What do you think of these study techniques

Student Lounge College Life
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<p>this is from <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-michigan-ann-arbor/794442-need-help-getting-my-mojo-2.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-michigan-ann-arbor/794442-need-help-getting-my-mojo-2.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Anyway, if you are the genuinely smart type, like the type who is smarter than 99% of the student population but got outworked, I have some advice for you.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Exams
Look, what you learn in school has nothing to do in the real world, so don't bother learning it. Just cram. What I do is, if I have an exam in the morning the next day, I sleep as much as possible the day before. Then starting at midnight, I cram for 6 -8 hours straight, basically learn everything you learned in the semester. I rarely show up for class, when I show up I play madden on my computer anyway, but I always manage to ace my exams this way. If the exam is in the afternoon, then sleep from say like 9pm to 5am.. Then start cramming at 5am. The point here is to cram everything in right before the exam and do the exam right away and forget everything right after. Works wonder for me.</p></li>
<li><p>Homework assignments
Don't do unnecessary homework. If the instructor allows you to drop 2 problem sets with the lowest score, then just skip 2. As I said earlier, since I learn nothing in class, before a problem set is due, I set aside like 3 hours learning everything in the book, and then just blaze through it. . This also serves as your exam prep.
Dont miss assignments that count. I know this sounds basic but it's true. That's what I did freshman first semester and got burned.</p></li>
<li><p>Classes
Classes are pointless to go to, unless attendance is taken. Classes are for the not-so-smart students who need to learn by having things repeated and repeated. Dont waste your time. Use your time for homework assignments, projects and exam preparation. Just sleep or hang out the remaining time.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>4 Regrades
A lot of people dont know how to work the regrade system to their advantage. Usually you have to write an explanation on why you think your answers worth more points or why it is right.
Here, bare in mind most GSI dont give a dam and would rather spend their time doing somethign else. So write a really lengthy regrade request, make an argument that goes in circle and confuse the hell out of the GSI (basically write to confuse). GSI might just give you the points you want. Go through the entire exam and nickel and dime. This only works on certain GSIs. It worked in 3 of my classes in my past 2 years. The most extreme case I once had an exam go from 90 to 98. That's an A- to an A+, makes a huge difference.</p>

<ol>
<li>Cupcakes
Choose cupcake non engineering classes from LSA like polsci, sociology, psych or entry level econ + 320,330 and 370 to fluff your schedule.</li>
</ol>

<p>My system allows you to minimize your time worked and maximize your gpa. I dont have a perfect gpa. I have a 3.7 in engineering doing much less work than everyone else. Yea there are certain nights I need to pull an all nighter like right before an assignment is due or right before an exam... but I also rarely have to show up for classes or take notes or anything. If I show up it's just so I dont feel guilty, and I end up browsing the internet and playing madden anyway. I rarely have to study for no reason. . If you compare total time spent, you would see that I spend less than half the time most students in the COE spend on their academics pursuit, while have a higher gpa than most.</p>

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<p>Wait, if engineers don’t learn anything for the “real world” in college, where the hell do they learn it? Most engineers don’t go to grad school…this guy sounds like the type of engineer who would forget the O ring and blow up the space shuttle =/ Unless he’s just really smart. But when you’re working as an engineer, don’t you need to remember stuff from college in your job?</p>

<p>I wish some of this stuff applied to me but it doesn’t…attendance is taken in every freaking class, and we have an iclicker for lecture halls. And yeah, they ask questions during lectures so you can’t come in, click for attendance, and leave. All my HW assignments are collected and graded by TA’s, but hw isn’t hard.
For #4, i don’t know what GSI’s are but i doubt that works in most colleges…my friend got his midterm back and the TA made a mistake grading it, and he still had to grovel for points back. it might work with some professors though.</p>

<p>I don’t know, this stuff might work depending on the attendance/hw/grading policy at your college. But in my math/chem/physics classes, i just do a lot of problem sets and it works…I’m not in Engineering so i don’t know how that goes. the worst is Biology, because it involves reading so much dense material and you have to memorize a lot. I feel bad for Bio majors, they have more reading than liberal arts majors, and the exams ask such detailed questions.</p>

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<p>engineers’ 95% of curriculum is useless to their jobs</p>

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<p>Sounds good. I’m a junior in college right now, but the system I have hasn’t really been working for me. I have a midterm on Tuesday for a class that I haven’t been to in over a month; I’ll take your advice and see what happens,</p>

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<p>these r not my techniques</p>

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<p>GSI’s are Grad Student Instructor (TA’s) in UMich</p>

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<p>But you posted them here, so I’m still gonna hold you accountable for my midterm grade on Tuesday.</p>

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<p>These are great techniques if you don’t really want to learn anything. I mean, it’s up to you to decide what you want, but I’m getting a lot out of my classes and I really like the class discussions, and plus I actually want to actually remember stuff afterward. But if you really hate your classes than go ahead and do the things you just said.</p>

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<p>I hope everyone realizes this is a joke</p>

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<p>^ haha my bad, but seriously some of those suggestions do work for easy classes that you hate. And people do a lot of that cramming thing all the time lol.</p>

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<p>Bearcats is a moron.</p>

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<p>^^^I wouldn’t go that far. </p>

<p>It’s clear that he’s just in college for the purpose of getting through and attaining a good career; he has no intent on retaining unnecessary information (at least that’s how it seems to me.)</p>

<p>Personally, I like to learn, so I go out of my way to make sure I retain everything which I find interesting. I used to use his strategy for stuff which I found to be extremely boring and yielded the same types of grades that I’m making now. I could very well continue to do that, but my classes interest me much more now, so I don’t. </p>

<p>In regards to his point about classes, honestly, I probably wouldn’t attend class if they weren’t lecture intensive (i.e. the teacher doesn’t assign a textbook) or if the professor doesn’t implement some sort of obligatory attendance policy. I find it much more useful to move at my own pace, rather than having to listen to professors speaking about the same subject for unnecessary periods of time.</p>

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<p>I am using more than just that thread as a basis for my opinion, for the record. My mention of my conclusion here is out of disgust that that thread made it out of the Michigan forum.</p>

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<p>Oh–well I recant my statement then.</p>

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<p>I actually don’t think this is a joke; I have friends who live by these study methods.</p>

<p>Goody for this guy if he’s smart enough to get all of his course material without going to class. I prefer showing up to my classes, absorbing the vast majority of the material from lectures (I also record my lectures so I can go back and listen to them to review before exams). It lessens my study time around tests; I spend the evening before cramming, go to bed for at least 5 hours, then get up and cram some more before the test. It kinda works…my GPA isn’t great, but it doesn’t suck either. I don’t know, different things work for different people.</p>

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<p>“…if you are the genuinely smart type, like the type who is smarter than 99% of the student population but got outworked, I have some advice for you.”</p>

<p>I’m sorry, but I think the OP of this statement is an idiot. No one is born a “genius”, there is a lot of work involved to become the top of one’s game. Have you read Outliers and Talent is Overrated ? Those bks explain how ordinary individuals become elite world class people in their respective fields. </p>

<p>The techniques you describe remind me of a peer of mine. But it just doesn’t make sense how you can get away with it through cramming…its like cheating your way through school. IDK, but i guess I see schooling differently. You are doing just to get the degree, I’m here to try and get something more important out. </p>

<p>If you want good study habits, I suggest/recommend Cal Newports, site/book, both have very good tips! </p>

<p>The only way this would work, is IF you were excellent at teaching yourself! This I do believe is possible, given that many of the teachers aren’t very good at breaking everything down. Assuming you ain’t making any of this up, those study techniques are unlikely to work for the vast majority of people!</p>

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<p>assuming this post is genuine (which I find a real stretch) the joke will be on the OP when he interviews for jobs. Engineering interviews will expect you actually learned the stuff that the OP crammed into his head just long enough for the test. A few questions into the interviews, I suspect the OP will wish he had actually learned the material…</p>

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<p>I’ve never heard someone say that no one can’t be born a genius.</p>

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<p>I think it depends on how you define “genius.” If you intend the meaning to be associated with IQ then you probably could be born a genius-- I was determined to be in the superior range but not quite genius when I was like seven years old. However if you just mean in terms of general ability and not specifically your intelligence potential, which I assume mikemac means, then it wouldn’t be inborn. If you just look at me, for example, there is clearly a difference between the two. I like to think I am an above average student and generally speaking more intelligent than is typical for someone of my level of education, and I THINK I am, but I encounter people who are much better than me all the time-- and looking at statistics some of them MUST have a lower IQ than me anyway.</p>

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<p>he stated that he wants to be a trader, not engineer</p>