Learning to Study 101: Tips for College Success

[starkco]

Hi guys !
I've just found out about this forum and i must say that this is awesome because in my country nobody cares about engineering and physics !
Anyway, I'm on second year of mechanical engineering college and I've become victim of lazy lifestyle :)
Since i am repeating second year i becomed very worried about my college success .
I know i love engineering and physics but the school (meaning a lots of theoretical stuff) or my lack of imagination is killing me, last year i messed around and did nothing and now i want to clean up that mess and finish my college as quickly as i can .
So I am asking you can you tell me your "methods" or routines of successful studying !
I would be very greatfull !

 

[Edin_Dzeko]

Memorization is key. But I'm a Bio major. Good luck trying to clean up, man. I'm in a similar boat as-well. Been trying to clean up after a bad first year but I'm still making silly mistakes again. I really don't know what do at this point anymore

 

[phoenix:\\]

I was lazy in High School and a few years once I entered college, and what's worse was I didn't care about getting bad grades. I turned that around with a schedule I created for myself because I was tired of fail after fail.

Like everything, you must train yourself to follow the schedule and stick with it. Took me a few months to finally seamlessly follow it, and I tweaked it every semester.

Mondays -T-W- Fridays (After classes, I would spend 1.5 hours on two courses, so 6 hours on the week days for two courses)

Th-Sat-Sun, I mostly spent 1.5 hours on all of my courses because those were days off (keeping in mind I only had 4 courses at 4 credits a piece; went to a private university)

Overall 6 hours on courses (9 hours on the tougher courses)/ week. I was able to keep on top of my homework and work ahead because I didn't stop working by the schedule. You don't really need 8 hours on a course if you know how to study effectively. Emphasis is placed on "effectively", and that doesn't include transcribing words in a book onto your tablet, that isn't studying.

 

[QuarkCharmer]

I schedule a 4-5 hour gap between courses which is just enough time for me to think that driving home is a waste of time. I study every day during that time. Even if I think I am a master of the topic, I will study something, or work ahead.

2 days a week I schedule only one class, and I show up 5 hours early to handle homework, lab reports, and so on. If all of that stuff is complete, I will study and/or work ahead during that time.

This goes on all 5 weekdays, 1 or 2 classes a day. Sunday afternoon I take my dog out to the park and you guessed it, study. My clockwork like routine is what keeps me on top of things. I feel like I put a whole days work in each day, I still have Saturdays to do things, and all of my evenings can be spent with friends or doing whatever I like.

If you just make sure you are on top of things, and NEVER wait until the last minute, you should do fine. One huge benefit of working ahead, is that you know whether or not you are going to hit a brick wall on the next topic(s) and can add extra time to learn the material if you need to.

 

[Edin_Dzeko]

I was lazy in High School and a few years once I entered college, and what's worse was I didn't care about getting bad grades. I turned that around with a schedule I created for myself because I was tired of fail after fail.

Like everything, you must train yourself to follow the schedule and stick with it. Took me a few months to finally seamlessly follow it, and I tweaked it every semester.

Mondays -T-W- Fridays (After classes, I would spend 1.5 hours on two courses, so 6 hours on the week days for two courses)

Th-Sat-Sun, I mostly spent 1.5 hours on all of my courses because those were days off (keeping in mind I only had 4 courses at 4 credits a piece; went to a private university)

Overall 6 hours on courses (9 hours on the tougher courses)/ week. I was able to keep on top of my homework and work ahead because I didn't stop working by the schedule. You don't really need 8 hours on a course if you know how to study effectively. Emphasis is placed on "effectively", and that doesn't include transcribing words in a book onto your tablet, that isn't studying.

Good points, Phoenix. The problem with me and following schedules is that schedules require you to schedule "x" amount of time for a subject. With me, the amount of time that I schedule for a certain subject can take me longer than what I scheduled for. In that case, I can't say I'm going to spend "x" amount of time on each subject a day because I don't know how long it will take to learn material. *it varies*. Looking over my courses, there's really 3 courses out of 5 that I have to study for. I've spent the first part of the semester, screwing up only to learn that, memorization = key. And that if I don't read ahead of time before lectures, I won't understand a thing. And when I don't understand a thing, I can't concentrate on what the prof is saying which leads me to having to re-teach myself everything which leads to falling behind. Good thing is, I have found a memorizing technique that works for me now.

Currently, I've got a stack of papers to memorize for an exam tomorrow, and it isn't going so well. I screwed up big time on the first test but looks like things might not be the different this time around. So I decided I'm going to not bother studying for this exam and begin working on the next chapters and next exams.

 

[Edin_Dzeko]

I schedule a 4-5 hour gap between courses which is just enough time for me to think that driving home is a waste of time. I study every day during that time. Even if I think I am a master of the topic, I will study something, or work ahead.

2 days a week I schedule only one class, and I show up 5 hours early to handle homework, lab reports, and so on. If all of that stuff is complete, I will study and/or work ahead during that time.

This goes on all 5 weekdays, 1 or 2 classes a day. Sunday afternoon I take my dog out to the park and you guessed it, study. My clockwork like routine is what keeps me on top of things. I feel like I put a whole days work in each day, I still have Saturdays to do things, and all of my evenings can be spent with friends or doing whatever I like.

If you just make sure you are on top of things, and NEVER wait until the last minute, you should do fine. One huge benefit of working ahead, is that you know whether or not you are going to hit a brick wall on the next topic(s) and can add extra time to learn the material if you need to.

Nice. I had a plan like that at the start of the semester but I couldn't keep up with it. I fell behind. Falling behind = big trouble. So going ahead is a very good idea.

 

[Edin_Dzeko]

Hey OP, based on the replies you've gotten so far, a good list for "Learning to study 101" is this:

[1] Discipline to create, follow a study schedule
[2] Keep up with the course material (go ahead IF/WHEN possible)
[3] Memorization

 

[Borek]

Memorization is key.

[3] Memorization

That's not true, unless you are studying things like anatomy and Latin names of body parts. Memorization won't help you with math, physics, chemistry, engineering and so on, where understanding is the key to success.

 

[chiro]

Borek is right especially for the science subjects: if you don't understand what you are doing, no cheat sheet will help you.

 

[starkco]

I must agree that memorization is the primary thing among all others like understanding the problem.
For example, 2 years ago when I had kinematics exam that I've failed, i knew the all the problems that were in my notebook but at the exam i just couldn't REMEMBER the main and catchy little but specific thing that solves everything. 2 months later i passed the exam but i was just killing myself and I had to take a longer break because i was brain dead .

And that's why I'm asking you guys with experience or maybe just smarter ones with good organization plans, although that kinematics exam was 2 years ago i still have that organization problem that in the past i solved a week before the exam and that was suffering. This year I'm going on all of my classes and learning it after in my apartment but i have that constant fear that I'm doing that for nothing and that I'm going to forget that anyway 2 weeks before the exam and it will be kinematics all over again :)

 

[bromden]

The fact that several people are pushing memorization as key is pretty concerning to me. Of course you have to memorize some things. But, the better you understand the concepts and basics, the less you have to memorize. And I have never explicitly set out to memorize equations/theorems. If you practice solving problems enough, then you just end up remembering them.

When you try to memorize solutions to certain problems, if you forget one step, you aren't going to know how to finish. And you are certainly going to be screwed when a problem appears that is a little different than what you memorized. This is probably what happened to you on your kinematics exam a couple years ago.

Understanding what concepts and basic equations/theorems are relevant to a problem is the first step in solving it. If you have plenty of practice solving problems that use certain concepts, you will be much more comfortable when you see the concept applied in a new situation.

 

[QuarkCharmer]

I think that the best way to memorize an equation is to learn where it comes from. Sometimes it's not possible at your current skill level, and in that case, practice will burn it into your head anyway.

 

[nickadams]

I have heard great things about Cal Newport's Book, "How to Be a Straight A Student"; look it up ;)

 

[starkco]

When you try to memorize solutions to certain problems, if you forget one step, you aren't going to know how to finish. And you are certainly going to be screwed when a problem appears that is a little different than what you memorized. This is probably what happened to you on your kinematics exam a couple years ago.

Understanding what concepts and basic equations/theorems are relevant to a problem is the first step in solving it. If you have plenty of practice solving problems that use certain concepts, you will be much more comfortable when you see the concept applied in a new situation.

It's all true and i totally agree with you .
But I can't explain to you, it's like i don't have concentration enough at the exams to figure some problems out but in my room i end up with 20 solved issues at one night .
It has been with all of my "hard" courses. I passed all of my matemathics and i still have one left (it is quite tough ) and all of my statics,kinematics,mechanics of materials etc but i just couldn't pass them without going 3-4 times back at them to solve again .


P.S. nickadams, is there any site that that book can be downloaded ?

 

[Edin_Dzeko]

That's not true, unless you are studying things like anatomy and Latin names of body parts. Memorization won't help you with math, physics, chemistry, engineering and so on, where understanding is the key to success.

Bor, notice I said I'm a Bio major? Anyway I'm also speaking from experience. I went to a teacher asking for help and I was told, "it's not that hard. It's mostly memorization". Many occasions during lecture this semester the professors have said, "you need to memorize this for the test", or, "you don't need to memorize this..." one teacher recommended the use of flash cards. What for? Memorization. In Chem right now, I have to memorize things like conversion factors and the SI units. I have to memorize pre-fixes for nomenclature. I had to memorize the laws, theories, what was discovered during what experiment. Remember when one is learning times tables they memorize it. Grammar rules are also to be memorized. Memorization is key to passing. Passing vs. learning now that's a new argument

 

[Edin_Dzeko]

Borek is right especially for the science subjects: if you don't understand what you are doing, no cheat sheet will help you.

You still have to memorize when you think about it. Don't you have to memorize formulas, theories, laws?

 

[Edin_Dzeko]

The fact that several people are pushing memorization as key is pretty concerning to me. Of course you have to memorize some things. But, the better you understand the concepts and basics, the less you have to memorize. And I have never explicitly set out to memorize equations/theorems. If you practice solving problems enough, then you just end up remembering them.

When you try to memorize solutions to certain problems, if you forget one step, you aren't going to know how to finish. And you are certainly going to be screwed when a problem appears that is a little different than what you memorized. This is probably what happened to you on your kinematics exam a couple years ago.

Understanding what concepts and basic equations/theorems are relevant to a problem is the first step in solving it. If you have plenty of practice solving problems that use certain concepts, you will be much more comfortable when you see the concept applied in a new situation.

No mater what you can't escape memorization. That's why you even wrote "you have to memorize some things". In math it would be silly to memorize solutions to problems. :-D that's bizarre. We are doing Lewis Dot diagrams and the professor told us to memorize 2 of the compounds. I'm a strong advocate of the whole study concepts, learn the material but exams seem to stress of memorization. I've decided not to buy textbooks anymore because I can simply pick up any textbook and the material, CONCEPT should be the same regardless of edition, author. But exams seem to stress on memorization more than concepts which puts one in a situation where they might end up learning extraneous information which won't be on the exam or even discussed in class. Which it wasn't that way though. P.s. I was told by a med school graduate that it's [med school] mostly memorization.

 

[clope023]

I have heard great things about Cal Newport's Book, "How to Be a Straight A Student"; look it up ;)

I second this, it's a great book for study techniques; he makes some assumptions that don't apply across the board but overall it's a great read.

His blog is good too

http://calnewport.com/blog/

 

[nickadams]

I second this, it's a great book for study techniques; he makes some assumptions that don't apply across the board but overall it's a great read.

His blog is good too

http://calnewport.com/blog/

what assumptions are you talking about just out of curiousity?

 

[clope023]

N I've decided not to buy textbooks anymore because I can simply pick up any textbook and the material, CONCEPT should be the same regardless of edition, author.

Bad assumption, the delivery and presentation of the material is different from author to author; Wangsness' treatment of presenting E&M is pretty different from Griffiths for example.

 

[clope023]

what assumptions are you talking about just out of curiousity?

Oh like every class will be graded referencing the highest scorers. IE if the highest score on a test was a 60 than that's the defacto 100 for that particular test; I've heard such a practice is done at Harvard and Dartmouth but I've never seen it done at my school, a lot of teachers don't believe in curving at all and use the letter grading system he says only applies in high school.

 

[nickadams]

Oh like every class will be graded referencing the highest scorers. IE if the highest score on a test was a 60 than that's the defacto 100 for that particular test; I've heard such a practice is done at Harvard and Dartmouth but I've never seen it done at my school, a lot of teachers don't believe in curving at all and use the letter grading system he says only applies in high school.

K but how is that going to affect how you use the study tips he gives?

 

[clope023]

K but how is that going to affect how you use the study tips he gives?

Oh it shouldn't affect his study tips, which I have no qualms with, I try to implement them as much as I can.

 

[Edin_Dzeko]

Bad assumption, the delivery and presentation of the material is different from author to author; Wangsness' treatment of presenting E&M is pretty different from Griffiths for example.

In the end, they are delivering and presenting the same material just using different methods. Ask yourself why more than one professor teaches the same course. Aren't presentation of material different from professor to professor? The material is the same in the end.

Only reason to buy a textbook would be if homework was assigned in it to be collected and graded. Aside from that, there's no need. Imagine I'm taking a French or German course. Once I get my syllabus of topics, I can go on google and find FREE content for German and French. Better yet, I can go to the foreign language department in my school, get a book that a faculty member doesn't want anymore and learn it from there but the French alphabet = the French alphabet regardless of textbook edition, author, publisher. Not to mention there are free videos and talking dictionary software online. I'm using a different textbook than my entire Chem class right now.

 

[Edin_Dzeko]

I second this, it's a great book for study techniques; he makes some assumptions that don't apply across the board but overall it's a great read.

His blog is good too

http://calnewport.com/blog/

Checked out the blog. Not really my kind of thing. Consider the messages, and people he praise and promotes. All people who get good grades by putting in "minimal" amount of work.
Not too clever of an idea when you look at the big picture.

I also feel that education goes beyond getting 4.0's..

 

[mathsciguy]

Bor, notice I said I'm a Bio major? Anyway I'm also speaking from experience. I went to a teacher asking for help and I was told, "it's not that hard. It's mostly memorization". Many occasions during lecture this semester the professors have said, "you need to memorize this for the test", or, "you don't need to memorize this..." one teacher recommended the use of flash cards. What for? Memorization. In Chem right now, I have to memorize things like conversion factors and the SI units. I have to memorize pre-fixes for nomenclature. I had to memorize the laws, theories, what was discovered during what experiment. Remember when one is learning times tables they memorize it. Grammar rules are also to be memorized. Memorization is key to passing. Passing vs. learning now that's a new argument

I've handled bio classes with ease in the past, but I never really had to memorize hard-core. It's more about comprehension and making some sense with what I'm reading, it sticks with my head effectively. Except if it's anatomy, that stuff is a bit annoying.

 

[Intervenient]

Checked out the blog. Not really my kind of thing. Consider the messages, and people he praise and promotes. All people who get good grades by putting in "minimal" amount of work.
Not too clever of an idea when you look at the big picture.

I also feel that education goes beyond getting 4.0's..

I guess you don't really get what he's trying to say. He's not saying "Oh, I only like people you do minimal work", he is saying that focused, smart work, triumphs over the regular sense of "hard" work.

He also emphasizes the "romantic scholar" approach, which is exactly to have an education that isn't just grades.

 

[Borek]

Bor, notice I said I'm a Bio major?

And you are trying to overgeneralize your experience. It won't work, as the OP claimed:

I'm on second year of mechanical engineering college

which puts him in a different league.

I never wrote memorization is not necessary, but claiming - as you did - it is a basis of learning is equivalent of getting us back to 19^th century concepts.

 

[clope023]

In the end, they are delivering and presenting the same material just using different methods. Ask yourself why more than one professor teaches the same course. Aren't presentation of material different from professor to professor? The material is the same in the end.

Only reason to buy a textbook would be if homework was assigned in it to be collected and graded. Aside from that, there's no need. Imagine I'm taking a French or German course. Once I get my syllabus of topics, I can go on google and find FREE content for German and French. Better yet, I can go to the foreign language department in my school, get a book that a faculty member doesn't want anymore and learn it from there but the French alphabet = the French alphabet regardless of textbook edition, author, publisher. Not to mention there are free videos and talking dictionary software online. I'm using a different textbook than my entire Chem class right now.

Presentation is different from professor to professor.

I agree with your second paragraph, unless it has assigned homework I sometimes won't use the course's textbook and will mostly study out of one's I like. For instance in complex variables I used my schaum's outline more than the assigned book and I'm doing the same for communication systems.

The point is that the way the material and methods of solving problems matter and they're not the same from book to book

 

[Cuauhtemoc]

Although in theory memorization is a 19th century thing, in practice it's still useful. In ChemE I had to memorize tons of processes, and even if I didn't understand how they worked I could still get an A if I knew exactly how ammonia or nitric acid was produced, in a course called inorganic processes I had.
Obviously that wasn't true for Calculus, but even then it helped in solving some really hard problems. I mean, it's cool to understand how derivatives and integrals work, but sometimes it's just better to memorize that the derivative of ln(x) is 1/x even if you have no idea where it came from, since many exams in engineering are not about proving things but just using them.

 

[Edin_Dzeko]

I've handled bio classes with ease in the past, but I never really had to memorize hard-core. It's more about comprehension and making some sense with what I'm reading, it sticks with my head effectively. Except if it's anatomy, that stuff is a bit annoying.

I've also handled algebra, stats, pre-calc where I had to memorize and remember steps, rules for solving problems. One of you pointed out in a previous post that by doing more and more problems eventually you will naturally remember it or it will come natural to you. Conceptually that's not different than the guy who constantly repeats and repeats until it becomes natural to him. One has to memorize the rules for adding, subtracting and diving with different signs. Tell me I'm wrong here. Didn't you memorize your times tables? It was necessary. Why didn't you say to yourself I can always just calculate what 7x8 is since I know the concept of the times tables is to add 7 to itself 8x? Right now if someone asked you what 7 x 8 was and you couldn't quickly recall from memory within a span of about 30 seconds, max "You don't know your times tables!?" would be the reaction. Again, tell me I'm wrong here. With statistics, there was a formula table given but I had to memorize things like when such and such was being asked, I had to use formula so and so.

Btw, you're one of the lucky few who got a "good" teacher who didn't stress memo in Bio course. Other than that, the majority of us are trapped with "memo's". I'm a Bio major and there's one Bio teacher in this whole school who stresses more on concepts rather than memorization.

And you will find that even in conceptual questions you MUST still have something memorized in order to answer the question.

 

[Edin_Dzeko]

I guess you don't really get what he's trying to say. He's not saying "Oh, I only like people you do minimal work", he is saying that focused, smart work, triumphs over the regular sense of "hard" work.

He also emphasizes the "romantic scholar" approach, which is exactly to have an education that isn't just grades.

And I'm saying I disagree with any message or teaching, that frowns upon "hard work" and promotes, "big gains with little effort". That's a joke to me, bro. I just can't take that serious. No easy way or short cuts in life. It shouldn't be that way with learning and education either. I've read that blog and the articles and students he puts in the spotlight are student with little hours studying who get good grades.

The title is how to be an A+ student. Isn't that title alone stressing and promoting an education about grades?

 

[Edin_Dzeko]

And you are trying to overgeneralize your experience. It won't work, as the OP claimed:
which puts him in a different league.

I never wrote memorization is not necessary, but claiming - as you did - it is a basis of learning is equivalent of getting us back to 19^th century concepts.

You can't escape memorization. After understanding a concept you still have to commit it to memory don't you?. "I know how to do this, I just forgot" isn't going to do you any good. I'm not overgeneralizing my experience. Our lives revolve around memorization. What will happen if you forgot your name? phone number, your friends, where you live? memorization is key, bro. It's all around us but you just can't see it. You have your name memorized but you didn't sit there going "my name is "Y'" 50x. You were called it since you were a toddler so it's naturally stuck in your head. Someone can easily coast through our shaky education system if they have a good memory. Why do people consider it a gift when someone has a photographic memory?

Even if you still don't agree with me. At least agree with me that any "How to study" list that excludes memorization isn't complete.

 

[Edin_Dzeko]

Although in theory memorization is a 19th century thing, in practice it's still useful. In ChemE I had to memorize tons of processes, and even if I didn't understand how they worked I could still get an A if I knew exactly how ammonia or nitric acid was produced, in a course called inorganic processes I had.
Obviously that wasn't true for Calculus, but even then it helped in solving some really hard problems. I mean, it's cool to understand how derivatives and integrals work, but sometimes it's just better to memorize that the derivative of ln(x) is 1/x even if you have no idea where it came from, since many exams in engineering are not about proving things but just using them.

Exactly.

 

[Edin_Dzeko]

Presentation is different from professor to professor.

I agree with your second paragraph, unless it has assigned homework I sometimes won't use the course's textbook and will mostly study out of one's I like. For instance in complex variables I used my schaum's outline more than the assigned book and I'm doing the same for communication systems.

The point is that the way the material and methods of solving problems matter and they're not the same from book to book

Yeah I hear ya. Just find the book that works for you. If they assigned textbook for the course works, then feel free. Whatever works, you know?