STUDY TACTICS

NOTES FROM CLASS:

Many instructors make it a point not to test students on material that hasn’t come up in class.  Although there probably will be a lot of material in the reading assignments that’s inessential (both in terms of the main thrust of the course and in terms of what you will be tested on) this is less likely in lectures.  When instructors speak, they do a lot of the work for you.  They select what they feel is important and give the material an organized structure.  Your job as a note-taker is to get down as much as you can.  Decide later what you really need to focus on. 

BE PRPARED:

• Skim you notes from the previous class.  Good teacher have some continuity from one class to the next.  So should you.  Come in to with topics fresh in mind.
• Do the reading!  Lectures and discussions usually coincide with a specific reading assignment – an economics handout, a chapter in a physics textbook, several poems in a l literature course..  If you are already familiar with the new vocabulary and the basic thrust of the material, following the lecturer will be much easier.
• Get to class on time.  This may seem painfully obvious, but it bears repeating.  When you arrive late, it may take you several minutes to get settled.  Even more unsettling is the sense that you have missed the beginning of whatever argument the teacher is making.  Another reason to get to class on time: often, teace5rhs put information on the board before class.  If you write down this information before class starts, it will not distract you during class.
• Bring you textbook, class notes, and additional reading assignments that the teacher may refer to during class.

MAKE FRIENDS:

In general, it is a good idea to make a regular habit of exchanging notes with a friend – particularly with a meticulous friend.  See what he has written down and decide whether it seems important to you.  Your classmates can be your biggest resource.  Explaining the material each other is an excellent way for both of you to ensure that you really understand it.  Nothing forces you to think through what you have learned like having to explain it to someone else.   

LECTURE COURSES:

It can be difficult to keep up with what the lecturer is saying.  These tips will make it easier on you:

• Listen for a synopsis at the beginning of the lecture and a summary at the end.
• Use abbreviations or some form of shorthand.
• Listen for clues.  Often, teachers repeat important points, say
•  them slowly, or  return to them later.
• Pay attention to handouts.

NOTES FROM READING

As opposed to taking notes in lectures (when your main goal is to record the material being present to you), taking notes while you read involves a more active intelligence and constant questioning.  You need to think critically and interrogate what you read, continually asking questions of it and of yourself.  Do not rewrite the test in your notes or highlight or underline half of every textbook page.  These practices do you little good.

BEFORE YOU REALLY START READING

• Ask yourself why you are reading the assignment.  Well, you want to learn something, and you hope to demonstrate what you have learned either in a paper or on a test.  If you are working on a test, what kind of test will it be?  This question dictates, to some extent, what material you will pay most attention to.  What kind of answers will you be asked to give eventually?
• Figure out the main point of the assignment.  How does this reading fit into the course as a whole?  Skim the chapter, looking at section headings and key vocabulary.  Chapter in textbooks may be weighed down with details, but usually there are just a few main points.  If you can, write them down before you read carefully; otherwise, be sure to do so afterwards.
• Make a list of important terms and concepts.  It may seem weird, but these concepts often are found in the preface and instruction of novels and nonfiction books, and in the table of contents and chapter summaries of textbooks.
• Get a sense of what you are reading before you read it.  The point of studying is not the thrill of surprise but the practical process of getting the material.  So try reading first and last chapters, first and last paragraphs in each section, and first and last sentences of each paragraph.
• Ask yourself what you already know about the material.  You might know quite a bit.  Write this down.  Think about your assumptions before you begin the reading.  Again, the point is to enhance your engagement with the text.  You do not want to be a passive recipient, a shellfish in a tide pool as waves of text wash over you.  You probably know that you can read entire books cover to cover and retain very little of what you have read.  You are better off preparing the playing field.

AS YOU READ

• Look for answers to the basic questions: who what, when, why, and how.  Check yourself after you read.  Can you give succinct answers to these questions?
• Ask yourself which information is important.  This is the difficult task.  Pay attention to bold words and graphs (not necessarily the specific data in the graph, but the idea – a point important enough to deserve a visual aid – that the graph is meant to illustrate).  Read the end of chapter questions beforehand and be on the lookout for information that helps you answer these questions.  Pay attention to anything that provokes a reaction from you.  This may be something you do not understand or something with which you disagree.  Or, it may be something that suddenly clarifies a cloudy issue.
• Do not highlight masses of text.  You have done very little processing or evaluating if you have highlighted half the page.  Read ahead and then look back at what strikes you as the meat of the argument and the essential details.  
• Try to paraphrase and condense the information.  But do no go sentence by sentence, because without a larger context, you do not know what is important yet.  Read a paragraph or section and then write down the main points in you own words.  When you write these down on a separate sheet of paper in your own words, you are engaging the material more fully.
• Consider how new material relates to information you already know.  Do not just take your notes and stick them in a binder until test time.  Once you have processed new information, take a step back and see how it relates to the information that preceded it.  Updating and reconsidering your notes is better than just reading them over and over again at the end of the term.