Thursday, December 18, 2008

Study tip rant

This is my study tip rant.

  1. Getting enough sleep is a part of studying. If you're tired, you have a hard time learning and an even harder time remembering. If you're tired when you're writing a test, you're going to make some stupid mistakes.
  2. Don't study in front of the TV, even if it is turned off. That thing is just too much of a temptation.
  3. Not studying is an important part of studying. You have to take breaks. If you find yourself reading something, and then not remembering what you just read, it's time for a break.
  4. Good lighting. Bright lights in your study area make a world of difference, especially in the Winter.
  5. Ignore the complainers. They're complaining because they aren't doing very well and looking for an excuse. The complainers use phrases like: "It's the professor's fault", "How can they expect us to...", "We shouldn't have to learn this because...", "It's not fair.", "It's not my fault.", "In the real world...".
  6. Ignore the people who claim that they don't study much. They're getting crap marks, lying or are a lot smarter than you. If you need to do a lot of studying then do a lot of studying.
  7. Don't "study for a test". Learn the material that you will be tested on instead. Understand the "what, why and how come" associated with the material that you're learning. If something doesn't make any sense, figure it out. If you memorize things that you don't really understand, you're probably doomed.
  8. Don't waste time studying things that you don't have to. If you already understand something stop studying it and learn something that you need to know. There's loads of stuff that you're supposed to learn. Learn those things well and ignore the rest. If you only have to read a few pages in a chapter of a text book, don't read the whole chapter.
  9. Don't study to pass. If you have a bad day, get sick or run into some other problems you could fail one or more courses. If you're only "just passing" you most likely don't understand what your supposed to be learning.
  10. Avoid "pretend studying" at all costs. A lot of my classmates go to the library sit together at a big table, open their books, and then don't study. They just sit around and chat about this and that and then pretend that they've been studying for hours in the library.

4 comments:

  1. I know this is an old post, but I TOTALLY agree with #5.

    We get a lot of "It would be EASIER if...."

    Are you kidding me?!?! This is RT school, this is some serious stuff. You had to fight to get in, right? That should be hint #1 that this whole thing won't be a piece of cake.

    Ugh.. I hope there aren't as many annoying people in your class as there is in mine.

    Happy Holidays!

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  2. I actually posted this yesterday, for the first time. Some how, I did it with an earlier post date. I just reposted it with today's date.

    A lot of people in my class have trouble with the idea of being able to apply knowledge, to solve problems that they haven't seen before.

    Complainer: "How can I answer a question if I haven't seen that kind of question before?"

    Answer: "Use your brain and figure it out."

    Complainer: "That's not fair..."

    I think there might be a few less annoying people, when school starts again, in January.

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  3. I agree with #5,6,7,8,9. Most people in my class are not able to think outside of the box and then they complain. Unfortunately most of them are going to return next semester even after failing couple of classes.

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  4. All the corequesites and prerequisites for future courses, in my program, pretty much prevent people from proceeding if they fail a course.

    People can write a supplemental exam to get a pass, in a failed course, but they're only allowed to do that two times. They have to have passed at least one of the tests in the failed course, to be elligible to write a supplemental.

    It's going to be interesting to see how many people didn't make it to second semster.

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