<p>I'll keep the background info short: I never studied seriously in high school. Never took notes outside of class. Only opened the textbook fifteen minutes before a test or to do homework (occasionally). Never finished a single book in English. I got a 3.6 unweighted by focusing in class and doing well on tests. I'm a conceptual learner and mass memorization and subjective interpretation are my weak points. I excel at math and science.
Repeat: I have never studied seriously in high school.</p>
<p>My concerns: I don't know what to expect in terms of difficulty when it comes to college classes. It's an easy assumption that I'll need to learn how to study in order to get an A. Classes start on august 28th. I need to learn how to study, and how to mark up a textbook selectively and keep it's utility.</p>
<p>My attempts: I have (illegally) acquired versions of my textbooks digitally to markup on pdfs. I am tending to over-highlight, AND I'm missing the big picture. My process was to highlight all terms in one color, important names and dates in another color, information associated with names/dates in underlined, diagrams I think are important get boxed, and important ideas are yet another color.
Upon reading some of the review questions at the end of the chapter, it all blanked out of my head and my remembrance was vague and not "A-quality".</p>
<p>My questions:
1) How do I learn, take notes, and study a textbook on its own?
2) How do I do study for a quiz/midterm/exam?
3) What should I expect in terms of difficulty of the general scheme of things?</p>
<p>Additional information:
I will be attending UC Berkeley (my lecture halls will be big).
I will not be living in the dorms my freshman year. I will mostly be with fellow athletes.
I will be taking entry level Chemistry (with lab), entry level math (for math/science majors), and an Introductory Neurology course. Other than that I have my sport and that is it.</p>
<p>Thanks,</p>
<p>G</p>
<p>You should read the text, attempt to understand the text, then you should take notes and/or mark the textbook as a summary. A textbook can have an entire 16 line paragraph about density. Once you have read that paragraph and understood it, ask yourself:
- What is the general concept?
The general concept is that density is a property of matter that says how much mass is packed within a certain area.
- What is important information that I need to know to understand the concept or that a teacher may use on a test?
Well, I need this one example that shows me how to calculate density. You don’t need a thousand example problems of the same type, in fact, it’s good if you can take an example problem and generalize it, such as taking a specific example and saying, the author found the mass in the problem then inferred the area using whatever then used this simple formula. Don’t burden yourself with random tidbits.</p>
<p>Taking notes is not you learning for the first time. It is very much a reminder or summary. You can learn the concepts using all those examples but you don’t need all those examples to remember the concept once you understand it! </p>
<p>When I was taking a plant identification class, my professor warned us not to take pictures of the plants. This is because instead of looking critically at the plant and writing down what identified it to us uniquely, our brain bookmarks the plant for later and later never comes. I think you’re doing a similar thing with marking all the names and dates, and your brain basically tells itself over and over that you’ll learn that later.</p>
<p>How do you study for a test? Why, use the guide you created when you took notes in the first place! You have the summary and examples for problems all in one place! Then you do example problems: if it’s a math class, do similar math problems, if it’s an English class, write essays that follow the content you’ve been studying.</p>
<p>Honestly, don’t expect the level of difficulty at all. Go into it thinking you are going to do the best you can. You’ll be less stressed and you’ll push yourself harder than you expected.</p>
<p>Good luck in your studies.</p>
<p>Thank you for the advice 
The part about the brain “saving it for later” described my problem exactly, and I never even thought of questioning myself after each paragraph. I really appreciate it!</p>