How to study?

Serj

In April I'm starting WGU (BS in IT). My first class will be CUV1. What are some tips or experiences you guys had that helped you pass courses. Ex. Taking notes, studying vocab or taking practice test over and over.

Sorry for such a simple question.

Thanks

NetworkVeteran

Writing things down improves retention as does regularly review. Remember, practice tests only have great predictive/diagnostic value the first time you take them. One of the sillier comments I remember, long ago, was a guy who said he repeated a practice test until he could score 90% consistently. So why did he keep flunking the real test?!

Good luck with school. That can be really great for one's career.

Iristheangel

Agree with NV about practice tests and writing things down. I'm a huge note taker to the point where it slows my studying down but I retain a lot more.

Xyro

The 3 most important items for me (which also took me some time to figure out after first starting school) were:

1. Take notes while covering (reading) the material.
2. Review the notes before testing (& whenever necessary to understand directly related topics).
3. Learn to pace out the work (time management) to get everything completed on time.

The other item I learned (& I don't know if this applies to an online college as much as it does to the "usual" college scenario) was to be certain to do really well (as in 98% and above) on the material that comes in the beginning of a class (the 1st 1/3 of the semester) as that material is easier ... which then gives you a "running advantage" grade-wise as the material becomes more & more difficult.

It can take some time to learn how to take notes. I highly suggest you learn to summarize ideas instead of doing verbatim notes. It makes for much quicker review. After all, notes should be something that "reminds" you of the concepts you should have already come to grasp, not just a copy of the book itself.

Also, don't read just for the sake of "getting it done". What I mean by this is don't keep reading if you're not clear on a concept. At times it takes looking outside of the book/material (ie Google, etc.) to be able to grasp an idea. Sometimes you have to really rip a concept apart to be able to grasp it (& there's nothing wrong with this). Better to cover less & know it well, than to cover a lot & barely understand any of it.

Another item I usually suggest to people is to not "drown" in 1 class all day. I don't know if this is applicable to a school like WGU, but it's much more preferential to toggle your class material throughout your study time than to just work on 1 class's material. Learn to take the work due at a particular time & break it down into daily portions that must be completed to be able to reach that due date. You can then work on the various portions from each class 1 at a time until you complete all of the day's (self) assigned tasks. This can help break the monotony of covering 1 type of material all day & also can assist you in feeling more "accomplished" as you complete each task.


I hope at least some of this is of assistance to you, good luck.

Serj

Thanks NetworkVeteran, Iristheangel and Xyro. I will defiantly start taking notes.

Akaricloud

I think most important is you learn what works best for you. Not everyone absorbs information the same way and until you figure out what works best for you personally, you may struggle.

My study habits are quite strange since the traditional note taking/review method doesn't really work well for me. I usually like to learn a class start to finish in one sitting and find a way to help separate out different topics. There were many nights where I'd just read a class textbook cover to cover and to break up the information I would make sure something changed chapter to chapter. It could be as simple as changing music artists(that I often listen to while reading), changing study location or even changing beverage type. When I went to recall the information for an exam I would essentially pull up the data by indexing it against my changes. For example, I would identify the topic a problem relates to, recall what beverage I was drinking while learning about that topic, then be able to easily recall the information.

The point of explaining my crazy study habits is: Find what works best for you.

petedude

Akaricloud wrote: »

The point of explaining my crazy study habits is: Find what works best for you.

Yes. One of the cool things about WGU is it will give you opportunity to refine your study habits. . . lots of opportunity. That's not a bad thing, as learning how you best retain information and how you can acquire new information more rapidly will be hugely helpful in your pursuits post-WGU.

You will have hits and misses, but do not despair. Most students find their "groove", as you can see here, and succeed. You will not just learn loads about IT, but probably also a fair bit about yourself in the process.

Serj

Akaricloud wrote: »

The point of explaining my crazy study habits is: Find what works best for you.

Thanks, one thing I realized is that I prefer to study in the evenings, I have hard time concentrating during the day. Now I am trying to find my "groove" like petedude said.

When you say taking notes. Are you talking about taking notes on paper (writing), typing or just copy and paste?

Thanks

Iristheangel

Copying and pasting has no benefit to me. What I'll try to do is read something and try to paraphrase it so I have to really think about what I'm trying to communicate - Whether I write them out on paper or type them up, it's the same thing except typing looks a bit neater

MiikeB

I try to talk about what I just learned in daily conversation. This is especially easy when studying tech related stuff since I work in IT.

IE right now I am studying for my VCP and am on the chaper about virtual switches, so I read more articles on tech sites about virtual switches, discuss them with my coworkers and poke around our configuration at work.

NetworkVeteran

Iristheangel wrote: »

Copying and pasting has no benefit to me. What I'll try to do is read something and try to paraphrase it so I have to really think about what I'm trying to communicate - Whether I write them out on paper or type them up, it's the same thing except typing looks a bit neater

+1. That's also how I see it. The process of reformulating the knowledge is very helpful for long-term retention. I wouldn't expect to derive nearly as much benefit from the process of creating notes via copy and paste.

Xyro

Serj wrote: »

When you say taking notes. Are you talking about taking notes on paper (writing), typing or just copy and paste?

Thanks

Summarize the idea you just read. Handwrite it or type it. I prefer to handwrite my notes because I will just end up writing additional notes (for clarity) later on the the typed item anyway.

For me, general rule ends up to be 10 pages of text = a side of paper. If I'm taking more or less notes, I know I'm not doing something right.

About7Narwhal

I have learned that, for myself, the best option is to write my notes during the reading / watching / labbing, then type them when reviewing the notes I took. This way, I am writing it twice and reading it to make sure I understand what it means. If I don't get it while typing it, I will google it for further information or return to the source. It took me a long time to determine the best method for me, but once you get there it all becomes clear. You either see what notes you took and think, "I understand" or you don't understand and think, "What does this mean? I need to review it."