Title: Before Attending Lecture:
1Study Tips
by Masa and Renee
- Before Attending Lecture
- There is one thing you can do to prepare to stay
focus and enjoy listing to the lecture. However,
I have written down two methods. The only way to
know which method is best is to try them both
first for a week and then stick to the method
that you feel comfortable to practice for the
rest of the quarter - Read through the Lecture Notes I believe that it
is always a great idea to know what the professor
would be talking about for that day by going
online and looking at the lecture notes. If you
find anything confusing or thought provoking, you
can remind yourself to listen closely to those
parts during lecture. In addition, you can ask
the professor during lecture. I will guarantee
you that not only your classmates will see you as
an intelligent student (which you might already
happen to be), but above all you would be making
an impression toward the professor (which you
probably have not done). - Skim through the assigned readings I believe
this method provides students the same benefit as
reading through the lecture notes. However, I
believe this method is best for those students
who either forgot to print out the lecture notes
or lookup online before lecture starts (I follow
this method often). The main thing that students
gain from doing either of the methods is that it
makes the students mind alert and think without
any surprise once the lecture begins.
2Study Tips
by Masa and Renee
- Before Attending Lecture (continued)
-
- (1) Read through the Lecture Notes
- In doing so, the student can focus looking at the
professor rather than reading along the lecture
notes during class (you might be tempted to read
ahead because may be you cant stand the
professors pace of lecturing on the current
slide and want to find out immediately the
exciting information presented in the next few
slides). - If you have forgotten either to read through the
lecture notes or to skim through the assigned
reading, I suggest that you to write your notes
on a separate sheet of paper. In doing so, you
will gain the same benefit as the student who has
prepared before attending lecture. Simply put,
you would not be distracted in reading the text
or looking at the figures in the lecture notes.
It is always important to have your eyes on the
professor as well as the lecture notes presented
in front of the class.
3Study Tips
by Masa and Renee
II. During Lecture If you printed out the
lecture notes (if the professor has them online),
I believe its best for you to write your notes on
those lecture notes. In doing so, you will see
your notes written down in comparison to the
professors notes typed on the paper. However, I
suggest that a student should write his or her
notes on the lecture notes after having read over
it (in other words the student has done Bring
a digital/ tape recorder (optional) This enables
you to catch the important stuff that you might
miss while you are busily writing down what the
professor is saying. These recordings will help
you keep track of which concepts the professor
took more time explaining and thus which are very
important for the midterm or final. Lastly,
after you look it up in the book, recording
lectures allows you to go back at a concept that
you were originally unsure of and hear what the
professor is saying about it.
4Study Tips
by Masa and Renee
- After Attending Lecture
- There are three things that you can do to prepare
yourself for upcoming discussion sessions or
examinations. You are not required to fulfill
all three of them, but the three methods would
certainly make your studying interesting. (1)
1. Refer to the Text Book - I believe the text book is a reference book.
Students should read the text book if they find
some information hard to understand (I find
always everything hard to understand). The
assigned readings that the professor post on the
class website for students to read is not exactly
what the professor would be testing. Instead,
the professor would like to test the students
based on the lecture materials. This means
however that the information presented in the
text may turn up during lecture and this
information may not have been typed into the
lecture notes (or even if the text book
information is presented in the lecture notes it
might be incorporated in a statement in the
summary page or in the introductory page of the
lecture notes). That is why I believe it is best
for students to follow Before Attending Lecture
(1) Read through the Lecture Notes and After
Attending Lecture (3) Refer to the Text Book.
Text books are another form of resource! - 2. Recopy the Lecture Notes
- I believe its a great idea to recopy the
lecture notes. One of the benefits is that
students will have not only the professors
lecture notes reproduced but also their lecture
notes incorporated into an organized fashionable
way. Rewriting also makes the students mind
think and remember the information presented in
the lecture notes. Practice makes a difference!
- 3. After doing these things, concept map it to
previous lectures to see a pattern emerging that
links together all the main conceptual themes. 4.
look at previous exams that have topics from the
lecture you just learn from that day. This helps
me see a pattern of what the teacher likes to
focus on a particular concept and he wants you to
thouroughly understand it. -
5Study Tips
by Masa and Renee
- If you have any questions, mark it () and go to
the professors office hours or bio department
tutoring - I believe talking to the professor is a great
way for you as a student to get the answers you
need to your questions (The fastest and easiest).
- This also gives you a chance to get to know your
professor and vice versa. They will see that you
are a hard-working student has taken in your
class. Establishing this kind of relationship
will help you later on when you ask for a letter
of recommendation. - Do practice problems
- You can get these from previous exams or weekly
worksheets from the free bio department tutoring.
- The best thing to learn a material is by
interacting with it. The more practice you get,
the better. You cant just read something and
expect to understand it fully. You have to
understand it from every possible way. You should
also anticipate how it can be asked in an exam.
Doing worksheets and practice exams with relevant
questions from that days lecture are a big help. - Also, in previous exams and worksheets, you
start to see a pattern of what topics and
concepts the professor likes to focus on and he
wants you to thoroughly understand for a test - In addition, they give you a measure of how well
you can do when you need to take the real test.. - You can go to previous years website (through
eee.uci.edu/05s/05300/) to see whether or not the
professor has any old examinations.
6Study Tips
IV. Other Successful Tips Always keep up
with the course load Give yourself at least 2
weeks for every midterm/ final2 days for every
quiz For midterms and finals, you should be done
studying 2 days before the midterm. You should
already know everything from the lectures and the
reading. This time should be used just to concept
map and recalling everything from memory. Do
practice tests, previous years exams, and bio
department worksheets. You should feel really
calm and relaxed during this time. Most of the
people in the class probably has not started
studying until 2 days before a test, anyway, and
are scrambling like crazy. Save any in-class
assignments, discussion section worksheets, or
quizzes When it is time to study for
examinations, it is best for you to solve the
type of questions presented in these worksheets
because I believe the problems reflect the kind
of exam questions. Also, it serves as a back
up in case your grade is recorded wrong. Dont
discard anything graded until you received your
grades for the quarter. Compare your Lecture
Notes with other students I believe that
students should wor together to succeed. While
one might find some things confusing, the other
student may find such things easy to understand
and explain. The other student can share his or
her lecture notes to the one or better yet the
other student can teach the one which I believe
will make the other student remember more. Best
of all, friendship can be established! Â . There
are many other survival tips that I have which I
did not write on this paper. Furthermore, there
are other strategies to be successful in Bio 99
(getting an A) that you might be using that I
have not mentioned here. The important thing to
remember is to enjoy studying and use the method
that you feel comfortable practicing