Section One Managing Your TIME The fris t thing that a new college student must learn how to do is to stay organized and learn to decipher their priorities. By doing so you will make sure you never; miss an appointment, forget to do a homework assignment, and loose sight of time when doing a project or paper. (Waiting to the last minute never allows for your best work to be done) A planner is the best way to keep everything in order and well organized. With ier it be a monthly schedule or weekly or even daily, the use of a planer is huge tool for your success.
Now you might ask your self, “what goes into a planner besides, my homework assignments?’ And good answer would be your daily appointments, a list of all your test and quiz’s, even final dates. With every class there is always syllabus and on the syllabus is a list of project and papers and a number of test. If you read closely you will find the dates of ever paper, project and test. This information is very useful in planning out your week and monthly schedule.
If you know that you have a test in your history class on Friday and a religion paper due the same day you can plan out time to prepare for both. The best type of planner to use is one that is well equipped with a small month calendar that you can write on and a large weekly and daily schedule that is easy to write on with lots of space. Another easy way to stay organized to keep a semester calendar in your dorm room over your desk with all the important dates on it such as test dates, due dates for papers and project due dates. The purpose to be organized is to make you life a lot easier, and more efficient, with the planner you can now be prepared for what lies ahead at Calvin College.
Section Two Reading Your Textbooks When it comes to textbook reading, preparation is just as important as reading the material. It is easy to find yourself just reading the textbook and then looking back at what your read and not remembering anything you just read. Not every class demands a thorough reading of the textbook, so it is very important to ask the professor to see what he / she will be testing on, either notes in class or the readings form the textbook. For example in a psychology class the professor expects his / her student to know the textbook inside and out, form front to back. With a class like that you are going to have to use special tools to study with.
The best way to read a textbook for a class like psychology is by first skimming the chapter and asking question, and finding main themes of the topic, after that the next step to follow is by taking notes while reading the book, and highlighting while you read. This will allow you to refer back to the important detail that you will find int the chapter. It is always important to make sure your mind is fit for reading. If you are tired after a long day of driving and you are tired then it is going to be very difficult for you mind to focus on reading a very intense chapter.
Try to choose the right time to read for certain classes. In the example earlier it is not wise to read a psychology book at in the morning, when the bulk of the information is important. Your mind will not be focused. Now on the other hand do not try to over due it with classes that do not need the same attention.
In most cases you will not need to spend the same amount of effort into a religion textbook as you do a Phsychoology textbook. With a subject whose main focus maybe emphasized on lecture notes its best to take a highlighter to the text and highlight the main points so when you do need to go back to the book for reference you can find what’s important. Trying to find a place to read is as important as reading the right book. If you try to read the textbook on your bed, your body is going to recognize that this is the same place you sleep and subconsciously your body is going to get tired and start falling asleep. Find a well-lit area with no distractions so you are able to focus on the reading. Do not try to do all your assigned reading at once give yourself time to break and come back to what your doing.
Trying to cram in all the information at once has never worked for anyone. Section Three Taking Lecture and Class Notes Besides being punctual to class and showing up to every class, taking great notes can really improve your ability to study for test and quizzes and even help with papers and projects. Knowing what to write is just as important how to write and take notes. Now there are several different styles of note taking, there is the cornel note taking style, there is the paragraph style (which I find difficult to study from), and there is the column method, which happens to be the easiest for studying from. While taking notes in class you may quickly realize that it is difficult to keep pace with the professor, a very helpful tool is abbreviation, such as (w/- with or b / c – because) using these types of abbreviation can rally help the note tacking process and help with a sore hand. Quickly in your first few classes you will find that the college class room setting quite different that what you might be used to in High school.
College is a very fast paced environment and you are expected to keep up, now the best way to make sure that you do not miss any important information is by comparing notes with someone in your class who takes good notes. Combining notes is not cheating, actually it’s a great way to learn, sometimes another student my understand a certain topic better then you and with their notes it may in fact help you understand what the professor was trying to say. Finding someone to pare up with to exchange notes is great because you can develop a study partner when it comes to test times and then the two of three of you can help each other prepare for a big examine. Rewriting your notes is also a great way to help you study for a big examine. In class your focus may not be always on your handwriting but on making sure your getting all the information, so taking the time outside of class to rewrite your notes is a wonderful way to stay on top of your preparation process for the test. Section Four Where to Study/ How to Study Knowing when to study is a very valuable part of learning.
Trying to study late at night and early into the morning is not the optimum time for your brain to be working. Lately Scientist has discovered that the best time to study is approximately three to five in the afternoon when the mind is most awake and active. Dividing what your trying to study into separate topics allows you to focus on specific parts of the information your trying to memorize. Breaking your studying down into methods that are made to help you memorize your topic.
Using flash cards for trying to learn a language is very useful, you are able to continually drill your self and they are very easy to carry with you so when your standing in line waiting to do smoothing you can pull them out and drill your self. Another form of studying is using the notes you take from textbook reading and going over the main points to refresh the ideas that were presented in the chapter. Further more, you can develop a table when it is necessary to compare one or more topics, by using a table it is easy to see the contrasting points as well as the similarities. Asking questions while you study is helpful; such as how do I feel about this topic, would I have done anything different. Asking yourself such question encourages thought in your study and come test time when the professor ask the importance of a certain subject you can pull your own reactions to the question. If it has not been made clear to you what type of test to study for ask the teacher because I can guarantee that you are not the only student with that question, knowing the style of test enables you to setup a plan of attack for the test.
Section Five Test and Quiz Taking The most important part about taking a test is being prepared, that means knowing what kind of test your taking, if its comprehensive or essay form multiple choice or short answer. If you just plan on studying and walking in on test day thinking that you will be fine think again. In college professor are very specific on what they are looking for on their test, with ier it be short answer or essay. Every professor has his / her own way of giving test and one of your best tools is finding a previous student, and asking what you should expect. You should ask how vague is the professor on his / her essay question what do they expect and do they give study guides. Always know how much time you have and use the time available, check and recheck.
If the professor is going to give you a full hour to take a test then use the full hour, there is no reason to rush through the test. Taking your time to recall what you studied and making sure that you don’t make mistake. A common mistake on test is a student who does not read the entire question and only answers half of what is needed. Pay close attention to what the professor is asking I cannot stress that enough, t often College students don’t take the time to read the whole question and they miss a lot of necessary points. Professors have their own definition of words when it comes to test taking. They tend to expect students to understand what they want out of a certain question, so by understanding key words in a question you can answer the question to the best of your ability.
A word most commonly misunderstood is compare, most students might already be thinking about contrasting and comparing but in actuality the professor is just asking for similarities of two subjects. Another word which tends to get miss read is Illustrate, this does not mean draw a picture this means to give examples, when a professor ask for a diagram that means he / she is looking for some sort of art work to identify the subject. Be careful when reading question, look for trick words such as (not, except, all but) these tend to throw students off in multiple choice question, It all comes down to reading over a test with he same car a archeologists pulls out fossils from the ground extreme care. Section Six Managing Your Stress and Anxiety During your first year your going to go through some up and down emotions and feel stressed no matter how organized or prepared you are, but knowing that there are places to get you through these tough times is a huge plus. Here at Calvin we have a counseling center that is a free service to all students who are feeling lonely or depressed or just need to talk. College can way you down but with the help of friends you can get through the tough times.
Although counseling is not the only assistance on campus, Calvin has a many great programs reaching out to student in need of proof reading paper to getting coaches to help set up daily plans. Do not let your pride or ego get in the way of asking for help. One of he biggest stressor can be a computer that doesn’t work, and one of the things you can do is always save as you work, and know that there are computer labs all over on campus that have printers and internet connection. Any and all technical help can be dealt with in our amazing ITC department. If there is any program that you are unfamiliar with just make an appointment and they will be more then happy to help you. Using the tools on campus will help you to relieve the stress that you feel.
Section Seven Taking Care of Your Health It is easy to forget that a huge part of your success in college is staying healthy, keeping a sharp mind and sound body. It is very important to eat right and to maintain a routine sleeping schedule. Staying active and making sure you get enough sleep so that you can keep yourself healthy. A recent study found that walking once a day increase your memorization, which in turn helps you to do better studying..