HOW CAN I STUDY MORE EFFECTIVELY ?

This list of suggestions is not intended to give you an easy way to succeed in this course. It is intended to help is you are willing to put in extra effort to do well. You will probably not want to do all of these, but possibly one or two might strike you as good ideas and help raise your grade. Everything on this list has helped struggling students in the past.

1. I know you have heard this too many times, but once more: Don’t let the course get ahead of you. Study on a daily basis. It is recommended by authorities a lot smarter than you or me that you spend at least 2 hours outside class for every hour in class (that’s around 10 hours EVERY week) if you expect to do well.

2. Read ahead. Try it once and you will be amazed how much better lecture goes.

3. Recopy your notes, preferably very soon after each lecture.

4. Very soon after each lecture, add any illustrations, examples, silly sayings, etc. from the class discussion that might help you remember. Days or weeks later, you will have forgotten these things.

5. If you say to yourself, “I think I understand it when she is talking about it, but later it doesn’t make sense,” get a tape recorder. Listen to the whole lecture or just difficult areas several times. As you drive here or to work, listen in your car.

6. Whole lectures take a long time, so try making your own tape of just things you are having the most trouble with. Listen to it while you are doing other things as well as when you are concentrating on studying.

7. If you don’t have a tape recorder, make a copy of an important section or write a notecard with important information and keep it handy. If you have just 3 or 4 minutes, you could use this to go over the material. You might could even squeeze a few minutes while you are at work this way.

8. Don’t just sit with your notebook in your hand, endlessly reading and turning pages. This may work for some people, but if it is not working for you, add some other methods.

a. Use index cards and make questions for yourself on the material. You can abbreviate if you are in a hurry. You can put the answers on the back of the cards or not, as you wish. Shuffle the cards and see how many you can answer. As you consistently answer certain cards correctly, lay them aside and work on the trouble spots.

b. Make good use of that expensive textbook. Look at every chart, exhibit, illustration, etc. After you have read a section of your notes, check to see if there are any illustrations related to it. Study the illustration carefully. If it doesn’t make sense at first, work at it until it does.

c. If you come to a word that you don’t know (big science words or just regular words), don’t just skim over it and go on. LOOK IT UP. You may need a regular dictionary, your glossary at the back of the book, or even a medical dictionary.

9. Make a real effort to understand the material instead of just memorizing the words. Some things that are hard for you will get a lot better when you see that they make perfect sense.

10. Visit the Brooks-Cole website often. The various activities there are designed to help you. I will be making assignments for some of these, but the more you do the better.