Burnthamm Learns to Study

In this post, I’m going to talk about the study methods that have worked for me and that I learned during my time at UCLA!

(see another post like this about being healthy here)

Short Term Productivity

Use a stickynote/index card and write a couple goals for today only. Don’t write too many or you will feel overwhelmed! Stick it on your laptop or planner or notebook (somewhere you will see it)

Have a whiteboard at your desk and write down things you need to remember (like a simple equation or some vocab)

While waiting for something (the bus, your coffee, the shower to warm up) have something to recite in your head (probably something you already know, but would like to reALLY KNOW)

When you read, try to tie big concepts to things you would remember easily (like acronyms or symbols) like for example i remember gen chem oxidation as OIL RIG: Oxidation is Loss (of electrons) and Reduction is Gain (of electrons) and I remember the first four unordinary hydrocarbons from Me Eat Peanut Butter (lmao): Methane, Ethane, Propane, Butane

Longer Term Productivity

Plan out your weeks!!! Plan when you will study on each day of the week and keep track of due dates

Make it a habit to do homework/assignments AS SOON AS YOU CAN (like right after you snack or something after classes)

Try not to think about how long you will study and rather think about the number of topics you will study

Don’t stop until you feel confident in your knowledge OTHERWISE YOULL JUST LOSE IT IT ALL 

Keep your notes organized because you never know when something is gonna bite you in the butt again in the future

Review everyday. Like, Serioouslyyyy. It helps a lot.

Read before going to bed instead of being on your phone for 400 hours :C I THINK ITS TRUE THAT THE STUFF YOU READ BEFORE BED STAYS WITH YOU BETTER BC YOU GET TO SLEEP ON IT

Try to keep your area quiet or have only white background noise because if someone is talking about the weather and you’re studying math, best believe you’ll only remember the weather

Reading a Textbook

Most of the time, you don’t need to read the introduction paragraphs.

Read the bolded titles to see what you will be getting into

Before class you can skim lightly!! It will help you not feel lost in class

AFTER CLASS you will now FOCUS YOUR READING ON WHAT WAS SAID IN CLASS because most of the time, class-covered topics ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT! save yoself some time!!

When reading after class, do NOT just read. If you go over something that makes you go ??? in even the slightest way, read it again to understand. Look it up. Do it in THAT moment because you’re gonna forget to do it later.

If you don’t wanna read the whole darn book because ur lazy (like me) or you are cramming, READ!! THE!! SUMMARY!!! 

The back of the book might have some seriously useful appendixes 

Try not to skip the diagrams and pictures lol they’re there for a reason

Taking Notes in Class

dont be on your phone or whatever during class time Like actually PAy attention because if you learn it now, you won’t have to try to learn it again later (you can be on your phone later)

Take down everything written on the boards FOR SURE because if the professor/teacher thinks it’s important to write it, you better think it’s important too

Be an engaged listener! Don’t let it slide straight thru ur head

Try not to scribble your notes so you can read it later

Make CLEAR HEADERS for the topics so you can find those notes quickly

Def make friends in class in case you miss something on the notes ://

Doing Practice Problems and Homework

Get yoUR HOMEWORK DONE FIRST OF ALL

Homework is seriously a great study tool because your instructor assigned that FOR A REASON (aka it’s prob gonna be tested on)

Try to know what you are doing before you start the homework so that you don’t feel lost as heck doing it

When doing practice problems, if you have the answers, don’t be afraid to look at the answer the first time around if you don’t know how to do it. IVE SELF TAUGHT MYSELF SOOOOO MUCH by just looking at the answer to a question.

DONT RELY ON THE ANSWERS THO

Don’t memorize how to do the practice problems, you should memorize the method of solving the problem and understand each step clearly (and understand WHY you do that step!!!) just in case the test pulls some funky stuff on you

The more you can do, the better. But don’t be sleepy and do them because you won’t really retain anything

Other Random Things

My organic chem professor actually did a funny study on sleep and test scores. He said on his final exam he asked “How many hours of sleep did you get last night?” 

and like obviously the more hours of sleep reported, generally the higher the student scored on the exam

SLEEEEPING IS GOOD FOR YOUR LEARNING

WHEN YOU SLEEP AND HIT THE REM CYCLE, YOUR BRAIN PROCESSES THE INFORMATION BETTER and it will really stay with you. So yall need to sleep. Don’t do the all nighters. You won’t remember anything

anyways like nike you should Just Do It

I hope you guys find this useful!! Remember that everyone has different needs and preferences, so take these tips as just tips and not rules!! Experiment with things, see what you like best, see what gives you the best scores. 

How to: Get Neater Handwriting! (by stuudytips)

Know your handwriting: Before you improve something, you want to know where it’s currently at, right? Analyze your handwriting. Note down what you dislike about your handwriting. Here are some aspects of your handwriting you can think about:

Spacing - How spaced out are your letters?

Slant - Are your letters slanted?

Curves - Does your handwriting have curves or straight lines?

Pressure - Are your letters light or dark?

Size - How big are your letters?

Find a style of handwriting. Find a style that’d you’d like to emulate in your own handwriting. This could be a friends, one pulled off the internet, or your neatest handwriting.

Practice the alphabet. Using the style of handwriting you want, write rows of letters. This will train your muscles to write these letters in opposition to your own handwriting.

Practice Writing Words. After practicing the alphabet, practice writing words. You could write about your day today, something you’re looking forward to, a to-do list, or these words that I randomly thought of:

Hi

Bye

Hello

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Car

Bus

Clothing

Sick

Tips

Use your whole arm. When writing words, you’re supposed to use your whole arm, as opposed to just your hand.

Try to write at least once a day. It will help with your muscle memory.

Pick a writing utensil that’s comfortable. 

HIGH SCHOOL VS. UNIVERSITY STUDY HOURS

Hi there! Firstly, don’t be scared! I was in your exact situation. I’ll give you an analogy. 

You know how there were pen licences in primary school, and you had to have nice handwriting to get one? Yeah well the teachers always used to scare me, saying “if you don’t improve your handwriting, you could be stuck writing in pencil even when you’re in Year 6!″ *in super dramatic tone*. Now the other students in class who didn’t have their pen licence literally didn’t give two hoots, but since I was a dedicated student, I got my socks scared off me. I went home and practiced my handwriting religiously every day. Now granted, the teacher was aiming that message at the slackers, but for poor suckers like me, I suffered from a lot of stress because of that. 

Likewise, a lot of these posts are to emphasise to slackers that no, you can’t just slack off any more. Unintended side effect is that it scares students like us. 

(also, let me tell you, uni students are the most vocal about the amount of work we have to do - it’s to do with the culture at uni, so don’t worry about it)

I’ll tell you honestly that you’ll find yourself naturally adapting to the workload. Think about how much work you had to do at the start middle school compared to now - you adapted to that right? At first, you don’t know how to study, so you just increase your study time, but after that, once you get better, things are done in a shorter amount of time, so you manage to get more things done in the same amount of study time. 

Honestly, there’s a lot of down time in between your classes for uni! Most students have around 12-24 contact hours per week, compared to 30 contact hours during high school. 

The amount of time you have available to study is usually going to be more compared to high school. It’s just that most of the study is spent outside class. 

SPENDING A LOT OF TIME ON STUDYING?

There’s a number of reasons why you could be spending a lot of hours studying. 

you’re studying inefficiently e.g. rewriting study notes, but not really knowing why you’re doing so, and just mindlessly copying them out

you’re using the wrong study methology for a particular subject

e.g. writing study notes for maths definitions using words when you could just draw a picture, or attempt practice questions

e.g. not using flashcards for certain memorisation subjects like memorising dates for history

you’re studying correctly, but you have content-heavy courses like biology and history, where you need to memorise a lot of information - in this case, it’s normal to spend a lot of time writing out flashcards to revise. 

you’re studying correctly, but it’s just the fact that you’re studying at a higher level - it’s completely natural to study a lot in high school and uni if you want to succeed. 

Now obviously I’m not sitting in your room and looking over your shoulder, so try asking someone who consistently scores the same as you how many hours they study for a particular subject. You can use that information to gauge whether you’re studying efficiently or not. And if they seem to study a significantly smaller number of hours than you (like 3-4h less/week) and get the same result, team up! Ask to join them for a study group and see what works for them.