Study suggestions which are based on research into the habits of "successful" students. Many of the suggested techniques apply to courses outside of the sciences as well.I. Sciences are hierarchical (each chapter depends on many of the previous chapters). It will be easier if you don't get behind.
Read chapters before they are lectured on, then you will have seen all the special vocabulary making it much easier to take notes.
Take notes while reading as well as in lecture.
Reread the chapter after lecture, preferably the same day. This can help you avoid having to cram come exam time.
Review your notes after lecture (same day), making annotations, corrections and lists of questions for the instructor..
DO ALL THE HOMEWORK a little bit at a time plus extra problems of the types you find difficult. If necessary, try to make up extra problems, e.g. turn around a problem you've done and solve for something else. Practice really is important, just as in athletics.
For each college class successful students allot 2.5-3 hours outside of class for every hour (credit) spent in class. This time is evenly spread throughout the week. For 3 hours of lecture, 1 hour of discussion and a lab this is 12-15 hours per week studying. Typical studying schedules with three lectures each week are 2-2.5 hours the day of lecture and 1.5-2 hours every other day of the week.
II. You will find science courses quite similar to taking a foreign language.
Vocabulary items: names of materials (elements, compounds); familiar English words which have special meanings in the context of the particular branch of science; specialized equipment; concepts and processes. Make vocabulary lists. Some sources are: in text section headings, boldfaced words; italicized words; and the summary/review information found at the beginning and end of the chapters in most texts.
Grammar = logic and math.
Logic: you should be looking for similarities (categories) you can use to organize the information and interconnections between different concepts. (e.g. categories of matter).
Math: you will be using math to construct models of the world and make predictions and deductions about the world.
Most science classes have specific math prerequisites. I strongly recommend that you do not take classes for which you do not meet the math prerequisites.
Introductory college level science classes usually require some algebra, but mostly you need to develop problem solving skills, which come with practice.
More advanced classes often require some statistics or calculus as well.
When practicing applications of math remember there is not one correct way to approach a problem. Many techniques will get you to the same solution. Practice will help you develop the most efficient technique for you.
If you do not practice speaking a foreign language you will not learn it or will forget it. Likewise REGULAR PRACTICE is the best way to master the material covered in science classes.
III. Quizzes and homework should be treated as indicators of what you must master.
Here are six steps to smarter studying:Pay attention in class.Take good notes.Plan ahead for tests and projects.
Break it down. (If you have a bunch of stuff to learn, break it into smaller chunks.)
Ask for help if you get stuck.
Get a good night's sleep!
1. Pay Attention: Good Studying Starts in Class
Here's a riddle for you: Did you know that before you even begin studying, you've already started? Huh? Here's what we mean. When you pay attention in class and take good notes, you are starting the process of learning and studying.
Do you have trouble paying attention in class? Are you sitting next to a loud person? Is it hard to see the board? Make sure you're sitting in a good seat that lets you pay attention. Tell your teacher or parents about any problems that are preventing you from paying attention and taking good notes.
2. Good Notes = Easier Studying
Not sure how to take notes? Start by writing down facts that your teacher mentions or writes on the board during class. Try your best to use good handwriting so you can read your notes later. It's also a good idea to keep your notes, quizzes, and papers organized by subject.
3. Plan Ahead and You'll Be Glad You Did
Waiting until Thursday night to study for Friday's test will make for a homework night that's no fun! It also makes it hard to do your best. We're all guilty of putting things off sometimes. One of the best ways to make sure that doesn't happen is to plan ahead.
Ask for a cool calendar (something you like and can keep by your desk or study area) and write down your test and assignment due dates. You can then plan how much to do after school each day, and how much time to spend on each topic. Are lessons or extracurricular activities making it hard to find time to study? Ask your mom or dad how to make a schedule of what to do when.
4. Break It Up!
When there's a lot to study, it can help to break things into chunks. Let's say you have a test on 20 spelling words. Instead of thinking about all of the words at once, try breaking them down into five-word chunks and working on one or two different chunks each night.
Don't worry if you can't remember something on the first try. That's where practice comes in. The more days you spend reviewing something, the more likely it is to stick in your brain. There are also tricks called mnemonic (say: new-mah-nik) devices that can help you remember stuff. When you're trying to memorize a list of things, make up a phrase that uses the first letter of each. For example, are you trying to learn the eight planets and their order from the sun? Think: My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nachos to remember Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Your teacher can give you ideas, too.
Another way to break it up is to study regularly instead of just the night before. You can always review your notes and read over the chapters you're working on. Or, if you're studying math or science, do some practice problems.
How much studying should you do each night? Your teacher can help you figure it out. Most brains can only pay attention for about 45 minutes. So if you've been working for a while and find it hard to pay attention, try taking a break for some water or a walk around the house. Just fight the temptation to turn on the TV or stop working!
5. Lose the Confusion — Ask for Help
You can't study effectively if you don't understand the material. Be sure to ask your teacher for help if you're confused about something. You can check yourself by reading through your notes. Does it all make sense? If not, ask your teacher to go over it with you. If you're at home when the confusion occurs, your mom or dad might be able to help.
6. Sleep Tight!
So the test is tomorrow and you've followed your study plan — but suddenly you can't remember anything, not even 2+2! Don't panic. Your brain needs time to digest all the information you've given it. Try to get a good night's sleep and you'll be surprised by what comes back to you in the morning.
Reviewed by: Steven Dowshen, MD
Date reviewed: March 2010
You are expected to do much more reading at university than at school or college; it's not called ‘reading for a degree' for nothing.Here are five tips to help you improve your reading:1. Styles of reading2. Active reading3. A tip for speeding up your active reading
4. Spotting authors' navigation aids
5. Words and vocabulary
1. Styles of reading
There are three styles of reading which we use in different situations:
Scanning: for a specific focus
The technique you use when you're looking up a name in the phone book: you move your eye quickly over the page to find particular words or phrases that are relevant to the task you're doing.
It's useful to scan parts of texts to see if they're going to be useful to you:
the introduction or preface of a book
the first or last paragraphs of chapters
the concluding chapter of a book.
Skimming: for getting the gist of something
The technique you use when you're going through a newspaper or magazine: you read quickly to get the main points, and skip over the detail. It's useful to skim:
to preview a passage before you read it in detail
to refresh your understand of a passage after you've read it in detail.
Use skimming when you're trying to decide if a book in the library or bookshop is right for you.
Detailed reading: for extracting information accurately
Where you read every word, and work to learn from the text.
In this careful reading, you may find it helpful to skim first, to get a general idea, but then go back to read in detail. Use a dictionary to make sure you understand all the words used.
2. Active reading
When you're reading for your course, you need to make sure you're actively involved with the text. It's a waste of your time to just passively read, the way you'd read a thriller on holiday.
Always make notes to keep up your concentration and understanding.
Here are four tips for active reading.
Underlining and highlighting
Pick out what you think are the most important parts of what you are reading. Do this with your own copy of texts or on photocopies, not with borrowed books.
If you are a visual learner, you'll find it helpful to use different colours to highlight different aspects of what you're reading.
Note key words
Record the main headings as you read. Use one or two keywords for each point. When you don't want to mark the text, keep a folder of notes you make while reading.
Questions
Before you start reading something like an article, a chapter or a whole book, prepare for your reading by noting down questions you want the material to answer. While you're reading, note down questions which the author raises.
Summaries
Pause after you've read a section of text. Then:
put what you've read into your own words;
skim through the text and check how accurate your summary is and
fill in any gaps.
3. A tip for speeding up your active reading
You should learn a huge amount from your reading. If you read passively, without learning, you're wasting your time. So train your mind to learn.
Try the SQ3R technique. SQ3R stands for Survey, Question, Read, Recall and Review.
Survey
Gather the information you need to focus on the work and set goals:
Read the title to help prepare for the subject
Read the introduction or summary to see what the author thinks are the key points
Notice the boldface headings to see what the structure is
Notice any maps, graphs or charts. They are there for a purpose
Notice the reading aids, italics, bold face, questions at the end of the chapter. They are all there to help you understand and remember.
Question
Help your mind to engage and concentrate. Your mind is engaged in learning when it is actively looking for answers to questions.
Try turning the boldface headings into questions you think the section should answer.
Read
Read the first section with your questions in mind. Look for the answers, and make up new questions if necessary.
Recall
After each section, stop and think back to your questions. See if you can answer them from memory. If not, take a look back at the text. Do this as often as you need to.
Review
Once you have finished the whole chapter, go back over all the questions from all the headings. See you if can still answer them. If not, look back and refresh your memory.
See also: Taking notes, Gathering information
4. Spotting authors' navigation aids
Learn to recognise sequence signals, for example:
"Three advantages of..." or "A number of methods are available..." leads you to expect several points to follow.
The first sentence of a paragraph will often indicate a sequence: "One important cause of..." followed by "Another important factor..." and so on, until "The final cause of..."
General points are often illustrated by particular examples, for example:
General: Birds' beaks are appropriately shaped for feeding.
Particular: Sparrows and other seed-eating birds have short, stubby beaks; wrens and other insect eaters have thin pointed beaks; herons and other fish hunters have long, sharp beaks for spearing their prey.
Whatever you are reading, be aware of the author's background. It is important to recognise the bias given to writing by a writer's political, religious, social background. Learn which newspapers and journals represent a particular standpoint.
5. Words and vocabulary
When you're a graduate people expect you to use a vocabulary which is wider than a school-leaver's. To expand your vocabulary:
Choose a large dictionary rather than one which is ‘compact' or ‘concise'. You want one which is big enough to define words clearly and helpfully (around 1,500 pages is a good size).
Avoid dictionaries which send you round in circles by just giving synonyms. A pocket dictionary might suggest: ‘impetuous = rash'.
A more comprehensive dictionary will tell you that impetuous means ‘rushing with force and violence', while another gives ‘liable to act without consideration', and add to your understanding by giving the derivation ‘14th century, from late Latin impetuous = violent'.
It will tell you that rash means ‘acting without due consideration or thought', and is derived from Old High German rasc = hurried.
So underlying these two similar words is the difference between violence and hurrying.
There are over 600,000 words in the Oxford English Dictionary; most of them have different meanings, (only a small proportion are synonyms).
Avoid dictionaries which send you round in circles by using very complicated language to define the term you're looking up, leaving you struggling to understand half a dozen new words.
Keep your dictionary at hand when you're studying. Look up unfamiliar words and work to understand what they mean.
Improve your vocabulary by reading widely.
If you haven't got your dictionary with you, note down words which you don't understand and look them up later.
How do you study? If you ask students this question, you will get a variety of answers, including the following:• Cramming the night before• Osmosis (sleeping on the textbook)• Study groups (i.e., parties)While none of these are good answers, they do show that many students really don’t know how to study, especially those in online education programs. Most people think that studying is what you do right before a big test. In reality, it should be part of your daily routine as a student, beginning with the first day of class and ending when you complete the final exam. Studying should be a multifaceted approach to learning a subject, not a method for remembering facts long enough to pass a test.
If you really want to learn how to study successfully, to do well on your tests and actually learn something, you should use these seven keys to successful studying and you will be well on your way to better learning habits.
Read the entire syllabus – A class syllabus is basically a contract between the student and the instructor that lets you know what your assignments are and how you will be graded. It usually outlines the competencies, or concepts and skills, that the class will teach you, along with the dates of tests and major assignments. Know the purpose of each class and what it will require of you is the first step to successful studying.
Set up a calendar – Once you know the required assignments, mark each assignment's the due dates on a calendar and make notes about the reading material that you are required to complete before each class meeting.
Read the material – This sounds like a no-brainer, but students often totally disregard the reading assignments or read the materials without comprehending the subject matter. Practice your critical reading skills by annotating your textbook and article as you read them. Annotating simply means making notes about important concepts and jotting down ideas in the margins. Try highlighting or underlining key vocabulary words and significant passages as you read. If you have already read the list of assignments, you can also mark sections of the text that relate to each assignment to make these sections easier to find later.
Build your vocabulary – As you read, mark words or vocabulary terms with which you are unfamiliar and look them up in the glossary, a dictionary or online. Keep a list of definitions for future study.
Rewrite your notes – Regardless of whether your classes are online or in a traditional classroom, take notes during class to record the major ideas of the presentation or discussion. Rewrite or type your notes after class, adding relevant information from the textbook, in the form of an outline or another type of mapping exercise.
Use study guides – If your textbook doesn’t include a study guide, visit the textbook publisher's website, where you can often find study guides, quizzes or further reading material.
Apply what you have learned – Try to apply the knowledge you learn in class to real-life situations. At the very least, try to explain what you have learned to someone else. If you can do that, you have sufficiently mastered the material.
While many of these steps take time out of your daily schedule, it's basically the same amount of time you'd spend cramming for the tests spread out over the entire semester rather than clumped into several all-night study sessions. If you apply these seven keys for successful studying, you will be well ahead of the curve when test time comes around.
The bar exam (in many states) is next week, and if you’re signed up, you’re probably a bit stressed out by now. Here are some important Dos and Don’ts for the last few days leading up to the exam.Do: Spend this weekend reviewing your outlines.Don’t: Overdo it at the last minute.As you’ve probably heard your test prep instructors say, bar study is a marathon, not a sprint. Do not try to tackle completely new subjects this weekend in an attempt to make up for missed study days. Instead, spend each day reviewing your notes and outlines and answering sample questions. Make sure to eat well, drink lots of water, and get enough sleep—being sick on the day of the exam is not helpful.
Do: Plan out your day-of-exam route and schedule.
Don’t: Make any drastic changes from your normal routine.
If you’re taking the exam out of town, be sure you know exactly how to get to the testing site, including whether you’ll need cash for a cab or what time the hotel shuttle leaves. Also, figure out where you’ll get breakfast the morning of the test. However, now is not the time to try out anything new. If you’ve never had a 5-Hour Energy Drink, the morning of the bar exam is not the time to see how it affects you. Stick to your everyday routine.
Do: Arrive to the exam with plenty of time to spare.
Don’t: Bring your study materials with you to the testing facility.
Make sure you arrive on time (i.e., early) so that you aren’t rushed checking in and settling into your seat. The night before the exam, lay out everything you will need on the day of the test: pencils and pens, scrap paper if allowed, laptop, snacks and ID. However, do not bring any notes or other materials to the exam. Besides the fact that notes are not allowed in the testing room, trying to cram for the exam at the last minute will only add to your stress level. If you must, take a final glance over your outline over breakfast.
Do: Use the break to have a healthy lunch.
Don’t: Meet up with your friends and discuss how you answered the questions.
Hopefully you learned this in law school—comparing answers with your friends after a test leads to a) angry friends, b) major anxiety, or c) both. Spend your lunch break refueling for the rest of the day with a nutritious meal.
Do: Keep going, no matter how well you think you’re doing.
Don’t: Allow yourself to get discouraged.
The bar exam is an endurance test, and to make it through, it’s essential to stay positive. One of the key things to remember is that unlike law school, there’s no reward for doing well on the bar exam: you just have to pass. So even if you feel like you’re not doing great, keep pushing through—finishing the test will improve your chances of passing.
Do: Reward yourself by doing something fun.
Don’t: Obsess over the exam results.
When the test is finally over, you’ll usually have to wait more than three months before you receive the results. Don’t make those months miserable. If you haven’t planned a bar trip, do something fun to reward yourself for all of your hard work—plan a weekend with a friend or significant other, treat yourself to something nice, and give yourself permission to fully relax. You’ve earned it!
Reason 1: Money.This is always one of the top reasons to study anything. It's important to know that engineers are among the top-paid professions world-wide. It's well known that if you want money, engineering is one of the best ways to go. And since money is so important in our world, especially in these economic times, this is one factor you should be considering carefully.Reason 2: PrestigeAlong with doctors and lawyers, engineers are professionals who have a lot of prestige. Wouldn't your mother be proud to tell all her relatives and friends that her son or daughter is an engineer? You'll gain a desired job image, and join a profession that supports national and global competitiveness, security, and rising living standards. Being an engineer just makes you look great!
Reason 3: Professionalism
Engineering programs worldwide are among the top, most-advanced educational programs. Study with top-of-the-line technology, receive great coop placements and training, and join a profession like no other. While working, you'll benefit from not only competitive wages and prestige- being a member of an engineering society will give you access to information and technology that will help you do your work better and enjoy life. Engineering is a professional choice.
Reason 4: Flexibility and Choice
These days, everybody's looking for choice. Engineering offers so many choices you can have a hard time deciding on which one fits you- from electrical and mechanical to computer science or civil, the various areas of engineering are all exciting and in high demand. Engineering degrees open up a road to flexible education- you can continue to earn an MBA, and move into other great careers. Engineering is a great choice that opens up many paths for the future.
Reason 5: Intellectual Development
Engineering will help you grow and develop your ways of thinking. Becoming an engineer will force you to work on many transferable skills including problem-solving and critical reasoning. In addition you'll study a large variety of topics in school, including engineering courses but also sciences, and even some arts and languages. Knowing more and having more useful skills will develop you as a person.
Reason 6: Entrepreneurship
Nobody wants to be a little bolt in a big corporate machine. Studying engineering provides you with the knowledge and skills to open up your own business and become your own boss. Engineering training exposes you to businesses and gets you more familiar with things like finance and marketing, which is important for business purposes, and transferable skills will help you run your own company. Having technical knowledge will allow you to make a product and centre a business around it (just like John Phillip Green and Malgosia Green who studied computer science and systems design engineering and founded LearnHub!)
Reason 7: Challenge
Everyone likes a good challenge, since life would be boring otherwise. Engineering is a challenge. Throughout both your studies and your later career, you will be faced with problems which will require your creativity and logical analysis skills. Real world problems will be open ended with no wrong or right answer- it'll be up to you to find a solution and stand up to it, convincing others it's right. The engineering challenge is something to look forward to.
Reason 8: Creativity
Most jobs don't allow you to be creative. Engineering, on the other hand, lets you exercise your judgment however you want. You'll need to be creative to come up with solutions to fascinating problems, and you'll be able to use both concrete knowledge and your own thoughts and views when coming up with a successful original design or development. Engineering is the art of science!
Reason 9: Discovery
An engineering education will help you discover how the world works. You may be dealing with recent issues such as electric cars, alternative energy sources, nuclear reactors, and more. You may end up seeking for answers on how to solve world hunger or what kinds of technology cause cancer. Engineering is interconnected with science and research, and it will allow you to learn and discover a world of knowledge.
Reason 10: Society Needs You
If you're smart, you have a responsibility to society. Don't waste your brain power- become an engineer. From the early days of dawn engineers have worked to benefit society- developing everything from necessary forms of safety and security measures and transportation mechanisms, to devices and technologies that enrich life and make it better and more comfortable for everyone. New engineering trends may help solve issues like diseases, hunger, energy, and pollution problems. Make a difference- help us engineer a better tomorrow.
Commas and semi-colons. If the rules you learned about commas and semi-colons don't mean much to you, forget them and try this: Read one of your sentences aloud and see where you would naturally pause, where you would draw a breath. If it's a short pause, like that just was, you probably need a comma. If it's a longer pause, but not quite a full stop (for which you'd need a period), you probably need a semi-colon; remember that whatever follows a semi-colon must be able to stand on its own, as a full sentence, like this one.
If you don't want your reader to pause, there shouldn't be a comma, there, because as, this demonstrates it's very difficult to figure, out, what you're saying when your punctuation, makes the sentence unreadable.
Your sentences shouldn't leave your reader hyperventilating from the constant shallow breaths that over-punctuation requires. Nor should they be gasping for breath at the end of a long, unpunctuated sentence. (Consider yourself responsible for your readers' cardiovascular health.)
Check your dashes and hyphens. When you're setting off a clause—this one is a good example—use the longer dash, called an m-dash. (You can indicate this dash with two hyphens—like this—if you don't have an m-dash function on your computer.) Be sure that the parts of the sentence that precede and follow the dashes would make sense even if you removed the dashes and the words they bracket. (In the example above, the sentence is readable with or without the clause inside the dashes.)
You can also use the m-dash in place of a colon if you want to emphasize more dramatically the words that follow: "The mantlepiece was lined with photographs of people she loved—her mother, her grandmother, a favorite aunt." Or you can use it to add a surprising element into a sentence: "Her family's photographs were displayed on the mantlepiece; there were pictures of parents, grandparents, and siblings—and of Muffin, a Yorkshire terrier." Whereas the m-dash is used to set off parts of a sentence, hyphens are used to join words together: broken-hearted, two-thirds, sister-in-law.
Always identify abbreviations before you use them, unless you feel reasonably confident that the average intelligent reader would be able to identify the acronym—like when the acronym is more commonly used than the words it stands for. (It would be odd to write out all the words for ESP, NATO, CEO, or AIDS.) Keep in mind the audience for the particular essay you're writing, though; readers who are specialists in a particular discipline may not want or need to have terms spelled out for them.
Try to avoid split infinitives. This is no longer a hard and fast rule, and occasionally keeping an infinitive together in a sentence can introduce more awkwardness than the split, but usually the split is ungraceful. (Imagine: To be or to not be.)
Make sure all your referents are clear. When you say "This theory" or "that point" or, simply, "it," is it clear which theory or point you're referring to? When you use "he" or "she" or "these critics," will your reader have to pause to figure out who all these people are?
There's more to say about this. We often throw in a "this" when we're not entirely sure exactly what we want to draw our readers' attention to, especially when we're making a complex argument with many different elements. Sometimes vagueness in our language can be a symptom of muddled thinking. So ask yourself, what does this "this" refer to? What words would I replace it with? If you're not easily able to answer, you need to go back and work out your ideas in that section. (Readers will never understand what you mean when you don't know yourself. When you notice vague referents, or other apparently minor problems, take the opportunity to ask yourself if there might be any larger problem lurking beneath your surface error.)
Never use "that" when you're referring to a person: "The first man that walked on the moon." "The author that she was referring to." These are people, not objects—it's insulting to call them "that." Use who or whom: "The first man who walked on the moon." "The author to whom she was referring." Are you using "that" because you're shaky on the who/whom thing? See below. (And while you're at it, consider whether you're twisting your sentences around to avoid any other grammatical points you're uncertain of. If so, take control! Liberate yourself! Learn the rules once and for all so you can write freely, instead of skulking around trying not to break the rules—or breaking them without realizing it. Try starting a text file in which you list the rules you tend to forget, and keep it open when you write. You can look rules up in any style manual, or come to the Writing Center.)
Who is what doing what to whom? That's the question you need to ask yourself if you're uncertain which word to use. The one that does the action (the subject) is who. The one that gets something done to it (the object) is whom.
Avoid passive voice. It tends to sap energy and power from your prose. It's usually better to say "Einstein's theory" than "the theory that was formulated by Einstein."
Italics and underlines. You can use one or the other but never both. They mean the same thing—underlining used to be a copy-editing mark to tell printers to set certain words in italic type. Underlining italics meant the editor wanted the words taken out of italics. So underlining your already- italicized phrase is, in effect, like using a double negative.
Be sure all of your sentences have parallel construction. This sentence doesn't have it: "Re- reading my first draft, I notice it's trite, repetitive, and with no thesis." This sentence does: "Re- reading my first draft, I notice that it's trite and repetitive, and that it has no thesis." Or you could say: "Re-reading my first draft, I notice it's trite, repetitive, and lacking in a thesis." In the two examples with parallel construction, you could take out any of the words in the list and still have the sentence make sense.
