont teeth are crescent shaped, and deer have them. So he decided that "Celine Dion (sounds similar to selenodont) should be sent to the moon (crescent moon) and shot with a deer (WTF? made no sense but was silly enough to remember.)

 

[twelvetigers]

I do that stuff all the time, trocarkarin! My lab partner and I were learning bone stuff for a vert morph practical, and he was having trouble with the interosseous crest... so I would point at it and say, "TOOTHPASTE!" Or, the shark has a 'basitribecular process'... so I told him that Alex Tribek lives there. Weird works really well for me.

 

[Angelo84]

Another possibility is that you have been passively studying instead of actively studying. So you can spend twenty hours going through material and think you have studied but if someone asks you to recap you can't do it. When I go through and study I make myself stop and recap chunks from memory ie what are the diseases of neonatal pigs and how do you treat control them? And then answer the question without looking at anything. If I can't do this I go back over that section. Talking through things in groups helps too as they can help catch you when you mess up!

Make sure you go over the exam with the professor as well.

 

[flyhi]

I do that stuff all the time, trocarkarin! My lab partner and I were learning bone stuff for a vert morph practical, and he was having trouble with the interosseous crest... so I would point at it and say, "TOOTHPASTE!" Or, the shark has a 'basitribecular process'... so I told him that Alex Tribek lives there. Weird works really well for me.

You really are too much . Funny thing is, that works for me too

 

[sumstorm]

have you reviewed the exam to see what you missed? that might tell you where the problems are. I have a tendency not to want to look at all those red marks, but it does a lot to go through and figure it out...and gives you a sense of where your 'interpretations' of the questions were wrong.

 

[Backwoods Boy]

Sumstorm - We were not given the exams back (Go figure)

 

[sumstorm]

have you talked with your instructor about reviewing the exam? I know not all classes give exams back, but I have never seen a professor who won't let you read over your exam and figure out what went wrong.

 

[Backwoods Boy]

I have thought about it. I haven't had a chance to talk to him about reviewing it yet.

 

[VAgirl]

Sumstorm - We were not given the exams back (Go figure)

I've had professors like this, too. And I've always had really good success with convincing them to let us review the exams (even if they weren't willing to initially). What I tell them (and it's 100% true) is that if we take the exam and just get a number back, in most cases that tells us nothing. If you get 100% or 0%, then it tells you something. Anywhere in between and you have to see what you got wrong to learn what you do and don't understand about the material, and what you can do about it. It's a continuation of the learning process, and I will never understand why some professors don't get that. Good luck figuring out what went wrong.

FWIW, I also vote for going to talk to the professor, from the point of view that you thought you had a good grasp on the material and would like their help in understanding what the disconnect was between how well you thought you grasped the material and how well you actually do grasp the material.