study methods

[daleee]

what kinda of study methods do you guys like to use?

for me, it has to be creative...hence i'm always writing and i end up with tons of written notes

[hauteur]

Studying? Blech! Who studies?

Seriously, though - I have to be able to put study topics into some sort of context. I can do that through writing or focused thinking (read: talking to myself) - but it works best if I can apply it to something I know. Any kind of rote memorization drives me absolutely batty.

[Kisai]

For learning: I do all the homework problems that we were given over and over until every one of them makes absolute sense.

For memorization: I make up a cheat sheet and I refer to it in five minute increments over the course of a day whenever I get bored.

For general tasks: study -> game -> study -> game -> study

[OhBlah]

Lately I've been procrastinating wayyyyy too much.
I usually use the memorization method. I repeat whatever I need to learn over and over and over...

[Titus Pullo]

I struggle if I'm not especially interested in the subject. Regular breaks usually help.

[vertex]

interrest > studying

why study something youre not interested in anyway
if youre interested in it it comes automaticly

[oneday]

Use Supermemo. It is a silly title for a great piece of software. It uses an algorithm to make studying efficient. See supermemo.com.

[Julia]

Repetition with a different focus each time can help to ingrain an idea into the long term memory. Read it out loud, write it down, connect it to former information, and look at it from a different angle each time. The concept of "over-learning" is a useful one. Once a concept is mastered, you continue to recite it additional times to help ingrain it into the long-term memory.

This link seemed interesting.
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[Starfrost]

I do classic Perceiving studying.

Constant breaks I've found useful, especially if I hate the subject. I'll do a couple problems, then stop to run around in a circle, rinse and repeat.

Also, music. It let's my mind play, and blocks out annoying noises like people's breathing.

Food. If I put my favorite pizza in the oven, I'll work like crazy until it's done the food's done, then I eat it and fall asleep.

If I have a test the next day, I'll read and write the notes over. Last minute studying, hooray!

[Latro]

I enjoy math and chemistry enough to keep studying for a couple hours at a time if need be (in the past the need usually hasn't been there, but it has been once or twice). In my other subjects, I take a lot of breaks when "studying", as others have said. Mostly in those subjects the homework assignments are sufficient; I rarely sit down and study in classes with homework assignments. (The first time I did was in my senior year of HS in a history class, to put that into perspective). In subjects that do not have homework assignments (such as the class I'm taking now, organic chemistry), if there are problems in the textbook, I do those. If that isn't sufficient to get the information in my head, I'll click on my J side and systematize the material, trying to get me a system that makes sense to me to sort of "memoristand" the material.

For a recent example, I see a problem where you take cold potassium permanganate in a basic environment and an alkene and they want you to predict the product. OK, I know that potassium permanganate is an oxidizing agent (partly because of Mn being in the 7+ oxidation state), so I know there's going to be oxidation. I know it's cold, so I know it's gonna be incomplete. Now what was that incomplete oxidation product...oh yeah, a 1,2-diol. I can get close to the end of it by understanding and then I memorize the rest. I don't know why it works but it does, and it seems to be easier than both rote memorization and also thorough mechanistic understanding.

[jesse]

Back in school most of my studying largely consisted of rote memorization and very little actual application of what you learned. The only way around this was to do the old-fashioned thing, reading the textbooks and hand-outs.

Once they were read once or twice, I would make my own notes on paper which was essentially forcing it mechanically into the spine. Come exam day, even if you were out of it, you could manage to write at least something relevant down and hope for the best. You might be able to tell that school rarely was of interest to me. Memorize this and that and then re-digest it all over again on paper when you were tested on it.

[Plane Stress]

Do problems. If you don't understand a concept, figure out the concept. Then do problems relating to it. Do a new problem without looking at notes/book until you understand it. Take good notes. Don't procrastinate.

Personally though, I tend to use the "beat the system by half-assing homework and being good at taking multiple-choice tests" method. But for classes I enjoy, the above method works well for me.

One way I've found to get better at understanding concepts is to think about them in that time before I fall asleep at night.