How do you study?

Despite all my years in school, I don't think anybody has taught me how to study or study techniques.

I plan to hit the books this weekend, but I know that I will probably be browsing boards or wikipedia within an hour.

Has anyone else noticed how fascinating random articles are on wikipedia when you are supposed to be studying??


So, my question to the eggheads out there, how do you study and retain infomation?

Any doctors/pharmacists/PHD grads that frequent AH care to share your secrets?

MrStuffins

Books are a good start!

Spunge

amphetamines

MickySticks

In other news, Bressie's gay.

TheZohanS

salonfire wrote: »

So, my question to the eggheads out there, how do you study and retain infomation?

C'mon "eggheads" help salonfire out...and then we can mock you for being an "egghead"...muah ha ha!!

bleg

Write out a story. Write it out again. Write it out again. Try to write it out from memory. Compare what you wrote from memory from what you wrote before. When you're happy enough that you can remember it summarise it. Summarise the summaries so you have 2-3 words/points per paragraph that remind you of what you are trying to get across.

Practice practice practice practice.

Sky King

salonfire wrote: »

I plan to hit the books this weekend

Yes! Beat them until they give you the information you are looking for.

barura

Fear!

MrStuffins

bleg wrote: »

Write out a story. Write it out again. Write it out again. Try to write it out from memory. Compare what you wrote from memory from what you wrote before. When you're happy enough that you can remember it summarise it. Summarise the summaries so you have 2-3 words/points per paragraph that remind you of what you are trying to get across.

Practice practice practice practice.

Unless the material that this chap is studying is that story and that story alone, I have no idea how that would help at all!

4zn76tysfajdxp

TheZohan wrote: »

C'mon "eggheads" help salonfire out...and then we can mock you for being an "egghead"...muah ha ha!!

Boffin is another one.

Darkglasses

No internet! I go to the library and use books alone. I make a list of stuff i can only find online, and look them up at the end of the day.

BBDBB

when reading information, read it, cover it up, write out what you understand by what you just read and highlight any key dates or facts etc

bleg

MrStuffins wrote: »

Unless the material that this chap is studying is that story and that story alone, I have no idea how that would help at all!

Doesn't have to be a "story" per se. Say you're studying the aetiology of a myocardial infarct. You elucidate all the "plots" (e.g. high cholesterol) and bring them all together.


Try to think of practical examples as well. Working backwards helps as well. Have a good plan and stick to it. Take enough breaks.

Gordon

Badly!

Defiler Of The Coffin

I found it useful to get a load of sample questions and write out the answers again and again. No easy way to do it I'm afraid, but give yourself a break every hour and think of your goals!

Blatter

For theory based subjects; You read, read and read the material. You read the **** out of it until you understand it. Once you understand it, you read it again and again and again until it is ingrained in your brain.

For practical based subject and Maths/Science; You follow the instructions you are given and attempt to complete the object or the sum coherently. If you don't understand something, you either research the **** out of it online/through books or you ask your teacher/lecturer. Once you understand how to complete all the given steps, you practice, practice and practice some more. You practice until the method is ingrained in your brain.

Studying is quite straightforward if done correctly. It's a shame that so many people don't know how to do it properly and waste countless hours trying different things.

DEFTLEFTHAND

My technique was simple in that I just read and read for hours on end, I never took notes or held a pen in my hand while studying. When I thought I had a grasp on a particular topic I would do a question on it and if I could produce a comprehensive and detailed answer I would be satisfied that I'd retained sufficient knowledge to reproduce in an exam.

read the material
imagine you have to explain it to someone else
write down some sketchy notes on it based on your understanding of it for later reference

if it's anything mathsy, do the above, then do all the questions you can find on it until you can do them in your sleep

i usually find most subjects easy enough if i read through them so i duno about studying, it's maths that takes a bit of practice

MrStuffins

Kasen Kind Harpist wrote: »

Boffin is another one.

I read that in the voice of Mrs.Doyle!

Aoifums

Turn off the fvcking computer to start :rolleyes: Writing and re-writing notes works for me. Do questions afterwards if you have sample questions.

Sky King

R U telligent OP?

JohnMearsheimer

I always found it easier to study notes I had made myself. I never studied in a library, I surrounded myself at home with distractions I would have been looking for if I was in a library. If I felt like watching some videos on Youtube I did. I never studied for extended periods of time. There's no point chaining yourself to a table for hours on end. Take breaks when you feel like it. Got me through 6 years in college.

amacca

Sky King wrote: »

R U telligent OP?

LOL............his/her answer will reveal a lot regardless of its content.

YFlyer

Spider maps

bodhrandude

Does your university have an Athens resource online? This is a great library resource with lots of online books, journals, extracts and studies in a lot of subjects covered at university, its also a free resource but you have to be registered to your uni hub to access it.

InkSlinger67

Take all your notes in your own fresh blood - the pain of constant cutting will keep you alert enough to pay attention and get that passing grade in Witchcraft your mates have been teasing you about since 2nd year.

Either that or kill your mates.

Snowie

I don't, study I can retain information bye sitting there crunching books I learn bye doing. I'm a kinistatic learner so I learn bye movement...

I'm that person who sits there bouncing a knee all day long while I work ...

Drives people nuts

starlit

Its been a while since I was in college but found a few things that helped for me. Study a little bit each day over a couple of months. Read, re-read, learn off, review. Summarise notes and write out what I learnt after per handout/chapter. Answer previous exam papers. Preparing answers in advance. Understanding is just as important as remembering stuff. Remembering key words is vital and just piece things together in note format, jotting down key points. Focusing on them and in the exam just expand on them as much as possible as much as I know and as much as I could remember and retain information.

I find that critical thinking can help too. Guessing what possible questions that could come up and writing out possible solutions for them. Take regular breaks in between though its important to recharge the batteries. Consistent meals and sleep and time off from study is important too but going to the extream and dossing is not a matter to take into lightly as it be harder to stay motivated. Best to do a little bit of study each day, build up what you have learnt than learning in massive chunks in one day. Everyone is different I suppose.

double GG

OP, don't practice and study till you get it right. practice and study until you can't get it wrong!

starlit

Index cards and mind maps might help OP!? If its more practical you learn by doing but listening in lectures can help retain information quicker. If its more theory, if you understand it and answer a question critically, to the nail or in your own words and summarising what you know and what you have learnt as well as summarising notes/lecture handouts or from books then you are likely to know your stuff! Good luck with it op!

Seomra Mushie

OP, the most important bit of advice anyone can give about studying:

Understand what you are learning, DO NOT learn by rote. Don't move on from something until you understand it, it will stay in your head better, and you'll remember it much easier at revision time. Rote learning is why many people blank in exams and it's not true learning anyway.

Novella

When I'm studying, I open the chapter or whatever I need to learn and I write out all possible questions I could be asked based on that chapter. Then I close the book and try to answer the questions. That way I can see what I already know so I don't waste my time looking over it again and I can see what I have absolutely no idea about so I can spend the most time on that.

I repeat this test until I can answer all of the questions.

Or until I'm tired/bored.

Conor108

I have an add-on for Firefox (Leechblock I think) that you can block certain domains like facebook, boards, priestchat for however long you need. So yeah just do that

InkSlinger67

In seriousness, I took a personal approach to mindmaps. When I studied a particular subject I assigned a place I knew really well to that subject. When trying to recall facts about that subject the association of minute details of the place I remembered brought the facts back to my memory.

It got me through a leaving cert, national cert and honours degree....I guess the reason why I didn't go on for my masters was that I ran out of places I knew really well.

Regardless I would highly recommend this method. That and crazy mnemonics you'll never forget.

Back Prince

How I do it is look for topics which come up frequently. Then I prepare a sample answer. After that I go through the answer highlighting important words in each sentence. Then I list the important words out. Then i memorize them words. After a while I have memorized a layout. No I can answer a question based around those words instead of memorizing the whole question and can manipulate any question and introduce the important words I learned. Important thing is not to leave it to last minute but I have done and it has gotten me out of a lot of tricky situations. Also look online for real examples you can bring into piece, it is easier to remember cause there your own examples and not the books plus the corrector will appreciate the extra work put in.

ZzubZzub

This is an extract from a "How to Study Guide" we were given in uni.


DO

• Plan for revision from the start.

• Make a revision time-table.

• Set specific tasks for each revision session.

• Make the most of your personal “best” learning time and the way the memory works (see “Memory Facts” below).

• Organise your revision space.

• Be active in your revision:

- prepare summaries of topic areas – spider plans, mind maps etc.

- build in variety.

- use all your senses. (See “Use Your Brain” and “Strategies for Remembering” below.)

- use past exam papers.

- work with others.

- set questions and make up tests for yourself.

- use memory tricks to learn key facts.

• Build in relaxation time.

• Eat and sleep properly!



MEMORY INFORMATION

Memory involves:

• Taking in information through the senses

• Retaining it in short-term memory

• Transferring it into long-term memory

• Storage

• Retrieval – recall (deliberate, accidental, in dreams)

Active revision, using all the senses, can help to transfer information to the long-term memory for recall in the exam.

We remember:

• 20% of what we read

• 30% of what we hear

• 40% of what we see

• 50% of what we say

• 60% of what we do

• 90% of what we read, hear, see, say and do

Revision techniques that use all the senses will be most effective.

During a learning period the brain remembers items:

• From the beginning
• From the end
• Associated with other things
• That are emphasised/stand out in some way
• That appeal strongly to the senses
• That are of particular interest

Organising revision into 20-30 minute slots makes the most of the beginning and end “high” points of recall.

Regular breaks (2 – 10 mins.) help your brain to sort out the information you’ve taken in, so you return to study both rested and better informed.

Active revision techniques that use all the senses, connect related information and emphasise key points will help you to remember more.


After a learning period:

• You retain more of what you’ve learnt after a few minutes have passed since the end of the learning period

• You lose 80% of detail learnt within 24 hours of learning it



I find making lots of notes help, and teaching it to someone! You need to know it to teach it! I wreck my boyfriends head telling him the random crap I've learned... Good luck! If it makes you feel better, I'll be doing the same this weekend!

cade

Know your own focus time. There's no point staring for hours at a book when your mind is constantly daydreaming or undergoing mini sleeps.

Learning something new and difficult I could do twenty minutes of perfect concentration on the subject matter before I'd need a five minute break to let my mind absorb everything I'd just learnt before I'd go over it again.

For practical subjects such as maths practice makes perfect, as too does having self created step by step examples.

As for theory stuff, I found writing out definitions while saying them the most effective.

That's just the way I got through my exams a few months ago.

x_Ellie_x

Try to stay away from the computer and if you do need to use it, temporary disable the internet - its always a huge distraction. You won't be able to get anything done with it left on.

Crack open your book and read through the section your meant to be studying. Get a notebook. Write out the major points you need to remember.

Write these over and over again until you know them off by heart.

stovelid

salonfire wrote: »

how do you study and retain infomation?

Intelligence.

kfallon

The way I study:

Open Racing Post

Look at the different variables in the race i.e. ground, distance, jockey, trainer, horses previous form

Make confident selection

Place money on confident selection

Watch money go down the shitpan

Rinse and repeat :pac:

El Horseboxo

My eidetc memory is my secret weapon. Only works for stuff you have to learn off thought.

tiredcity

I'm a medical student and currently watching Take Me Out so not exactly the ideal candidate to advise on not being procrastinate-y but... we have to absorb super ridiculous amounts of information in a very short period of time. Previously I did a degree in Arts. Arts is really concept based so once you understand the general underlying theories and can argue your point you're almost there. If, however, you're trying to learn something data/fact heavy then I find a white board and Anki (free spaced flashcard repetition programme) extremely helpful to force things into your noggin. We all made up our own ridiculous mnemonics to remember anatomy because it's pure rote learning and surprisingly, much of that information is still in my brain despite lots of other stuff falling out. Do as many practise questions as you can, under exam conditions if possible. Also, while I've done it many the time, 16 hour study days are neither normal nor healthy unless you're really fecked for an exam. Take a break every two hours, remember to eat/drink water and stop an hour before bedtime so you don't end up being a zombie.

Coffeeteasugar

Get some nice stationary (tea and chocolate) to get you motivated!:) highlighters are always good, keep you focused on what you're reading, read and write notes as you go, photocopy. Aim to keep a routine every day and set up a nice study area. Do your research, if studying for an exam, try to narrow down your material as much as possible by looking at past exam papers so you don't feel overwhelmed!G.luck.

TheRealSquishy

I swear by index cards. Read everything and then put it into really basic points. It'll jog your memory when you read the point. I have coloured ones stuck all over my room and when I pass them I'll pick a random point and try to elaborate on it in my head and if I can't I have the pages written beside it and I'll read up on it again.

Works great for me as I get distracted so easily!

Irish_Elect_Eng

For for the bad boys :-)

Irish_Elect_Eng

For the Arts Students

For the Boffins!

And the rest :-)

All good books.

Dubstar07

The bottom line is, everyone learns different and there are different learning styles.
Felder, R is one author who has looked into this. The styles identified are:

Active vs Reflective
Sensing vs Intuitive
Visual vs Verbal
Sequential vs Global

Suggest a web search to help get more on this. For me it was trying to write out whatever i need to learn and keep doing so until i got it right. For mathematical type elements, it was doing as many examples as possible and hoping it stuck....good luck with it....

Thanks everyone so far for the tips.
Hopefully it will help others too.


I should add that I am fairly comfortable with mathsy type studying and figuring stuff out.

It's just when it comes to the pure learning stuff off by heart, theory stuff my brain swtiches off.

I lived with a guy studying medicine and flicked through the books he had.
That stuff, there was nothing to understand, no concept to grab that can lead to a eureka moment. It was just pure memorizing infomation.

I tip my hat to those who are studying things like anatomy and who can retain all that info into memory. To be able to learn that stuff is a great skill to master

tiredcity

salonfire wrote: »

I lived with a guy studying medicine and flicked through the books he had.
That stuff, there was nothing to understand, no concept to grab that can lead to a eureka moment. It was just pure memorizing infomation.

I tip my hat to those who are studying things like anatomy and who can retain all that info into memory. To be able to learn that stuff is a great skill to master

I agree with you about anatomy. It's just learning a list of things which attach to things, where they are and where the weak points potentially are, like a giant map. Medicine is thankfully a lot more than just that though! The likes of physiology you do get great eureka moments with because it's a concept or a pathway and once you really understand it, you can (hopefully!) recognise a pattern being disrupted in a patient. It's a lot more like being a detective than I originally thought it would be because no two patients are the same, but the early years are very much basic sciences and that involves a mad amount of basic memorisation. As you go on, it starts to get a lot more complex and that's the real skill! Still got a long way to go on that bit...

If you do have problems with theory memorisation, Anki honestly is great and though it takes a while to make the flash cards, I've found it pays off.

This isn't a "how-to" book exactly, but I read it last summer and found it was an interesting take on why we no longer actively improve our memories and some methods for recalling a large amount of things, should you be prepared to invest a lot of time in it!

Carverkid

Weird trick I found. If you're reading keep your hands busy. Play with your pens, a ball, slinky whatever. Something to do with using a part of your brain etc. Also write like hell as much as you can.

General General

El Horseboxo wrote: »

My eidetc memory is my secret weapon.

Your eidetic memory is letting you down there on the spelling front. =P

My secret of succesh: firsht, you getsh yourshelfsh shome hookersh & coke...

Learning stuff by rote can be of much use, as understanding often follows... so I hate to see that knocked.

I found rewriting notes in a more & more condensed form helped me a lot, I'd often have a whole module worth of know-how on a single A4 sheet.