FOR UNIVERSITY AND COLLEGE STUDENTS: Growing up you are told vague statements like work hard and be focused in terms of academics, but you are never really told tangibly how to excel academically. I would like to give a few tips that have resulted in fairly high marks for myself (not to boast here, just to explain). I was a lazy student in high school, I in fact have higher marks at university. This isnt usually the case (its usually the opposite). You may have different methods than mine, but I think if anyone generally tries them out consistently, you will see your grades improve drastically. 1.) Get an agenda and make it your holy book. This is the number 1 and most important rule. Schedule in important events and due dates well in advance (e.g. midterm and final exam dates as well). You also want to schedule your week so that you cover a chapter a week for each course, with the chapter split into daily bite-size pieces. This means for instance, if you have a biology chapter to finish, you would write Biology Ch. 1 (1/3) on Monday, Biology Ch. 1 (1/3) on Tuesday, and Biology Ch. 1 (1/3) on Wednesday, finishing the chapter in 3 days. Split larger chapters into smaller pieces like fourths, and smaller chapters into smaller pieces like halves. Also, schedule in any other commitments such as volunteering, research, etc. The agenda allows you to do a little bit of work consistently each day and spending the rest of your day relaxing once youve finished your work. It really effectively allows you to manage your time. The point is not to schedule things to the hour, but rather to schedule events (e.g. studying 1/3 of psychology chapter on Monday) and not falter on this. This is the ABSOLUTE NUMBER 1 RULE of academic success in my experience; getting an agenda. 2.) For memorization-based courses such as humanities, biological sciences, psychology etc., you have to go through the textbook and look at the bold terms and definitions. While reading the textbook, dont just read it, get a notebook and pen and copy all the definitions onto the notebook as well as relevant theory. The more you WRITE, the more you will memorize and absorb and most importantly...learn. For lecture-based courses, you should re-write all the slides word for word onto your notebook before class, and enter class with all of them already written. During class, dont get your laptop at all. Just have your notebook with the already transcribed slides and just listen to the prof and make any additional notes if needbe. This can be done for textbook-based courses in which there is a lecture component thats necessary for exams as well. Make sure you have studied all the material for the course a week ahead of exam at the latest. Spend that week re-writing all the notes you have already written in your notebook from your textbook or lectures. This will consolidate all the information. 3.) For math-based courses such as statistics, calculus, chemistry, organic chemistry, and physics, do all the in-chapter questions and ALL the end of chapter questions. After youve completed a chapter in this way, get 1 single blank sheet of paper, go through the chapter, and write all the formulas and equations (and theory if required) you need to know for the chapter on that page. That is your formula sheet. Do this for all your chapters so you have a formula sheet for every chapter, and youve completed every question in the book. Then before an exam, simply review your formula sheets and memorize all of the formulas. You will already know how to do the questions. 4.) Get past exams/quizzes, even if you have to pay people to get them. Do them before exams. Exams each year are fairly similar to previous years. 5.) Get at least 6 hours of sleep each day.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 05:18:56 +0000
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