What's your strategy when you fall behind with lecture material?

[def jeff]

So, inevitably (almost) all of us fall behind with school at one point or another. Some might perpetually feel like they are behind. My question is what is your normal strategy when you do feel swamped. Do you turn most of your attention to the current material and try to do well as you go forward? Or do you try to work backwards until you finally catch up with current material?

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[agranulocytosis]

So, inevitably (almost) all of us fall behind with school at one point or another. Some might perpetually feel like they are behind. My question is what is your normal strategy when you do feel swamped. Do you turn most of your attention to the current material and try to do well as you go forward? Or do you try to work backwards until you finally catch up with current material?

I will work backwards and try to prioritize and set schedules so that I attempt to give an equal amount of time to all material. If I skip and just work on current material and try to work on the stuff I need catching up on later, it usually ends being put on the back burner and I never get to it, so that by exam time I'm cramming old stuff which I should be good at.

I like to take things on a weekly basis. I will keep up with the information as best as I can and recap for the entire week on the weekends, and catch up if need be.

I guess planning on falling back is a smart thing to do.

 

[deleted77919]

I try to study that days lectures the evening after the lecture. Sometimes something comes up and I get a day behind, in that case I just stay up the next night to catch up. It gets old but it certainly decreases the stress.

 

[45408]

Double up on the weekends.

 

[ZagDoc]

Double up on the weekends.

Same. I use the %#$& out of my weekends when I feel behind. No new material for two days in nice (is it sad that this is how I feel these days? wow)

 

[spicedmanna]

I pick a day (or more; weekends are good) that has less going on. I lock myself in a room with food and beverages and basically don't come out until I'm either sick of studying or when I feel that I've done as much as I can. I don't recommend this method.

 

[spreebee]

I study that days lecture material in the evening, then I do a quick sweep over everything from that week on the weekends...

 

[WiscDoc]

if you fall behind, i think, you first need to make sure you stop falling behind, aka, stay current with the new material presented and know that you have X number of pages to read "later." with whatever material represented by x, break it down into small chunks, and set out 1 hours increments to finish it up before test day. Less than ideal, but atleas you won't fall behind more by trying to catch up, and you will feel that you are making progress catching up.

 

[def jeff]

if you fall behind, i think, you first need to make sure you stop falling behind, aka, stay current with the new material presented and know that you have X number of pages to read "later." with whatever material represented by x, break it down into small chunks, and set out 1 hours increments to finish it up before test day. Less than ideal, but atleas you won't fall behind more by trying to catch up, and you will feel that you are making progress catching up.

It makes sense, but this is definitely how I feel about this as well. I'm always concerned with falling even more behind attempting to catch up!

 

[PeepshowJohnny]

Cram the night before the exam like I'm a Japanese school boy.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

Since I don't go to class, being caught up with the schedule doesn't mean that much to me. That doesn't mean I don't get behind, though. When I do get behind, I just force myself to study more and go from where I left off.

 

[Cards21aceking]

Find out ways to make up time during the day. Re-evaluate your schedule during the day and see if there are ways to condense/combine some things. One area that I was always losing time was finding/driving to get/picking up food. So, now, I just try to set up the week's worth of lunch and save about 30-45 minutes a day so I can study while I eat.