Earlier this week I wrote a post on how I get by without taking notes in class. I was wondering if you take notes during class.
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If you are like me, you HATE taking notes in class. Since high school I have never taken notes during class. I didn’t take notes in high school either but that was because I was a slacker.
Now I don’t take notes in class because it is not the most effective method for most students. The key to not taking notes is reading in advanced. And here is why it works.
Most professors teach exactly what is in the text book and a little less. By reading the material before the professor even talks about it makes your life a lot easier. Most of the time when I am sitting in class I am just listening to the professor. When he or she writes something on the board, most of the time I am able to think to myself “Oh, that is in the book and is already in bold text! I can go back and use the book as my notes.”
The real reason this works so well is because of the commercialization of education. Professors are now making courses for more students than they ever have, this makes teaching a bit more time consuming and it is much easier to use the material that is in the book. Also, textbooks have much better designs now. Go to the library and look at a really old calculus book and then look at your new $200 book. There is a big difference in the organization and clarity. (However, older books are sometimes better at teaching material.) The textbook puts everything you need to know in BOLD LETTERS, boxes and diagrams, and includes a clear summary at the end of every chapter.
But reading isn’t the only thing you need to do.
Congratulations, if you read the material before class. You are doing better than most students. But just reading it may not be enough. You must try your hardest to understand the material. Once you read it go back and see if you really understand all of the material. Spend about 30 minutes trying to reinforce what you learned.
It is alright not to understand 100% of the material. However, if you understand 50% of the material that is only 50% more you need to understand in class. That is better than going to class not knowing anything.
What if the professor says something not in the book?
If you read the material, you should know what was in the material. While you are listening to the professor you should be thinking “That was in the book,” “that was in the book,” “that was not in the book,” “that was in the book.” If you noticed something that wasn’t in the book, then you can take notes, or if the professor is covering something you didn’t quite understand.
This doesn’t work for all classes.
This does not work for all classes. Seminar and advanced courses may require that you take notes. And some courses such as history may require that you take notes while you read, which is still a whole lot easier than writing really really fast to keep up with the professor during class.
This may not work for everyone, but it works for me. Do you take notes in class?
photo by Rennett StoweThis Sunday I decided that I would browse the internet for software that would help with writing research papers. I came across several programs with a range of functions. I think I have narrowed it down to using three programs that will help me do research from start to finish.
The ultimate goal would be to write a book from start to finish. So I need a way to collect and organize sources, organize the writing, and then insert the sources into the text.
This is what I came up with.
Papers - Papers is a program that allows you to organize PDF files. You can add citation information to the documents, keywords, abstracts, and pretty much everything else you would need. And of course you can use Papers to search for and sort documents.
EndNote – After collecting all of my sources in Papers, I would export the information to EndNote. That way all of my sources are ready to use in the actual paper or book.
Scrivener - I played around with the trial 30-day trail of Scrivener on Sunday, and I must say that I believe it will a great tool. Scrivener is a writing organizer. You can write segments of text, then view all of those segments as flash cards to reorganize the document by clicking and dragging the flash cards. You can add notes, tags, and keywords to the different segments.
Some Word Processor – Scrivener lacks when it comes to formating. It is only intended to be a used to create manuscripts. Therefore, I will need some word processor to do any final formatting, and add citations from EndNote.
Do you have any suggestions?
This will be my trial setup for a while unless someone makes a different suggestion. And by the way suggestions need to be Mac compatible!
Even the most experienced lifehacker will have times when he or she is behind schedule. Things happen. Events in our lives come up and we need to adjust our schedules, putting us behind. I myself am currently behind schedule. But I am a step ahead of many students for two reasons. 1) I recognize that I am behind schedule and 2) I have a plan to get back on track.
A month of classes has already passed, and midterms are just around the corner. Things are about to speed up. So are you ready for it? Many students make the mistake of thinking that they are on track, but later discover that they were not.
Here is how I am getting caught up.
5 Steps to Getting Back on Track
- Look into the Future - The first step is to determine what needs to be done. What assignments do you have from now and until the end of the semester? Do you have a project or a paper that you should be working on? Do you need to do any collaborative work? Make a clear timeline with everything that you need to do: assignments from every class, social events, academic events, family reunion, everything!
- Determine Any Urgencies - Do you have an assignment due in three days? If you have an assignment due within the next week or a test to take, just get the assignment done. Just do it! It is now your number one priority.
- Tell Everyone - It is always important to have support. Tell everyone that you are behind. Tell your roommate that you are behind and you need him to be quiet if you are studying. Also, tell your professor! Tell them as soon as possible. Many times if you come to your professor with a good reason he or she may set back the due date for you. By telling everyone they can understand why you are acting like an ass and ignoring them.
- Make a Solid Plan - After completing all urgencies create a solid plan that will get you back on schedule.
- Just Do It - Now it is a matter of just doing everything. Stay focused, and trek through all of the assignments. It is better to work long and hard a week before the assignment is due than the night before.
Some Important Rules
- Do not rob Petter to pay Paul - No matter how far behind you are, do not skip class B to work on class A’s assignment. If you do, you are only extending the amount of time you will be behind. You still need to keep up with your reading assignments.
- You Still Need to Take Breaks - Make sure you are taking short breaks about every hour. When doing many hours of work, you need to make sure you keep your sanity. Breaks also include evening relaxation. Do not work until the second you go to bed. Make sure you leave at least an hour between studying/working and sleep.
- Eat Healthy - As always you should be eating healthy. You should be eating fruits and vegetables. Avoid drinking coffee and sodas. Tea or water are the best alternatives.
- Go to the Parties - You can still go to Friday night’s party. Spend a few hours with friends, but turn down the alcohol for the night, and don’t stay out till 2 a.m. No one is going to not like you for go to bed earlier on a weekend or not drinking. Chances are they may agree with you, because they are also behind.
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Sacrifice is a Must - You will have to make some sacrifices, and I can think of a few things that really wouldn’t be much of a sacrifice.
- TV
- Blogs
- Work
- Naps
Once you get caught up, make sure that you have a solid plan to continue to stay on track. Ideally you will avoid any thing that will cause you to be get behind, but it things happen.
For years I have been told by teachers and students that the best method to study vocabulary for a foreign language class is to make flash cards and go over them every day.
While there may be some benefits to making and using flash cards, there is more effective methods to learning a foreign language. So before you go and make all those flash cards, take a moment and really think about what you are doing. Are flash cards the smart way of studying?
Let’s first examine the goals of a foreign language course.
- Learn a large amount of vocabulary
- Know and understand the grammar
- Be able to speak in the language
- Be able to write in the language
Now what are the different study methods?
- Flash Cards and Workbooks
- Integration
Flash Cards – The Method
Over the course of a semester, you will probably be required to learn about 400 words. Most students don’t even make the flash cards ahead of time. They usually write them up the night before and then cram the words in their head. At about 25 seconds to create one flash card, that is an accumulated duration of 2 hours and 45 minutes just making flash cards.
Now if we assume it takes you a total of 2 minutes to memorize each card(which is probably a bit generous), you would spend about 13 hours memorizing the words throughout the semester.
That is not too bad, only about 16 hours to memorize 400 words. The problem is that flash cards only accomplish one of the goals mentioned above: learning the vocabulary. Now after learning the vocabulary you need to go through the work book to figure out how the grammar works. No telling how many hours that would take.
The Flash Card Method gets a “D” in efficiency.
The Smart Way of Studying
The quickest way to learn a foreign language is to go live in that foreign country. Unfortunately, that can be very expensive and cause inefficiencies in other aspects of your life. But there are ways to integrate yourself into a foreign language, and the first step in doing so is throwing away those flash cards.
Instead of spending time making flash cards, use that time to write sentences using the vocabulary. By writing sentences you guarantee that you satisfy three of the goals. You will learn the vocabulary, just as well, if not better, as you would by using flash cards. Because you are using the words in context and not just “flashes” of images in your head. Then, by writing a sentence you have to pay attention to the grammar; therefore, you will improve your writing skills in the given language. You can even satisfy the fourth objective by reading the sentences out loud.
I hear the complaints already. This will take longer! Yes, it probably will. However, you are covering all the necessary material that you need to. And there is a good chance that when you are writing your sentences you will want to be creative, and to do so you will have to look up additional words, which you will therefore learn, creating a good possibility that you are learning words you will need to know in the future.
More Efficient Ways – Other Integration Methods
Music – You are working out four times a week, right? Well why not find some music to listen to that is in the foreign language you are studying. Music is the language of the world.
Movies – Watching a movie in a foreign language is always fun. Unfortunately, if there are subtitles, I never seem to actually listen to the actors. I just end up reading the subtitles. So challenge yourself, try watching the real thing. No subtitles. If there are subtitles then you can watch the movie during a movie night with a bunch of friends.
Books – Do it the old fashion way. Get a book in the foreign language and in its English counter part, and begin comparing the two. I always found this method entertaining, but I have a feeling that is something a limited amount of people would enjoy. Maybe it’s the historian in me.
Become a Kid Again – When we are a kid every word we learn is by actually recognizing the word as something in reality. Rosetta Stone is a language learning software that uses an integration method. When you first start out with the software you are given a picture of a boy and then “Jungen” (if in German). You are never shown the English word “boy.” You will then only associate the picture of the boy with “Jungen.” The software will teach the foreign language the same way you would learn your first language.
Go to Class – Take advantage of the foreign language class. Yes, it may be different speaking in class in a foreign language, but if you don’t, you are missing out on a great opportunity to solidify your speaking skills.
How do you study for your foreign language course? Are you using flash cards? What do you think? Do you agree that flash cards are inefficient?
I am embarrassed to admit it, but I, a student who writes about college, failed to take my freshman seminar course my freshman year. I am now in my second year at a university and I am finally taking the freshman seminar course (unfortunately it is a requirement to graduate). Today we took a wonderful tour of the library. I would like to share with you what I “learned.”
Librarians are Normal People
Doing a research paper can be a very frustrating and time consuming project. Sometimes finding the information can be very challenging. Maybe you aren’t for sure how the library system works. You look on the catalog software, and it shows that you should be able to access a specific article. But for some reason you can not. So what do you do? Do another search and find a different article that you can use. WRONG!
Finding material should be the least frustrating part of your research paper.
Go and ask the librarians at the reference desk. They are paid to help you, so use them. My professor gave an excellent rule that you should follow when you are in the library. “If it takes you more than 15 minutes to find the material, you took to long. Go and ask for help.” I would even say that 15 minutes is far too long. 10 minutes max.
Academia is Lagging Behind
Although it is unfortunate, the world of academia is falling behind when it comes to using information technologies. Students have a perceived notion that everything can be accessed via the web. As the days go by that notion is becoming truer; however, currently I do not believe the web offers the most efficient method of quality research.
But why? Most students will argue that wikipedia is an excellent source to accumulate general knowledge on a topic. Which I do agree with; however, you shouldn’t spend more than a few minutes gathering general information. Just grab a book and dive into the subject. Even if you do not know much about the topic you will be amazed at how easily you can fill in the blanks.
So next time you are doing some research go straight to a book instead of wikipedia. You will end up having a greater understanding of the topic. And besides, if you just have a book in your hand, it is impossible for Facebook to “mysteriously” appear on your screen. I don’t know how it happens, but one second you are writing a paper in Word and then BAM! Facebook appears before your eyes. It is quite a phenomenon.
Free Stuff!
Before you rent a movie or buy a book, make sure your library doesn’t already have it. Or just begin shopping at the library instead of at the movie gallery. By getting movies from the library you will probably be exposed to a larger variety of movies. You may find movies created in other countries. Watching different culture’s films will not only be enlightening, but also can be just as entertaining as American films.
Integration
Every career out there has its own community, and by being involved in that community you can guarantee a good spot in the community. As an undergrad it can be very difficult to be a part an academic community. Chances are you are not publishing innovative ideas in your field. That is ok. But stay on top of the newest discoveries and ideas of your field. To do this you need to be reading publications such as The Economist, Chronicle of Higher Education, Psychology Today, and the Smithsonian. By reading these publications you will get an idea of what is going on in your field, and you can begin to stick your nose in, get your feet wet, and begin creating your spot in the field. Most, if not all, publications are available through your library system. Use them. They are free.
Libraries are Quiet
Libraries are the best place to study! Why? Because they are quiet and lack distractions. You should always be studying in the library(or somewhere very similar), unless you are doing some Adventure Studying (which I highly recommend).
It is almost the end of the spring semester and all those deadlines are about to make you dead. It’s time for all of those papers to be due on the same day. Let’s focus on just papers and projects.
Like a good student you have divided your projects and papers into smaller more manageable sections, right? Many of us do not really do this. This should be our ideal method of dealing with papers and projects, but I want to focus on another method that will prevent you from writing the paper the night before.
Let’s create a scenario. You have a history paper due, a speech due, and a computer project due all on the same day, April 28. If you attempt to finish these all for the same day, you will burn out. What you need to do, is change the dates. Write down in your planner that your history paper is due April 21, your speech is due April 23, and your computer project is due April 25.
Note: I don’t suggest setting the false due date after the real due date. Although it is very tempting.
Even though the due dates are now closer, the projects now seem doable. I suggest if you know that the projects and papers will be due on the same day, or near to the same day, you should set these realistically false dates as soon as possible.
If you are a procrastinator these false dates will allow you to stay up all night before due date #1, and all night before due date #2, and all night before due date #3. Great! You will be exhausted after that week, but it is better than doing all three projects on the night before.
It can be better! Combine the false dates with a smaller arbitrary due dates and you will have a flawless method of dealing with multiple large papers and projects.
Changing the due dates will allow you to stager the smaller portions of the project. That way you don’t have to work on all three projects every Monday, but one part of a project every other day.
Now you have finished your projects the three days in advanced. You can spend your whole weekend doing whatever you feel like doing. The day before you really have to turn the projects in make sure you go over everything. It will take two hours at the most. Practice your speech one last time, read through your paper a few times, and check your project for minor flaws.
This method will simplify your end of the semester and reduce your stress level.
Working on a group project can be a challenging task. You will rarely find time to get together and work; therefore, you begin to send emails back and forth, creating a mess. Luckily there are two resources on the internet that you can use to remain organized.
Freeforums.org is a website that will allow you to host a forum site for free. Forums are an excellent way to keep everything on one page. Instead of hundreds of emails from working on the project, you can have one forum thread that has all of your discussions. Freeforums.org allows you to easily post pictures, youtube videos, etc. The forums are free, so you will have to ignore the advertisement.
I will let this YouTube video explain why a Wiki is a great resource.
If working on a small presentation for a class, or if you are a student organization, these two resources can be of great help when it comes to organizing your thoughts.
It is the end of the semester and FINALS are on their way. Today I sat down and blocked out my schedule in preparation for final exams and final papers. After I planned out my schedule I realized that if I follow my schedule I can experience finals stress free!
Plan Your Last Weeks
If you want to experience finals with minimal levels of stress, all you need to do is make a schedule. And do it now! Waiting to create a final exam studying schedule will only cause more stress. It’s not difficult. Just sit down for 20 minutes, get all of your syllabi out begin creating a schedule. To optimize your schedule you may need to create several drafts of a calender.
Join Me
You can do it too. Go through finals stress free. Accept my proposal. Post a comment below saying that you pledge to go through finals stress free. Then after finals we can discuss how we studied for the finals and what we can do to improve our final studying.
Did the winter months pile a bunch of snow on your Spring semester schedule? Shoveling away the mess can be a time consuming process, but don’t over work yourself. You wouldn’t want to hurt your back.
Sometimes the semester following Winter Break does not start as productively as the Fall Semester did. After the break all we can think about is the next break, and sometimes because of that we end up letting things pile up, saying to ourselves, “We will deal with it after spring break. As I was shoveling my driveway today, I realized that, if we have a pile of anything, we need to do a few things to make sure we survive.
Where to put the snow?
If you have ever shoveled snow before you understand that this is a very important question? What happens if you don’t? Well, you begin shoveling the snow, but quickly realize that the place you piled the snow needs to be cleared too. If you don’t have a plan, you will end up shoveling the same snow again and again.
If you have projects or studying that you have put off, make sure that you have a plan. Plan the days you will work on the project, what the final product should look like, and how you will do the tasks necessary.
Lift with your Legs!
Shoveling snow requires a repetitive motion that if performed incorrectly, will damage your back. Working on a project has its own motion that you should do correctly and get lazy. Laziness and lack of focus will destroy your progress.
When due dates sneak up on you, you may be tempted to pull some all nighters or skip class to make up on time. What ever you do don’t do this. You may have to sacrifice social time, but there is plenty of time to accomplish the necessary tasks.
Get a Good Shovel
Before you begin your projects make sure you have all of the necessary supplies you will need to finish it. Make sure you have poster board, resources, and other supplies. Making sure you have the supplies before you start will save you time, because you will not need to make as many trips to the library or the store.
The Snow Will Melt
The snow will quickly begin to melt. That is good right? Well, after the snow ends the landscaping preparation for spring begins. What is spring? Finals. Don’t let them sneak up on you. With spring comes warm weather, which equals your lack of attention. Stay focused!
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