University/College: How Do You Deal With It?

[keenan87]

The time is near as another four months slip away and the new school year is ahead of us. I am entering my third year in the faculty of science in hopes of going into medicine. During my second year, I was thinking of switching into Haskayne, however, I miss the labs and the pressure you put on yourself in the sciences.

I was wondering, everyone must have a different way of creating success for themselves during the academic year and wanted to know what works best for everyone. Do you think the best way to do well is by all school and no fun or do you cram the night before and the rest is all fun haha. Or is there a blend you work with that involves both studying and having fun and still doing well.

Personally for me, I like to do a bit of both and even though after two years, would love to learn new ways and techniques on how different people study as it might be something i'd like to try. I think I might need to focus more with the competitive grades needed for medical school and would like some advice on how to gain more success. So share your experiences!

Thanks in advance! Also, it will be pretty cool to know how many people here are attending the U of C and what they are taking Last but not least, am I the only one angry that the big suprise in the food court is a friggen sporting goods store?

[Ozy_Flame]

The day I stopped furiously taking notes was the day my marks dramatically improved.

Listening is far . . . FAR more effective. Besides, the prof isn't going to test you on things he himself hasn't written down. I can tell you that a portion of what they say per class is impromtu, or relating things to real life examples, which isn't covered in the textbook.

I went from B+ to Dean's List student with that method.

And if you're scared you didn't capture something you should have? Someone always has a laptop. Give someone five bucks for a copy. They can't say no - they're starving students.

[Boblobla]

My method of success at UofC was to spend a lot of time at the den.

I now have a diploma from SAIT.

[THE SCUD]

Ozty's right, I did great at Uni just listening. When a concept didn't make sense in class, you study to understand it. if you understand and can apply the concepts you should do well on a test.

Also, if fotze can get his p.eng, a drunk bat should be able to pass UofC pre-med.

[Kybosh]

If you call whatever you're doing right now "pre-med", I will come to the University on the first day of classes and kick you in the balls.

[Coach]

The best thing for me is to have a calendar and have set study goals for each day vs time goals. When you have a goal like "Read chapters 4,5,6" vs "Study for 3 hours" you force yourself to complete a goal rather than use a time slot that can just be wasted away. I also find myself with much more free time this way because I am motivated to finish my stuff quickly.

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

It's all about the marks to work ratio.
Never study for anything that's worth 5% of your final grade, that time could be way better spent on something that will actually affect your grade.

[keenan87]

Originally Posted by Kybosh

If you call whatever you're doing right now "pre-med", I will come to the University on the first day of classes and kick you in the balls.

No I am not. Just saying after I get my degree in Biology, Id like to pursue medical school.

[keenan87]

Originally Posted by MattyC

The best thing for me is to have a calendar and have set study goals for each day vs time goals. When you have a goal like "Read chapters 4,5,6" vs "Study for 3 hours" you force yourself to complete a goal rather than use a time slot that can just be wasted away. I also find myself with much more free time this way because I am motivated to finish my stuff quickly.

That is actually excellent advice as I have done the "Study for 3 hours" routine in the past and it doesnt work. Setting goals is definitely an interesting way to look at getting stuff done with a different perspective.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by keenan87

That is actually excellent advice as I have done the "Study for 3 hours" routine in the past and it doesnt work. Setting goals is definitely an interesting way to look at getting stuff done with a different perspective.

Yeah it's helped me wonders since I implemented it (a whole grade point improvement). Just go buy a good sized white-board and turn it into a calendar. Put it somewhere in your room and fill it out at the beginning of each month then you can get a visual as to how far in advance you need to start studying for midterms or start on projects etc.

Glancing at my calendar has become a habit, even during the summer when I have nothing on it haha.

[shermanator]

My key was to reward myself for the hard work by going out to the bar / house parties when it didn't affect my schooling. The key is to not get burnt out before finals.

Also, when a prof tells you to read 3 chapters after the first lecture, odds are those 3 chapters don't continue a very high amount of material to be found on tests.

[troutman]

My little bit of advice. Do your assignments/essays the week they are assigned, not the day before they are due. I cruised through university with no stress, while classmates felt constant dread, and pulled all-nighters to get things done.

Also, hide all the good books in the library from your rivals.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by troutman

My little bit of advice. Do your assignments/essays the week they are assigned, not the day before they are due. I cruised through university with no stress, while classmates felt constant dread, and pulled all-nighters to get things done.

Also, hide all the good books in the library from your rivals.

Agreed with the first part. Its amazing how much less stress and how much more time you have to goof off if you just do your work when you get it. Everyone in class is freaking out about an assignment, I finished a week ago bitch!

[SuperMatt18]

I also though the key was a good balance.

Don't leave everything to the last minute but at the same time you need to leave yourself some free time or else you just get burnt out. If you don't take sufficent breaks from school work you stop retaining the information and just wear your mind down.

My rule was that you should always leave at least one night a week of "free" time where you didn't worry about school or studying. Of course this could be difficult during exam time but I felt that if you scheduled accordingly you could make it work.

I would always feel refreshed and better studying after my "free night" and felt I would study even more effectively the next day since I would feel guilty about having that night away from the books.

In order to do this though you need to do what Troutman said and be prepared and don't procrastinate. If you work through the work as it is assigned to you, it won't pile up and you will find you have much more free time to yourself.

[YYC in LAX]

Smoke pot

Green text: Symbolism or witticism?

[Rathji]

Rathji's guide to getting an A in any University class (that involves most of your marks from testing)

0. Use a computer to have your notes in, but do not take notes with a computer in class. The distraction is too great. More about this later.... have a backup of your notes, and/or use something like Dropbox to make sure you have access to them on every computer you own.

1. Read the course material before it is covered in class. Take notes on your computer while you read (OneNote is amazing for this) , as detailed as possible, putting things into your own words if possible because it forces you to process what you are reading.

2. In class, have paper to take notes on. Since you already have most of the stuff down (from reading the text) just focus on writing down the topics that are discussed and things that the prof focuses on. Pay special attention to those things that are not in the text, or that you don't remember being in the text - because it is probably not in your notes.

3. Every night after class. transfer your written notes to the computer and incorporate them into the notes you already have. This reviews what was covered in class and help you put it together with concepts from the textbook (which is often more detailed).

4. When someone emails begging for notes on blackboard - give them yours. Sure it really isn't fair, but the number of times I have missed classes and got notes back from them without spamming everyone makes it worthwhile.

5. When it comes time to study for the exam: Print out all your notes. When you read on a computer screen you only scan information, you don't really get a deep understanding of what you are reading. It also lets you write notes to yourself and gives you easier access for studying, where a laptop would be no good, on transit for example.

6. When it comes to exams, dont stress out. Canadians test better than Americans, and it has been attributed to the lack of stress. Make sure you are prepared in advance and for the last hour or so before an exam, just relax and listen to some music. I have a 45 minute playlist that I have designed for this exact purpose, so I don't need to be focusing on the clock and don't show up outside the exam room to early and listen to all the other people stressing and freaking out about every little thing they don't know.

You can thank me later.

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by troutman

My little bit of advice. Do your assignments/essays the week they are assigned, not the day before they are due. I cruised through university with no stress, while classmates felt constant dread, and pulled all-nighters to get things done.

Also, hide all the good books in the library from your rivals.

As someone who performs well under stress I actually prefer the latter method.

As for your second comment..."books". Okay Gramps.

[3 Justin 3]

Just something I have learned, don't buy the text books. The amount of money I have wasted buying books which are no use to me is probably over $400-500 (most of that being during the first 2 semesters).

Going into my 3rd year I still slack off like crazy and wait until the last minute for all my big projects, but that probably won't stop now as I have been doing that for over a decade now.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

The day I stopped furiously taking notes was the day my marks dramatically improved.

Listening is far . . . FAR more effective. Besides, the prof isn't going to test you on things he himself hasn't written down. I can tell you that a portion of what they say per class is impromtu, or relating things to real life examples, which isn't covered in the textbook.

I went from B+ to Dean's List student with that method.

And if you're scared you didn't capture something you should have? Someone always has a laptop. Give someone five bucks for a copy. They can't say no - they're starving students.

This method is a lot less effective in many science courses where the issue is often memorizing large volumes of details.

My best advice is pre-prepare for the classes. Do the readings ahead of time (this is something I didn't do but should have). Don't try to cram. It won't really work when you have a crap load of volume. Identify what needs to be memorized and work on that over time. Meanwhile use class for the big concepts.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

As someone who performs well under stress I actually prefer the latter method.

As for your second comment..."books". Okay Gramps.

On Fridays, we had sock hops, but slow dances were not allowed. And we liked it!