How do you study?

[Formalhaut]

In case you're no longer in university, or high school, or sixth form, or education in general, then you surely must remember those times studying for an exam, or having to churn out homework after homework like a bloody factory.

It is all very annoying isn't it? But when push comes to shove, it does have to be done. So when you're back into a corner, what do you do to study? How do you study? Any tips?

This exam season (which is still ongoing, mind) I've really been taken with studying in the town's central library. It's a fantastic place actually. It's a nice atmosphere to power study and not to mention, a library is a quiet place with very little in the way of distractions. I can't really do much at home, because there's so much technology, distractions etc.. I can't concentrate. Working outside the home actually makes me like doing revision. I feel like I'm going on an adventure, or that I'm making a day of it.

I know, my 'adventures' don't seem very exciting. But hey. And that's just the locale. The actual methods I use vary, but I like little notelet cards that feature as both 'summary' cards and flashcards with a question and answer format. It's cool. There's also the standard mindmap and highlighting trick but you know. It's all personal preference. But what do you like? What do you remember from those heady days of school?

While this is a thread that essentially boils down to revision practises, hey, it's a skill many people lack! Maybe some of those people are you and you might actually learn something.

That's right, you might learn something productive in General Chat!


This thread is lovingly promoted by the Fluffy Pink Party! :kaohappy2

[Pumpkin]

I never actually studied (didn't need to really) until before I went to take my GED. I never actually completed a math credit (I hate math) and I needed to learn 4 years of it in about 2 months. So I went to a tutor program (was air conditioned and super awesome and is also around when I joined EoFF) and they gave me the high school math book. It was MASSIVE. They also gave me access to a program that could make up practice tests for me. They were usually helping others and I didn't really need the help (I learn better by myself) so I just sat there 6 hours a day, 4 days a week studying math. And I passed my test !

[Shauna]

I don't! And when I did, I studied poorly! Mostly writing up notes and "reading" them.

...And I wonder why I didn't get a better degree. ;_;

[Aulayna]

I never really studied - as in proper sitting down, reading things from cover to cover, taking ntes etc. Not even at University.

I got through school by skim-reading my notes the night before the exam and then sleeping with the notes under my pillow in the belief that my brain would absorb them in my sleep...

At University I generally did everything a day or two before it was due in. Or if I was really bored. I generally just work better under pressure and a lot of what I did at University was covering what I'd already done at A-Level. I admit I really just breezed a lot of my modules by paraphrasing. Just picking up a book and looking at the bibliography or glossary and finding a segment that said roughly what I wanted it too and then paraphrasing it so suit my argument.

I think in total I only probably read about 2 books cover to cover at University. Most of it was very sociology and philosophy based and after a while I just grew tired of reading overly cynical stuff by grumpy old men that never really answered anything despite always asking why.

As for things I've personally taught myself outside of school or University it depends how passionate I am. For example with Photoshop I've mostly just learned through trial and error and playing around with everything. If I'm looking for a very specific effect I'll google for tutorials. With coding I generally self taught myself by looking at what other people have done, breaking it, putting it back together and figuring out why it didn't work before breaking it again etc.

I've always been more of a hands on learner - I love theory stuff and have learnt a lot of theory stuff too but theory really depends more on how it's delivered as to whether it sinks in or not.

But yeah when it came to school I left far too much to the last minute than I'm willing to admit

[Dat Matt]

The night before. Mostly with tears in my eyes.

I tended to read over lecture notes and the mixed notes myself and my friends gathered from the lectures. Read them up to a week before the exam. Usually worked for me although I do no recommend it for times when there are more than 1 exam within that one week period.

[Gzussaves]

I absorb most of the things I learn so studying was never really much of an issue.. now how longer i keep that knowledge is a different story, but when i did need to study i would only look at the stuff i didn't know.. that way you are looking at less information so it is less for you to actually learn

[Jinx]

I never study.

[Pike]

I didn't. I played games instead.

[Denmark]

i wrote stuff down, did problems, stuff like that

and pulled all-nighters before every test so i wouldn't forget stuff via sleep

[Raistlin]

I basically never studied until I got to law school. I quite literally never studied in high school, and my idea of "studying" in college was a quick review of my notes the night/morning before an exam. I was actually forced to study in law school, though I still did far less than my average classmate. There, a few days before an exam, I would basically shut myself in my room and work virtually non-stop until test time.

I would generally study in my room, because I was too lazy to go to the library.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

Outside of my Freshmen year of college, I only had a couple of classes that ever had tests. For the classes that did have tests, I would just take extensive notes every day of class. Outside of taking the notes in class, i really didn't study that much. Generally I would sit down and skim through my extensive notes the night before for an hour at most. All looking at the notes does is sort of give that information a spacial location in my mind. If I end up stumped on a question, I can just try to visualize where that information would be located in my notebook within my head and generally pinpoint the answer.

I generally just had big projects for my classes though. I would try to get as many of those things done ahead of time when I could, but I've had to pull about three all nighters this last school year. Two of those days I had about 50 pages to type up in one day (with a good bit of blank space on about half those pages). The last all nighter I pulled before graduation, I typed up 120 pages in one day, and every page was full. Miserable.

[Flaming Ice]

Depends on how you remember things.


Sometimes it's easier to draw pictures, make a song for yourself, or something odd like that.


Also, at least some teachers I had in college, would read off the test and tell us what you need to know. Some tests were even based upon practice sheets; didn't really need to remember anything but what's on that sheet


And if they say "You don't have to write this down" Then they are lying...it's usually a test question

[Formalhaut]

Sheesh, you guys make me look like a real square.

[kotora]

Vape up some MJ, sit down with the materials and start writing summaries. Start well enough in advance so you have little work to do at once. In my experience writing summaries is the best way to handle them exams, got me through the toughest resit periods (4+ exams where pretty much my destiny was at stake - I don't know why it happens every year).

[Psychokitty]

How do I study?

^^I don't. It's why I flunked out of college twice.