chi13 Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Hey, guys. Im a college student and I've just started Physics II as well as the lab for the course. The first thing that struck me when the instructor was reviewing the syllabus was how dense the material is. Since today was the first day, we reveiwed basic math, like logarithms and geometry. Tonight we are expected to read the first three chapters and understand them. Throughout the week we will go over them and be assigned 30-40 questions on each chapter. On friday we will be tested on the material we learned during the week. In a class like this I would normally learn what I need from the notes and focus on learning how to do the questions and work the formulas. I did this in the first half of the course but the teaching assistant is telling me I HAVE to read everything. I was expecting to study maybe 4-5 hours a night but he's telling us up to 8 D:< . I'm afraid that if I do this I'll get sucked into the details and won't even be able to finish one chapter (I'm ocd like that). My schedule is: M-F Physics II 10:30-12:50 W, F Physics II Lab 8:15-10:15 Takes me 30-40 minutes to get to school depending on the traffic. My study skills are not quite up to snuff. Can anyone with good study hygiene tell me how I might do well in this course but maintain some semblance of a life this summer :D? A REPLACEMENT?Ok picture this, they replace your yew and magic trees with a tree that if you attempt to cut it alone your axe breaks, if you cut it with a group as soon as you get a log you get a skull on your head, all the other woodcutters attack you and you cant log out for 3 minutes.Bounty hunter and tournaments were not a replacement, they are garbage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Rob Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 If he's telling you 8 hours, you'll need to do just that. 8 hours seems a bit...insane to me though (Though I have no knowledge of any post-secondary education, so I could easily be wrong), so I would figure out if he was exaggerating or meant something like "8 hours, but only a few days will be like that". If it really is 8 hours, there's no way around it. If you can tell us how your learn best (Pure memorization, anagrams, vocal..ect) we might be able to help you come up with some study method that works good for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kimberly Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Read the material. There is no way around it--you will need to, especially if he's going to quiz you on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rangeor Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 I dunno how college physics works, but in my AP physics class in high school this worked pretty well: - Make flash cards for equations. Quickest method of rote memorization - Make templates for different scenarios (e.g. pendulum swinging back in forth. Input different things for different variables for height, weight, length of arc, possible friction, etc. ) and make and solve your own problems. Goal is to try and think of problems you might be asked on the test - Try to develop personal analogies for difficult concepts so you recall them quicker - Finish when you consider you know the material well enough to teach it yourself. Hopefully you'll reach this point in less than 8 hours :D - Don't be afraid to use the Google/Wolfram Alpha! Hope this helps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chi13 Posted June 21, 2011 Author Share Posted June 21, 2011 He said he will allow us to use a "cheat sheet" of our own design for the course, so thats a plus. I nearly forgot to add, its a four week course which probably accounts for the difficult :D. I learn well with memonic devices but my main problem is I tend to get OCD and memorize every word. When this happens, I am unable to finish assigned readings. Anyone else have (had) this problem? A REPLACEMENT?Ok picture this, they replace your yew and magic trees with a tree that if you attempt to cut it alone your axe breaks, if you cut it with a group as soon as you get a log you get a skull on your head, all the other woodcutters attack you and you cant log out for 3 minutes.Bounty hunter and tournaments were not a replacement, they are garbage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xSxqPowerx Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Well, as a mechanical engineering student I'm taking ~6 classes per semester that are math/physics based, so I am used to doing a lot of studying. Presumably this is a summer course where you are cramming everything into 1-2 months though. Personally, what works best for me is to start reading the introduction to a chapter... but then stop reading and jump right into doing the practice questions. I find that if I just try to read straight through a textbook I simply won't absorb any of the information. Once I get to a question that I can't solve, I go back to the textbook and find the specific section that deals with that type of question, and learn how to do it. As far as time... I've never kept to a strict schedule where I just study for a certain number of hours. I just do it until I feel ready. During exam periods and before major assignments I certainly studied for 8+ hours per day, however I very rarely did that much studying/homework just for regular assignments and practice questions. However, I am also very good at "cramming" right before an exam, and sometimes do not spend as long doing work between exams as I should. In conclusion... you probably know best how you study. Don't feel obligated to sit there for 8 hours doing nothing, but spend more if you need to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RpgGamer Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Drink more beer. Sleep a lot. Sparknotes. College on. Quote Quote Anyone who likes tacos is incapable of logic. Anyone who likes logic is incapable of tacos. PSA: SaqPrets is an Estonian Dude Steam: NippleBeardTM Origin: Brand_New_iPwn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Rob Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 He said he will allow us to use a "cheat sheet" of our own design for the course, so thats a plus. I nearly forgot to add, its a four week course which probably accounts for the difficult :D. I learn well with memonic devices but my main problem is I tend to get OCD and memorize every word. When this happens, I am unable to finish assigned readings. Anyone else have (had) this problem? There's a really cool way to write cheat sheets if you're only allowed to have one. Write your first set of notes in red pen, and then the second set of notes on top of the red pen in blue pen. Bring the older 3d glasses to school, with the blue and red lenses. If you cover the red lens, you'll be able to read the blue notes, and if you cover the blue lens, you can read the red notes. It's a really good way to effectively double the size of your cheat sheet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginger_Warrior Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 8 hours is ridiculous and he's most likely trying to scare you into action (which has clearly worked), but in any case you want to be stepping up the work rate to make sure you're keeping on top of the workload. University/college (US) can be very fast paced at times--easy to get left behind once you slack off, and much harder to catch up again. Just follow the study tips everyone provides, find out what's best for you and constantly make sure that you're doing enough to cope. | Favourite Game Music | Last.fm | HYT Friend Chat Rules | Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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