Note-taking strategies Part 4

Note-taking strategies

Part 4

http://www.collegeboard.com/student/plan/college-success/955.html

For review

Once you’ve done all of the above, you’ll find you’ve created your own personalized study guide. Cover the main section of the page and use the key words and questions in the left margin as a quiz.

Stick to it

Review your notes the day you take them and all your notes once a week. That way, you won't need to study as much when it’s test time. You've been doing the work all along. Try out the Cornell system, but if it doesn’t work for you, experiment with other methods. Ask your classmates how they take notes or ask a teacher for advice. Taking good notes requires practice, like any other skill. And the more you work at it now, the more prepared you'll be to take notes in college.

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How to take on college study Part 2

How to take on college study

Part 2 

Choose where to study

Where you should study depends on two factors: the environment in which you are best able to concentrate and the type of work you are planning to do.

·        The best places to study have good light, a comfortable temperature and enough desk space – usually your dorm room your apartment or the library.

·        For completing problems sets or brainstorming possible test questions, you may want to study with a group or at least in a setting where fellow students are available for discussion.

·        When you are reading book chapters or working on a research paper, you are probably better off in a less social environment.

Improve your study habits

Here are simple steps you can take to help you get a handle on studying:

·        Have a routine for where and when you study.

·        Choose reasonable and specific goals that you can accomplish for each study session.

·        Do things that are harder or require more intense thought at your most productive time of the day.

·        Take breaks if you need them so you don’t waste time looking at material but not absorbing it.

·        Get to know students whom you respect and can study with or contact to ask questions.

·        Keep up with the workload and seek help when you need it.

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Successful students 9

Successful students 9

9. Don’t cram for exams. Successful students that divide periods of study are more effective than cram sessions, and they practice it.

If there is one thing that study skills specialist agree on, it is that distributed study is better than massed, late-night, last-ditch efforts known as cramming. You’ll learn more, remember more, and earn higher grade by studying in four, one hour-a-night sessions on Friday’s exam than studying for four hours straight on Thursday night. Short, concentrated preparatory efforts are more efficient and rewarding than wasteful, inattentive, last moment marathons. Yet, so many students fail to learn this lesson and end up repeating it over and over again until it becomes a wasteful habit. Not too clever, huh?

When you cram, you are taking the shortcut, and shortcuts never produce any real worthwhile results. Also, when you take shortcuts, you feel rather rotten knowing that you could have done better but didn’t. Shortcuts cut your short. You can’t plant watermelon seeds and harvest fresh watermelons next day. It takes time. Cramming for a test or project and expecting to make a high score the next day is like planting watermelons seeds and expecting to harvest and eat fresh watermelons the next day. Plus cramming for a test or project doesn’t help you academically, so why even do it. Plan ahead, prepare ahead. Give yourself plenty of days and weeks to prepare for upcoming accountability opportunities.

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Sarah’s academic success story part 2

Sarah’s academic success story part 2

My test study method: I have different strategies for different types of test or subjects. For me, any type of math is exceptionally difficult so I had to spend extra time on that. I would go back through the homework problems focusing on the problems that I had extra difficulty on. Many times I would ask the teacher for an additional study materials they could provide. If it was a class that required memorization or applying concepts I would create a sort of study guide for myself, many times focusing on what were key focal points in the class. If I knew there were going to be essays I would try to take the terms and apply them to an example or create different questions on the concepts focused on throughout the semester.

My time management secret: I always, always, always carry a planner with me. I even use different colors highlighters to show what each event on my calendar is for. For example: pink is personal, yellow is school, orange is work, blue is appointments and green is for my sorority. Although I use white-out frequently, I can see in bright yellow that if I have that project for finance due on Tuesday, I need to start working on it on (the previous) Wednesday so I can just get it done. My friends have always accomplished but that is really all I do.

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Sarah’s academic success story part 1

Time management became a key factor in my study skills for college. In high school, there were times I was able to study for an hour or two the night before the test and get away with it. This was not the case in college. I made sure in college I was prepared for each class. Sometimes that meant writing out the terms for the chapter we read (even if when it isn’t required) to better understand them. That way when the midterm or test comes around I was able to understand them. That way when the midterm or test comes around I was able to understand what I was studying. I started taking excellent notes in class in college. I may have done this in high school, but in college I started typing up the notes after class. This helped me remember what I just went over in class the when I had a test one week later I was more likely to remember then as well.

My overall study method: structured. One thing I learned was I had to adapt or change my study method according the class. I couldn’t study method according to the class. I couldn’t study for a religion class the same way I studied for a financial class. But making sure I had enough time to study for each class – even if it meant carrying a planner with me at all times was a big part of my success.

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