How much do you study?

[Mr. Lennon]

I usually study the night before. If the material is really challenging then 2 nights before. What about you guys?

 

[Harrod]

In college about 4 days before the test, for my cisco certs a few months for each test.

 

[JimmiG]

I would start studying really hard about one week before the test.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

2-3 days before an exam I go to the Library after class and just study for 8 hours straight.

 

[Leros]

I find that doing work during the semester usually teaches me everything I need. Depending on the difficulty of the class, I'll do a 6-18 hour review beforehand.

 

[mwtgg]

I find that doing work during the semester usually teaches me everything I need. Depending on the difficulty of the class, I'll do a 6-18 hour review beforehand.

This. Except for the 6-18 hour review beforehand. I never bothered.

 

[bhanson]

Too much.

Our reading is 100-200 pages a week of dense textbook material. Everything is fair game and our exams include alternative format questions.

• Select all that apply
• Fill in the blank
• Put these in the proper order
• Identify the area where... (you click on a picture)

The rest of the multiple choice have more than one correct answer, but you have to choose the answer that is most correct. This is accomplished during testing by using phrases like: "Which action is your priority?" "What is the next..." "What is the most important..."

A question may have us identify items out of a chart in a select all that apply question. The chart may have 20-30 items but we have to identify the 1-5 (some questions you're supposed to select every answer) that were included.

 

[Leros]

This. Except for the 6-18 hour review beforehand. I never bothered.

I usually found that I review way too much, but better safe than sorry. You only get one chance to take the exam.

 

[mwtgg]

I usually found that I review way too much, but better safe than sorry. You only get one chance to take the exam.

I always got upset when teachers tried to force their study methods (making flash cards, etc) on me. What works for me won't necessarily work for you, and vice versa. No one really seems to get that.

 

[Leros]

I always got upset when teachers tried to force their study methods (making flash cards, etc) on me. What works for me won't necessarily work for you, and vice versa. No one really seems to get that.

My study method has been to make cheat sheets. The act of condensing all of the class knowledge into a few sheets of paper really makes you focus on the important concepts.

I figured this out when I had a few classes that allowed cheat sheets and I never ended up using them.

 

[TheVrolok]

I usually study the night before. If the material is really challenging then 2 nights before. What about you guys?

^ this for undergrad and some (most) of med school, but essentially 6+ hours/day for boards.

 

[mwtgg]

My study method has been to make cheat sheets. The act of condensing all of the class knowledge into a few sheets of paper really makes you focus on the important concepts.

I figured this out when I had a few classes that allowed cheat sheets and I never ended up using them.

Early on I made them in classes when teachers let you. I ended up never using them, so I stopped bothering when everyone around me had a ton of crap written on theirs.

I honestly couldn't put a finger on my "studying" techniques, but it all boiled down to going to class, taking notes, and paying attention (and usually doing my homework). I might look at my notes for at most five minutes before the test, but that's really about it.

 

[Demo24]

I absolutely hate studying so preferably as little as possible. I might start a few days before the test/final but I simply can't study for lengthy periods of time. I find it much nicer to do research and bang out a paper (can easily lock into that for a couple hours) versus mindlessly going over material (of which I find reviewing more than 15 minutes at a time rough).

I've started taking fewer notes as well. Generally most of the info is covered in various readings that I will force myself through (although some can be decently entertaining), and I can usually remember enough of what was said. Things like specific details or dates, etc will get jotted down though. And if the professor has powerpoint slides online I generally just print them out and rarely make notes.

 

[FallenHero]

My study method has been to make cheat sheets. The act of condensing all of the class knowledge into a few sheets of paper really makes you focus on the important concepts.

I figured this out when I had a few classes that allowed cheat sheets and I never ended up using them.

To go along those lines, I always found that taking good notes, then typing them out the day after helped me retain knowledge way better then any studying I ever did. It would make me go back and look over topics and learn bits and pieces I missed during the lecture. Reviewing those better typed out notes about 2-3 days before the exam made studying a breeze since I didn't have to go back through the textbook all over again.

That being said, thank god I don't have to do that anymore.

 

[Leros]

To go along those lines, I always found that taking good notes, then typing them out the day after helped me retain knowledge way better then any studying I ever did. It would make me go back and look over topics and learn bits and pieces I missed during the lecture. Reviewing those better typed out notes about 2-3 days before the exam made studying a breeze since I didn't have to go back through the textbook all over again.

That being said, thank god I don't have to do that anymore.

Yeah. That is very true, but I found it too time-consuming to be worth it. The classes I take don't easily convert to typed notes. Its a lot of diagrams and drawings that take forever to get into a computer. It takes about 3 hours to type of notes for a 1.5 hour lecture.

A couple of my professors have students take turns uploading typed notes for each lecture (in theory, so that we don't have to take notes during class, but everybody does anyway). I find that I remember so much more from the notes I've typed and put online.

 

[BoomerD]

I left high school pretty early, so I never really learned "proper study techniques," so when I went to college a few years ago, one of the first courses I signed up for was "study skills" to help me learn how to learn. That was a HUGE help for me in the semesters that followed.
After my daily classes, I'd spend time reviewing my notes and any handouts from the class, I'd USUALLY type all my notes to help reinforce the information, then on the weekend, I'd go through and restudy everything from the week, summarize the notes that I'd already typed out...and do any homework. Most days, that amounted to about 2 hours per day, plus another 3-4 on the weekend. (not counting homework)

It's a lot of extra work, but it worked well for me. in 7 semesters of community college, (5 "regular" semesters, 2 short summer semesters) I only got one "B," and that was in keyboarding...the teacher didn't like my typing technique...it didn't matter that on the speed tests, I could type more than 70 WPM with very few errors, I have some FUBAR'd fingers that I can't make "do their job" when typing, so other fingers have to hit those keys...my "poor technique" knocked my grade to a "B."

I tried a wide variety of "study techniques" before I found what worked best for me.

 

[Aikouka]

It depended on the class. I have a fairly visual memory, so if I've ever written down the information, I can usually recall it, or I can just remember where it was in the book. So, sometimes I wouldn't study at all for a test and get a 95+. For some courses (like history), I would just read over my notes. Especially in a subject like history where I would take 2-3 pages (front and back) of notes each class (intro-level course).

 

[Matthiasa]

Depends on the class... Some like a solid state electronics class I took 2-3 hours tops. For most not at all... For a few like a microcomputer architecture and interfacing class 5-10 hours but rarely more then that.

 

[Maleficus]

If I am worried for some reason, about 30 minutes the night before, otherwise I don't.

 

[Malak]

I never studied in school.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Almost none. Im a B student. If I did study at all, I'd probably be an A+ student.

 

[ahenkel]

Never been much of a good student when it came to studying and homework all though I always tended to do remarkably well on tests. I think I hated homework because I felt like I was relearning what I already knew.

 

[TecHNooB]

3-5 days before the exam.

 

[DrPizza]

I usually attempt to learn the material in a continuous process, rather than all in a few hours the night before an exam. Since mathematics is so sequential in nature, I found that the easiest way to learn topic C in class was to make sure I had already mastered topic A and topic B. Then, I'd pre-read the chapter before it was covered in class (this applied to almost every course I've taken)- that way, what the professor was covering was review & things generally clicked the first time through, especially since I could ask the most meaningful questions to make sure I fully comprehended the material. I found that in the long run, learning like this (it wouldn't work for everyone, especially lazy and procrastinating students) took far less total time than cramming the night before an exam. Summa Cum Laude, for what it's worth. (B+'s in art, American history, and because I was a glutton for punishment, or rather, found the prof's lectures to be incredibly interesting, American history II, and an A- in paleobiology because the <insert derogatory term here> asked questions about the most trivial things in the text that weren't covered in class, and that <insert derogatory term here> believed that a 93 average just wasn't good enough for a 4.0

 

[Inspector Jihad]

i usually drink heavily the night before and i still get A's. Fuck yo couch.