College 101: Study Tips/Essentials
With the back-to-school season comes the back-to-school struggles: taking notes in class, doing homework, studying, and those dreaded tests. Lucky for me, I have been been graced with some pretty nifty studying skills that have greatly helped my GPA stay in the 3.2+ range for several years. And lucky for whoever is reading this, I thought it would only be fair to share my geek wisdom with anyone who wishes to hear it. Also, just to make sure I don't seem like I'm bragging, I am definitely not, nor have I ever been, the smartest kid in my class. I've always had a hard time with memorization, reading and comprehension, just to name a few things. It is mainly for this reason that it was drilled into my head early on how to be super organized, and now I cannot thank the people who did that for me enough! I know this might be kind of a boring topic but it really can help push your attitude towards learning and school into a more positive light and it can be super personalized! SO LETS GET STARTED!!!
Prepare
1. Get yourself some folders!!! Your best bet would be to get a binder, or two if you classes are very paper heavy, and put your hole-punched pages in it, as well as any loose leaf papers in the folder. But if you really cannot be bothered to do all of that organizational stuff, at least get yourself a folder for each subject or class and keep all of your papers in it. This way you cannot just stuff it in the bottom of your backpack where it will get crumpled and ripped. My personal favorites are the Five-Star Mead folders with pockets along the sides rather than the bottoms.
Personalization: There are tons of folders with awesome covers on them and you can change them up every year!
2. Get a Weekly/Monthly Agenda Book. Some people are really for using these, some people love them. I've had ups and downs with Agenda books. In high school, I would always start out strong using these, and as the semester would go on, I would write less and less in the weekly pages. However, in college I found that just using the monthly section is extremely helpful. If you already find the weekly pages helpful, stick to those. But if you are like me and you haven't always faired the best with agenda books, try and write out all of your assignments in just the monthly part instead. What this allows you to do is to have a running timeline of what you need to do on a daily, weekly, AND monthly basis and can keep you more organized.
Personalization: Use different colors to represent different subjects and the agenda book covers come in every color and pattern imaginable! Some even have nifty study guides in them like US State maps, conversion tables, geometric equations and more!
During the Year/Semester
3. KEEP EVERYTHING!!! And yes I mean everything. Every note you take, every assignment, paper, quiz and test, and anything else you work on through out the semester. These can be key study tools when it comes time to take the final or just the weekly pop quiz. It may seem like a lot but by doing this you can use it to study whenever you need to, and usually finals and midterm questions are taken from tests or from the notes you take in class. This way you can also go back through and cover up all the answers and make sure you know all of the material.
4. Keep things in order. So when you keep everything its best to keep it in the sequential order and in categories. What I usually do is start with assignments sheets, then work sheets, tests/quizzes and then anything extra in the back. Within each of these assignments I will put the most recent papers I got back first so that as I get my work I just put it on top of the first one in the category. This keeps everything organized and I can find it quickly. Its a real time saver and I would suggest everyone to try it out.
Personalization: Try different sequential orders and category orders! See if going from old to new is better, maybe you need different categories than the ones I listed; do what makes it easier for you but keep it organized!
5. Take notes every class. Lots of them. Seriously its so helpful to take as many in detail notes as you can whenever you are in an academic or lecture class. By hearing it and then writing it out, it forces you to put the information in your mind in your own words rather than just passively hearing what the teacher is saying. I know it may be a little daunting taking a bunch of notes but you will have yourself quite the study materials when test time comes around.
Get super creative with it: different pens for different subjects, different colors for vocab words, whatever makes it more fun for you!
6. Pencil Pouch. Everyone should have a pencil pouch. I'm pretty sure everyone has had at least one in their life but they really are awesome! My suggestion for these is to have at least two of your favorite style of pens and pencils(mechanical or regular) in your pouch at all times! This way you will never run out of ink or lead. Optional add-ons are White-Out pens, separate erasers, a flash drive, and maybe a sharpie or two.
Studying
7. Know what distracts you. I know for me, music and too much talking can be a big distraction, so I make sure I don't listen to anything other than classical music on low volume and go to the silent reading section of my library. If you need background sounds and silence freaks you out, go to somewhere like a library cafe or a Starbucks to get your study on. If you find that you're always sneaking onto Tumblr and Youtube, turn off your internet and study with paper and books; just find what distracts you and get as far from it as you can. And one thing I know is always super tempting, but dangerous for studying, can be study groups. If you are ALL serious about getting your work done, then you might be ok. Or if your assignment is a group project, of course you will have to do group study. But if you go with your friends to the library, more likely than not, you'll all end up talking most of the time, not to mention disturb people around you. So do yourself a favor, hit the books and power off the distractions.
8. Wi-Fi off. One thing I know distracts my friends more than anything is the internet. Yeah its great for surfing Google and checking the databases, but there's always the temptation of Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Youtube, heck even online shopping! Make sure if you really need the internet, you are researching and nothing else. Otherwise, the cute cat pictures can wait.
9. Quizlet One online site that has been a great help for me is Quizlet.com. It is a website where you can not only make flash cards, but it will quiz you on them virtually as well as make them into questions for you to test yourself! As someone whose always been bad at memorization, this site has made studying for those pesky vocab quizzes super simple because I don't even have to print them out. It tells you when you get it wrong and then shuffles up the incorrectly answered questions for a second, third, and even fourth round so you can learn all of them. Give this site a try the next time you have Chem vocab to learn.
10. Before the big test... So obviously no one likes taking tests but everyone likes getting an A on them! Not to brag or anything but since I've started using this study technique four semesters ago, I have not failed a test(knock on wood). Basically, all I do is study a week before the test, that's it. This does require you to take a lot of notes through out the semester or chapter, and takes up a couple of hours every night that week. What I do is take all of my notes for that test/quiz and divide it into thirds. For the first three nights, I study each third consecutively; first night, first third, second night, second third, third night, final third. The fourth night, I read half of all of the material, and the night after that, the other half. The sixth night I will read everything all the way through and see what stuff I can almost say from memory and what hasn't quite sunk in yet.
I read all of my notes OUT LOUD to myself like I am teaching it to myself. You may be thinking, she's crazy, but if you try and reiterate it to yourself, the more you can say it in your own words, the more it will be put into memory. It's kind of like learning a song. You learn the chorus first because it is repeated three or four times by the end. Plus by saying everything out loud to yourself, not only are you seeing the information, but you are hearing it as well and it just sandwiches the information into your brain. If you have any vocab you also add this to the notes you are studying. I really hope that this helps some people out.
And there are my High School/College Study Tips! These have gotten my through many years of school and I hope to help some of you out there as well. Please leave any suggestions down below of things you would like me to write about. I hope everyone is just as excited for classes to start as I am and I also hope most of you are enjoying your last bits of summer!! Please also let me know if any of these tips help you and I hope they weren't too much. Happy Fall everyone!!
Personalization: There are tons of folders with awesome covers on them and you can change them up every year!
2. Get a Weekly/Monthly Agenda Book. Some people are really for using these, some people love them. I've had ups and downs with Agenda books. In high school, I would always start out strong using these, and as the semester would go on, I would write less and less in the weekly pages. However, in college I found that just using the monthly section is extremely helpful. If you already find the weekly pages helpful, stick to those. But if you are like me and you haven't always faired the best with agenda books, try and write out all of your assignments in just the monthly part instead. What this allows you to do is to have a running timeline of what you need to do on a daily, weekly, AND monthly basis and can keep you more organized.
Personalization: Use different colors to represent different subjects and the agenda book covers come in every color and pattern imaginable! Some even have nifty study guides in them like US State maps, conversion tables, geometric equations and more!
During the Year/Semester
3. KEEP EVERYTHING!!! And yes I mean everything. Every note you take, every assignment, paper, quiz and test, and anything else you work on through out the semester. These can be key study tools when it comes time to take the final or just the weekly pop quiz. It may seem like a lot but by doing this you can use it to study whenever you need to, and usually finals and midterm questions are taken from tests or from the notes you take in class. This way you can also go back through and cover up all the answers and make sure you know all of the material.
4. Keep things in order. So when you keep everything its best to keep it in the sequential order and in categories. What I usually do is start with assignments sheets, then work sheets, tests/quizzes and then anything extra in the back. Within each of these assignments I will put the most recent papers I got back first so that as I get my work I just put it on top of the first one in the category. This keeps everything organized and I can find it quickly. Its a real time saver and I would suggest everyone to try it out.
Personalization: Try different sequential orders and category orders! See if going from old to new is better, maybe you need different categories than the ones I listed; do what makes it easier for you but keep it organized!
5. Take notes every class. Lots of them. Seriously its so helpful to take as many in detail notes as you can whenever you are in an academic or lecture class. By hearing it and then writing it out, it forces you to put the information in your mind in your own words rather than just passively hearing what the teacher is saying. I know it may be a little daunting taking a bunch of notes but you will have yourself quite the study materials when test time comes around.
Get super creative with it: different pens for different subjects, different colors for vocab words, whatever makes it more fun for you!
6. Pencil Pouch. Everyone should have a pencil pouch. I'm pretty sure everyone has had at least one in their life but they really are awesome! My suggestion for these is to have at least two of your favorite style of pens and pencils(mechanical or regular) in your pouch at all times! This way you will never run out of ink or lead. Optional add-ons are White-Out pens, separate erasers, a flash drive, and maybe a sharpie or two.
Studying
7. Know what distracts you. I know for me, music and too much talking can be a big distraction, so I make sure I don't listen to anything other than classical music on low volume and go to the silent reading section of my library. If you need background sounds and silence freaks you out, go to somewhere like a library cafe or a Starbucks to get your study on. If you find that you're always sneaking onto Tumblr and Youtube, turn off your internet and study with paper and books; just find what distracts you and get as far from it as you can. And one thing I know is always super tempting, but dangerous for studying, can be study groups. If you are ALL serious about getting your work done, then you might be ok. Or if your assignment is a group project, of course you will have to do group study. But if you go with your friends to the library, more likely than not, you'll all end up talking most of the time, not to mention disturb people around you. So do yourself a favor, hit the books and power off the distractions.
8. Wi-Fi off. One thing I know distracts my friends more than anything is the internet. Yeah its great for surfing Google and checking the databases, but there's always the temptation of Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Youtube, heck even online shopping! Make sure if you really need the internet, you are researching and nothing else. Otherwise, the cute cat pictures can wait.
9. Quizlet One online site that has been a great help for me is Quizlet.com. It is a website where you can not only make flash cards, but it will quiz you on them virtually as well as make them into questions for you to test yourself! As someone whose always been bad at memorization, this site has made studying for those pesky vocab quizzes super simple because I don't even have to print them out. It tells you when you get it wrong and then shuffles up the incorrectly answered questions for a second, third, and even fourth round so you can learn all of them. Give this site a try the next time you have Chem vocab to learn.
10. Before the big test... So obviously no one likes taking tests but everyone likes getting an A on them! Not to brag or anything but since I've started using this study technique four semesters ago, I have not failed a test(knock on wood). Basically, all I do is study a week before the test, that's it. This does require you to take a lot of notes through out the semester or chapter, and takes up a couple of hours every night that week. What I do is take all of my notes for that test/quiz and divide it into thirds. For the first three nights, I study each third consecutively; first night, first third, second night, second third, third night, final third. The fourth night, I read half of all of the material, and the night after that, the other half. The sixth night I will read everything all the way through and see what stuff I can almost say from memory and what hasn't quite sunk in yet.
I read all of my notes OUT LOUD to myself like I am teaching it to myself. You may be thinking, she's crazy, but if you try and reiterate it to yourself, the more you can say it in your own words, the more it will be put into memory. It's kind of like learning a song. You learn the chorus first because it is repeated three or four times by the end. Plus by saying everything out loud to yourself, not only are you seeing the information, but you are hearing it as well and it just sandwiches the information into your brain. If you have any vocab you also add this to the notes you are studying. I really hope that this helps some people out.
And there are my High School/College Study Tips! These have gotten my through many years of school and I hope to help some of you out there as well. Please leave any suggestions down below of things you would like me to write about. I hope everyone is just as excited for classes to start as I am and I also hope most of you are enjoying your last bits of summer!! Please also let me know if any of these tips help you and I hope they weren't too much. Happy Fall everyone!!
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