--Original published at KatiesPerspectives

This week, I chose to discuss and critique my own study habits and some things I might want to consider doing differently. Overall, I think my study habits for most classes are pretty good as I follow the ‘rule of thumb’ and make sure not to wait until the last minute to study for quizzes and exams. While this is very important, I think it’s also important to spend the extended study time that you’ve allowed yourself to be as productive as possible. Before class today, I thought I was studying effectively enough and the right ways at the right times for myself but now I’m thinking otherwise.

One of my main issues I faced while taking this exam that I was blatantly unprepared for the amount of detail required to answer some of the questions that were asked. I was able to get together with a study group from Gen. Psych. prior to the exam and to be quite honest, I felt confident afterwards. Together, we watched online lectures, reviewed some practice questions on Canvas, and answered any questions we had while studying independently during that week. I’ve never been much of a procrastinator (thankfully) so I already had some insight on the test material long before our study session. Normally, I find myself making flashcards and reviewing them over and over again until they’re engrained in my mind, but for some reason, I didn’t do that for this test.

I found myself referring to the Review Guide #1 for almost the entirety of my studying process, and to be honest, I don’t know how much it helped. It was definitely nice seeing all the general information that was going to be on the exam all in one place and using it as a starting point might have been a good idea. I think I spent too much time studying specific terms and not enough time studying people and concepts. Had I spent more time studying the specifics, I probably would have gotten a much higher score on the exam. For the next exam, I think I am going to continue taking and retaking the online quizzes that are offered on Canvas and reviewing all of the terms, people, and concepts that have been brought up throughout these chapters. I also think I might try studying using my method of flashcards as that has been known to work in the past for me. Perhaps had I used methods of the ‘Working Memory’ process and tried my best to not multi-task while studying, I may have preformed better of the first exam.

--Original published at The Core Techs

Malcolm X once said, “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.”

Everyone has different studying habits suited to help them learn best. For me, in particular, I am a very active and hands-on learner. Studying has always been a crucial part of my week. I try to start everything early so I can be very prepared. For example, after class, I take notes from the book and relate it to what we learned in class. Not only does this help keep me on track, but it also helps me retain information better. Although this is true, I think I would like to try previewing the notes before class so that during class, I am able to recall information and think about it on a more analytical level. Going back to the book, before I start taking notes, I skim the headings in the chapter to get ideas. If I see a heading, I try to think about it, what it might mean, what I might learn, and any information I already know about it. This helps me to recall specific information later on. Also, at the end of every chapter section, there are questions, terms, and other review materials. I try to answer all the questions and provide all the information I can without looking back at my notes. This is a part of the “testing effect,” according to my psychology book, and it does indeed assist me in studying. When a test is coming up, I review my notes, and quiz myself by either taking practice tests or making flash cards. Quizlet is also a really beneficial program that I would highly recommend. It gives you games and other options of “play” to learn. This is especially good for active learners, and really, almost anyone It is highly engaging and fun.

For the first exam in my psychology course, I did as mentioned above: reading from the book, taking notes, previewing sections, quizzing myself with review sections at the end of the chapter, and more. Before my exam, I reread my notes and tested myself on specific psychologists and what they were known for. I also looked carefully at terms. Once I took my exam, I felt that I was able to recall a good bit of information, but I ended up making a lot of small mistakes. I think during exams I manage to work myself up quite a bit. The grade I received was not at all what I was expecting. I put a lot of time into studying, but I think I need to concentrate more. I also need to have more confidence when going into my exam. A good way to help me think more analytically and concentrate more on what I am saying is to study by having a “discussion” with another student. They ask you questions, you put in your input, and so forth. Unfortunately, I did not find the time to do that for this exam. I plan to make more plans ahead of time to make sure I can do this before the next exam.

Overall, I feel that my study habits are very good. For the most part, I set aside time everyday to do my school work, and it is usually around the same time every day. Despite this, I need to start thinking more outside of the box on some of the practice questions. When quiz time comes around, the questions often require more deep and analytical thinking which I cannot always provide.

Hopefully my studying tips can inspire you and assist you on your learning journey, Core Techs!

-B

pixabay.com

--Original published at MaddiesCollegeBlog

For this week’s first impression I decided to do the second option that discusses how we are able to recover certain memories. The question asks,” Why do you think some memories are so much stronger than others?”

In my personal opinion, I feel that memories that come to us stronger than others are ones that impacted us the most in different ways. for example, most people can remember exactly what they were doing when 9/11 was happening because its impact was so strong and emotional it gave them a reason to remember. Where some memories are maybe not as significant or carry heavy emotion. Maybe a way to study this is to randomly select a certain amount of people and all survey them on how 9/11 impacted them or another significant memory personal to their own life and see what their responses are, and maybe have the rate how strong they feel that memory is. This study could then determine how powerful that certain event was to them.

--Original published at CurtisCollegeBlog

I believe my study habits are decent at times. Usually, I do wait until a day or two before the test to start studying, but I feel like that keeps the info fresh in my mind. I do like to study hard for a good hour or so, then take a nice 15 minute break. I will repeat that usually the night before a test spanning from the hours of 4:00 PM until I feel comfortable with the material. I think it’s an efficient way to study for me, because I think it stimulates my brain in intervals. With that being said, I also would consider myself a procrastinator. I feel like I almost have to study like this, though. When I try to study for a test a week prior, I don’t feel pressured or motivated to study, and don’t take it seriously. I tend to just blow it off. Another thing I struggle with is when I take breaks in between studying, I’m very inconsistent. At times, my break will be 10-15 minutes like I want them to be, then other times my breaks will be 30-45 minutes. Overall, in terms of my ability to retain information, I’m about average.

This is not how I studied for the first psych test. I didn’t have any studying materials with me that weekend because I went home after the meet the Saturday before the test. When I came back, the Superbowl was on so I had to watch my Patriots. Then, shortly after the game I had to sit in disbelief, because the result of that game just should not have happened. Then I started studying  pretty late in the night. I seemed to be getting a decent amount of things correct on the practice test. I probably studied 2 or 3 hours that night, then went to bed because I had class at 9:30 the next morning. Then the next day I studied from probably 12:30 to 1:57 before class, writing down ways to distinguish the difference between psychologists. Next time, I am definitely starting earlier, I am planning on studying after I finish the spotlight. I need a 90 on the next test.

--Original published at Collin's Blog

For this weeks blog I decided to do option one and discuss my study habits. My study habits now have gotten a lot better than they were in high school. Previously in high school I wouldn’t put much effort into studying or just would not study at all. That would still get me through high school at the time, but once I got to college the content was much more challenging so I began to change my study habits. I would rewrite notes, use flashcards, and reread my notes and presentations. Most of these habits worked for me, except reread my notes tended to be less effective than actually handwriting the content. I focused more on rewriting and understanding the content rather than memorizing notes. My exam grades last semester got better as the semester progressed, so it seemed like the change in study habits really helped.

For our first exam I did the same study method and relied heavily on flashcards to understand terms and psychologists since that was a big part of the content. It worked well, but it would have been useful to take more time with the presentation notes and be able to apply what I knew to some of the not so straight forward questions on the exam. I plan to try to study different ways to try to cover all the content in the book and in the presentation notes. Quizlet could be a useful source and taking notes from the book will be helpful for the next exam in addition to using flashcards on the information given in class and reviewing the content that will most likely be on the exam from the notes and book.

--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.

--Original published at Rachel's Blog

For this week’s post, I decided to talk about option 1, which relates to study habits.  This is because I think many college students including myself have trouble learning new study habits when they make the switch from high school to college.  I in particular had trouble switching the way I studied because in high school I did not have to study for my classes as much as I do now.  I was used to studying a few days before a test, but once I got to college, I realized that that would no longer work as that is not enough time to study.

A study habit that I do well is that I usually start studying for a test one week in advance.  If it’s a math class, I will try to complete as many homework problems as I can to make sure that I understand key concepts, but for other classes I will keep rereading my notes.  Depending on the class, I will make flashcards and try to find an online activity such as a matching game to test myself to make sure I understand the material.  A few things that I need to improve on is after every class I need to immediately review my notes and hopefully more information will stick in my brain.  Also, I need to make use of flashcards more frequently as a way to actually test myself on information, rather than just saying yes I know this, or no I need to study this a bit more.

For the first exam, the way I studied was that I looked over my notes every day for a week leading up to the day of the exam.  I also reread the book the night before and made flashcards.  A change that I will make for next time is that I will read my notes more frequently, maybe twice a day.  I will also make flashcards sooner rather than later so that I have more time to test myself on this information.

--Original published at Kate's College Blog

While studying, I set apart time to study throughout the day. I take breaks and come back to the material so that retain it better and can see what I know and what I still have to look at. I also make flashcards a lot which helps me to study easier and more efficient. It is also helpful that I have all of my notes together and organized so it is easy to find what I am looking for if I need to refer back to my notes from class or my notes from readings.

I need to improve on starting to studying sooner. For the first exam, I did not start studying until the weekend before (exam was on Monday and I started studying on Saturday) and I got stressed out because I felt like I did not know a lot of the material and felt like I did not have enough time to study everything that we had to know. At the end of my studying, I also started just going through the flash cards and doing the motions and not fully retaining the information.

For the first exam, I read each chapter and made flash cards from the bold words in the text. I then re-read my notes from class, highlighting key information and also made more flashcards from my notes. I then made a “cheat sheet” with all of the psychologists names and what they are known for. I then expanded that cheat sheet to all the types of psychology based on who founded them and put down the key information about each type. For the next exam, I am going to continue to make flash cards and diagrams/ cheat sheets to connect the dots on the material. I am also going to start studying sooner so I do not get stressed over how much time I have left to study.

--Original published at Caleb C's College Blog

My current study habits have actually gotten much better compared to high school. In high school, I would not study very much considering I just found the information relatively easy and as long as I felt like I went to class everyday, I understood the information enough to do well on the exams. Now that I am in college, classes are not everyday, thus I need to put way more work and time into studying and preparing myself for exams. I feel like because I could procrastinate heavily in high school, due to the information coming easily, it has made it relatively a difficult transition for me in college having to now put way more effort into my study habits. In high school I would study maybe around 2-3 hours a week, now I feel like I should be studying 5 times that. It’s not that I am complaining about this necessarily, I actually believe it is a good thing, for it will make my college education more valuable and I’ll get more out of my education this way by putting much more effort in. What I do well on is actually getting my work done and preparing well enough for the exam, and just by saying “well enough” I know that I do not study enough. Thus, what I lack on is not putting enough time in as well as still putting assignments and studying off more than I should. Also, I believe a huge contributor to studying and preparing well for exams is getting enough sleep. Because I do not do my work a soon as I should, I have found myself staying up late many nights when I should be getting more sleep to help myself throughout the following day. Regarding the first exam for this class, I definitely could have studied more, though I feel like I studied way more than most of my other classes. Because I saw how difficult the exam was, I need to review more of the book for the upcoming exams and review daily. Specifically, I mainly studied my notes for the first exam, as well as the key terms in the book. Because I did not pay attention as closely as I should have to the important people, I got hit pretty hard on the exam for that regarding the matching. Thus, I should have paid closer attention to the people as well as the book in general. For the upcoming tests I will make sure to study daily instead of pushing it off, because there is a lot of information and waiting till the last minute does not help in the long run regarding retaining the information.

--Original published at *Psych 105*

Studying is a concept that I never had a particular problem with, however, the beginning of this semester proved to be a rude awakening. I have always been a conscientious student and how I do in school has always been important to me. I tend to find that I retain information better when I write it out multiple times, so that is exactly what I do before exams. I write out notes on the chapters being covered from the textbook, I write out a sheet of key points from lectures and I write out practice exam questions if a review is provided. Sometimes Quizlet comes to the rescue if a particular exam is heavy with vocabulary terms. However, this last exam really threw me for a loop. In hindsight, I probably could have taken some additional quiet time away from the stresses of my other classes and friends to focus on details more. Needless to say, there needed to be changes made before the second exam, as there will NOT be a repeat of such a poor performance. For this second exam, I have begun reviewing the information both in the notes from the text and the notes from the lecture at the end of every week. Rather than trying to cram everything into 2 or 3 days of hardcore and time-consuming review, I am working on spreading out my review over the course of the weeks leading up to test day. This way my brain has a better chance of retaining information that is essential for the exam. This method is also allowing me to complete my other schoolwork with less stress. Last time I was scrambling to finish other assignments in the few days leading up to the exam because I devoted huge chunks of my time to review alone. Cramming is a bad habit that I carried over from high school that is proving to be difficult to break. However, my new technique seems to be putting me in a better place than I was weeks ago and I hope that it will be exactly what I need to bring up my grade. So far, a less stressful environment is more beneficial for learning, I have been finding. This elongated studying, good sleep, minimizing stress and remembering to take breaks regularly, is my recipe for saving my grade in the upcoming weeks.