Lesson 4: ESS: Effective Study Strategies
Studying for your exams and getting good grades start from the very first day. You should be making a start in your very first class. All too common is the famous “I keep my high school study habits” pattern. That is doomed to fail, unless if you already had great study habits. However, having a straight A average in high school by no means says you have great study skills. It is all too often quite the opposite. Some people do not have to put in much effort to get good grades, but in College these things do change. For starters the work load is much higher, and the amount of information you need to know if beyond comparison. This change in difficulty should also cause you to change your study habits.
Getting Started
You really need to pay attention in class from day one; not only because every piece of information you are given in that setting will be important, but more so because there are times when you will be exhausted and hardly listen. There will be times when your eyes will start to fall shut in the middle of a lecture and your head will wobble up and down. Considering there will be times when by no fault of your own (hopefully) you will miss parts of or entire lectures, it is even more so important to really be there when you can. Just sitting in that chair writing down every word the person at the front says is not “being there”. You have to understand the significant difference between being present and actually being engaged in the class. People will D’s are present, so are people with A’s. The difference in a lot of cases is absolutely not a difference in intelligence or capacity. If you got into college you should have the ability to do well, from then on it is all about the tactics.
“Being there”
Being there does not mean being present in a class room setting; it means being engaged in what is being discussed. For that reason you should not be busy writing down each and every word, but instead really listen and filter through what is actually important information to write down. Examples are always important; do not miss a single one! Sometimes an exact same one comes back on a test.
You also need to put an active effort into active listening. You have to not just hear, you have to listen; meaning you should at all times understand what the professor is talking about. If you do not understand there are different possible courses of action:
- You can raise you hand and request the professor explains the concept you are having problems understanding. As mentioned before; if you don’t get it there is a bit chance you are not the only one.
- If you have a professor who is dead against any interaction in the class, then you should mark the topic clearly (possibly with a red pen, put a large question mark next to it). After class you can go to your professor and ask for a quick explanation before they leave the lecture hall. If you believe you need more than a quick explanation you should go home and right away try to find the appropriate information in your textbook. If you cannot find it or it still does not help go and see the professor during office hours or contact them to make an appointment.
- If the class has a tutorial you can also bring it up there, your TA might have more time to explain to concept, or you might get to it faster than to your professor.
Which strategy you choose depends a lot on yourself and how the class is run. You have to evaluate your opportunities and then act on whatever is available. Keep in mind your professor is being paid to help you understand, so there is nothing strange about emailing them a question or a request for an appointment.
