<p>Okay, its the start of a new quarter and my current studying habits are just not cutting it. I spent nearly 15 hours for an o chem midterm and literally failed it. Apparently its not working. How do you guys study or memorize stuff?</p>
<p>Hey Guyy, this is a post from a resident about how to study o chem
<a href="http://drnjbmd.wordpress.com/2007/07/17/mastery-of-organic-chemistry/%5B/url%5D">http://drnjbmd.wordpress.com/2007/07/17/mastery-of-organic-chemistry/</a></p>
<p>I take the Peter Gibbons approach:</p>
<p>"Work just hard enough not to get fired."</p>
<p>Or, in my case, study just hard enough to stay above a 3.5. I realize that this post will not help you, so i'll shut up now.</p>
<p>Here's what works for me:</p>
<p>General:
1. Go to all Lectures and take good(!) notes. Review your notes quickly after you get out of the class.
2. Read the book / do the homework as early as possible
3. Every time you finish a chapter (e.g. every week(end)), make a summary of all important points. Take the best from notes/book and difficult HW problems for your summary. Mind-Maps are best. Put some work into making the mind map so that it looks beautiful ;)
4. Review all of them every weekend. Doesn't take longer than 10-20min usually.</p>
<p>Organizing Stuff:
I have on binder for each of my classes. In each binder I have dividers for: Notes, Handouts/Other Papers, HW, Exams/Grades, (Labs). I don't carry them to school (of course not, haha). I have one folder that I carry to school (with dividers for every subject), I put everything for the week in there and on the weekend I put all the papers I don't need for next week into my folders at home. So everything is nice and organized and easy to review/find.</p>
<p>HW:
Before starting the HW, make a List (blank paper) of all homework problems you have to do. When you do the homework, mark the problems you've completed (so you don't skip something and forget to come back to it later). If you encounter a problem you have difficulties with: Solve it (or ask prof), circle it on your list and write a small comment of what the problem was (e.g. use this implicit differentiation or something like that). When you're finished with your problems, staple them together with your list on the top. When you review for your exam, take a careful look at all the problems you circled on your list and review the concepts you had difficulties with.</p>
<p>For exams I only do the following:
- Review Summaries/Mindmaps
- Review HW problems I had difficulties with
- Look at lecture notes if prof. gave special attention to something or a hint what might be on the exam
- (Maybe Do past exams)</p>
<p>I never studied more than 2-3 hours for an exam, never pulled an all-nighter, and always got all A's. Last semester I didn't even study for my finals at all, because I reviewed everything regularly. I got all A's there too.</p>
<p>EDIT: Oh, yeah, I'm an engineering major, so above things might not work so well for other majors. I guess you can't really do some of these things essays/papers ;)</p>
<p>For essays papers: Start early, doesn't matter how much you do, but most importantly: START EARLY. If you start writing/collecting ideas your mind will come up with a lot useful stuff during the next few days automatically. Then when you have time to finish it, it's gonna be a lot easier.</p>
<p>One thing that really helped me when I was having problems with certain classes was to get right out of class right after it let's out and rewrite your notes and try to absorb what was said in lecture. This is a trick that a guy I know used to get into med school</p>
<p>im an engineering major too. never studied more than 2-3 hours for a test!? wow.
thanks for the tips, ill put this stuff to use right away.</p>
<p>Oh, yeah, try to study somewhere undisturbed, e.g. library or special room. I found that when I'm studying in my room where my PC/bed/etc is, I can't really concentrate so well and I drift off to doing other things (checking emails every 5min? ;)). If I studied in my room I would at least need the double amount of time for everything...</p>
<p>Same for HW. When I do HW in my room I find myself googling for the answers. I just type in phrases of the questions and most often the exact question and solution comes up. If you study somewhere where you can't do that, you have to think about the problem more deeply. Then when you solve it later (haha, now you can google), you'll understand/remember it much better.</p>
<p>One more tip: If you have study groups, try to teach stuff to your friends. I never had a regular study group but I usually (coincidentally) met with people from my class in the library before an exam. Often they have question and I try to explain it to them (even if I'm not sure myself). TRYING (doesn't mean you need to be 100% sure) to explain something is much more effective than studying on your own or reading something. You can easy see where you have problems. I guess that might also work at home, just imagine explaining something difficult to someone else. That's actually a good idea... I'll try it this semester :)</p>
<p>Outlines do it for me; I probably have more than 500 pages of types outlines on my hard drive.</p>
<p>And, never miss a class, ever.</p>
<p>That is the same thing for me Thomas. Though, I noticed if I only turn on my bankers lamp, the rest of my room is dark and I my eyes tend not to wander as much.</p>
<p>Also, take a 15 break every hour or so, it helps clear the mind and allows for material to absorbed easier.</p>
<p>Organic chemistry hates on everybody, don't worry about it.</p>
<p>What I've found to be of great help:
1. Draw out mechanisms for every reaction.
2. Justify every mechanistic step.
3. Do it backwards.
4. Do every single book problem.
5. Don't look at solutions until you've tried for at least 10 minutes.</p>
<p>The third step helps the most in terms of solving retrosynthetic problems such as, "provide the best synthesis of this molecule from any smaller molecule containing less than 4 carbons." You can skip it if your professor doesn't write retrosynthesis problems.</p>
<p>Note cards. Find some how or some way to put all the important things on note cards. Doesn't work great for solving math or chem problems but for memorization of anything I've found flashing through them helps me remember the fastest. Pretty 4th grade of me, but I've tried everything. </p>
<p>Try making up odd acronyms that have to do with something personal or an inside joke.</p>
<p>In general I review my notes briefly and often, over a long period of time (few minutes a day, every single day until the test). Crash studying at the last second does not work for me.</p>
<p>I don't do note cards, outlines, rewriting notes, or study groups (usually). The return on putting my effort into those things is negligible. But granted, O-Chem is a whole different animal!</p>
<p>(btw, this is the same general rule for acquiring wealth via saving/investing/401k, etc. small amounts of money, consistently, over a long period of time is key. waiting until the last second and putting away a large chunk will never get the same result.)</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I'm very lazy, but retyping my notes + having a whiteboard handy for math/physics related problems seems to do the trick. I think the best technique is to study and do any work early. No heavy duty studying, just be exposed to the subject on a daily basis. Also reading the chapter(s) ahead of time can't hurt (although I usually stop doing this after the few first weeks). One more thing is that sometimes I take the bus before a big test so I can "refresh" over the material on the bus. Plus, I usually arrive early this way.</p>
<p>Or switch to north campus and study about 15 hours before each exam and get all As</p>
<p>north campus?</p>
<p>
[quote]
In general I review my notes briefly and often, over a long period of time (few minutes a day, every single day until the test). Crash studying at the last second does not work for me.</p>
<p>(btw, this is the same general rule for acquiring wealth via saving/investing/401k, etc. small amounts of money, consistently, over a long period of time is key. waiting until the last second and putting away a large chunk will never get the same result.)
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Yes, but most of those who acquire large sums of money consistently pull all-nighters. I think your approach works in a structured slow paced world, but for many of the jobs in today's world, mastering the all-nighter will pay off more in the end. </p>
<p>In short, If one can do in 10 hours what another can do over the course of weeks/months, the shorter, more efficient, method will virtually always be preferred.</p>