<p>Sorry if this question has been answered before, I tried searching the threads but didn't find anything.</p>
<p>Basically, I got through most of high school without needing to study. I only really ever truly studied for AP exams...and that "studying" was cramming through my review books and reading them twice in the week leading up to the test. I realize this is really not a good idea, especially since I know I will need to study in college (I'll be going to UCBerkeley and I've already heard how tough Math1A and Chem1A are there, and I'm taking those classes in fall semester). So, how do you study? What is effective and what is not?</p>
<p>Organization and time management. ie. balance school work and play time.</p>
<p>Go to class.</p>
<p>Keep up with the work. Keep reading and keep up with all assignments, even if the test or report is not due for a while. Highlight texts for simple review. If need be take notes on books. Do all homework on time. Keep up with the syllabus.</p>
<p>You should do fine. Just keep up with the work and have fun too.</p>
<p>Ineffective: Learning “concepts” that, by themselves without rigorous memorization, do not enable you to earn a strong GPA. For example, you will run across problems in your chem class where the answer is purportedly justified by the first law of thermodynamics, when really that’s just the textbook “authors” and your instructor being pretentious, and you just need to memorize the answer to each and every question that they could possibly ask you. Knowing that matter cannot be destroyed, and that entropy exists, will earn you a 10% on your exam, the rest is memorization.</p>
<p>Think about it. Unlike in western countries, where we engage in pretentious self-indulgent advocation of “concepts” over “memorization”, education in in Asian countries is geared unapologetically towards rote memorization. After 18 years of that, they are able to come here and earn Strong GPAs with the memorization skills that they’ve been honing. I’ve seen Asian and Indian foreign nationals who could barely speak English acing relatively tough liberal arts classes based mainly on readings. Contrast that with the high-IQ, low-GPA American fool, who would typically do worse in such a class in spite of doing all of the readings. Although his reading comprehension is vastly superior, he is too bored by the material, and not practiced enough in memorization, to have study skills on par with the Asian foreign national with a lower verbal IQ. And of course this is nothing compared to the advantages of strong memorizational ethic in Quantitative coursework.</p>
<p>^I disagree. I think the people who rely on memorization to do well in class 1) only develop a very shallow understanding of the subject 2) put in much more effort studying than people who always try to understand the concepts or the big picture 3) do poorly on tests when professors decided to ask trickier questions that force you to think rather than regurgitate formulas</p>
<p>^+1 memorization is sure good for history and fluffy science courses, but for more rigious courses like mathematics, physics, ect. understanding concepts is the difference between an A vs B or C grade. Professors I had wrote tests in ways that made sure you understood the concepts rather than memorized, which weeded out all the people who did not actually understand the material. Plus if you understand concepts, you should for the most part be able to derive the formulas or understandings for whatever question is given like in mathematics- in lower-division some people say you need to memorize formulas and step by step, but in actuality you don’t.</p>
<p>Nope, I’m still right. Wanna know why? The majority of concepts don’t take much time at all to understand. How many concepts outside of theoretical physics are really that hard to understand? It’s the minutiae, which takes hours upon hours to study and memorize, that determines whether you get a strong GPA. Overemphasis on conceptual understanding is the folly of disingenuous internet users and other academics who are socially astute enough to realize that no one respects them if they earn strong GPAs through memorization, and that IQ is a loaded, politically-incorrect concept. By claiming to “learn concepts”, they look ultra-savvy and intelligent without the baggage of claiming a high IQ or the no-friends/no social skills/low IQ assumptions of a strong GPA through memorization. It worked well enough until today. I’m afraid you’ve just had the whistle blown on you.</p>
<p>Bottom line: Stop posting lies that you tell yourself to feed your ego, someone could actually read your posts and take them to heart. Just come clean. Admit it, strong GPAers. You are memorizers first and foremost. Learning the “concepts” is incidental during the memorization process. </p>
<p>I’m surprised half of you don’t capitalize Concept, come to think of it.</p>
<p>For higher level math and science courses, memorization doesn’t cut it. Whistleblower, you may find concepts easy to grasp and minute details are more worthy of your time, but not everyone thinks that the “majority of concepts don’t take much time at all to understand.”</p>
<p>I’d say my kind of style is just to learn the material for the sake of learning it. I know you’re going to take classes you hate, but try to make them a bit interesting and focus on the material. When your studying make connections into your life; kind of like how the cell organelles function like a city. In fact, if your preparing for med. school or law, go ahead and buy an MCAT, LCAT, etc. book and just begin practicing these habits. I bought an MCAT Biology book the other day, and just reading a few pages to get my mind into “work mode.”</p>
<p>One advice I have is to make sure you go to recitation and/or office hours frequently. Do your best on problem sets, but sometimes it’s better to just ask for help instead of spending too much time agonizing over trying to figure out the problems on your own. Some more advice: Figure out a time and place when you can best focus, and try to stick to it when you do homework and study. I’ve found that I do math best in the evening and more rote memorization things soon after lunch. On the topic of memorization: yes, memorization is really important. But in higher-level math you need more than memorization to answer the questions. In upper-level proof-based math courses the questions aren’t so much applying a formula as much as using theorems you’ve memorized and conceptually understood, to prove new propositions on the spot. That’s one way I think math is different from other subjects like chemistry or biology. In chem and bio it’s important to understand the concepts, but it’s essential to, say, memorize all the mechanisms of glycolysis and photosynthesis. “Real math” isn’t about applying some formula; it’s more about coming up with new results based on prior theorems and definitions. So I think math requires a lot more genuine “thought” than other academic subjects.</p>
<p>@murmillo: So…since i’m only going to be taking 1 year of math but i’m going to do science for all 4 years (I’m going to major in Molecular&Cellular Biology), I’m guessing by your statements that I’ll need to know concepts but a lot of it will still be memorization based?</p>
<p>In any case, I do realize that I need to both know the concepts and also memorize. But how do I go about studying the concepts and memorizing the minutiae that I’ll need to know? Just sit down and do math/chem problems over and over again? Read and reread?</p>
<p>I get distracted a lot, so I try to get in the library. It kinda has this learning atmosphere, and it helps me concentrate when everybody else is working hard.</p>
<p>Also, study groups. Its always more enjoyable learning something when theres a friend to explain it for you.</p>