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when you study, eliminate distractions.
turn your cell phone off, turn of aim, everything.
ps - it also helps me to study in intervals (take 5 min breaks between each study "session" - so take a 5-10 minute break for every 40-50 minutes you study to relax your brain, otherwise you will be reading on and on but nothing will be recalled when you are asked to during a test because what you were reading on the 2nd hour was mumble jumble, or it just didn't sink in your head as much).
but i suck at studying, so who am i to recommend anything T_T
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From all that I read in the OP, all you have to do is try.
Here is a really good thread made by geeks on getting straight As
Here
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i always look up strategies and tips to help me get better grades.. but then i realize that it's pointless because i don't even put enough hours to even consider strategizing my study plans. it's a sad cycle: i look for simple motivations but when i don't follow through with my study hours, i end up back on the internet. sad.
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I agree with most of your points except the first one: taking good notes. I would like to mention, however, that this may only apply to fields similar to the ones I am studying (physics and math).
Taking notes is overrated. The textbook has everything the professor says, except it's written more succinctly and more clearly. Plus, no matter how good you are at taking notes, you can't follow what the professor says as well as you could if you weren't taking notes. This is less the case in classes like psychology or philosophy, where it's easy to write down one or two sentences for every five minutes the professor talks and still get the main idea. In a class where the professor is doing a long derivation or proof, you can't possibly hope to write it down and understand all of it at the same time. It's a lot more useful to just bring your textbook to class and follow along in the book.
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staying awake in class is a good one. even if you record the lecture with a tape recorder, you might miss out on hand gestures and stuff.
study groups are good if it isn't a leech-only thing. it's good if people can discuss ideas and explain concepts to each other in different ways so that one has more than their own way of seeing things.
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im facing a situation similar to the one you described this fall, thanks for the guide.
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Here is how I have come to approach it: (consistently achieved 5 A 1 B, looking for straight As this time around):
Time+effort=results
This is what I apply to almost all of my academic, musical, and starcraft related achievements and failures.
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One huge thing I've done that has helped me more than anything else is to rewrite my notes outside of class. If you can make sense of your scribbled, rushed jargon at home and rewrite it while still understanding it you've done a complete review of the lecture session that day in about 10 minutes. you can condense or expand upon your notes, Associate page numbers with key ideas etc etc etc etc. It really is the best study tip I've ever received and has helped me get As in classes I shouldn't have.
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...is this thread serious?
In the long run, grades don't matter. As long as you show curiousity and a genuine interest for whatever you're studying, you'll do well in life, and the good grades will come as well. There's absolutely no reason to be doing extra study guides or practice exams. Will they help you make a better grade? Yes, for that specific exam, but they neither help you in learning more nor in reinforcing information in the long run. Most of your points are very good, and they are good habits that all students should follow, but the point isn't to make straight As, it's to learn more and do more in the limited time you have a student.
Also, it's really not that hard to get all As... It definitely doesn't require even close to all of the work you mentioned in the OP.
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On August 16 2009 18:44 evanthebouncy! wrote:
love studying
yea.
i studied economics and international relations first year, hated it and got shitty marks
switched over to 2 other majors i loved and surprise surprise, my marks are good enough so far to get into grad school but there's still a couple of years left so i'm not getting too overexcited
but yea. it's easy to get good marks when you're studying what you love.
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On August 17 2009 04:45 Exteray wrote:Show nested quote +On August 17 2009 03:28 bh. wrote:On August 17 2009 02:29 Exteray wrote:
The grades you get also depend on how rigorous the college is. In a highly competitive college it's almost impossible to get all A's whats your definition of highly competitive? there are quite a few people at UCLA + cal that i know have 4.0 and if not 4.0, then maybe 3.98 etc. these are your typical anal premed kids, and it is definitely posisble to get all A's at 'competitive' colleges, unless theses are not competitive. Sorry I meant ultra-competitive then. HYPS for example. At Stanford I haven't heard anyone who has above 3.95.
wow, I actually never knew that. Thought Stanford was quite known for grade inflation. I have heard that UPenn is ridiculously hard though.
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On August 18 2009 01:14 Saracen wrote:
...is this thread serious?
In the long run, grades don't matter. As long as you show curiousity and a genuine interest for whatever you're studying, you'll do well in life, and the good grades will come as well. There's absolutely no reason to be doing extra study guides or practice exams. Will they help you make a better grade? Yes, for that specific exam, but they neither help you in learning more nor in reinforcing information in the long run. Most of your points are very good, and they are good habits that all students should follow, but the point isn't to make straight As, it's to learn more and do more in the limited time you have a student.
Also, it's really not that hard to get all As... It definitely doesn't require even close to all of the work you mentioned in the OP.
haha i will agree with your last sentence, but of course study guides and practice exams help. And it does matter for many applications, ie I am applying for medical school in a year and for them, i show my curiosity and interest through getting good grades lol. and taking mcat in a few weeks and definitely all those practice tests ive taken are coming back to help alot. and doing practice problems reinforce material way better than any other method in my opinion (for math/chem/physics) which is exactly what practice exams do.
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For me its:
-reading the textbook BEFORE going to class and hearing the lecture on it
-do problems/exercises that aren't assigned for more understanding
-ask teacher questions whenever confused
-study for 45 or so min at a time, play some SC, then more studying 
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On August 18 2009 01:14 Saracen wrote:
...is this thread serious?
In the long run, grades don't matter. As long as you show curiousity and a genuine interest for whatever you're studying, you'll do well in life, and the good grades will come as well. There's absolutely no reason to be doing extra study guides or practice exams. Will they help you make a better grade? Yes, for that specific exam, but they neither help you in learning more nor in reinforcing information in the long run. Most of your points are very good, and they are good habits that all students should follow, but the point isn't to make straight As, it's to learn more and do more in the limited time you have a student.
Also, it's really not that hard to get all As... It definitely doesn't require even close to all of the work you mentioned in the OP.
good grades demonstrates good discipline and prepares a person to deal with mastering specific tasks. there's only so much that interest will take you because in some classes the work required to get A's will be burdensome. this thread I think is better suited to students who are willing to work harder by smarter methods, and not necessarily finding interests in the classroom.
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On August 18 2009 04:22 dontsaveme wrote:For me its: -reading the textbook BEFORE going to class and hearing the lecture on it -do problems/exercises that aren't assigned for more understanding -ask teacher questions whenever confused -study for 45 or so min at a time, play some SC, then more studying
Reading the textbook before going to class is a great way to be bored out of your fucking mind in class and fall asleep.
Also, please don't ask the teacher questions whenever confused, for the sake of people like me who don't like hearing you ask a question that you could have answered in 2 minutes if you took the effort to think. PLEASE only ask questions that you have thought about yourself for at least a few minutes.
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On August 18 2009 07:59 PJA wrote:Show nested quote +On August 18 2009 04:22 dontsaveme wrote:For me its: -reading the textbook BEFORE going to class and hearing the lecture on it -do problems/exercises that aren't assigned for more understanding -ask teacher questions whenever confused -study for 45 or so min at a time, play some SC, then more studying Reading the textbook before going to class is a great way to be bored out of your fucking mind in class and fall asleep. Also, please don't ask the teacher questions whenever confused, for the sake of people like me who don't like hearing you ask a question that you could have answered in 2 minutes if you took the effort to think. PLEASE only ask questions that you have thought about yourself for at least a few minutes.
agreed with second point. it's so fucking annoying hearing one person asking like 50 questions in one class period. and it wouldn't be as bad if most of them were questions that the teacher either already answered or are going to answer in like 5 minutes.
i still have trouble with distractions. I actually find that I work better when I have a little bit of distraction going around me, but I still haven't found that line between not enough and too much. it also has to do with the subjects i'm taking i guess. i love math and comp sci, i put in some effort i got A, A+'s in those easily, but I hate english and history, and i've been scraping by english with B-'s and I recently got a 3 in AP Euro (even though I got an A in the class). >>
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Step 1: PM a mod and ask for a 3 month ban.
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is awesome32280 Posts
On August 16 2009 23:05 ghostWriter wrote:Show nested quote +On August 16 2009 17:45 IntoTheWow wrote:On August 16 2009 17:37 Pawsom wrote:On August 16 2009 17:23 GrayArea wrote:
6) Don't do drugs and don't drink (This one is gonna get criticism, lol). I've never done drugs nor drank, but I'm going to give you advice about them? Really? Ugh, I don't need to hit a my head against the wall to know it will hurt. haha But you do have to have hit some part of your body on something to actually understand what hurt means.
Let me put another analogy then.
I study electrical engineering. I can base myself on previous studies and calculations to know that I will die If i grab a line running 22kV.
Better?
edit: just to make the point clear, I never grabbed a live wire before, and i never experienced death (doh!)
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United States10774 Posts
thanks, this thread was helpful for an anxious freshman in college
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EPT
