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Academic Success
Taking Useful Notes
Adapted from ACHIEVING ACADEMIC SUCCESS TAKES KNOWLEDGE; KNOWLEDGE IS POWER packet
by Kimberlyn Murphy, Northern Arizona University.
Before
- Read the chapter! Make sure to read all assigned readings so that you have some background knowledge beforehand.
- Arrive early! If possible, come to class ten to fifteen minutes early and use the time to review notes from the previous class and get organized.
- Sit in the front! Or at least sit where you can see and hear well.
During
- Listen! Try to keep focused on what the instructor is saying.
- Write down key concepts ONLY! Once you understand the concept, you only need a few words to refresh your memory.
- Tune in to gestures! Watch for changes in voice repetition and use of visuals. Note more subtle gestures, such as facial expressions. Instructors use these cues to convey importance of a topic.
After
- Review soon! While the lecture is still fresh in your mind, go through your notes. Fill in the gaps, highlight important information, or rewrite if necessary. Your notes will be ready for studying later.
Study Tips
by Nicole Zervas, Graduate Intern
Everyone has a different study style, which can be fairly dependent on the type of learner you are. Different tips and strategies are listed for each learning style. Before you begin, read your notes and highlight important information. Use this information to make study aids that will help you remember key points/concepts. It is probably helpful to use a little bit from each section regardless of what type of learner you are. Experimenting with these strategies will help you figure out a method of studying that works best for you.
Visual Learner
- Make flashcards.
- Draw pictograms, charts, or graphs.
- Use concept mapping to lay out ideas visually. (See diagram below.)
- Use a highlighter pen to highlight important information in textbooks or notes. Be careful not to “over-hightlight,” though.
Auditory Learner
- Read your notes or flashcards out loud.
- Tape your notes or flashcards and listen to them.
- Study with others.
- Explain the material/concepts to someone who is not in the class.
- Get a study partner and quiz one another.
Manual Learner
- Rewrite your notes or flashcards.
- Create mnemonic devices to remember important information.
- Develop test questions from the material.
- Create outlines.
Tips
- Start with the most difficult information first when your mind is fresh.
- Plan to review material weekly, so studying before the test is actually a review.
- Have a study plan, including a list of what topics you need to cover.
- Use short blocks of time to study and give yourself breaks. This will keep you from getting frustrated too quickly.
Concept Mapping
Study Habits
Information adapted from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Counseling and Psychological Services (www.unc.edu/depts/unc_caps/resources.htm).
- Decide what to study (reasonable task) and how long or how many (chapters, pages, problems, etc.). Set and stick to deadlines.
- Do difficult tasks first. For procrastination, start off with an easy, interesting aspect of the project.
- Have special places to study. Take into consideration lighting, temperature, and availability of materials.
- Study 50 minutes, and then take a ten-minute break. Stretch, relax, have an energy snack.
- Allow longer, “massed” time periods for organizing relationships and concepts, outlining, and writing papers. Use shorter, “spaced” time intervals for rote memorization, review, and self-testing. Use odd moments for recall/review.
- If you get tired or bored, switch task/activity, subject, or environment. Stop studying when you are no longer being productive.
- Do rote memory tasks and review, especially details, just before you fall asleep.
- Study with a friend. Quiz each other, compare notes and predicted test questions.
Preparing for Exams
Information adapted from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Counseling and Psychological Services (www.unc.edu/depts/unc_caps/resources.htm).
1. When the Exam is Announced:
- Find out what the exam will or won't cover.
- Find out what kind of exam it will be: objective, short essay, long essay, or a combination.
2. Exam Study:
- Prepare summary sheets for large amounts of lecture and textbook notes.
- Spend several nights before an exam making a final review of notes.
- Stress the following areas in your review: points emphasized in class or in the text; areas the professor has advised for study; questions in study guides, past quizzes, and reviews at the end of textbook chapters.
3. Preparation by Type of Exam:
- Stress specifics-definitions of key terms and examples; lists of items; for True/False, write some false statements.
- Essay Exams: Stress concepts; list probable questions; prepare a good outline answer and practice it.
- Objective exams: Study as if it were an essay exam.
- Problem Exams: memorize formulas if needed; practice problems.
Ten Traps of Studying
Information adapted from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Counseling and Psychological Services (www.unc.edu/depts/unc_caps/resources.htm).
1. ”I Don't Know Where To Begin”
Take control. Make a list of all the things you have to do. Break your workload down into manageable chunks. Prioritize! Schedule your time realistically. Don't skip classes near an exam—you may miss a review session. Use that hour in between classes to review notes. Interrupt study time with planned study breaks. Begin studying early, with an hour or two per day, and slowly build as the exam approaches.
2. “I've Got So Much To Study . . . And So Little Time”
Preview. Survey your syllabus, reading material, and notes. Identify the most important topics emphasized, and areas still not understood. Previewing saves time, especially with nonfiction reading, by helping you organize and focus in on the main topics. Adapt this method to your own style and study material, but remember, previewing is not an effective substitute for reading.
3. “This Stuff Is So Dry, I Can't Even Stay Awake Reading It”
Attack! Get actively involved with the text as you read. Ask yourself, "What is important to remember about this section?" Take notes or underline key concepts. Discuss the material with others in your class. Study together. Stay on the offensive, especially with material that you don't find interesting, rather than reading passively and missing important points.
4. “I Read It. I Understand It. But I Just Can't Get It To Sink In.”
Elaborate. We remember best the things that are most meaningful to us. As you are reading, try to elaborate upon new information with your own examples. Try to integrate what you're studying with what you already know. You will be able to remember new material better if you can link it to something that's already meaningful to you. Some techniques include:
- Chunking: An effective way to simplify and make information more meaningful. For example, suppose you wanted to remember the colors in the visible spectrum (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet). You would have to memorize seven “chunks” of information in order. But if you take the first letter of each color, you can spell the name “Roy G. Biv,” and reduce the information to three “chunks.”
- Mnemonics: Any memory-assisting technique that helps us to associate new information with something familiar. For example, to remember a formula or equation, we may use letters of the alphabet to represent certain numbers. Then we can change an abstract formula into a more meaningful word or phrase, so we'll be able to remember it better. Sound-alike associations can be very effective, too, especially while trying to learn a new language. The key is to create your own links, then you won't forget them.
5. “I Guess I Understand It”
Test yourself. Make up questions about key sections in notes or reading. Keep in mind what the professor has stressed in the course. Examine the relationships between concepts and sections. Often, simply by changing section headings, you can generate many effective questions. For example, a section entitled ”Bystander Apathy” might be changed into questions such as: “What is bystander apathy?”, “What are the causes of bystander apathy?”, and “What are some examples of bystander apathy?”
6. “There's Too Much To Remember”
Organize. Information is recalled better if it is represented in an organized framework that will make retrieval more systematic. There are many techniques that can help you organize new information, including:
- Write chapter outlines or summaries; emphasize relationships between sections.
- Group information into categories or hierarchies, where possible.
- Information Mapping. Draw up a matrix to organize and interrelate material. For example, if you were trying to understand the causes of World War I, you could make a chart listing all the major countries involved across the top, and then list the important issues and events down the side. Next, in the boxes in between, you could describe the impact each issue had on each country to help you understand these complex historical developments.
7. “I Knew It A Minute Ago”
Review. After reading a section, try to recall the information contained in it. Try answering the questions you made up for that section. If you cannot recall enough, reread portions you had trouble remembering. The more time you spend studying, the more you tend to recall. Even after the point where information can be perfectly recalled, further study makes the material less likely to be forgotten entirely. In other words, you can't over study. However, how you organize and integrate new information is still more important than how much time you spend studying.
8. “But I Like To Study In Bed”
Context. Recall is better when study context (physical location, as well as mental, emotional, and physical state) are similar to the test context. The greater the similarity between the study setting and the test setting, the greater the likelihood that material studied will be recalled during the test.
9. “Cramming Before A Test Helps Keep It Fresh In My Mind”
Spacing: Start studying now. Keep studying as you go along. Begin with an hour or two a day about one week before the exam, and then increase study time as the exam approaches. Recall increases as study time gets spread out over time.
10. “I'm Gonna Stay Up All Night ‘til I Get This”
Avoid mental exhaustion. Take short breaks often when studying. Before a test, have a rested mind. When you take a study break, and just before you go to sleep at night, don't think about academics. Relax and unwind, mentally and physically. Otherwise, your break won't refresh you and you'll find yourself lying awake at night. It's more important than ever to take care of yourself before an exam! Eat well, sleep, and get enough exercise.
How to Handle Test Anxiety
- Prepare yourself for the test. If you have studied well, you’ll have more confidence going into the test. Cramming will only increase tension!
- Put things into perspective. This is not the only test you’ll ever take!
- Keep up healthy habits like exercising and eating well.
- Get plenty of sleep before the test.
- If you start to get overwhelmed while studying, take a break and do something relaxing.
- Avoid coffee or other caffeinated products as they may make you feel “jittery” or overly nervous, especially on the day of the test.
How Can I Relax when this Test is Looming Over Me?
- Take short breaks to relax. They will calm you down and still leave plenty of time to study.
- Take a bike ride.
- Blow bubbles.
- Take a hot shower or bath.
- Meditate.
- Listen to your favorite song.
- Have a snack (try to avoid caffeine and sugar which may make you more nervous).
- Read one article from your favorite magazine.
- Watch one episode of your favorite show.
- Call a friend.
- Go to the butterfly trees in Pismo Beach.
Where to Study
Adapted from ACHIEVING ACADEMIC SUCCESS TAKES KNOWLEDGE; KNOWLEDGE IS POWER packet
by Kimberlyn Murphy, Northern Arizona University.
- Study in the same place all the time; you’ll learn to associate that place with working.
- The room temperature should be between 65 and 70 degrees.
- There should be good air circulation.
- Good lighting is a must.
- Sit upright. If you get too relaxed, your mind will be too slow.
- Keep the area you are working in free from distractions.
- If you like to study outdoors, find a quiet place on campus, like the Poly Pond.
How to Flunk Out with Style and Grace
by Bonnie Titley, Director of Academic Advising, Colorado State University
- Sit in the back of the classroom. This will immediately indicate a lack of interest in the class and a negative attitude toward school in general.
- Don’t read your assignments before going to class. This way, you’ll be nicely unprepared to answer questions, and you’ll probably have no idea what the professor is lecturing about.
- If you must take notes, don’t bother looking at them until the night before the exam. No sense making more of what the professor says than you have to. Also, be sure to use lots of abbreviations that you’ll forget later.
- Forget to buy your textbooks and ignore suggestions made by the professor to do outside reading.
- Ignore exam results. Throw them away. If you studied them, you might do better next time.
- Either don’t go to class at all or go very little. This way, you won’t be bothered with knowing anything about stuff that might be on exams. And remember, going to class late is not at all graceful or stylish. It’s best not to go at all.
- After cutting class, be sure to ask the instructor, “Did I miss anything?”
- Start the term paper as late as possible. In fact, just throw it together. This will guarantee a junior high school level mess, especially if you wait until the night before the paper is due. Also, be sure to hand in papers with coffee rings and jelly stains all over the title page.
- Schedule your classes so that they are all in the morning or the afternoon. This gives you large blocks of time to sleep in or goof off, thus eliminating any possibility of making good use of your time.
- Never visit with any of your professors during the quarter. You can thus avoid getting any valuable information that might help you.