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HOW do you study?

Beau x1

So I need to study Geography, and I've bought the Less Stress More Success edition. It's just a whole load of notes, basically. Should I be writing out the notes from the book again to make me memorise them, or should I be simply reading? I'm confused because some of my teachers tell me "don't be writing out the notes again", but then if you don't how are you supposed to learn them?

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samhail

I used to always rewrite notes. by writing them down you are learning them... well i was learning them. Learning is different for everyone so you need to do whats best for you.

have you ever used que cards ? like just write down about 10 things on each topic on A4 sheets then put them under headings. then put the headings on que cards so all you need to do is read the que cards, reading the headings will make you remember all the bigger notes.

so i would have a set of que cards, and a set of A4 notes, then my study book.
the A4 notes would be notes from the book, with for example all the different types of rocks or clouds.
under the list of clouds, for example, i would have cumulus, stratus, cirrus, numbus. and id have a full description of those, pictures too in my notes.
then on the que cards i would just have those 4 headings.
just before you go into the exam you just have to look at those cue cards... and if everything worked out right... your sorted !
its alot easier to look at 20 or 30 que cards rather than 100 pages of notes. or 300 pages of a study book.

Whats good too... is that this is the exact same in college from 1st year all the way up to 5th

K4t

K4t doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.

Piste

I just read over notes, for me writing out notes seems like a waste of time, but everyones different so you might find it works for you. Try different things out and stick with the study method that suits you most.

~Candy~

1stly you have to know you learning style

you know some people learn well by writing then down, some people learn by reading , some ppl learn by listening..

well, i have always jealous them ppl who have a photographic memory..lol:pac:but yea you gotta work what you have..sadly i am the type of person that has to write stuff down , and yea it takes up loads time..:o

i don't do geo, but for me,

business, i just read to book,my actually adore my business book , its reli good,i would write down a few notes on the confusing parts, i tried to summarized notes, it it doesn't seem to work that well with business

home ec...i basically summised 90% of stuff onto a4 sheets with loads highlighting and stupidpics n stuff...becoz my book and even revision books are way too confusing and too detailed..soo i make my own notes..

for maths n accounting n i learn by doing...

hope it helps ...

Kinkylukinbitch

Hey, for me im the type of person who has to write things out, so i write it out by three times nd keep reading it out loud its best to read while your writing it aswel, it is time consuming but it really does ease learning!....

Hope that helps!!;):)

smndly

I find writing out notes is quicker because i just have to do it once to learn it whereas if im reading notes i have to re-read 2 or 3 times. I just scrawl the notes onto an A4 really quickly and almost illegibly!

howtobeknown

ya have to find your own way to study bassically. theres study classes that some lad shows ya the best way to get all the info from ur book into ur head ha!! 20e or something 4 like an hour

bythewoods

I tend to compile my own notes completely, really indepth ones. Well. For subjects like Geography anyway.Total waste of time but I'll never forget it after writing it all out.

For example, in Geography for the Mezzogiorno, I took facts/ figures from my text book, revise wise and off t'internet.
Nothing quite like about 10 million SRPs. Chances are, for me anyway, if you have an absolute plethora of information you're bound to remember most of it.
If you have the bare minimum and forget even a teensy bit, well.. yeah.

Beau x1

bythewoods wrote: »

I tend to compile my own notes completely, really indepth ones. Well. For subjects like Geography anyway.Total waste of time but I'll never forget it after writing it all out.

For example, in Geography for the Mezzogiorno, I took facts/ figures from my text book, revise wise and off t'internet.
Nothing quite like about 10 million SRPs. Chances are, for me anyway, if you have an absolute plethora of information you're bound to remember most of it.
If you have the bare minimum and forget even a teensy bit, well.. yeah.

Haha that's true, seems to be good advice for me.

Zillah

A lot of people think more visually than others. The key to learning things is structure. Groupings, associations, similar topics, that kind of thing.

Whenever I need to learn what is essentially a pile of notes I use the following method which has seen me through college very well.

1 - Read over the notes and note the most important pieces.
2 - Try to break them down into between 3 and 8 groups (if you need more then you're biting off too much at once)
3 - Get a blank piece of paper and write the topic in the centre and draw a black circle around it.
4 - In a circle around the centre put a title for each of your groups, number them and circle them in another colour, connecting lines to the centre.
5 - In a row beneath these put a few subpoints that will put together the rest of the topic, and mark them with a letter.

So, for example let's take Geography. Let's say the topic is Norway. In the centre we write NORWAY. Then let's say the subgroups are Economy, Environment, Natural Resources and Recent History. We put these four titles in a circle around NORWAY and number them 1 - 4. Then beneath those we put a few subpoints. Let's say for Natural Resources these are Offshore Oil, Hydropower and Forestry, labelling these A, B and C.

I know that sounds very messy, so here's a picture of what I mean:

That's only the first step. Now what you do is, take two or three minutes to try and memorise the details, don't try too hard just read over it. Then, turn it over and grab a blank sheet and see how much of it you can remember. Again, don't stress yourself just take a few minutes. Once you've got everything you're going to remember go back to the original and put big dirty red circles around the points you forgot. The idea being that you'll remember these the next time. Try it again and put another colour around the ones you forgot. Once you've succeeded on getting the whole thing take a break for a few minutes and do it again. Repeat as necessary closer to the exams. You will tear through dozens of sheets but fuck the environment.

As soon as the exam begins grab some blank paper (back of the question sheet works fine) and quickly scribble out the chart and you can sit back and refer to it as you're answering the question.

I started Geography after Christmas in sixth year and got a B+ using this trick so take from that what you will. You can of course use many variations of this method but the absolute key is the fact that you learn information by using it, not reading it. Two minutes of sitting down writing out what you can remember is worth twenty minutes of sitting there reading it over and over.

Really didn't expect this post to end up so huge

bmcgrath

Having just done the LC this year I felt that writing out notes was the best way to learn. And also doing past exam papers.
I'd avoid sitting down and reading books cover to cover. You learn nothing and it's incredibly boring.....
So from writing out notes and learning them this year I managed at B1 in the higher paper

Tis easy really... hehehe

Beau x1

Cheers, great descriptive information there and I'll give it a go tonight Zillah. Geography is quite a difficult one to study for imo.

@bmcgrath: Yeah, practice seems to be my only way of learning things. Although I remember learning stuff for exams last year and now I don't remember a thing. Hope I retain the info this time around.

bmcgrath

Beau x1 wrote: »

Cheers, great descriptive information there and I'll give it a go tonight. Geography is quite a difficult one to study for imo.

I agree but tbh you have plenty of time. This time last year I was thinking... how am I ever gonna learn all this and all my other subjects annnnd study for xmas exams, then mocks! But come next March/April you will be almost done and you can pack in a hell of a lot of revision time.

Zillah

Any luck with this?

Gloom

Thanks, Zillah.

Have a big biology test on Monday, going to try that method out seeing as mindmaps are very popular.

JSK 252

I cant sit at a desk and just read a chapter of biolgoy or whatever. I have to be walking up and down the kitchen or my study room with book in hand and talk to myself out loud like a mad person!

lilmissprincess

The talking method works for me for stuff like Stair na Gaeilge in Irish ut the girl who sits next to me is fit to kill me since we have tests every Friday and I'm always muttering away to myself before class starts...

Zillah

JSK 252 wrote: »

I cant sit at a desk and just read a chapter of biolgoy or whatever. I have to be walking up and down the kitchen or my study room with book in hand and talk to myself out loud like a mad person!

Yeah I'm much the same, my study sessions have always been very energetic affairs, with papers piling up and cups of tea scattered around.

Gloom

I had a LONG post typed out and I clicked "reply".

"Bad server request". WTF!

So, I need to be active in learning which makes me unable to do after school study unless I shut the hell up.I need to get up, walk around, lie down, go online, talk to people, ask questions, get tested to study!

I Read.
I Write Notes.
I Learn.
I Do exam papers.
????
Profit!

Zillah

Gloom wrote: »

I had a LONG post typed out and I clicked "reply".

"Bad server request". WTF!

Use firefox.

Beau x1

I tried the mind mapping method but I'm really scruffy with work so it didn't go so well. AGH Christmas exams start Monday, and I'm lieing on my bed listening to mindless electro music which is just distracting me even further. Find it so hard to force myself to work.

JSK 252

Zillah wrote: »

Yeah I'm much the same, my study sessions have always been very energetic affairs, with papers piling up and cups of tea scattered around.

That has been the only I can effectively study and to date it has worked dividends. Its like an ultimate cramming session but it happens 20-30 weeks before the exam!