TIPS FOR ENTERING COLLEGE or UNIVERSITY STUDENTS Going from high school to your first college or university is exciting,

but can also be very stressful. The stresses mainly come from learning how to study, meeting new people, making new friends, living on your own, managing commitments to extracurricular activities, and recognizing your ambition. The following post explores strategies to help ease your transition, and are based on my own personal experience as once a first year student. Advice 1: Realize that your experiences as a first year student is not unique and that everyone else too is having just as much troubles so dont feel bad about yourself. I emphasize this point, because when I first started my life in university, the challenges I face such as getting the grades I want, studying efficiently, making connections with the right people, finding the resources I needed, managing my commitments on extracurriculars were all over the place. As a result, my grades were severely impacted. Grades are very important (they determine the programs you get into, scholarships, reference letters, jobs you get in the future), and because I hurt my first year grades, I was very down on myself. I started attending seminars and talking to other students and professors about how to manage my grades. Over time, i learn that I was not the only one who was having all these challenges. Other first years students who I talked to had them as well. Then we started talking and sharing our experiences, and over time, improved ourselves. So first, learn to realize that other first year college or university students are having as much trouble adapting. Branching from this coping strategy is learn not to set expectations too high for yourself (on your first year), because it can become unrealistic. I went into university thinking that I was going to get As in all my courses and I found out that they were very hard to obtain (then of course). It is also recognize that you are now in college or university and you studying with some of the best. Therefore, you must study harder than you ever do. Only when you learn to see yourself in this new setting and be realistic about your approach will you be motivated to take control of your post-secondary life, grow and make the best of the experiences.

notes or sell you textbooks and save you time looking for them. b. Talk to your professors or teaching assistants on a regular basis about the class topics. Youve paid them to teach you, so make use of their time. Some professors and teaching assistants are glad that you are asking them questions because it shows them that you are finding an interest in their class. They may even write reference letters for you in the future or tell you about possible job or volunteer opportunities. c. Form study groups with students in your class. Study groups are usually consist of two to four people and you usually meet up once a week or a couple times near exam time and talk about the materials. Advice 3: Choose the courses that interests you and are part of your degree requirement. A common downfall for first year students is taking too many courses and courses that their friends are taking. Take fewer courses and only the courses that you need to take or courses you think you will be interested in. First, taking too many courses will take you too away of your studying time. Second, because you are in the stage where you are just learning how to study, you will have a hard time. Lastly, if you take courses because your friends are taking or courses that you dont think you will enjoy, you will not be very motivated. Advice 4: Do not skip classes and keep up with the course materials. This point is strongly recommended. If you ever find yourself behind on your readings or assignments any point in time, it is a clear sign that if you dont catch up, you will have so much trouble when to studying for exams. You want to make sure your exam studying time is used reviewing materials and not learning new materials. Advice 5: Come up with some studying philosophies. For instance, if you want to become a doctor, and you see someone across or next to you on the bus with his or her textbooks opened, you might want opening up yours as well. One of my philosophy when it comes to time and studying is to make sure to use all my free time keeping up with the course materials. This motivates me to stick to my beliefs. In conclusion, this posts attempts to provide multiple streams of school and life strategies for entering first year college or university students to make their experiences more positive and rewarding.

Advice 2: Use your resources to help you achieve your goals. This includes the following: a. Making connections with senior students who can give you advice on studying or share their personal success stories or recommend courses or which professors to take classes with. They can even lend

Psychology2010~ Additional Studying Tips from me: 1. Note Taking Strategies (Chinese New Years Post) 2. Exclusive Tips to Understand and Overcome Procrastination

3. An Effective Strategy for Memorization 4. Reading Textbooks Efficiently 5. Review Strategies and Routine for Midterms 6. Last Minute Revision Scenario-Taking Tests with 0 hours of sleep before 7. Multiple Choice Exam Strategies 8. Good Time and Locations to Study 9. Basic Tips for Beginner Psychologist 10. Study Around Others When Youve Mastered Course Content 11. Have Complete Notes is Really Important 12. Post Midterm Strategies that Can Immensely Improve Your Final Exam Grades and General Studying Goals

words. Key words trigger the brain to associate relevant facts to the main concepts. Hierarchical structure: Notes that have some form of structure to it such as a hierarchy separates main points such as topic titles from supporting points. In note 2, one sees that main points stand further outside, while the detail points inside. Supporting main narrows in; are bunched closer together. A hierarchical structure is important when it comes to having notes that are organized and will be easy to remember. Main vs Supporting Points: Main points are the topic titles or bigger picture. Supporting points illustrate and provide details to the main points. The hierarchical structure enables this. Being able to tell main points from supporting points will save a lot of time and get a lot of marks when answering questions on written exams. Many students tend to memorize details without understanding how the details fit in with the bigger picture. Distinguishing main from supporting points allows one to know what information are important to mention or remember for a test. In summary, excellent notes are organized notes.

Psychology2010 Studying Tip #9: How To Take Excellent Notes (Chinese New Years Post) Excellent note taking is an important skill to have in school. Unfortunately, not a lot of students realize this. Organized notes facilitates encoding, separate main points from details, provide notes to review from, and speeds up studying 10 folds. Hence, in this study guild, I will teach how to organize notes, distinguish poor note taking strategies from good ones, and explain how good note-taking facilitates exam preparation. To start off, click at the following two links and describe to yourself three differences in terms of organization of the sample notes that you see below. Here are the links: Link 1 (Sample Note 1) Link 2 (Sample Note 2) Hopefully, youve noticed that in link 1, the notes are in full sentence, does not have structure(not organized), and does not separate main points from details. And in link 2, see a contrast. Sample note 2 is in point form, has a hierarchical-like fashion to it, and identifies main points from supporting points. Good note taking is about all of the above in sample note 2. Point Form: Taking notes in point forms as opposed to full sentences speeds up reading by capturing key

Organized notes have three key components: Are in point form, have structure, and separates main from supporting points. All in the goal for saving time when studying and getting the most optimal marks in classes. How do organized notes facilitate review periods? Aside from having notes to study from by exam times, and not having to borrow from a friend or friends for them, or reread the textbook several times, or risk forgetting information, organized notes enriches memory encoding and enhances memory retrieval. The hierarchical structure of notes works by chunking information. In cognitive terms, this means grouping related information together. For instance, putting supporting points in the categories they belong. The chunking of information, works pretty much like how we organize files into folders in computers. We give a name to a folder, and we put the files that belong to it. And because a folder contains the relevant files, by recalling on the folder name alone, we can almost recall the files in it. Just like note taking, we have the main concepts, the folder. Within the main concepts, we have supporting points, the files. Hence, organized notes have hierarchical structure to them. This hierarchical structure enriches

encoding by making it easier to remember and take out information. In summary, taking really good notes is an important skill to have in school. Good notes have the following three characteristics: Are in point form, have structure, and separates main from supporting points. Having organized notes speeds up studying, by providing notes to study from, enhancing encoding and recall. All for the hopes of spending less time studying and performing the best one can on an exam!

How does biology affect procrastination? Biology are rooted in the genes. From early point in birth, chromosomal genes are inherited from our parents who inherit their from theirs. Genes are rooted in our ancestry and have evolved and are passed on to us. Genes affect personality, selfesteem, and physiology. They all of which are factors that leads to procrastination. Biological Cause 1: Personality Personality defines who we are. This includes our genetic make up. They are the Big Five traits: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. Of these Big Five traits, conscientiousness controls tasks persistency while openness intellect, creativity, and willingness to learn. Because people score differently on these traits, with some being higher or lower on conscientiousness, they are affected by procrastination varyingly. Conscientiousness controls persistency. Therefore, the more conscientious an individual is the more likely one continues to work on a hard task. Openness controls intellect, creativity and willingness to learn. Therefore, the more opened an individual is, the more likely one is to want feedback on how to improve. Open people are more likely to see flaws in their personality and actions and learn from them. Hence, scoring high on conscientiousness or openness is likely to produce a person who procrastinates less. Biological Cause 2- Self-esteem Self-esteem is the perception of one self when compared to the ideal self. One feels more accepting if his current self matches his ideal self. If ideal self is too far away from the current self, the individual experiences low self-esteem. Low self-esteem deprives confidence. This confidence then affects task performance, because it affects how one feel towards ones own work skills and ability to change. Thus, someone high in selfesteem is more likely to feel positive towards self, have more confidence, and think that one can excel. Thinking so one will. Biological Cause 3 - Physiology and the Brain Procrastination is linked to attentiveness, level of impulsivity, and planning. All of which are linked to the prefrontal cortex of the brain. Individuals damaged here will procrastinate. Hence, lets take a look at each one and how each affects procrastination. a) Attention -is ability to concentrate on a task while inhabiting distracting stimuli. An example of

Psychology2010s Exclusive Study Guild on the Psychology Of Procrastination and How to Overcome It In the following study guild, I talk about procrastination. What it is, the effects, the causes, and the solutions to overcome it. This study guild combines research findings from academic articles and personal knowledge about psychology. No where else can you find an article better explained about procrastination. The purpose is to provide readers with comprehensive explanations about procrastination. What is procrastination? To keep it simple, procrastination is the delaying of tasks that require immediate attention. An instance of this for school is when projects or preparation for a test are left until the night before. What are the effects of procrastination? The effects of procrastination are maladaptive to productivity and quality performance. Procrastination produces anxiety and poor work performance. Without procrastination, a lot more goals can be accomplished. Why does procrastination occur? From the behavioral perspective, procrastination is learnt. It occurs through repeated reinforcement. Tasks produce anxiety. When procrastination occurs, the human leaves the task and focus on one that produces less anxiety. This leads to comfort. This comfort becomes the reinforcement. This behavior repeats until it becomes a habit. Once the habit is fixated and affects many aspects of life, it becomes a behavioral disorder. What causes procrastination? The causes of procrastination can be divided into environment or biology. Environment refers to the surrounding conditions while biology the genes. Both environment and biology interacts. This results in complex relationships between environment and gene known as epigenesis.

excellent attention is studying at a public place and blocking out the noises nearby. Hence, the more attentive an individual is, the less likely his or her mind wanders. b) Impulsiveness - is ability to delay gratification. An example that tests this is when a friend tells you to go somewhere, but you can say no. In addition, do you guys see how impulsiveness ties in with Freuds work and the ID ? The ID operates on the pleasure principle and wants immediate pleasure. Therefore, someone high on impulsivity is more likely to procrastinate, because he or she cannot wait. c) Planning - is ability to estimate how long a task will take and schedule times appropriately to accomplish it. It is surprising that planning is a trait you are born with, but never the less, you can always work on it. For example, learning how to break tasks down so that they become manageable. In conclusion, the sources of procrastination are rooted in biology. Personality traits such as conscientiousness and openness affect how hard we try and want to learn. Self-esteem affects how confident we feel about improving. While the prefrontal cortex affects ability to attend, focus, and plan. All in which are control by genes. Procrastination is rooted in biology, but it is also controlled by the environment. Motivation, distractions, and mood are causes by environment. Lets have a look at each one and examine how each contributes to procrastination. Environmental Cause Number 1 Motivation Motivation gives reasons to do a task. Low motivation is a source of procrastination. This is often true when deciding whether a task is worth time and effort. Hence beliefs affect motivation, and by changing beliefs, a task can motivate us more or less. To illustrate the power of beliefs, heres a following passage from Celestine Chua in her how to overcome procrastination blog page. In it, she talks about her early school years where her interests lies in web design and is disinterested towards unrelated school work. Hence, she does not get very good grades. However, excellence is a part of her selfconcept. It is important to her that she is not a failure. Therefore, she later learns to redefine what excellence means to her. In doing so, she makes sure to do everything excellently. Hence, she starts doing very well in classes and eventually graduates as the top student in university. In addition to her success, she is now the life coach and writer of The Personal Excellence Blog. In summary, re-evaluating the reasons to do a task increases motivation. Greater motivation means less procrastination. Hence, the

next time, you start on a task, list a few reasons why you are doing it and what you hope to accomplish. Environmental Cause Number 2 -Distractions Distraction is anything that sways us from focusing on a task. They can be divided into those that require immediate attention and those that dont. Those that do are called important distractions and those that dont non-important. Heres a linkto a list of each. Recognizing non-important distractions decrease procrastination, because it makes you aware. Being aware prompts one to take measures. Heres a following guild on how to avoid distractions: 1. Recognize what distractions are and what are distracting you. For example, ask yourself if it is msn. If the log in sign that is popping up when somebody logs in is making you talk to them. If so, then log off. 2. After recognizing what is distracting you, find

ways to avoid them. General ways include studying at the library, with a hardworking friend, disabling face book. Library is a quiet place to study so it helps you focus. Secondly, seeing other people study motivates you to study. 3. Lastly, learn to delay gratification. To say NO

when a friend requests you to go somewhere. Environmental Cause Number 3 Mood & Energy Mood fluctuates from hours to hours. It is affected by how much energy we have. The less energy, in most cases the less positive we are. An instance of this is getting home from work and feeling too tired to study. Hence, mood and energy affects procrastination. In a better mood and energy state, we are more inclined to get tasks done. We become more productive. And when we are not, less so. Hence, it is important to be in the mood to study. Here are some tips to help you be in the right mood: 1. Having a proper sleeping pattern. Studies have

shown that at least 8 hours of sleep is necessary to get us functioning for the next 16 hours. Furthermore, a regular sleeping pattern maintains normal level of hormone productions that makes us healthy. 2. Reserving or saving up energy for studying. If

you find yourself really tire after coming home from school, make sure you take a short nap to replenish that. 3. Physical exercise. Studies have shown that jogs

reduce stress. This means increased positive feelings.

4.

Study free of distractions. Distractions affect

and recognizing what controls you can provide ways to overcome them.

mood. Just simply listening to music can change your mood, because music has emotional implications. 5. Meditate.

Psychology2010s Studying Tip #8: An Effective Strategy For Memorization For Academic Exams In the following study guild, I discuss one very effective way to memorize a list of simple objects. Then I talk about how to apply this strategy to memorizing the contents in an entire lecture for school. And in the future, hopefully, provide additional guidance on memorizing an entire course. All in which to provide excellence in academics. To start off, what is memorization? To keep it simple, memorization is the encoding of information into our brain that later can be effectively retrieved. What enhances memorization? By having many retrieval cues, memory can be enhanced. Retrieval cues are things that remind and help retain information. The more retrieval cues, the better the recall. For example, lets say youve just met an acquaintance at a park. She tells you her name. What is going to help you remember her name better? Repeating her name to yourself or remembering what she wore? Suprisingly, it is the latter. Remembering what she wore, the colour of her jacket, the dimple on her cheeks, her height being 6 foot tall, that she said she was an Art student, the last sentence before she utters her name are going to help you remember the name better. This is because of the increased number of retrieval cues. Retrieval cues provides additional means to help trace information. This mean is your tool and trail of thoughts. Hence, focusing entirely on repeating what she said is not going to help, because it has no retrieval cues. The more retrieval cues, the stronger the memory. And the more varied, the more keys. So what is the method I am talking about to better memorization? Having more retrieval cues is the underlying principle to better memory and thus I talk about it. This strategy I will be talking about in the next 3 paragraphs are ways to increasing retrieval cues when it comes to school work and education. How it works? Remember the quote I posted a while back in my tumblr? Here it is: Memorization is like painting. Paint and elaborate picture and you will remember it for a very long time. Essentially, it is a strategy for increasing retrieval cues. Let us demonstrate how it works:

Environmental Cause Number 4 - Task Difficulty and Need for Perfection Task difficulty refers to how hard it is to complete a task. Need for perfection is the desire to do a great job. They both cause procrastination, because they produce anxiety. This anxiety is the result of cognitive dissonance, what we call when we experience two conflicting perspectives. In procrastination, we want to succeed, but one hand, realize that the task is too hard. Hence, anxiety results. When anxiety results, we close our mind. We become discouraged, and we start questioning ourselves. How do I begin? Can I accomplish this? If so, how long would it take? Hence, we spend time thinking everything through. However, the process can be made easier. Here are some tips to overcome anxiety. First with respect to task difficulty, seek teachers, friends, or internet for help. Do some research into the topic. Inspire yourself for ideas. Break big tasks down into smaller ones. We often see it as a whole and this makes everything look harder than it should be. Plan when to get your tasks done. This encourages you to make quick decisions. Secondly with need for perfection, lower your expectations. Realize that the task is difficult. That you may not do a very good job at first but will try your best and learn from it. In summary, procrastination is a learnt habit with maladaptive consequences affecting productivity and quality performance. Procrastination is the result of both biology and environment. Biology such as personality traits like conscientiousness and openness affect how hard we try and want to learn. Selfesteem affects confidence and believing that you can improve. While the prefrontal cortex affects ability to attend, focus, and plan. Personality, self-esteem, attention, impulsivity, and planning decide who is more or less likely to procrastinate. As for environment, motivations, distractions, mood, energy, task difficulty, and perfectionism contributes to procrastination. Motivation provides reasons for persisting. Recognizing non-important distractions encourages attention. Excellent mood and energy fuels inspiration. Reduced task difficulty and need for perfection minimize anxiety. All in which interacts together to affect procrastination,

Task: Memorize the following list of items and repeat them in that sequence: List: Cat, Cross Bow, Tree, Nest, Alligator, 86. Step 1: Create a painting. This means draw a picture. In this case, a script, a sequence of events. The more detailed, dynamic, fluid the script, the better the memory. For example, to memorize the following list, first picture a cat. Second, picture the cat holding the crossbow. Third, picture the cat moving up to a yellow and L shaped-tall tree. Fourth, the cat looks up and sees a bird nest on the fourth branch. Fifth, cat notices alligator crawling in the distance towards it. Last, the alligator has the number 86 inscribed on its tail. Step 2: Refine Script The more elaborate, the better the memory. This falls on three criteria-details, dynamic, and fluidity. Lets go over how to do each. Details is describing the object, giving it characteristics. In the above script, the example is calling the tree L-shaped, tall and green. Picturing a yellow and L-shaped tall tree is better than picturing a a regular tree. It stands out. Dynamic is giving actions to the objects. In the above script, the example is the cat looks up. Fluidity is the flow of the sequence. A good flow is easier to remember. A good flow is how well one event leads to another. In the above script, the example is cat notices alligator alligator crawling in the distance towards it. This is good flow because the cat is linked to the alligator. And as you can see, scripts can be refined. The cat can be described. The alligator can attack. etc. Hence, refine the script with details, dynamic, and fluidity to better remember. Step 3- Repeat Script Mentally & Write out the list as is Hence, Memorization is a painting. Paint an elaborate picture and you will remember it. Now lets get to the good stuff. How can I memorize an entire lecture? Often, exams test our ability to recall information. In other words, exams test memorization. Memorization works hand-in-hand with how well you learn a topic. This being true for written type questions. A link to one of my previous post on this topic. Link. Therefore, have an outstanding memory through reading this study guild and applying the strategy to get the As you have always wanted. Taking the strategy to the next level

School topics are a lot abstract than the simple list that we had to memorize a little earlier on. However, abstracts are only abstracts if you dont give arepresentation to it. Lecture points to remember: Point 1. Neurons are the representational medium in the brain. Point 2. Different information are represented in different parts of the brain. Example of different information: Vision, body parts, emotions, selfconcept(age,sex, height, hobbies, morals, beliefs etc), pain, language, math. Point 3. The brain is flexible in terms of where stuff can be stored. Applying the strategy Step 1: Create a picture Heres my painting. I picture myself standing in the top of a cliff. In the distance I hear the roar of the sea pushing against the cliff underneath. For point 1: Looking at myself from above, I zoom in until I reach my brain. Deeper and deeper until I see neurons. Picture neuron. For point 2: Then I zoom around the brain and see different sectors. Miniature neuron workers with helmets working on each. Each worker boss were responsible for different tasks. The neuron with the blue helmet was responsible for storing facts related to self-concept. The red with emotions. The yellow with math. The purple with language. For point 3: However, some of the employees of the yellow worker are working with the blue workers. Step 2: Refine Script Step 3: Repeat Script Mentally and Write Out the Key Points In conclusion, the following study guild explains better memorization in terms of having multiple retrieval cues, and that for enhanced exam performance, visual scripts are strategies to increasing retrieval cues. The goal of the study guild has been to provide readers with knowledge about how memory works and one simple yet effective technique to get the As on exams.

Psychology2010 revised studying model #2: A focus on Efficiency 1. Read the chapter before coming to class. Just like making sure you attend every lecture, reading before you come to class saves you a lot of time in the long run. First, it allows you to make the most of your class time, because you will be able to understand and follow everything that the teacher

says. Second, you will remember the material better because by comparing what the teacher says to what youve read reinforces the encoding process. Lastly, it gives you an additional boost of confidence because you will no longer have to worry about not finishing your readings. Read before class; it makes a huge difference. this technique is the most important; value it over the others. 2. Create flow charts. It helps you relate the topics together and this will enable you to do better on essay type questions. Most essay type questions involves comparing or elaborating on a topic. Flow charts facilitates this task, because it connects topics together. Most of psychology essay and short answer exam questions are graded on the number of points youve mentioned that are on the on a teachers checklist. So the more points you mention, the more likely you are to get a perfect score. Flow charts ensure that you dont forget any point that are worth mentioning. Flow charts are very helpful to prepare for written type questions on exams. For a guide on how to make flow charts, go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowchart 3. For prereading, avoid reading everything down to the innermost details.This can be very inefficient in the sense that chances are you wont remember the details- that your effort would just be wasted. For prereading, I suggest focusing more time on the bigger topics. Question: For prereading, should I take handwritten notes? This was debated. Here are the pros and cons and you can decide how to go on about note-taking during reading: Pros: 1) Youll have organized notes to bring to class 2) Studies have shown that students who hand write their notes outperforms those who just highlights the text. In some sense, this means taking notes down by hand facilitate encoding and memory recall. Cons:1) Takes up too much time 2) Hard work 4. Reread the textbook with the lecture notes in front of you 1 or 2 days after lecture. After the lecture, you should now have a better idea of what are testable materials. Spend more time focusing on the overlap of lecture material and textbook notes. The textbook is generally meant to complement the lecture notes unless the teacher specifically assigns your readings. During this time, it is actually very useful to hand write your notes and organize the information.

5. During notetaking, instead of lazily just rewriting what the textbook and lecture notes say, predict and make up possible test questions. This is important, because you are not only working on your memorization, you are also actively preparing for the exam. 6. [last tip for today] Our brain has a limited supply of fuel. Study hard, but dont study too long. Switch between tasks. Dont study, read the same chapter for an extended period of time. Studies have shown that alternating between tasks better helps retention of material. Decide how long you want to study for, and study as hard as you can during that time.

Psychology2010s revised studying approach The 5 Points 1. Ignore the prereading (reading before a class) altogether. No skimming. No looking at the outline of the chapter. Instead, just go ahead and read the first page really intensively and repeat this until youre looking at the last page. 2. Memorize the terms (definition) instead of rephrasing it in your own words. Use flashcard. Free online flashcard program can be found here:http://www.proprofs.com/flashcards/ 3. Rewrite each lecture notes by hand. For tests that requires recall, you want to be able to remember something without that thing in front of you. By rewriting the notes without the textbook or lecture slides in front you improve recalls. Other methods of recalls: Read slides. Pretend to lecture someone about the topic. Practice recall through verbal intonation. For me, I am personally just going to write what I learn here on tumblr as a way of working on my recall. 4. After each chapter, do the practice questions twice. 5. Before exam, atleast 5 days, review and not read your notes. (The period before a test is not meant to be learning something new, it is suppose to be a review time(going over what you have already learn instead of learning new things).

Studying tip # 4: How to pull a last minute revision Ok. So I had my psych 305A exam yesterday (first exam of the semester), and I was studying all throughout the afternoon and night. I woke up at 1pm studied all the way to 7am and then had to leave the house for my first class. My first class is Psych 320, gender studies which was at 9 am. The

problem here is my psych 305A is not until 4pm so as you can see i was debating whether to skip my first class and just use the rest of the time to sleep. Sleep is very important. If you dont sleep enough even if you are a smart ass, you will not be able to perform your best on an exam. In fact, you might do even worst than a classmate who only puts 1 minute into their studying. At least sleep for 1 hour if you can. So here I was- deciding. Typically my checklist for what to do (complete) for studying goes somewhere a long the following lines: 1. Reading through all the chapters 2. Reading through all my lecture notes *note by read, I mean understand. Understand means when someone asks you a question about the topic, you can right off the bat, word for word recite the line without the book or notes in front of you. Much like you have the textbook in your head. 3 rd criteria is: Doing a bunch of questions (Psych 305 didnt have practice exams and the textbook didnt have much so we have to look for practice questions elsewhere; most psych classes dont give practice questions) So there I was 6 in the morning staring at my book weighing both sides of the bet. And being driven to get the highest mark in the class, the solution was simple: Find a way to finish everything in the checklist at the same time not letting sleep stand in your way. Find a way to wake up your brain just before the test. Go for a jog. Get emotionally excited. or even better bang your head against a wall. I ended up talking with my study group right before the exam, and I found it really helpful. The answer in staying awake is actually talking. As simplistic as this sounds, because talking unlike reading, taking notes (non verbal ways of learning) activates the conscious part of the brain. And as we know, being awake means being conscious. So being more conscious means being more awake. So if you ever ever lack any sleep before an exam, and has to sacrifice your studying for sleep, but wants to pull through, find a study group before the exam and talk. Of course, studying is always best if you have it complete a day before an exam. Lacking sleep is not very healthy at all. I was also lucky enough the test was not too hard, and didnt have to think too much. If it involved questions that had required deeper thinking, I am not

even sure if this method even works. Perhaps in such case, having enough sleep would be more important. I guess this method only works if the tests are not too hard, and you still want to do extremely well on it when in a tough spot. For studying, fundamentally you want to spend more time reviewing instead reading.

Psychology2010s Studying tips #6: How to study for multiple choice exams Most of psychology exams have multiple choices in them. Not just a few, but a majority of the test in psychology relies on mc(multiple choice) questions. In order to understand how to do well in multiple choice questions, you have to not only know process of elimination technique but also the essential components of multiple choice questions. Multiple choices questions unlike written questions test our ability to recognize. To recognize is actually a psychological term referring to the cognitive process of matching what you seen before with what you see now. For instance, when you meet someone you know on the street. How you know it is someone you know? By looking at their face and your brain going into the dumpster and going hey, this face looks like this picture. Hence recognization is about remembering what you have seen before. In tests, an example of recognition would be: Having read your lecture notes before and under the BIG FIVE personality trait, you see Conscientiousness. And on the test you get a question like this: Which of the following is not one of the BIG Five? a)Extroversion b) Nerotism c)Happiness d)Openness e)Conscientiousness. Your brain will go check off conscientiousness because youve seen it before. This said. Doesnt it all just mean to do well on multiple choice questions, we should emphasize on improving our ability to recognize? Yes, and we can do it through the following method: 1. Look at the words once. Remember where youve seen it. The context around it. 2. Repeat drill. Be cautious though. Multiple choice questions also test recall which is different from recognition. We

will be potentially discuss how recall works in studying tip 7

A day later, the researchers gave all of the students a test on the material, presenting new problems of the same type. The children who had studied mixed sets did twice as well as the others, outscoring them 77 percent to 38 percent A comment: Assuming the validity of the

Psychology2010s few introspections and summary on: Forget What You Know About Good Study Habits From NYT. Psychologists have discovered that some of the most hallowed advice on study habits is flat wrong. ^ isnt actually the point of the article. What the article wants to teach us is that there are more efficient ways of learning. Here are three following insights from the read and take notes of them for better studying strategies: Point 1: Studying in multiple environments allows for better retentions of facts because neural activities (brain power) improves when it makes connection between the environment and the school work. In one classic 1978 experiment, psychologists found that college students who studied a list of 40 vocabulary words in two different rooms one windowless and cluttered, the other modern, with a view on a courtyard did far better on a test than students who studied the words twice, in the same room Some comments: On the contrary, some people find that studying at the same place is far more effective, because the familiarity of the place facilitates concentration. Being able to focus is far more important than just sitting at some random place and not being able to get anything done (not to mention the distractions in public places). Unless you are super motivated and hardly have troubles concentrating and can study anywhere, by all means take advantage of the study-booster above. And if you cant find other places to study to get that change in environment, you might find that studying in front of the television with the discovery channel on really helps. Point 2: When doing practice questions alternate between types of questions. Half of the children learned by studying repeated examples of one equation, say, calculating the number of prism faces when given the number of sides at the base, then moving on to the next type of calculation, studying repeated examples of that. The other half studied mixed problem sets, which included examples all four types of calculations grouped together. Both groups solved sample problems along the way, as they studied.

findings above to be true, this can be quite effective for courses like math and physics. So next time when doing homework instead of starting on question 1 you go ahead and start on 2. Point 3: Space out your studies to improve recall of information When the neural suitcase is packed carefully and gradually, it holds its contents for far, far longer. An hour of study tonight, an hour on the weekend, another session a week from now: such so-called spacing improves later recall, without requiring students to put in more overall study effort or pay more attention, dozens of studies have found. No one knows for sure why. It may be that the brain, when it revisits material at a later time, has to relearn some of what it has absorbed before adding new stuff and that that process is itself selfreinforcing. Comment: When the article means space out your studies, it doesnt necessarily mean study for 1 hour rest for an hour then study again. It also doesnt mean do all the readings for the week in that one day and end up not touching the textbook again. What it tries to convey is that to be effective learners, we should always revisit what we learn. We want to make sure what we learn stays not only fresh but also strong in our heads until the exam.

Exam Studying Tip 12: Have Complete Notes From Lecture This studying tip is about how important it is to write or type down everything you hear in lectures. If you have full notes from lecture, you will be able to study much more efficiently when it comes to midterm preparation. Most lecture slides that accompany the class are never complete. They leave out the details that help you understand the key points. Your job is to copy down these details. When you have these details, you will better understand the slides later when you review them. I am partially writing up this tip as a reminder to myself to take complete notes from now on. Even if I feel like I understand what is said in a lecture, I should still take down notes. Cant be too confident, because you might actually not know as well as you

think. Furthermore, it will not do any harm when you study later on, because the additional notes can only help you recall the materials. Now that I am actually missing notes, and midterms are just around, I realize how much time I am wasting just to figure out a few key points on the slides. I found that the slides that I have notes for were easier to understand whereas those slides that I did not take notes on were more challenging regardless of how simple the points may be.

thinking about it because a) they either did poorly on them and do not want to agonize over them anymore, or b) dont feel like there is a point to it. But many do not realize that there are actually strategical benefits to thinking about them. This is especially true if you think about how you did especially right after the midterm or exam. 13. When you think about how you did on the midterm, it can help you prepare for the next midterm or final by giving you insights into a new strategy. As students, we often study a particular way for almost all exams. It is as though we have a routine for them, but problem is we do not often enough refine or question whether our routine should be changed or how they should be changed. For instance, our current exam preparation routine might to read over the slides and read over the textbooks, and do

???? but with notes: movement of CSF:

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some practice questions. Having a standard routine like this one works fine for the first midterm or exam into a course, because we dont know what sort of questions to expect on the exam, but actually every professors have different styles of making exam questions. This can be in the ways, the professors choose to word their written questions or where they draw the test materials from. Your job is figure out their style. Once you have their styles figured out, you can optimize the way you study to better fit the types of questions asked on exams. 14. This part often comes from asking certain questions to yourself after you finish a midterm or exam. Some good questions to ask yourself to help you figure out your professor style of exam questions are: 15. 1. Were most of the questions coming from the lecture slides or textbooks? What

1. Lateral ventricles: chorad plexus filters blood, generating CSF 2. Goes down to third ventricle 3. Goes down to the third cerebral aqueduct 4. Goes down to the fourth ventricle 5. Goes down th small openings -> circulates into subarachnoid space and spinal canal 6. Goes down. Reabsorbed into circulatory system from subarachnoid space into blood vessels 7. Goes down for the head, the blood drains into the large veins of the neck.

8.

Studying Tip 13: Post-Midterm Strategies That Can Immensely Improve General Studying Skills and Final Exam Grades

9. 10. Hello, 11. I just had my forensic psych exam and I thought this is a good time to write up an article about a studying strategy that might be useful. This strategy comes from what you can think about after finishing a midterm or exam. 12. Many students think that after a midterm or exam that it is better not to think about them anymore. They think that the midterm or exam is already done so why bother

proportion of each were roughly tested? 16. For I today, with forensic psychology midterm, despite that on the course syllabus, it says that both the textbook and lecture materials are examinable, asking myself this question right after the midterm and recalling all the questions that were asked, I found out that only around 5% questions were actually on materials in the textbooks that were not overlapping materials from class. Hence, the topics in the textbook which were not talked about in

class and were a large chunk of each chapter (perhaps 25-30%) were actually not on the exam. 17. Knowing this, I learn that for the final all I have to do to maximize my time and grades are to focus on the overlapping materials. I will read the non-overlapping just to get a general idea, but I will mostly focus on learning and memorizing the overlapping materials. This is as opposed to when I tried to give equal importance to understanding all topics in the textbook which costed me a lot of my brain energy. 18. Students who do not ask themselves this question after a midterm will blindly study everything in the textbook and not get the grades they deserve for their effort. With the possible amount of time we have to study for exams, they will not be able to focus most of their energy towards reviewing the real testable materials. 19. 2. What questions did you have difficulty with on the midterm or exam? 20. Asking yourself this question can lead to further questions to ask yourself that can lead to learning why you had problems with them and how to improve. For instance, with todays Forensic Psych midterm, the questions I had troubles with were with the questions that were discussed in class that I didnt take down complete notes for. We had a question about With the case of X, how would you assess his eligibility for an insanity defense if you are the judge? And in class, we talked about the criteria for an insanity defense and saw a video of him, but because I didnt write down everything that she talked about outside the slides, I had trouble recalling what the discussed answers to that question were. Instead, I had to take my best guess and use my own reasoning. This is actually not good, because most exams have a grading rubric that wants a specific answer, so its not recommended to make up your own answers. 21. So asking myself what questions I had troubles with and why I had troubles with them helped me change what I must do for next exam. I must take more notes in class. Same for students, when they ask themselves which question were hard for them, they can further inquire why that were the case. Was it because you didnt

study it enough? Was it because the question came from a section in the textbook that was not covered in class and you didnt really read it? Was it because the question was just meant to be one of those killer question that separate the A+ from A or B students? Was it because you didnt have enough time to review everything? Was it because it was something you were suppose to take down notes on but didnt? 22. 3. What was her exam style? 23. This is the ultimate question to ask yourself. As stated earlier, each professor can have a unique way of asking their questions. Some professors really take the time to make questions that test your understanding of key concepts either discussed in class or the textbook, while there are others who may just throw in questions that are meant to be trivial and you have to memorize the answers to. Some professors also have a special type of question. My forensic psychology professor had question like create or give original examples or experiments that were neither found in class or lecture for this topic. Rarely, do professors give you freedom to answer a question, but her questions really did. So knowing that, you can change your note taking strategy by including your own examples when prepping for the final. 24. In summary, it is very important to go over how you did on a midterm or exam to adjust your studying strategies or habits to fit the demand of the course. The key of going over your midterm or exam is ask yourself questions that can give you insights into your performance, and not ones that make you ruminate over how poorly you made have did. Some key questions are: 1) What proportion of the questions were contents unique to the textbook or lecture? 2) What questions did you have difficulty on? and 3) What were unique about the way the professor asked the questions?. Once you have the answers to these questions figured out, you can find solutions to help you prepare for the next one. Most of the time, when I use this studying tip, my exam score goes up by 7 to 10%. This is going up 2 or 3 letter grades. It even works when you get like 80% on the midterm and will get like 90% ish on the final. And I anticipate that the lower score you got on the midterm, the

higher you will score on the next midterm or final after using this studying tip.