<p>Hello everyone,
I am currently taking psychology as an elective right now in college and I have found that I have no interest in it. I neglected reading the chapters and focused on classes I like like math and science. However, I can devote 2 full days, tomorrow and day after tomorrow, to study psychology. I know it is ineffective for me to read all of about 10 chapters now (which will never happen anyway because I will fall asleep), so what is the best method to get the important facts/concepts into my head from the chapters without sitting down and spending 2 hrs per chapter reading? Should I just copy by hand the notes online on course-notes.org? PLEASE. Any help is appreciated.</p>
<p>What the hell? Hand copy online notes? How about just read the online notes.</p>
<p>Yes, hand copy online notes to retain them better? Or am I supposed to just passively read them?</p>
<p>You hand copy if it works for you. I find that once I write something down, it's there in my memory. It doesn't work that way for everyone though, and I know some kids that actively read them, and they're fine. It just depends.</p>
<p>Do you have the text book?</p>
<p>read the INTRO and CONCLUSION of each chapter... most things should be clear. It should give you main topics. If something seems important that you don't understand, find the explanation in the chapter, and read that part of the chapter.</p>
<p>I think that depends on the textbook: ours has really bad intros and conclusions with almost no info in them.</p>
<p>First of all, does the prof generally test over lectures of the text? If they focus on the lectures, study from those, if they focus on the textbook, use it. If you haven't read any of the chapters (which I can't believe, how did you take the midterms?), skim through paragraphs and look for bold words, words that come up often, and words that are defined: these generally are important for the test. Also, you might want to read through chapters you understand least or may be most critical for the test, to at least fully understand a few chapters.</p>
<p>Hand writing notes takes way too long, but if you have the time, you should do it.</p>
<p>hate to say this, but you kind of dug your own grave on this one. you might try getting REA's Psychology CLEP review book from the school bookstore and read through it, making notes on anything highlighted. That book will at least cover all the main topics thoroughly, but you're still probably sunk if you haven't done ANY reading and not paid ANY attention in class. As was said, though, the conclusion/summaries to your book's chapters may cover the main pts as well.</p>
<p>Hey</p>
<p>thanks for all the replies. In the past for the midterms and such, i just did his old practice tests and read the bold words. However I only scored in the high 70s low 80s (which i guess is ok for not reading and outlining chapters). I will just do the bold words and outline copying, and then use the practice finals as a study guide rather than as a practice tool it is meant to be used as.</p>
<p>You'd probably be better off using those science and math skills you focused on throughout the semester to build a time machine, travel back a few months, and slowly study and absorb the information. If you had been to the psychology class, maybe you would have learned a bit about how the human brain works (*hint, it isn't by cramming!).</p>
<p>haha nice one I wish I could do that, but what's the point, it's not like I am going to be any more interested in the subject. It is amazing that I just went to classes and took notes. Anyway, why is cramming bad? Everyone says they never studied for a test and just crammed and end up doing well on it. No one says I read and outlined the chapters regularly and over time, and I just did a quick review before the final.</p>
<p>I'm glad you knew that I was just trying to be funny and didn't get offended! :) Cramming is bad because you don't have enough time to form the neural pathways.</p>
<p>P.S. I employ the latter of the two strategies you mentioned, and I am in the top 1% of my class. ;)</p>
<p>
[quote]
read the INTRO and CONCLUSION of each chapter... most things should be clear.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>How many engineering/math majors wish they could do that and come out alive?</p>
<p>
[quote]
How many engineering/math majors wish they could do that and come out alive?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>probably all the ones that write papers like middle schoolers =P</p>
<p>nah, but really... I mean... intro psych will never be called a challenging class.</p>
<p>^
I don't know... I TA'ed Intro to Psych this semester, and many students did...not sop well.</p>
<p>Well I got a lot more information out of copying the outlines for 3 chapters rather than trying to read them. On a side note, I am rather happy to have picked engineering as my major. I just cannot see myself reading and outlining so much. Even for psychology, I like to do the practice questions rather than read the chapters.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I don't know... I TA'ed Intro to Psych this semester, and many students did...not sop well.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I would have to agree. I have TA'd a number of psych classes (incl. intro) and I too have found that many students don't fair as well in psych (esp. intro) as might be assumed.</p>
<p>You also make some good points about studying. It's really best to do it over time. What you learn will last longer. It's also worth considering that we learn best by knowing the background to what we're learning. The more connections you can make to a piece of information in the brain's associative memory, the more likely you will be to recall that information later on an exam (or in real life, should it ever become useful). I personally don't use outlining and such and at times do not even read the book (don't tell my professors of interest...) but I DO make sure to apply the information I learn to the world around me. I have learned that if I can connect something I've learned (abstract as it might be) to something in my daily life or use it to explain something that actually happens around me, then it will be MUCH easier to remember later when I actually need to recall the information. By reading a psychology textbook (25 pages/day for 30 days) and then skimming a couple of chapters from a Kaplan review book (spent about 1 day/chapter), I managed to score in the top 3% of students nationally on the GRE Psychology test (780)...but I also had 4 years of background in the subject area, which meant that I was rarely seeing anything for the first time. I think the recipe for success there was: background in the subject area + time spent applying the subject area + review over time + intentional/imaginal (in my mind) application of important concepts during the review + an additional review on each area of weakness (requiring identification of weaknesses)</p>
<p>I think your best option for the future w/ classes you don't find interesting is to try and find where your field of study/interest crosses that field. For instance, if you're a math person, find out about some of the mathematical equations used in psychology. There are quantitative (as well as qualitative) methods. If you're a biology person, psychology has a HUGE amount of crossover with biology. If you're into sports, see what parts of psychology apply to sports (there's a whole specialty area known as sports psychology...)</p>
<p>i self-studied AP psych my senior year of high school..i read this book: Amazon.com:</a> Psychology (SparkNotes 101) (SparkNotes 101): SparkNotes Editors: Books for like two days and got a 4. i bet it would help.</p>