Review your notes immediately after a lecture. Even with enough time between classes to go back to their dorm room, I encourage students to find a quiet place and rework their notes. This does not mean copying what you wrote in the lecture onto a new piece of paper. Start by summarizing what is important in each section; if your notes are incomplete, fill in the gaps with the text book or with a friend’s notes. Identify areas where you have questions or aren’t 100% sure you understand. Highlight key words, phrases or concepts. Quiz yourself on vocabulary terms. Increasing the number of times and ways you interact with the material – discuss it with a classmate or quiz yourself after class; the “stickier” it becomes, the more prepared you’ll be for that upcoming exam.
Regularly attend professor or TA office hours. Treating office hours like a study hall or tutorial can recreate a similar structure that students relied on in high school to get work done. Plan to go every week whether you have questions or not. It’s a great place to get started on that giant reading assignment and it’s certainly the best place to be when you get stuck, rather than procrastinating about it later in your dorm room. It also gives you another chance to interact with the material to help encode it into your brain.
Stratify your study guide. Mark up your study guide to create categories of competency. Some students like to color code information or sections; red – don’t know it at all; yellow – I kind of get it; green – know it cold. You can choose to keep it super simple with an X, a ✔️, or a ☆ rating, or get creative with emojis – 😫, 🤔, 😀 – whatever makes sense to you. Just seeing ‘Study Calculus’ written out can feel overwhelming. When items on your To-Do list feel daunting or your notes aren’t specific enough, it can lead to procrastination. This system starts with a very clear first step, while also prioritizing where to spend your time.
