studing problems

Headshot

im having big problems studing for college

its my first year in college i took a year out after my leaving cert which i didnt study for either
i wanted to do a trade

when i sit down to do some study ,i try everything to get out of it

i dont even know how to study
i write down what i learn but its usless just cant retain it

im so down hearted i really want to do well for the Christmas exams

Faith

It's a matter of strict mental discipline. You need to study in a room with no distractions and nothing to do but study, like the library. Although, if you're anything like me, you'll get just as distracted there.

Seriously OP, it's a problem most people struggle with. My exams start tomorrow and I'm here... You just really need to be disciplined. Write out your notes and just keep re-reading them. Focus on passages that you think will be important. Look at the past exam papers and attempt to answer all those questions. Do any practice questions that your course gives you.

Good luck!

Chinafoot

Studying can be horrible when you have little or no interest in the subject.

You say you wanted to do a trade, is there any possibility of following this up? A lot of people can get pressured into going to college by parents, etc, and a lot of the time they end up dropping out because they have no interest in the course/want to be doing something else. If you are really struggling perhaps you should speak to someone in you college, be it a counsellor or your students union welfare officer.

As for studying, what I always tried to do was lock myself away from all noise and distractions (no laptop, no mp3 player, no tv) and write. Write out your notes fully, then shorten them down to the main points and then shorten them down again onto flashcards. That way, when you see the bullet points on the flashcards the rest of the information will come back to you. Writing things out a number of times always worked best for me in terms of retaining information. You may be different though.

Honestly though, if you're not interested in your course or are just not academically inclined then perhaps you should look at the other options available to you. Better to decide now, in your first year, then to get closer to the end, or to complete a degree/diploma in something you don't enjoy and have no interest in persuing after college.

Best of luck.

Headshot

Chinafoot wrote:

Studying can be horrible when you have little or no interest in the subject.

You say you wanted to do a trade, is there any possibility of following this up? A lot of people can get pressured into going to college by parents, etc, and a lot of the time they end up dropping out because they have no interest in the course/want to be doing something else. If you are really struggling perhaps you should speak to someone in you college, be it a counsellor or your students union welfare officer.

As for studying, what I always tried to do was lock myself away from all noise and distractions (no laptop, no mp3 player, no tv) and write. Write out your notes fully, then shorten them down to the main points and then shorten them down again onto flashcards. That way, when you see the bullet points on the flashcards the rest of the information will come back to you. Writing things out a number of times always worked best for me in terms of retaining information. You may be different though.

Honestly though, if you're not interested in your course or are just not academically inclined then perhaps you should look at the other options available to you. Better to decide now, in your first year, then to get closer to the end, or to complete a degree/diploma in something you don't enjoy and have no interest in persuing after college.

Best of luck.

i like my course, just im not use to study never did it

eamoss

{(-_-)}HeadShoT** wrote:

im having big problems studing for college

its my first year in college i took a year out after my leaving cert which i didnt study for either
i wanted to do a trade

when i sit down to do some study ,i try everything to get out of it

i dont even know how to study
i write down what i learn but its usless just cant retain it

im so down hearted i really want to do well for the Christmas exams

Iv the same problem but I have to be at the computer to study for 80% of my classes so that doesnt help. Like last week I went into the lab to study for a test which I had the next day and I ended up watching some dutch football match :rolleyes: though I do find some of my subjects uninteresting and two of them pointless

Chinafoot

{(-_-)}HeadShoT** wrote:

i like my course, just im not use to study never did it

Well, it's different for everyone and you need to find a way that works for you. Some of my friends in college preferred to just read their notes over and over and highlight a few things here and there but that never worked for me. Writing things down repeatedly works great though. Give it a try.


Again, I'd recommend talking to the Students Union, perhaps the Education Officer or the Welfare Officer, as I'm sure you're not the only one with this problem. It can be really hard to get into the swing of study, particularly if you haven't done it before, but I'm sure there are people in your college who can offer solid advice and techniques.

D-Generate

Forget sitting down to a book and notes and reading them over and over again. To do well in an exam you need technique, not knowledge. It is much easier on the mind and less boring if your are taxing your brain with problems rather than reading word after word. The satisfaction of answering one question will be enough to get you through the next one and so on. Look through past papers, do every question on them. The questions nearly always repeat from year to year. Answer them with the help of your notes and create solution sets to each exam. When thats done for every year do it again without your notes and if you get stuck you always have the solution sets to look at. I have been doing that for years and it sure as hell gets me top of the class/year.
For my most recent end of year exams i did 4 hours of good study like that a day, 5 days a week in the last month of term, whereas others studied from 9-9 by reading books over and over and not really absorbing any of it.
In most of the exams I had seen around 70% of the questions already in one form or another. Sometimes they had different figures but often they did not. In one Physics exam I had seen every single question and even remembered the exact numerical answers just from being prepared. I was then able to rehash the answer to the question and the method because i had done it 3/4 times at that stage. Others however had to come up with fresh solutions to it because they only knew the theory from notes and books.

Never underestimate the laziness of those setting the exam. They care more about doing their own research than providing a fresh new challange each time.

tbh

Take a chapter of your textbook, and imagine that, tomorrow, you have to teach that chapter with no notes. You have to understand the concepts and be able to explain them in your own words.

The thing with studying is that once you get started, it's grand, it's just getting down to it. Using the "teach it" approach really helped me.

Drift

Make sure you practise exam questions OP. I know you don't learn the stuff as well if your practising exam q's all the time but at the end of the day its the exam that governs if you pass or not.

Get your hands on previous years papers and check out all the questions. Don't try to second guess whats coming up just make sure that you can do the exam questions that are on previous years papers. Its usually a good start. It doesn't cover everything but it does cover a good percentage.

rugbug86

also maybe talk to your lecturers - see if they have any extra tutorial questions that you can do or if you do some past papers will they give you some feedback.

I find past papers/note condensing/tutorial questions works for me.