If all the information you are doing is connected in some way, for eg. in history, where it is chronological, you can use the charting method effectively. This is not a personal favourite of mine, but...it works for people, so I thought I would share it anyway.
So, this is the path:
- Identify the main categories that the information can be sorted into. For eg. they could be [For the main "thinkers" of the french revolution, for instance] Name, Writing Style/Book and Main idea.
- Write these in advance. And that means you need to be PREPARED.
- As you listen to the lecture, jot down the points [for eg. in the above categories you could write Montesque, His Book [I forget the name...] and his main idea.
Des says: Neat and efficient, a little hard to understand. Perfect for history. Really, it is. It's also very good when you have a lot of information coming in fast. Have fun!
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
The Sentence Method
Hey everyone, today I'm going to discuss yet another new method, that I learned from one of my friends. I find it interesting, and EXTREMELY detailed but very time-consuming. It's also a little hard to see what points are major/minor, unless you underline or something like that. My friend finds it difficult to reorder the chunks of information, or remove anything, but other than that, she is very comfortable with it.
It's pretty simple:
- Take a piece of paper
- Write each sentence of information seperately, leave some place in between the sentences
- Number the info.
- Sample:
1. Darkness to light is juxtaposed against continual humility.
2. Everything is dark, but not dreary.
3. Setting is hard, and dark. [connect to line 2]
Des says: Well, as far as methods go, I think this is an excellent method, but it's
rather tedious. It's great for classes where the content is mainly all important, and details are required. It's all good in classes where the educator gives a lot of main points, asks you to connect them to something in a text or handout, but doesn't connect all the points together. Of course, improvisation is always important, so if you get an idea, not only should you try it, but share it with us!
Have fun!
It's pretty simple:
- Take a piece of paper
- Write each sentence of information seperately, leave some place in between the sentences
- Number the info.
- Sample:
1. Darkness to light is juxtaposed against continual humility.
2. Everything is dark, but not dreary.
3. Setting is hard, and dark. [connect to line 2]
Des says: Well, as far as methods go, I think this is an excellent method, but it's
rather tedious. It's great for classes where the content is mainly all important, and details are required. It's all good in classes where the educator gives a lot of main points, asks you to connect them to something in a text or handout, but doesn't connect all the points together. Of course, improvisation is always important, so if you get an idea, not only should you try it, but share it with us!
Have fun!
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
The Outlining Method
Yes, our old favorite, the faithful Outlining Method. It's simple, it's effective, and it's both tried and tested. I personally do hold by this method, it's neat and easy. I bullet points in different bullets to make it more interesting, by the way. It's a lot of fun.
So this is how we do it:
- Begin by taking a sheet of paper.
- Write the MAIN point on the extreme left. As we move on, we start indenting the sub-points, and the sub-sub-points, and the sub-sub-sub points. (And we can go on and on with the subs, but really, what's the point?)
- Usually un-numbered, and uses "dashes" to connect information
- For eg. [Let's take the agriculture example of yesterday]
- Agriculture
- Sowing
- Broadcasting
- Method of throwing seeds at random
- No regular intervals
- Some seeds may be wasted
- Dibbling
- Method of making holes in the ground, and putting seeds
- Regular intervals
- Manuring
- Blah and Blah
- More blahs
- Didn't feel like writing it
Edit: Oops, blogger won't let me give an example. But if you want one, just google "outlining method of notetaking" and I'm sure you'll get an example...
Des says: I find this method great, very neat and organized, but a little more time-consuming than say, the Cornell Method. It works great in lectures, but you might find it hard to use in a class like maths. Many people have different "tweaks" of the method, and it's good to improvise, so go ahead and try!
So this is how we do it:
- Begin by taking a sheet of paper.
- Write the MAIN point on the extreme left. As we move on, we start indenting the sub-points, and the sub-sub-points, and the sub-sub-sub points. (And we can go on and on with the subs, but really, what's the point?)
- Usually un-numbered, and uses "dashes" to connect information
- For eg. [Let's take the agriculture example of yesterday]
- Agriculture
- Sowing
- Broadcasting
- Method of throwing seeds at random
- No regular intervals
- Some seeds may be wasted
- Dibbling
- Method of making holes in the ground, and putting seeds
- Regular intervals
- Manuring
- Blah and Blah
- More blahs
- Didn't feel like writing it
Edit: Oops, blogger won't let me give an example. But if you want one, just google "outlining method of notetaking" and I'm sure you'll get an example...
Des says: I find this method great, very neat and organized, but a little more time-consuming than say, the Cornell Method. It works great in lectures, but you might find it hard to use in a class like maths. Many people have different "tweaks" of the method, and it's good to improvise, so go ahead and try!
Monday, February 18, 2008
The Many Methods of Notetaking
I'm just going to begin a series on Note-taking. Note taking is one of the most debated and discussed topics on the internet and off it. There are as many methods as there are people. I'll share, in these three or four days, a series of different methods of note taking, some of which I have used personally, and can review. I hope you all will benefit from it.
We're going to begin with an interesting method I came across recently: The Cornell Method of note taking. Someone on the internet recommended it, and thus I was quite intrigued, and researched it up a bit. I found it interesting, as well as organized, and though I haven't tried it yet, you might want to. I will try it out one of these days and share the experience, but with the exams starting in a week I am reluctant to try anything new. If you are a user of the Cornell Method, please do leave a comment and share the experience!
The Cornell Method is as follows:
- Rule your paper with a 2 ½ inch margin on the left leaving a six-inch area on the right in which to make notes.
- During the class, take down notes in the six inch column. Leave a few lines whenever the educator moves on to a new topic.
- When class gets over, take some time and complete whatever half-finished sentences and other such things.
- Now, read over the information, and in the 2 1/2 inch margin, put key words and cues. For eg. if you were studying agiculture in biology and learned about two methods, broadcasting and dibbling, you could put the word "broadcasting" where you have written about it, and "dibbling" where you wrote about dibbling.
- When studying, cover up the six inch column, read the cue word, and try to say as much of the covered material as possible.
Des says:
I think this seems a very organized and neat method, which might help people stay organized. So go ahead and try it!
We're going to begin with an interesting method I came across recently: The Cornell Method of note taking. Someone on the internet recommended it, and thus I was quite intrigued, and researched it up a bit. I found it interesting, as well as organized, and though I haven't tried it yet, you might want to. I will try it out one of these days and share the experience, but with the exams starting in a week I am reluctant to try anything new. If you are a user of the Cornell Method, please do leave a comment and share the experience!
The Cornell Method is as follows:
- Rule your paper with a 2 ½ inch margin on the left leaving a six-inch area on the right in which to make notes.
- During the class, take down notes in the six inch column. Leave a few lines whenever the educator moves on to a new topic.
- When class gets over, take some time and complete whatever half-finished sentences and other such things.
- Now, read over the information, and in the 2 1/2 inch margin, put key words and cues. For eg. if you were studying agiculture in biology and learned about two methods, broadcasting and dibbling, you could put the word "broadcasting" where you have written about it, and "dibbling" where you wrote about dibbling.
- When studying, cover up the six inch column, read the cue word, and try to say as much of the covered material as possible.
Des says:
I think this seems a very organized and neat method, which might help people stay organized. So go ahead and try it!
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Music: Is it good for studying, or not?
Music. Many students swear by it, while others think it is very distracting. Personally, I believe it to be useless, but it can be useful for many types of learners, especially those people who are easily distracted from the task at hand, or working in a very loud and distractive environment. So, let's discuss the pros and cons of studying with music:
Pros
- It can drown other distractions
- It can help you focus
- It can sooth and calm your mind
- It can help you remember stuff
- It can add a little fun to the otherwise rather boring studying
Cons
- How many times do you stop and find yourself singing/humming along, and not concentrating?
- It can be distracting in itself
- It can be a device of procrastination (You can spend hours finding the perfect song to study to, and this is a popular excuse among a few of my friends - "I can't study till I have this music on...")
- It will not help you create the same environment as your classroom, since you OBVIOUSLY will not have music there.
So if you want to use music:
- DON'T be obsessive about it, to the extent that you can't study if you don't have some music
- Don't expect it to have the same environment as your classroom
- Keep the volume low
- Preferably select a soft, slow, calm and soothing song (but obviously one that doesn't make you fall asleep) without words or a song you don't know the lyrics to
That's my opinion on it. If you have an opinion, leave a comment! And reply to the poll at the end of the blog!
Pros
- It can drown other distractions
- It can help you focus
- It can sooth and calm your mind
- It can help you remember stuff
- It can add a little fun to the otherwise rather boring studying
Cons
- How many times do you stop and find yourself singing/humming along, and not concentrating?
- It can be distracting in itself
- It can be a device of procrastination (You can spend hours finding the perfect song to study to, and this is a popular excuse among a few of my friends - "I can't study till I have this music on...")
- It will not help you create the same environment as your classroom, since you OBVIOUSLY will not have music there.
So if you want to use music:
- DON'T be obsessive about it, to the extent that you can't study if you don't have some music
- Don't expect it to have the same environment as your classroom
- Keep the volume low
- Preferably select a soft, slow, calm and soothing song (but obviously one that doesn't make you fall asleep) without words or a song you don't know the lyrics to
That's my opinion on it. If you have an opinion, leave a comment! And reply to the poll at the end of the blog!
Study-o-lite
Hey everyone,
I'm Destiny, aka Des. Recently, I've been looking over many websites for many tips for academic success, and I thought it would be nice to put them all in one place, discuss them, try them out and tell everyone who needs help how it went...that sort of thing. I'd love comments and suggestions. So if you have a wonderful super-duper awesome comment you would like to share, or a method that worked for you, or something else related to studies you would like to discuss, please feel free to contact me.
Bye for now,
Des
I'm Destiny, aka Des. Recently, I've been looking over many websites for many tips for academic success, and I thought it would be nice to put them all in one place, discuss them, try them out and tell everyone who needs help how it went...that sort of thing. I'd love comments and suggestions. So if you have a wonderful super-duper awesome comment you would like to share, or a method that worked for you, or something else related to studies you would like to discuss, please feel free to contact me.
Bye for now,
Des
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