Some Study Hints / Suggestions:


In general, the goal is to make your learning more active and focused.  Active learning is more similar to an exam, when you must respond to a question, complete a thought or a sentence, or eliminate choices.  You don't learn how to swim by watching the Olympics - why would you expect to do well in an exam just by watching someone else in a lecture?  You need to practice the same skills you must perform: quickly visualize or recall the appropriate information and use it.

Treat studying like its a job.  Set a schedule, show up for work, pay attention while on the job. A general rule of thumb is 3 hours for every hour spent in class.  Are you showing up for work?

But study smart - not just long. Having said that, no-one records how many hours you study. Only your performance on exams, papers, etc. affect your grade - it's your responsibility to rise to the challenge, however long that takes you.  So its in your best interest to get effective in your studying approach. Experiment with your studying to make it match your learning style: Do you learn best by reading? Listening? Writing? Some combination of those? Find what works best for you, and use it.

Read the book to keep up with lectures - ideally, before the subject comes up in lecture.  You will be better able to keep up with the lecture and will be free to think about what is being said (rather than just wondering what that was all about or scribbling furiously).  Think about texts and lectures as reinforcements of each other - it's not one or the other.

Take notes while reading.  Writing forces you to think, and is very different from the passive acts of listening or reading.  Highlighting is just coloring - get active.  Ask questions in your notes, and track down answers. 

Don't assume that having powerpoint lecture notes means that you're good to go.  Because a professor give you these notes, they can expect you to more easily demonstrate your knowledge in an exam - after all, much has been handed to you.  Having these notes doesn't make a course easier - it raises the bar! 

Take notes in lecture about everything - graphics, text, and spoken content. You should be writing the majority of time you are in lecture! If you don't write it down, you are unlikely to recall it all from memory four weeks later. 

Rewrite your notes from reading and lecture.  Edit your notes, draw pictures, and clarify confusing parts while you re-write.

Close your book and lecture notes and try to repeat your notes from memory.  Did you remember it all correctly?  Can you sketch the graphs or figures and explain them? If not, do it over again.  If yes, Great!  Now, can you do it again tomorrow?

Quiz someone else, and then be quizzed.  Ask questions while you're looking in the book or lecture notes, and expect good answers.  When it's your turn to answer, expect to have to work for it.

Don't just cram the night before an exam - budget your time all through the semester, plus more before an exam.  


    - Dave Jenkins, November 2008