GUIDE TO SURVIVING GRADUATE SCHOOLS, TIPS & ARTICLES : Articles: How to Study in Graduate School: Studying Tips for Concentrating, Reading, Notetaking, and more for Graduate Students.
When it Comes to Learning Grad School is a New World - Think the same old study tips you used in college will work for graduate school? Nope. Success in graduate school requires a whole different approach towards studying. Read on and learn about study tips that will help you to achieve success in graduate school.
Effective Studying Skills: How to Study and Make the Most of Your Time - No two people study the same way, and there is little doubt that what works for one person may not work for another. However, there are some general techniques that seem to produce good results. No one would argue that every subject that you have to take is going to be so interesting that studying it is not work but pleasure. We can only wish.
Learning from Textbooks - Reading and remembering information from textbooks can be one of the most challenging aspects of learning at university. Since there can be a lot of variation in how texts are used from one course to another, the strategies that will be effective for reading and studying texts will vary from course to course as well.
How To Read University Texts or Journal Articles - Choose a section preferrably not longer than 25 or 30 pages – perhaps one chapter, or a section of a chapter – that you can handle at one sitting
Keys To Good Listening: The TQLR Process - Find out a good method for listening in lectures.
Where To Study / How To Study - Learning Strategies for College and Graduate School.
How to Take on College Studying: Your Cramming Days Are Over - In college, you may be shocked by the workload you suddenly face. Read a whole book for the next class? A test on three chapters when the semester has hardly begun?
Learning to Listen: Listening to Learn - When we talk about learning to listen, we are talking about learning to engage in an activity that takes skills and effort. Just because we can hear doesn't mean that we can listen effectively.
Effective Listening - The Five Rs of Notetaking - Professor Walter Pauk of the Study Center at Cornell University describes five essential aspects of note taking. He characterized these as the five R's of note taking. Here they are:
NoteTaking the Cornell System - The Cornell system for taking notes is designed to save time but yet be highly efficient. There is no rewriting or retyping of your notes. It is a "DO IT RIGHT IN THE FIRST PLACE" system.
Students to Students Study Tips - Remember that different students use different study strategies with equally positive results. Try several approaches and see what works best for you.
Remembering What You Read - Have any of these thoughts ever applied to you? At final exam time, for instance, you may have difficulty remembering important information. Why is this so? Why are some things more difficult to remember than others?
How to Read a Difficult Book - ok first for the things you can understand and refuse to get bogged down in the difficult passages. Read right on past paragraphs, footnotes, arguments and references that escape you.
Taking Notes From Lectures - Taking notes during a lecture can be a frustrating, almost overwhelming, job. Getting organized is the best way to deal with the rush of incoming information. Here are some tips.
Reviewing Notes - You may recall that the purpose for taking notes is to prepare a permanent record for later use in writing, thinking, and preparing for exams. It is with this latter purpose in mind that we now turn out attention to review strategies that in some way make use of the notes you have made from class or your texts.
Reading Your Textbooks Effectively and Efficiently - Many college students discover that there is significantly more to read in college than there was in high school. Students frequently remark that they don't have enough time to read through all of their assignments during the week. However, many students have bad habits and prescribe to reading myths. This page is designed to help you understand reading as an activity and help you become a more efficient and effective reader.
In the Classroom - Listening and Notetaking - A guide to making the most of your lectures.
Reading Difficult Material - How to Read Different Material and absorb and retain the information.
Editing Lecture Notes - There are several good reasons for organizing and reviewing your notes as soon as possible after the lecture.
Reading Your Textbooks - Did you ever find yourself reading a chapter in a textbook and not being able to remember what you read? There is a sure way to remedy this. It's called label in the margin.
Note Taking Formats - In addition to learning how to listen effectively to a lecture, it will be important for you to develop the ways in which you record your information
A System for Effective Listening and Notetaking - You can think about 4 TIMES FASTER than a lecturer can speak. Effective LISTENING requires the expenditure of energy; to compensate for the rate of presentation, you have to actively intend to listen. NOTE-TAKING is one way to enhance listening, and using a systematic approach to the taking and reviewing of your notes can add immeasurably to your understanding and remembering the content of lectures.
Learning to Learn Online / Online Study Skills - Most of the material you will encounter in a course will be text-based. A successful student in any course uses active reading skills. This section outlines some reading strategies to improve your understanding of course material. These strategies can be applied to any written material; the focus of this section is on reading and reviewing academic and technical materials because that is the kind of text you will most likely encounter in your courses.
Textbook Study Strategy - Everyone looks for ways to be more successful. American executives strive to compete with aggressive foreign competitors, teachers seek ways to enrich student learning, and students, like you, search for ways to improve academic performance.
Making Notes from Lectures - Take lecture notes with a view to ideas, not just facts. These suggestions will help you
How to Develop Better Concentration While Studying - Think of concentration improvement as a three-step process: (1) Learn the causes of poor concentration and decide which apply to you; (2) Understand what you can do to control these factors; and (3) Make your control habitual.
Researching and Projects - Many people see the library as obsolete with the advent of internet research, but that is far from the truth. There are many print resources that you cannot access online and for an in-depth research project you would be remiss if you overlook library resources. Besides finding printed material, you will find reference librarians who are very helpful in locating various source materials for any topic you can name. Here are a few reasons to use the library versus the internet.
Listening Skills - The average college student spends about 14 hours per week in class listening (or perhaps I should say "hearing"--there is a difference!) to lectures. See if you can improve your listening skills by following some of the strategies.
Note-Taking and In-Class Skills - Adequate notes are a necessary adjunct to efficient study and learning in college. Think over the following suggestions and improve your note- taking system where needed.
Note Taking Techniques - "The most comprehensive note taking systems require attention on your part. You must be alert enough in class to take legible, meaningful notes. You can't rely on "writing everything down" because a lot of information in a given lecture won't help you actually learn the material.
Reading and Remembering - How do you manage to get through your reading, and retain what you have read?
Mark Your Books: WHY? - It's important because . . . you COMPREHEND better.
Studying with Intensity - An important lesson to learn from school is how to use your time well, and studying intensely is critical to making the best use of your time. Studying intensely means setting aside specific, well-defined times for study and committing 100% of one's attention to studying during those periods.
Introduction: Note-taking at University - For many students just entering university, the prospect of attending first year university classes among literally hundreds of students in large lecture theatres can be very intimidating.
Reading and Understanding Texts - Much of the material we have to learn at university is presented to us in written form, most commonly in texts and readings from journals. Students may have problems with both the complexity and the amount of the material they have to read. We can help you deal with each of these concerns.
No-Nonsense Note Taking - Learn how to take great notes
Concentration and Your Body - SURELY ... the pressure of deadlines and expectations may make you ignore your body's needs ... BUT ... if you don't take care of your body, you may lose interest in your studies, and fatigue may cause anxiety which can limit performance.
Term Paper Research - Doing the research for a term paper is not a linear process. There is no standard list of steps that every student should always do, one after the other, in the same order.
Concentrating and Reading - It is often difficult to concentrate during your studies. Here are some techniques that many students have found helpful.