Efficiently study a course
Here I am going to list some of the rules I am using to make my studies efficient, in order for me to have sufficient time off to work on personal developement, work and entrepreneurship.
Do the reading before class
this might be the most important point on the list. First, the lecture makes more sense when you’ve read the assignment. Second, you won’t end up asking no questions, or dumb questions, but you will ask pertinent questions – this will not only aid your comprehension, but your professor will tag you as a sharp student and this has a positive effect on how you’re evaluated.
Take high-level notes while you read – do not use a highlighter, do not outline, do not take detailed notes (yet).
Highlishting is highly ineffective and essentially a waist of time.
Instead, keep a notebook and write summary of what you read as you go, leaving gaps of what you are sure you know and gaps which you can fill in later during the lecture and other times. Also, write questions in the book margins and in your notebook.
The purpose of this is giving you aa skeleton frame of the ideas as they make sense to you, according to your style of thinking.
Remember, you’re not trying to re-write the book in your notes! You’re creating a mental scaffolding and index so that the concepts cohere – rather than being a blizzard of details – and so that you can easily find relevant passages on review.
Use class time wisely
In class your book has topics and important facts noted at the tops of pages, you have a notebook with key ideas in it and lots of blank lines to fill in later, and there are questions written in the book margins and in your notebook.
As the lecture progresses, fill in the blank spaces with your lecture notes. Do this in a different color pen so you can tell lecture notes from book notes, and/or note the lecture dates in the margins.
Also turn to the relevant passages in the book as the lecture progresses. As your questions are answered, note those answers. If a question isn’t answered, ask it!
At the end of the class, two things will have happened.
You will have produced a set of notes cross-referenced with the text and integrated with lecture notes. This will make studying tremendously easier!
You will have reviewed your own notes and the book text, and this re-reading will make the details start etching themselves into your brain. (This is why you don’t try to absorb or note all the details when you first read – this is accomplished by re-reading, not first reading).
Review before reading the next assignment
Before you read your next assignment in the text, glance thru your notebook and re-establish your “place” in the “story”.
If something isn’t clear, go back to the text, look it up, and get clarity.
This is key – understanding a text does not come from reading it once and taking notes… it comes from reviewing it regularly, from re-reading and re-thinking.
Repeat this pattern: Take high-level notes, make brief marginal notes, write lecture notes in the blank spaces, review notes before reading the next assignment.
The day before an exam, give a quick review, then walk away
By the time exam day comes, you will have reviewed this material multiple times, and now the details will be clear, as will the “stories” that bind them together.
The day before, flip through the book, reviewing your marginal notes and big ideas. Browse through your notes, making sure you’ve got it all down.
Then go out and forget about it.
That period of “forgetting about it” is extremely important – it gives your non-conscious mind the time and space to do its work, and you will not only be more confident and better rested, but you’ll recall things much more clearly.