How to study

Beggar♂ · Jul 21, 2007

I use my notes only to supplement what's in the text. I read the chapter once without getting caught up in what I don't get and then read it again more slowly. This time, I re-read sections where I'm having trouble. I stop and quiz myself as I'm doing it and I pay a lot of attention to the section and subsection headings. I'll then head through it, section by section, and try to recite a summary of what's in there as well as details to memorize. I make lots of flashcards that I review every couple of days. As the exam nears, I re-read the chapters again. The day before and the morning of the exam, I try to read through it all again very quickly and focusing only on the problem areas. In the few hours before the exam, and right up to it, I just fly through the book over and over to saturate my brain on the material.

Spend a fair amount of time looking the figures in detail. After you're starting to get it, cover them up and see if you can describe in words what the figure shows.

Review all of the vocabulary and make sure you can define things with the same terminology and precision as it's defined in the glossary (if you can't, you don't really get it).

I make it a point to do mental reviews while I'm laying in bed with my eyes closed. I just talk myself through various processes.

For endocrine and repro, I'd be sure you know all the pertinent hormones, source and target tissues, and effects. Be able to list the major endocrine glands. Be able to describe the processes of gametogenesis, fertilization, implantation, and pregnancy including the relative levels of various hormones at each stage and the effects on their target tissues. Be able to explain how these hormones and their affects support pregnancy. Understand the major categories of hormones and the general characteristics of each. Know some examples of each type. Make sure you understand the relationship between the hypothalamus and the anterior and posterior pituitary.

This is the approach that I take to studying in general and for those sections in particular. It's a ton of effort but, for me, it yields the results that I'm looking for.

BTW, I've tried what you do and have not found it to be particularly effective for me. That's how I ended up with the approach I described.

RNisme · Jul 22, 2007

I read the chapter through to get a general understanding. Then I read the chapter and take a lot of notes on my reading (I learn through doing, and writing is the only way I can 'do' this right now). I do this before it is started in class. I take a lot of notes in class also. After, I go through my chapter notes from the reading, and highlight what was also reviewed in class. I always do the chapter questions at the ned of each chapter and ask the professor if I do not understand something. I had one professor tell me I was anal, but I passed AP1 and 2 with an A - so I guess A is for Anal :)

I agree with Beggar about the figures in the book. It was my goal to be able to explain it to someone else.

However, you need to know how you learn - by reading, writing, hearing? Once you understand how you individually grasp things, you are on your way to better study skills.

Lori

ceraleigh · Jul 22, 2007

Before class, I've read the chapter w/o taking notes. Then, I listen in class. If the outline notes are available online, I have them printed off and I just listen and jot down things that I dont understand or were repeated or seem important. If notes weren't posted online, I write down what I hear.

After class I read through the book, highlighting things I've heard in class/lab. I go back and write out notes from the book. I look at my notes from class, pull them together, and I WRITE them out. I learn better by writing the notes vs typing them.

Then I make flash-cards from my notes & book. Again, I write them out. I use this forum for links to online quizes & review. I also have a book that has pictures of the models we use in class (my school sells it) and I go over those.

I also log lots of hours at the tutorial lab and "teach" classmates. Right now we're learning tissues and I spent 4 hours working with half dozen other students teaching them different tissues. I learned more by pulling the slides, locating the tissues & focusing them & then setting up a mock piratical and helping them learn how to tell what the tissues were, than I would have just trying to learn on my own.

I'm not afraid to not know everything by heart. I just need to know how to figure it out.

As the test gets nearer, I take out flashcards that I know I know. I only leave the ones I hesitate on or are unsure of. I also re-read my notes & the chapter again.

I tend to find myself falling asleep at night thinking about something I was studying earlier in the day. So far it seems to be working. My biggest tips I tell people are -

1 - Repetition. Do not expect to KNOW everything in one sitting. You usually have to go over something at least three times before you'll feel comfortable with knowing the information.

2 - Read the chapter. So many classmates just go off lecture notes and dont read the chapters & lab book

3 - Make use of the tutorial lab. Study groups work if you're in a good one. A good study group is people who are trying to study, not just chit chat.

4 - Focus on what you don't know. Once you know something, set it aside and keep working on what you dont. Along with this, is dont look at the whole material at once, break it down into manageable amounts to study/learn

5 - Figure out how you like to learn and use it. Record lectures and listen to them a second or third time. Write out your notes by hand. Talk aloud to your dog and explain the chapter to him. Even offer to buy a buddy dinner/drinks if he will come over and sit with you and talk the material out with you & quiz you.

coolpeach · Jul 22, 2007

I think it depends on your professor. My professor for A&P 1 and 2 said if we do not cover it in class it will NOT be on the test, and she meant it. She covered everything very well so most of us only used the book to fill it something we needed extra help with. I studied completely from my class notes. I transfered them to flash card.

I have had to other instructors that taught from power point, and you were responsible for everything in the chapter, class, powerpoint, applications manual etc. I usually just read, reread, and pray for those classes.