Hi Everyone!
In this week’s article, I discuss how to properly prepare and study for your college courses. I am starting grad school next week (whoot whoot!!), and originally composed this system for myself, but thought it could also provide value to others so I chose to share. I hope you find it useful!
How to read properly
Take your time. Reading slowly and carefully will ultimately save you time when you begin preparing for exams
On your first read through, mark the most important concepts (i.e. the information you are meant to learn or take away from the reading). By ‘most important concepts’ I mean things like: main ideas, people, themes, and questions.
On your second read through, go back and revisit the points you marked during your first reading.
After your second read through, it is time to take notes on what you read (discussed in the next section).
How to take good notes
Title your notes (i.e. An Autobiographical Study pg. 3-41 from A Freud Reader)
Under the title, leave some space for a “key ideas/ takeaways” section. You will return to this space in a moment.
Create sections based on what you read, begin filling in this section with important information from what you’ve read
Avoid simply rewriting, try to synthesize the ideas into your own words
Once you are happy with the notes you have taken, go back to the “key ideas” section you made earlier. Here, fill in key words or phrases like “Sigmund Freud” or “Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy”. This section will act as a quick reference guide for you when returning to review your notes.
How to organize those notes
You have now completed the reading, and taken quality notes based on that reading. Well done. Congratulations (seriously). Now it’s time to attend lecture…
In lecture, make things easy for yourself. You have already come prepared to class, so instead of feverishly trying to write down every word said by your professor, use what you already know to discern the key points your professor is trying to get across.
Write down these key points. The items most emphasized by your professor are what you should focus most heavily on when studying (as they are the most likely questions to be asked).
You now have two sets of notes: (1) taken after reading before lecture, and (2) those taken during lecture. There is a third and final set of notes you must now take. These notes are to be comprehensive, detailed and polished. I recommend taking them a few hours after lecture, and absolutely always within the same day to allow for the greatest revision time possible.
This third set of notes is a combination of the first two. They will include your own notes based on the reading and the key points that are most important to your professor
Make sure to number the pages of these notes! This will be important later!!
Create, and continually update an index that lists the page number within your notes where you can find your polished notes. This will make finding information later much easier and faster.
How to remember what you read
For each unit of the semester, like “exam #1”, “unit 2”, or “project (title)” create a simple chart with the topics in one column and the date you last reviewed the material in another.
When reviewing, start with the hardest topic and move towards the easiest, or the one you reviewed least recently to the one you reviewed most recently.
If it seems complicated, don't worry (it sort of is). Like anything new, this system takes time to learn, incorporate, and (with any amount of luck) put into good use. I think it’s also important to say that this may not work for you, and that’s okay. My method of learning is absolutely not “the best” or only “correct” way. If you take anything away from this article, please let it be that different systems for learning work differently for different people. At the end of the day, it’s all about finding which one works for you.
Good luck with your classes this semester!!
Shane
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