[provaud]

So I know a bunch of us are either Grads, Undergrads or are finished with school all together. My study habits are pretty shitty so I wondering if you guys have any better ways of doing it. My problem specifically is focus I know I have to read my college textbooks, but I just can't stay focused enough to do it. I know this shit is pretty basic but maybe we can all help each other out or something I dunno.

[katya]

...I can't tell if you're undergrad or not, but this is my undergrad advice:

Firstly, in most cases for undergrad, you do NOT need to read your textbooks. I rarely did. As a general rule, the more they assign, the less you have to read. Your prof will teach you what you need to know; if they're not, drop the class asap, they're not worth your tuition. Obviously, if you're in a Shakespeare course, it probably helps if you read the play you're assigned, because... duh. However, in the average lecture course, like History of Western Civilization 101, you really don't need to read everything. Like, seriously. Just don't. Look at it, skim it, read the headers, DEFINITELY check out the glossary, make sure your familiar with stuff, but I've found most success if you treat the assigned reading as just a preview of the class lecture. Then pay attention in class.

(It's always helpful to ask your prof whether they test to the BOOK or to the contents of their lectures. Obviously, if they test to the book, you should put more effort into reading the book. Even then though, you can narrow down what your professor wants you to learn/what they will test you on. If you can't figure out what your professor is trying to teach you in each lecture, again, ditch that class with all due haste, it's not worth what you're paying for it.)

If it helps, the guideline most teachers use for assigning homework is that # of credits = # of hours spent doing homework. If your three credit class gives you more than three hours' worth of homework, your prof is a slavedriver, OR you're trying to do too much (OR you might be lost, go to office hours dude).

Secondly, assuming your classes aren't just 100% boring, make sure you're taking care of yourself! Sleep. Eat right (I love snacking on almonds). Stay hydrated. Exercise. Take breaks. Everyone's study habits are different, but personally, I can't ever expect myself to study for longer than about half an hour. After that, I feel like that's not studying anymore, that's cramming, and I ain't cramming unless it's actually finals time. Usually, I don't read for longer than 20min, then I take a break. It's not a long break, but I get a bowl of ice cream, or make a cuppa, or sweep the floor, or start dinner, OR WRITE A REPLY LIKE A DECENT RPER, or whatever. Take about ten minutes off; watch an episode of Adventure Time or half an anime episode if I've got nothing else productive to do.

Iirc, at about 90 minutes is where your brain just stops wanting to learn anymore, so definitely don't study for longer than 90min. I think videogame theory these days expects you to stay engaged for about 20min (although that could just be the average commute time), and for me, that sounds about right. Some people can study for hours on end, but lord knows I can't.

If your reading material is just super boring though, uh, I can't help you. Gen eds suck, I'm sorry. Just take them pass/fail if you can.

[ROGUE]

I definitely can relate, I had this issue last year. I found that reading it out loud in stupid voices made it more entertaining, and honestly.. sometimes I still have to force myself to read it. I find though that it's pretty easy to stick with it once I start.. for example, the other day I was playing Skyrim instead of reading my genetics text, and I told myself "Sit down and read your text for 10 minutes and if you still want to go back to playing Skyrim after then you can!" I also find the 50 / 10 rule to be very effective, for me at least, study for 50 minutes and then take a break for 10.. but don't go on electronics. 


katya made a very good point about how for your average lecture you don't need to read your texts.The only reason I read my genetics textbook as much as I do is because my genetics professor doesn't hand out notes, he mostly just rambles.. and quiet fast so it's easy to miss something important he said when taking your notes by hand, or even electronically. With any humanities course, (English, art, sociology) I have taken I mostly just used to textbook to review, read it near the date of my midterm and just skim over and see if I missed anything while reviewing my notes. My program is a lot of science though, so I'm always opening my textbooks to do extra problems or just see another approach to how to do certain kinds of problems. Going back to what Katyasaurus said "...I've found most success if you treat the assigned reading as just a preview of the class lecture. Then pay attention in class.
" This applies to any of my classes also, we never have assigned readings, profs usually just give them to supplement your learning, or to prepare you for their lectures.


If any material is suuuuper boring, I usually just go on youtube for the general ideas and then read a few paragraphs about the specifics. Also, super important. Stop studying once you feel like you aren't 100% into anymore, otherwise you won't retain anything and it is a waste of your time!

[Deleted]

I'm in my third year of college and honestly, the only time I've ever cracked a text book is to do homework problems.

I find it really helpful to record lectures (but getting around to listening to them is another thing uuuh). I have this problem where I can't concentrate on reading. I'll get through a couple sentences then my brain is reminding me of 298435794857 other things that I can be doing. One thing that does keep me entertained are youtube videos. Even just things like khanacademy help me learn the material way faster than staring at a giant wall of text on my lap. Honestly, youtube has saved my butt in classes sooo many times. Also there are songs for everything calculus, biology, etcetc. My ecology professor even incorporates them into lectures. but don't get distracted by med school parodies oops

Another thing that's helped me study are study groups. There is only so much information you can come away with from a lecture. Having other people there help keep me on track. But also like, if I miswrote something in my notes, chances are, other people in the group wouldn't be so careless and I can be saved from learning the wrong material. I mostly take science and math classes and in both, it helps to have other people's perspective on things in addition to your own. But also, explaining the material to someone who doesn't understand will also help increase your understanding of it.

[eggy azoozoo]

Mad jealous of all these people who legit don't ever need their textbooks. In my case, I've had to actually read through the whole chapters of the book because my professors go hard on the philosophy of structuring class so that you don't get all the material you need for the test by only going to lecture or only reading the books at home. But I mean I'm mostly taking courses in sociology and psychology so I already knew heading in that I was going to be doing a shit ton of reading.

Seconding study groups. Doesn't matter if you already think you know all the material by yourself, because this was the attitude I had for most of freshman to junior year (undergrad) too. "Teaching" material i.e. explaining concepts to someone else who doesn't understand it helps you to memorize it and understand it more deeply than just parroting what your prof just said. So they're not just using you; you're using them too dw. "Self-testing" by generating definitions and explanations of concepts by yourself instead of just memorizing flash cards also makes things really stick and would probably mimic what you're supposed to be doing on the test anyways.

Unless y'all just never had to do short answers in addition to multiple choice questions. in which case fuck you. /bitter5ever