How do you study?

[Ms.Trick]

So, here's the thing. This year, I can really say I've worked well for my exams (university level). But I just keep failing them. My mum, my friends, even my teachers keep saying they don't know how come I fail because they know I'm a good student and I work hard.
I analysed my situation a bit and that's what I got:

Once I studied a subject, I can explain it to someone who knows nothing about the subject and make him understand, I can talk about it, I can make links between what I see in real life and what I've learned about it. So I know what I'm talking about, which means I've assimilated the theory on a long term. And when I go taking my exam, I always have the bad questions bad luck, which would be me reading my questions and think "Was that in the course?". And when I get out of there and ask other people what questions they had, well I could answer it much much better than mine.
So my conclusion is, I know a very big amount of my subject, but I don't know everything about it.
Which really is my big problem. I mean in High School it was easy, I never had more than 50 pages to study for an exam. So I could study it from A to Z. But now, I hardly ever have a subject that's less than 200 pages (which is not big compared to most universities, in Belgium anyway). And I just never find the time to read each subject and summarize it and study it, even tough I study between 9 and 10 hours a day. I generally only have the time to read and summarize, which is not enough for an exam (it was in High School, but not anymore). I remember a lot of my subject by reading and summarizing, but not the details, which is probably the reason I fail.


So I wondered, how do you guys study for exams for the uni?
Do you study different subjects everyday?
Do you bother summarizing or do you study immediately?
How do you handle big subjects?
Do you make flash cards?

Any tips welcome.

 

[WileyDairyGnome]

This is a great idea for a thread. I really need tips on studying because I hate to study. 😛

What I usually do though is just keep reading over my notes until I can understand the stuff. Sometimes I even re-write my notes so I can remember better.

 

[Goby]

Flash cards are amazing. I would make my own, and use them everyday.

Big Subjects are merely 3-4 small subject put together.

BTW, what are your subjects and where do you go to school?

 

[Ms.Trick]

BTW, what are your subjects and where do you go to school?

I'm studying communication at Brussels!
So far, I have to resit:

- Macro-economy
- Belgian and European political institutions
- Graphism (theoretical)
- Photography (theoretical)
- Dutch
- French
- Musical history
- Linguistic
- History
- Multimedia
- Informatic


(and if I'm really unlucky, I'll also have Law and Sound theory).

 

[Kean]

Do you have access to previous exam papers?

 

[Ms.Trick]

Do you have access to previous exam papers?

Yep, and it's pretty useful most of the time (for the teachers who are too lazy to make new exams and take the same questions every single time), and it gives an idea of what the teachers expect from us, but it also happens that they completly change the way of interrogating so I use old exams as a complementary help (but it doesn't always help much).

 

[Kean]

Yep, and it's pretty useful most of the time (for the teachers who are too lazy to make new exams and take the same questions every single time), and it gives an idea of what the teachers expect from us, but it also happens that they completly change the way of interrogating so I use old exams as a complementary help (but it doesn't always help much).

What kind of time frame are you working on? When are your resits?

Also, when has studying worked for you? Was there a time when you did well in exams?

 

[zobothehobo]

I rarely study because I'm a terrible person. Plus, I tend to soak up quite a bit of knowledge sitting in class listening to the teacher teach. But when I do study, I've found flash cards to be like the best thing ever.

 

[Chosen Enemy]

I didn't go all those high education thingies. But when I was in school, I can honestly say I don't remember how I prepared myself for exams. But I suck at tests and school, big time. No matter how much I studied, how much effort I put into it... I could never get a high scores. Thinking back, I could have done better, because I could use my skills at remembering texts. That's why when I need to learn text (like if I play in a play, or something with a script), I do it easy, very fast. And my memory is terrible. But texts I can learn very quickly. So it's too bad I didn't do it back then, memorize what I needed to know for exams.

 

[Ms.Trick]

What kind of time frame are you working on? When are your resits?

Also, when has studying worked for you? Was there a time when you did well in exams?

Now I have two months to study (which should be enough, hopefully) but it's during the year I have more problems. I only have two weeks to study all the exams. I always think "I'm going to study every night a lil bit" but we always have so much work during the year that I can't study before the two weeks of study break. That's where the big problem is, my aim for next year is to succeed with the two weeks so I can actually have holidays after, instead of spending my holidays working every day (which worked out pretty well last year, but I didn't really got to rest a bit or enjoy my holidays).

And at each session, I fail about the helft of my exams and do great at the other helft. I study everything the same way, but the results are not the same everywhere. And it happens that I have better results at an exam I knew less than an exam I failed. It's really uneven 😱

 

[Goby]

I'm studying communication at Brussels!
So far, I have to resit:

- Macro-economy
- Belgian and European political institutions
- Graphism (theoretical)
- Photography (theoretical)
- Dutch
- French
- Musical history
- Linguistic
- History
- Multimedia
- Informatic


(and if I'm really unlucky, I'll also have Law and Sound theory).

Holy crap!! Why are you taking so many courses? Is that a European thing? In uni I only took 4 course (sometimes 5) at once.

 

[OhWow]

I'm not in college but I always study right before I go to bed. I'm not sure why it works, I was watching this show on the human brain and that's what came up. It works wonders.

 

[Kean]

Now I have two months to study (which should be enough, hopefully) but it's during the year I have more problems. I only have two weeks to study all the exams. I always think "I'm going to study every night a lil bit" but we always have so much work during the year that I can't study before the two weeks of study break. That's where the big problem is, my aim for next year is to succeed with the two weeks so I can actually have holidays after, instead of spending my holidays working every day (which worked out pretty well last year, but I didn't really got to rest a bit or enjoy my holidays).

And at each session, I fail about the helft of my exams and do great at the other helft. I study everything the same way, but the results are not the same everywhere. And it happens that I have better results at an exam I knew less than an exam I failed. It's really uneven 😱

To me it looks like you need to adjust your study methods and make, what looks like a huge mountain of work, into small little mole hills. You have two months, so it is very doable.

The brain can't really retain much information past 20-40 minutes of study. Anything you do after that point is of a lesser quality than what you have done before. So I'd say break it all down for yourself.

-Break each subject down into sections. Make this as small as you possibly can.

-Draw up a schedule of what you are going to study, it helps focus you on your task and tames that sense of chaos that often goes with having so many subjects to take.

-Get up early every morning to start. You are fresher then and more likely to get work done.

-Break your study into cycles of 20 minute increments, for example:

20 minutes of study
3 minute break
20 minutes of study
3 minute break
20 minutes of study
10/15 minute break

And then start in to another cycle. Stay away from the internet if you can, or else your breaks turn out longer than your study slot! What is also good is to get up and get moving during your break, even if it is just to get a drink of water. Don't stay sitting in the same place.

-Before you start in on a chapter or whatever, read the intro and the conclusion so you have a fair idea where it is going. You'd be surprised how better you'll understand what you are reading by doing this.

- Don't waste time reading what you don't need to know. If you are mired with a load of irrelevant information, skip it. If's not related to you course work, it's excess to requirements.

-After each section write up a short summary of what it is about, just something that would refresh your mind if you looked at it. Nothing more than a paragraph.

- Take notes that you understand and in your words. Doing this encourages you to really understand what you are doing and not just copy someone else's words.

- Don't stay studying too long. Get your rest. Enjoy yourself. Do things you enjoy to. Give yourself something to look forward to at the end of the day.

- If you are feeling burned out, take a shower to waken you up and come back to it.

- Before you start a new day re-read what you did the previous day. It keeps it fresh in your mind and is a good way to set you up for the next section.

- Do exam questions, as many as you can. The more practice the better. Set specific time aside for this. And do it just as you would in an exam: no books to help. Just what you have learned. This is the surest way to see where you are doing well and what you need to improve on.

 

[Ms.Trick]

Holy crap!! Why are you taking so many courses? Is that a European thing? In uni I only took 4 course (sometimes 5) at once.

If I'm counting right, we had about 26 different courses this year. Trust me, I didn't choose that (If I had, I would certainly not have taken economy or political institutions, yikes!). It's the program imposed by the school, we don't get to choose which courses we'll take!

 

[Selfless705]

I usually study using the books, I dont like just reading, as you dont actually learn much. So activites, or just writing down what I read is good!

When I have lots of exams in a small time area, then I will at most study 2 subjects a day, any more and I get confused 😛

I always create a timetable, even if I dont follow it excatly, it will help me do the right amount of revision for each subject, more for ones I am not good at, less for ones I am good at.

For bigger exams I will just do more revision 😛. Usually really big subjects are split into modular exams, so I will spend like 2 or 3 times as much time as on a subject with one exam that is worth less of the grade.

I either study casually, where I will do activities and read notes while listening to music or watching TV. Or "hardcore" revision, where its just me a piece of paper and a pen.

 

[PrincessBuffy16]

I can't tell you how I study for uni, because I just finished my HS, but I can tell you how I studied in HS. It wasn't that hard for me because I have a photographic memory. I usually sat on my chair (or bed), picked up my book and started reading. Slowly, with understanding. I usually read the text for two times, and I mostly remembered everything because I remembered what was on the page that I studied. What picture, or something that was interesting for me. The thing is, the things that distracted me from studying usually helped me to remember what I needed to know. The only subject I had problems with was Math, because I hated it, didn't understand it, and had to work hard for it.. I hated that. So I usually spent my whole day practicing assignments that I thought are going to be in the test, but I never managed to score higher than C.. only few times since I was in HS. Same with Politics, I had mostly B's and C's because I had no interest in it and I've read the text only once, a day before the test or oral exam.

 

[prophecygrrl]

I'm not in college yet, but like PB, I just finished high school. I took a lot of "college-level" courses (in quotes because I really have no idea how they compare to the actual college-level and I get mixed answers on that!) though, if that helps. What really helps me in studying was taking old tests or practice tests. After I check my answers, when I get a question wrong, I remember the real answer better and I also know which areas I need to study more in.

I'm studying communication at Brussels!
So far, I have to resit:

- Macro-economy
- Belgian and European political institutions
- Graphism (theoretical)
- Photography (theoretical)
- Dutch
- French
- Musical history
- Linguistic
- History
- Multimedia
- Informatic


(and if I'm really unlucky, I'll also have Law and Sound theory).

OMG. How do you even have the time to take all these courses, let alone study for them?? Wow. At most U.S. schools we only take about four courses per term!

 

[Ms.Trick]

OMG. How do you even have the time to take all these courses, let alone study for them?? Wow. At most U.S. schools we only take about four courses per term!

Goby told me the same thing, I'm starting to think I should have studied in America 😀
Like I told him, we have about 26 different courses (on a year) divided between the two semesters.
But I've heard recently that in Belgium, people who go to...Higher School (?) like me have more courses than people at the university (Higher school is like university but more specialized in one specific orientation). And it's quite crazy.
The worst had to be last year in june: I had to take 19 exams in two weeks. Student Councils are currently working on a decret to change the repartition of exams in Higher Schools, because we have more exams and often more than one to take the same day (in some schools they even have 4 or 5 exams a day every day during a whole week).

With that system, I'm clearly not the only one who fails a lot of exams, but still, I want
to be in the crowd of people who still manage to have like only 1 or 2 exams to resit 😀

And the problem is, we have a lot of different courses, but we also have a lot of works to submit (in graphism, photo, sound, web...). We have so much that even the best students have to stop going to some classes to have the time to do all the works. I think it's physically impossible to go to all classes. We often have to spend sleepless nights in studio at school so it's hard to go to class right away in the morning, or we can't assist classes because if we do, we don't have enough time to work on our projects...I seriously don't think anyone can say he has assisted every single class this year.
Impossible. And then we finally have the two weeks to study, and it's just not enough (when you have some exams that take more than one week of preparation). Gaah. Just thiking of all this work makes me feel fuzzy 😛

 

[UnderYourSpell]

At uni I used to write out what I needed to memorize clearly on a few bits of paper, I would underline the subheadings in different colours. Then I would read it out loud over and over, eventually I could remember the way the page was layed out like a photograph and could picture it in exams, I used to learn essays this way.

 

[BuffyElevated]

I'm not much of a studier... I tend to cram the day before a big test because a) I don't have much time to read and b) if I don't read it closer to the date of the test, I won't remember it, more than likely. It may not work for all, but it works for me 'cause I tend to get pretty good grades. 🙂