My basic approach to studying is that I like to start ahead of time. Typically about 2 weeks to a week and a half before an exam I will get all the material together that I know will be covered on the exam and make a plan for myself of how I want to break that material down and study a little bit of it or a lot of it each day, depending on how much time I have, a lot a certain number of hours and then decide okay, I’m gonna study these chapters on these days so that if there’s — let’s say there’s 10 chapters and I have 10 days to study, then I’ll do 1 chapter per day — actually maybe a chapter and a half. I like to leave a day or a day and a half at the end of my study period to review everything from the beginning because otherwise I tend to forget the things that I studied early on, but I find that when I start ahead of time and I take it in small chunks that I can stay really calm and really focused.
For me, I organize information by keeping binders. Some people prefer notebooks, I prefer binders because I can place handouts that are given to me inside a binder. You just have to keep up with it ’cause it gets messy sometimes after you’ve taken things in and out, so I try to make sure I use — like Sunday night sometimes before I start class the next week, to make sure that my binder is completely organized for the next week.
When it comes to school work I have to have a separate binder. I know some people prefer to have one binder with all their classes in it but personally my style is I have to have a separate binder for each class or a separate folder, and also they have to be different colors. I guess it really just depends on how — ya know — you like to keep yourself organized, but that’s the best way I keep myself organized with my papers.
Personally for me the best place to study is in the library because there are — well — for me there’s no distractions. I know I have to study for a test, I don’t bring my laptop, I don’t bring my cell phone, I don’t bring anything with me I just find a little quiet corner and I tuck myself in there and I just study. The worst place for me to study is at home because there are way too many distractions and instead of studying I’ll get — I don’t know what’s wrong with me but my mind just wanders. I’ll just start looking at the TV, I’ll get on the internet, I’ll go upstairs for food, I need a bathroom break, I need something like every 15 minutes, so I know I can’t study at home so I tend not to study at home.
Dedicating a certain amount of time to reviewing your work everyday because memorization I think is — it doesn’t work the way people think it does and cramming, you never retain that information, so it’s kind of like, you want to review your material at least once a day even if it’s real quick.
I actually have a 25 page paper due by the end of this semester and I’ve been working on it. Once I found out about it, once I got that syllabus, I started working on it, I started making an outline so that way throughout the class period I can take notes as I go instead of cramming it in at the last minute and also just talking with the professor — you know — if I get it done early I send it to him, I see if he wants to look over it, and if he can give me anymore advice, and that’s the best way I go about writing my papers. And with exams I definitely start studying earlier. I make sure I take notes while reading the chapter because at the last minute it’s so hard to study for a comprehensive exam if you don’t know the chapters that well or forgot to read the chapters. You’ll spend more time writing notes instead of actually studying.
Specifically some of the study skills I used were making note cards, that’s the one that has helped me the absolute — the most, especially for classes with a lot of information to memorize. Making note cards, ’cause you can carry them around with you, you can keep them with you at all times so even if you’re on the bus, on the way to classes, or just walking you can make your note cards, I’d color-code everything.
A lot of the times in college I used note cards to help me memorize, especially in language. Since I’m taking French and German — ya know — sometimes you can get them a little mixed up so I do use note cards to help me memorize them. Also, the best way that I can memorize is by writing notes and sitting there and looking at the reading material and then writing it over again, it helps me memorize it that way and in some classes — you know — I’ve made up little sentences — like little catchy sentences to help me remember maybe a certain theme of a paper or maybe some type of concept that I needed to know for an exam.
I literally speak it out loud because for me if I just — I look at it visually and like on the paper and then I speak it out loud. If I just read a chapter it’s kind of like in one ear and out the other, I have to literally go back and focus on the information that I really need to retain and then read it and say it, sometimes I’ll even make it like — I pretend that I’m actually teaching the class on that chapter and so, I’ll sit — after I’ve like encoded it, memorized it, I’ll actually like give a little presentation to myself, try not to look at it, try to repeat it, because I find that if I can talk about it then I’ll retain it.
Reading is like part of every class that I’ve ever taken. In one of my classes I had 3 weeks to read 120 pages and I learned my first lesson about reading, when I waited until the last minute and decided to read 120 pages within 2 days while taking 4 other classes, I realized that was big no-no. I should have started reading a little bit each day. So, when it comes to reading you really need to pace yourself, do as much as you can each day so that way you don’t have to cram because you have to remember that you have other classes and that’s not gonna be your only class that you’ll be reading for, you’ll be reading for a lot of other classes.
For me, because of some of my stamina issues, I really had to take fewer credits at first. I started off taking, my first semester, 4 credits, which is basically one biology class that had a lecture and a lab and that was enough for me and that was really adequate for my first semester and it allowed me to make the transitions that I needed to make, it allowed me to adjust to living on campus, it allowed me to have time to rest and to take care of myself, and also have a social life. And then as I got more adjusted to that environment then I gradually like each semester added on one more credit, and one more credit, and one more credit until ultimately I was pretty much at a like low-end full-time basis, so 12, 13 credits, and it really only took me overall maybe an extra year to finish the bachelor degree, but it was so worth it because being able to step back from what was considered to be the norm early on really allowed me to be successful.