--Original published at Jessie's PSY105 Blog
For my first impression post this week, I choose option 1: critiquing my study habits. My study habits largely rely on how many exams I have during the week. Typically, I have a good schedule, with time dedicated to each class each day. However, as an exam approaches I find myself focusing more on that class, and letting some of the everyday work for my other classes fall behind. This causes me to have to play catch up once my exams are over. Typically, I read the pages assigned before class and I look over the power point when possible. I actively take notes in class that I review afterwards. I also make Quizlets for each day of class that I try to learn in the days following and leading up to the exam. Something that I definitely need to improve on is staying on top of this schedule. Better keeping up with this plan would keep me from studying for exams all at one time and then having to catch up in the rest of my classes.
For this exam in particular, I did not keep to my planned schedule well enough. I was able to make a Quizlet for each section from the book as well as each in class lecture. However, I found myself making the majority of them the weekend before the test. Had I made them (and learned them) throughout, I would have retained some of the ‘finer’ topics better. Meaning, I understood all of the broad topics which helped me do well on the multiple choices, however I did not do as well with some of the topics that simply required memorization. For this next test, I plan to also spend a lot more time looking at the practice questions. The ones given for the first exam were extremely similar to ones found on the test and had I focused on those more, I would have felt even more confident with the material. Overall, I plan to learn the information throughout the weeks leading up to the next exam instead a couple of days before.