Jan

Discover How to Study In College, A Customized Plan Just For You

By Sophie

One of the hardest things for me when I was getting into college was learning how to study. I thought I knew how since I’d been in high school, but I was so wrong and my first semester grades in college proved it. I was so embarrassed, I’d ended my high school studies with a 3.8 GPA only to follow that with a 2.7 my first semester! I couldn’t believe it. No one told me that I needed different study skills to help my transition from high school to college.

So I began to really analyze how I studied to see what I needed to change to get better grades. My goal with this post is to help you avoid the terrible semester I had.

Now the easiest thing to do would be to just lay out what worked for me.

But I’m gonna bet that you and I may not be 100% alike, so instead I’m going to help you tailor your own study method.

Here’s what we want to do first, understand how you learn best, if you’re not sure exactly what that would look like see my post on identifying your learning style.

http://www.sophiemaddox.com/2009/10/29/unique-learning-styl/

There are three main styles, and most people are a combination of these styles.

A visual learner, traditionally learns best by seeing what it is that they’re learning
An Audial learner, is one who learns best by hearing information
A Kinetic learner is one who needs to interact with the information they’re learning

To put together a study method which works for you, pull from how you learn and take the following basic information and create something that works for you.

If you’ve read anything in the past on study methods it tends to lump everyone together in a group leaving out those who don’t exactly learn the same way as the some think you ‘should’.

For example I’m sure you’ve heard when you’re in class you just need to listen to the instructor, take notes, read the textbook, take the tests, and presto you have what you need to pass college classes.

Right?

Well not exactly, college is much more intense than high school studies so there are other dynamics that come into play. What if your professor isn’t very clear in his/her lectures so you’re not sure if the information they’re covering is relevant to what you need to know or if the information you have in the text is what you need to know.

Now often you can request a study guide towards test time so you know what you need to be ready for on the tests, and etc. However, there is another variable the projects, extracurricular activities what might count for getting the grade you need.

So rather than using this method completely let’s tailor a plan that works for you.

First get a copy of the syllabus, this tells you what you need to study when to get through the material for the class. Make sure you understand the objectives of the class, perhaps highlighting them will help solidify this in your mind.

Or if you are Kinetic learner, perhaps making a copy of the objectives page and cutting out the objectives and putting them in the front of your text book so that every time you open your text book you are reminded of what these are.

Secondly, take the objectives and re-write them in your own words, making sure you don’t interpret the objective, and possibly come out with a different one, just re-write it as if you’re explaining it to someone, perhaps your child. This will really help you see what you need to learn in the class and if you can explain this then it solidifies this in your mind even more.

Next, once you know what the objectives are for the class is open your text book to the table of contents and locate the chapters that support the objective the most, highlight these or write down these chapters in your notebook.

These you have to read and know.

Often you’ll find you don’t to consume the entire text to excel in the class, but you do need to read the chapters from the text that help you learn the objective for the class.

Live class: If you’re in a live class, not online, then pay close attention to the lectures, and take notes on what the professor puts on the board, you don’t need to write down everything he/she says, this will give you endless notes on things that may not be relevant.

Online: If you’re in an online class, often the lectures are posted, go through them carefully and look for the information that matches up to the objectives of the class and make sure you read the supporting texts.

If you learn best by hearing then you may not need to take notes, just listen carefully or bring a recorder and record the lecture.

Then compare what you’re text has to say with the class lecture. This is what you need to learn for the class, this way when it’s project time you’ll have a good grasp of the information in the class and you can dive right in, and get done quicker. When you’re familiar with what you need to know to dive into the project or test you’ll need to spend less time preparing_,this will end up saving you a huge amount of time in the long run.

In other words, find out what you need to know and learn in the class. Create your own personal twist to match your learning style and then tackle the class in chunks.

Warning!

Don’t try to understand the class in a sitting or two, instead get an overview from your syllabus, match your style and read the chapters from the text and the information from the lectures for each week.

The mind can only process so much information at a time, so be sure that you are not taking on too much at a time.

Cross Referencing, if your professor has not provides a list of helpful learning tools, like few web sites or a book or two that helps you understand the material better then ask them for some. They’ll often be impressed with your initiative, and you’ll have excellent tools to help you understand the information from a different perspective, this can really help you learn the information as well; seeing someone else’s perspective.

Vital College Class Secret:

Talk to your professor at the beginning of the class spend some time getting to know him/her and understand what it is that they’re looking for, tell them your strengths and where you see that you might need some help. Telling them this ahead of time will often save you so much frustration in the long run. You may not see eye to eye with them but you can get to know them so that they can help you.

This way if something happens where you need a little extra grace period, or consideration for passing the class you’ll have the ear of someone who knows you, sees how you learn and is in a position to help you.

There are other excellent resources to help you excel in college, discover other tips and trade secrets to succeeding in college.