how do people study at uni...? (1 Viewer)

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well after my first week at uni, i realized that it is a lot different from skool...

its not like skool where the teachers tell you which questions to do in the texbook, which activities to do or what readings to do.


so how do u guys study?
 

Begbie4017

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Im in 3rd year and every unit for the last 2 years has had readings ,listed for every week .Otherwise there aren't any. There is usually a list in the unit guide.

Tutorials usually require some reading or homework as well..
What units are you doing?
 

*Baby-K*

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Have you read the unit outline or guides however you want to call them? They normally have an outline of everything you will be doing that semester + readings or any recommended texts. For my units I've been given spectific h/w and for law there are set out readings before each tute/lecture.
 

Odyssey2001

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Since I'm not sure what subjects you're doing here's some basic things that I do,

1. If you have tutorials do as many of the questions you can BEFORE the tutorial during the week, most people don't do this so then when you rock up and no else is asking questions then you can ask most of your ones. Also keep these and do them a few weeks later again just to make sure you understand.

2. Even though most practicals aren't compulsory go to them anyway and ask questions till the tutor is blue in the face if there's something you don't understand. (I feel sorry for my tutors :D )

3. I usually read lecture notes (if available) before a class. I just find it helps me follow what’s going on. Then that night or weekend I re-write the notes (in summary form) in another book. So yeah I'm a nerd but its getting me where I want to be ;)
 

Monstar

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I suggest you get things sorted out asap.. the one thing i regret about first starting uni was being sucked into the relaxed lifestyle.

Its good you realised its not like high school. Its all up to you, theres no one here to push you or stay on your back. You need to stay on top of things independantly. If your an efs student, i suggest you drill the accg questions.. get to know the journal entries inside out. Whilst for economics units really get to know the diagrams, this means knowing what causes the diagram to shift and change.
 
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thanks for the replies pplz.

well so far all i have done is just read the required readings for sum of my units (and tried to understand it). Um yeah should i be doing the readings before or after the lecture? i normally read it after the lecture, or if i have sum time, i might read it before the lecture....


Also.. should I be taking notes from the textbook? does anyone even take notes from the textbook? coz i think that will take pretty long to do....

um i havent been to a tutorial yet coz last week all tutorials were cancelled. so i dont really know how to prepare for those, although i only have 1 tutorial throughout the whole week and the rest are just lectures and pracs...

yeah um i also print out the lecture slides (if they are available) and i bring these to the lecture the following day to write out sum notes on what the guy says...

maybe ill find out more info this week.. although one thing that quite surprised me was how basic the unit outline is, like it didnt really pointed out which stuff i needed to know, it just has broad stuff in it. like i expected something similar to the hsc syllabus where everything u need to learn is written in dot points..meh.

any advice? thanks.
 

rachomini

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I am finding myself in the same situation... not very sure when im suppose to finish the "week"'s readings...

and am i suppose to take my textbooks and readings to tutorials? >.< heavy.
 

AsyLum

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Yes, or make awesome notes and don't, either way.
 
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I suggest you get things sorted out asap.. the one thing i regret about first starting uni was being sucked into the relaxed lifestyle.

Its good you realised its not like high school. Its all up to you, theres no one here to push you or stay on your back. You need to stay on top of things independantly. If your an efs student, i suggest you drill the accg questions.. get to know the journal entries inside out. Whilst for economics units really get to know the diagrams, this means knowing what causes the diagram to shift and change.
I agree definatley... each subject is diffferent. Like economic requires geting to know diagrams, whereas history is more about reading info from different souces... Again dont be sucked into a relazed lifestyle. Because bad habits will make you lazy...
 

vds700

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Is it a good idea to summarise the sections from the textbook after you have covered them in lectures?
 

AsyLum

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Is it a good idea to summarise the sections from the textbook after you have covered them in lectures?
A lot of it will depend on you, university is about the process of figuring things out, moreso than the content I think.
 

antisheep

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I know it's something that sounds kinda simple, but just in case anyone else is struggling like I did...

when i first started uni i found it really hard to write summaries from the textbook or provided readings... i found my summaries were essentially the text but without the examples used and usually in note form... which not only isn't very concise but also a massive waste of time...

Then a tutor told me to do a sentence per paragraph and that was the best advice ever... take every paragraph and squash it down into as short a sentence as possible without missing anything important... It seriously is the biggest help ever especially because later on you need good summaries since chances are your readings have come from a thousand different places...

Just my 2 cents...
 

misericordia

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I know it's something that sounds kinda simple, but just in case anyone else is struggling like I did...

when i first started uni i found it really hard to write summaries from the textbook or provided readings... i found my summaries were essentially the text but without the examples used and usually in note form... which not only isn't very concise but also a massive waste of time...

Then a tutor told me to do a sentence per paragraph and that was the best advice ever... take every paragraph and squash it down into as short a sentence as possible without missing anything important... It seriously is the biggest help ever especially because later on you need good summaries since chances are your readings have come from a thousand different places...

Just my 2 cents...
I do this as well, it works :)
 

jiey2k

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I know it's something that sounds kinda simple, but just in case anyone else is struggling like I did...

when i first started uni i found it really hard to write summaries from the textbook or provided readings... i found my summaries were essentially the text but without the examples used and usually in note form... which not only isn't very concise but also a massive waste of time...

Then a tutor told me to do a sentence per paragraph and that was the best advice ever... take every paragraph and squash it down into as short a sentence as possible without missing anything important... It seriously is the biggest help ever especially because later on you need good summaries since chances are your readings have come from a thousand different places...

Just my 2 cents...
tyvm
 
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I know it's something that sounds kinda simple, but just in case anyone else is struggling like I did...

when i first started uni i found it really hard to write summaries from the textbook or provided readings... i found my summaries were essentially the text but without the examples used and usually in note form... which not only isn't very concise but also a massive waste of time...

Then a tutor told me to do a sentence per paragraph and that was the best advice ever... take every paragraph and squash it down into as short a sentence as possible without missing anything important... It seriously is the biggest help ever especially because later on you need good summaries since chances are your readings have come from a thousand different places...

Just my 2 cents...
k thanks ill keep that in mind.
 

icecoffee

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I know it's something that sounds kinda simple, but just in case anyone else is struggling like I did...

when i first started uni i found it really hard to write summaries from the textbook or provided readings... i found my summaries were essentially the text but without the examples used and usually in note form... which not only isn't very concise but also a massive waste of time...

Then a tutor told me to do a sentence per paragraph and that was the best advice ever... take every paragraph and squash it down into as short a sentence as possible without missing anything important... It seriously is the biggest help ever especially because later on you need good summaries since chances are your readings have come from a thousand different places...

Just my 2 cents...
I really want to try this, but i always worry that i might be missing some vital information if i cut a paragraph's worth of information into one sentence! Thoughts? Examples? ><
 

AsyLum

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I really want to try this, but i always worry that i might be missing some vital information if i cut a paragraph's worth of information into one sentence! Thoughts? Examples? ><
A little tip, most paragraphs have their main point as their first sentence with successive sentences providing supplementary information or evidence.

You're not going to learn without trying it, so do it yourself first and you'll start developing it as you keep doing it. Learning processes like this aren't inherent to anyone, so you'll have to use a bit of trial and error and build up your experiences to get better at them. Use a highlighter, keep the context of the content in mind eg, Don't highlight the useless generic stuff like "This discipline has been around for about 100 years" when the important part is most likely going to be the definition or the processes involved. Also use your unit outline, it will tell you quite clearly through the title and the relevant readings what the main point for the week will be, so covering something opposite to that is probably not in your best interests.

And the point of a paragraph is that it usually has ONE point, otherwise its just bad writing. The skill of processing is also something which can't really be taught, we can show you examples etc but the decision making is part of being an adult and a student. This is why you have ilectures and lecture notes, so you can compare at the end of the day, if you've got the same basic idea. Can your notes substitute a lecture? If not then your notes aren't detailed enough and you've missed something. If they can, then the next step is can you remember those notes if you were in an exam?

It took me till 2nd year at the very least to realise I can't remember anything if I don't re-write it at least once, even lecture notes! So I do the rough copy of the lecture/readings for the week and just blindly get as much information down as I can, and then re-write it in a more cohesive manner. Also realised I'm not someone who can sit still and learn, I need to be doing something, twirling a pen, drawing on the back of my book, etc. to be able to take in what the lecturer is saying.
Part of the uni experience (academically at least) is figuring out how you learn, how your process things, and what deficiencies you have in regards to those things, I think anyway. I'm not saying everyone needs to be a study freak, on the contrary, some people actually figure out how to do things quite efficiently on the last week or day of submission! (Some people may just work better while under pressure).
 
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clairegirl

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i made summaries of the textbook for most of my BBA subjects.

I never went to lectures or tutorials if i didn't have to, just followed uni outlines and made chapter summaries.. studied that and did fine in the final exam.

Obviously for assignments though you'de have to check out what they'de been up to in tutorials and lectures... to get a good mark in the assignments... so i did have a bit of exposure to lectures and tutes. I just didn't goto them, only just the ones u know u have to goto.
 

iambored

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I made notes from the lecture, detailed notes and never touched a textbook. I then memorised the notes, focusing on understanding them at the same time. I recommend this method :p
 

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