s t u d y t i p s
Do you feel overwhelmed by many of your textbooks?
Not enough time in your day?
Reading is too hard? too slow?
Too much material to sift through?
If you seem to fit into this picture, the Study Tips page is for you! The Learning Center has compiled information to help you read better, study smarter, work faster and more efficiently. Feel free to read the tips online or print them out for future reference.
For other helpful links, you may want to visit Online Resources which provides additional resources on the Web. There are also many, many other helpful materials awaiting you in the Learning Center as well as live versions(People) to assist you directly. Check us out in the Frick Center.
Study Tips Topics
Can't get yourself organized? Need 25 hours in a day? We are unable to alter the 24/7 plan but we can offer suggestions for managing your time. Take a survey on how you spend your time, use a time grid for organizing your day or week, analyze how you spend your time, prioritize your tasks, learn to distinguish time wasters from time savers, learn basic strategies of successful time management.
Sometimes it is helpful to form a study group of students outside of class. The group might meet for a specific purpose such as preparing for a test. A group might also decide to meet regularly to review class material and to integrate class notes and class handouts with the chapter readings. Some groups meet to review papers in a peer editing format. Whatever your reason might be for forming a student study group, you will find helpful hints and guidelines in this Study Tips section.
Did you know that when you speak, you speak at approximately 200 words per minute? Did you know that your thinking speed is 500 to 600 words per minute? So thinking speed is faster than speech speed. Yet many people miss parts of lectures OR rules/guidelines for a special project OR hints for the next test OR directions to someone's house.
Are you one of these people? If your answer is yes, learn how to improve your listening skills by checking out this study tips topic.
Whether you are part of a small seminar group or a
large lecture class, you will probably find a need to take notes. If your note
taking skills are a bit fuzzy OR taking class notes was never much fun for you OR
your notebook is often as thick as
your textbook, you may want to review this topic. Look at the Thirteen Points
to evaluate your note taking strategies. Learn what you should do before you
take notes as well as some new techniques to try.
The most exciting and, in some cases, the most fun part of college life is THE TEST. Okay, so you may not believe that. However, testing is a part of college life and you may need to become "testwise" to improve your performance. This Study Tip section offers you guidelines for preparing to take tests as well as hints to assist you in reading and interpreting test questions.
Study Techniques for Specific Course Disciplines
Every discipline has its own particular structure and terminology. Of course, there are commonalities but there are also many differences. For example, in a math class you would complete practice problems while in an English literature course you would need to understand the type of writing as well as the time period in which it was written. You would probably read a physics textbook differently than a psychology textbook. This Study Tips section provides you with suggestions for many disciplines. Check it out for a course in which you may be enrolled.