Studying - howto

Reading (active reading), always ask questions about the text, it helps maintain interest and improves the quality of the note taking. Questions I ask - What do they mean by that, In what context is that, What is that referring to - this helps me to stop running my eyes over many paragraphs of text without thinking. I sometimes break the paragraphs down in to sentences and ask myself if I fully understand, if I'm tired I may even break the longer sentences down (where there are new concepts or sentences with many ideas).

Review earlier work before commencing and review new work completed at the end of a study period. This counts when taking breaks too. I tend to read through my notes of the previous session.

If stuck on a subject put it down, take a break and come back later, the next day. I found this particularly effective when studying MS221 Exploring mathematics, an overnight break often helped when coming back fresh and spotting a misunderstanding.

If still stuck after banging your head against a topic and having overnight breaks, try formulating a question to ask in the First Class forums. The process of working out how to ask a question can help in spotting a misunderstanding. If still stuck then you can post your question and get someone elses view.

Further things to try when stuck, try explaining the problem to someone else, the cat, dog or hamster even. Another person may ask you questions that force you to rethink, a family pet may not ask questions but you still have to verbalise your thoughts. Expressing yourself in a different medium may help you to rethink and understand a problem.

Always give yourself a fair chance, getting stuck on a question does not mean you won't be able to work out the answer, don't rush to ask but think the problem over, put it aside, come back to it a few times.

Try all the examples in the course text and write the answer using a pen and paper, no matter how tedious some of the self assessment questions may appear.

And practise, practise, practise, Carnegie Hall awaits. The old joke.

I need to start taking some of this advice!