Study/success tips for college classes

[wcarson89]

So i'm about to go take the hardest test of my college career thus far (intermediate accounting 2, third year of college). I have slacked off a bit this semester but not as bad as I have in the past. I'm to the point where I'm taking all upper level classes and this stuff is no joke. Used to be I could slack off and still get a B and if I even tried a little bit (goin to class, keepin up with H/W, and studying a couple hours for a test) I would get an easy A. But now its to the point where studying doesnt even justify what it takes to pass these tests, I have to flat out know this stuff front and back. I'm not complaining at all because I'm an accounting major and need to know this stuff, but I've never had to seriously buckle down for a class like I'm going to have to for this one.

I figured I'd start this thread so we could all share some tips for success and study tips that have helped with college/graduate classes.

 

[jrp44]

Just go over practice problems...I just graduated in Accounting this past December...I can guarantee that no professor on the east coast of the U.S. was worse then mine. He would make EVERYTHING so confusing it was ridiculous. He would make the tests so damn hard it was insane. I'm swear I'm not even joking the tests we had for Advanced Accounting took around 5 hours. #@%# was a joke and he really made me hate Accounting. I wanted to quit so bad, but I hung in there and made it through. I think we started with 41 people in Intermediate 1(meaning everyone in there was majoring in Accounting) Last spring 6 of them graduated, and then this past winter just me and one other girl graduated

But back to the topic the best thing that I did was to work out all of the practice problems and maybe ask the professor if he can post the answers to the problems after you guys finish that specific chapter.

 

[hizzle]

For the last two years of college I got straight A's. The first two years I just sort of did like you and put it on cruise control, going average. Those last two years, there was no trick to it. I sacrificed so much. Weekends, time with my friends and my girl, etc. I sized up my classes. You can tell when there's classes you need to put everything into. For those classes I read every chapter and took notes on each. I started studying a week before every test and made sure I knew it like the back of my hand. I stayed engaged in class. Do not miss classes. Even when I thought it'd be pointless to go, I often ended up learning some key concept. Always ask questions. Don't bring your laptop to class or be on Facebook or twitter. I was an IS major and took a few ECON courses. For those courses it's definitely key to actually show up every class.

 

[agentarenas]

That feeling I have when I know all the answers to a test and fly through it = Best motivation for me. I want the grade, but just being able to prove to yourself that your studying paid off in terms of destroying the test is a great feeling.

 

[wcarson89]

Originally Posted by AgentArenas

That feeling I have when I know all the answers to a test and fly through it = Best motivation for me. I want the grade, but just being able to prove to yourself that your studying paid off in terms of destroying the test is a great feeling.

yeah i had that motivation my first semester. I was hittin 98s and 99s on american history tests that had like 100 Mult. choice questions and 2 essays per test. The class average would be like 65. I also had the motivation last spring, took 18 hours and got a 4.0...my grades are good thus far (3.67 overall GPA)...I just am struggling to adapt to having to study harcore rather than the night before.

 

[gutta sauce]

Originally Posted by jrp44

Just go over practice problems...I just graduated in Accounting this past December...I can guarantee that no professor on the east coast of the U.S. was worse then mine. He would make EVERYTHING so confusing it was ridiculous. He would make the tests so damn hard it was insane. I'm swear I'm not even joking the tests we had for Advanced Accounting took around 5 hours. +%$$ was a joke and he really made me hate Accounting. I wanted to quit so bad, but I hung in there and made it through. I think we started with 41 people in Intermediate 1(meaning everyone in there was majoring in Accounting) Last spring 6 of them graduated, and then this past winter just me and one other girl graduated

But back to the topic the best thing that I did was to work out all of the practice problems and maybe ask the professor if he can post the answers to the problems after you guys finish that specific chapter.

u found a job yet?

 

[jrp44]

Originally Posted by GUTTA SAUCE

Originally Posted by jrp44

Just go over practice problems...I just graduated in Accounting this past December...I can guarantee that no professor on the east coast of the U.S. was worse then mine. He would make EVERYTHING so confusing it was ridiculous. He would make the tests so damn hard it was insane. I'm swear I'm not even joking the tests we had for Advanced Accounting took around 5 hours. +%$$ was a joke and he really made me hate Accounting. I wanted to quit so bad, but I hung in there and made it through. I think we started with 41 people in Intermediate 1(meaning everyone in there was majoring in Accounting) Last spring 6 of them graduated, and then this past winter just me and one other girl graduated

But back to the topic the best thing that I did was to work out all of the practice problems and maybe ask the professor if he can post the answers to the problems after you guys finish that specific chapter.

u found a job yet?

nope

I'm working on it

...I still have my job for college so at least I'm doing something

 

[sc415]

Damn, ill be bookmarking this.
I suck at studying, I still have my old HS habits at times which was never really study.

 

[th3ownly]

Umm well im a chem major taking really hard classes so basically i study every week as if i had a test in each class that week

 

[downtown43]

one thing that really helped me is going over my notes and problem sets before/after class.

you forget 50% of what you don't review within 24 hours of a class. so as soon as i get back from class, instead of taking a nap or going on NT or whatever i spend like 20-30 minutes (nothing major) going over what we just learned, and i'll try some problems in the book.

then before the next class, i'll take some more time to go over what we did previously, and i'll look on the syllabus (all our teachers post the syllabus online) for what we'd be learning in class that day. it makes a big difference when you go to class and you're learning something that you've actually seen before, even if you had just skimmed it 20 minutes earlier. we've all had classes where the teacher brings up some completely obscure topic and the whole class is confused.. dont let that happen to you.

it really doesn't take that much time, either. in total, i only spend like 1 hour/day reviewing, but in the long run thats a ton of time saved when midterms/finals come around.

 

[scarface2k1]

A=L+SE


good luck bro lol.

 

[wcarson89]

Originally Posted by Scarface2k1

A=L+SE


good luck bro lol.

yeah that gets you through principles...kind of.

Update: I got back from the intermediate 2 test...it was pretty hard but I was more prepared for it than I thought. It was a 1.5 hour test and I still didn't finish it all. I feel okay about it. If anything I will use it as motivation to do better the rest of the semester.

some study tips I've heard but never applied:
going over notes after you get home from class and then later on that night (simple, but so hard to motivate myself)
writting formulas/key definitions on the bathroom mirror

Umm well im achem major taking really hard classes so basically i study every weekas if i had a test in each class that week

how do you have any free time??

 

[supahoopa]

study tips

study 15 minutes a day.. and study hard 3 days before the test..