<p>I have a huge amount of noted from lectures and readings. My professor hasn't told my class and I what to study yet, so I've been reviewing my notes since the beginning for the last few days, but this seems boring and strenuous. </p>
<p>I was alive my freshmen year (now a sophomore), but most of my classes were just PowerPoint based and everything was posted online. </p>
<p>How should I be studying here?
What would you be doing if you were me?</p>
<p>Not all professors are going to tell you exactly what you need to study for the exams. </p>
<p>I had an anthropology professor both semesters last year that refused to narrow down the material that would appear on the exams. Some of the students would ask what parts they needed to review, and he would simply respond with “all of it.” With only 2 exams and a final, each exam covered quite a bit of material. </p>
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<p>Very true. In fact, most won’t. My best advice is to look for “big picture” themes and common threads among the material covered. There will probably be at least one question based on each day’s lecture.</p>
<p>When you review the textbook, be sure to look at the subheadings - these provide an outline of the material and can be a great source for multiple choice answers. For example, suppose the chapter talks about “colors in the rainbow” and has subheadings “red,” “green,” “indigo” etc. I can imagine a question like]</p>
<p>Which of these is not a color in the rainbow?
(a) red
(b) squiggypolkadots
(c) indigo
(d) green
(e) none of these</p>
<p>(See what I did there? It’s “b”…) ;)</p>
<p>I disagree. Squiggypolkadots is my favorite color from the rainbow. Apparently you’re just not capable of seeing it :P</p>
<p>That’s a good point though. The anthropology professor I mentioned didn’t flat out tell us “this, this, this and this are going to be on the exams.” But it was usually fairly apparent that certain things were going to be tested over. One of the main themes of one of the units in General Cultural Anthropology was focused on the evolution and development of human modes of subsistence. His exams included 2-3 fairly essay questions that required fairly lengthy responses for full credit. It was pretty clear in that unit that there was going to be an essay question asking us to compare and contrast the different main modes of subsistence throughout human cultural development, and to discuss the environmental factors that led to these modes of subsistence. He made a point of showing us how these changes were gradual and didn’t necessarily have clear cut divisions, so it seemed clear that we needed to emphasize the fact that these changes were very slow and that most human cultures have really been a blend of some combination of modes of subsistence. </p>
<p>It should generally be fairly clear that there are some large, main ideas within any unit of a class, with several smaller sub-ideas within each idea. You can count on the high points of each being touched on within most exams. </p>