Famous Last Words - The Art of Studying

One word: Midterms. I feel as though my schedule has gone all sorts of topsy turvy throwing all of my energy into studying. Add that to a weekend in which, lets be honest, not a lot of work got done, and that makes for a pretty hectic Monday. No regrets, though, because OU/Texas weekend was fantastic!

There's only one!

 Luckily, I'm almost done, so I'll be able to breathe at least for awhile. This past week of extensive studying has had me beginning to really analyze my study habits and methods. For me, unfortunately, studying for exams is a bit of a process of trial and error which typically involves me studying for a test with a specific approach and then altering my method depending on how well I do on the exam. I haven't really come across very many study methods that translate effectively across all classes. For some classes, I've found that making study guides is super helpful, for other classes that doesn't work as well. Some classes, I can study and annotate the book directly and do well, but for other classes, the professor seems to pull questions out of nowhere for a test. There are, however, a few methods that I've discovered (some fairly recently) that I think are pretty universally effective. To name a few:

Charts:
So last week, I had a Molecular Bio Midterm and a Organic Chem Lab Midterm. Studying for both of these exams consisted of constructing a number of charts and tables. My format for these charts is typically to have a column in which I name the term or concept, explain the process or system, identify the materials or machinery involved, and explain why this concept is significant. I feel that this is a good way to begin to organize and think critically about different concepts I am introduced to and am rather unfamiliar with.

Flashcards:
This may seem a little elementary, but I believe this to be, hands down, the best way to memorize any type of information. Enzymes and their functions? Flashcards. Greek gods and their Roman counterpart? Flashcards. Amino Acids? Flashcards. They haven't let me down yet! However, I use them as a tool strictly for memorization, usually to supplement full comprehension of a subject. Understanding how replication in a cell proceeds is a lot easier when I know the different enzymes and proteins involved and what each one does.

Drawing Pictures:
I am a huge visual learner, so drawing pictures of different processes and elements (even if I'm just copying a figure out of book) helps me to better understand what exactly is happening. In Biology, I used to draw out every cell cycle because actually writing it down in my own hand helped me retain the information better.

These are just a few of the methods I tend to use when studying. There are others, naturally, but these seem to be work across multiple subjects. Something I've noticed that I struggle with in terms of studying is studying for multiple exams in the same week. I've improved over the years, but it seems that there is always one subject to which I don't devote enough attention which may or may not cause my exam score to suffer. For that I hope to possibly gain some insight from my fellow classmates. Last week I had one midterm on Wednesday and one on Thursday. I didn't begin studying for the Thursday exam until after my Wednesday exam had passed. This worked out for me this time, but perhaps you have a better method.

Happy Monday, Everyone!
(Boomer Sooner)

Image information: Personal photo of me and my roommate at the OU/Texas game (source: Facebook)

Week 8: Reading Diary

In reading back through my reading diary posts,  I've noticed I follow a sort of pattern. First, I typically do not take notes over all of the readings. I try my best to pick out which stories contribute (in my opinion) the most to the reading as a whole. There are, however, some weeks in which I take notes for nearly all of the stories. When I leave out stories, it is usually because the theme translated through a certain story has been repeated multiple times (I do take notes on theme repeat stories in order to draw conclusions about central themes within the reading as a whole, but typically for one theme-repeating story) or because the action in a certain story is somewhat transitional in that it contributes to the content of following stories, but can be summed up in a few sentences within the notes for a following story. Sometimes, however, every or most of the stories contain some distinct significant element that I feel I will need to remember for either my weekly essay, or for my storytelling post.

 Another feature of my reading diary posts thus far is that I tend to go back and connect previous reading with the reading I am currently doing. For example, many of the readings I have done thus far involve creation stories, so I have briefly made note of the similarities and differences in a few of the mythologies concerning creation. I also make note of similarities in theme, characterization, and portrayal of human nature. I think it is important to be able to make connection while reading so as to perhaps gain an understanding of how mythology and folklore across different cultures can all be linked to one another. Also, by making connections between my weekly readings, I am able to retain what I have read from week to week. We do a lot of reading in this class, obviously, not to mention the reading I do for my other classes, so thinking back to previous readings and trying to somehow make it applicable to what I am currently doing is a helpful tool in remember all of the cool information I have learned thus far.

When doing my diary posts, I typically try to add commentary to what I have read in addition to a short synopsis of the action within each story. I find this helps when writing other blog posts for the week, particularly my essay. Giving commentary for each story really helps when picking out an essay topic for the week. I try to make note of recurring themes, archetypes, and morals which are all subjects that can be easily expanded into an essay. Some weeks this is more difficult than others because sometimes I'll run across stories in which the theme is unclear or there doesn't appear to be a moral. In these cases, I do my best to try and discern and analyze these elements so as to gain a better understanding of the story and the unit as a whole. It is difficult, but I believe it allows me to walk away from the reading with a greater clarity of the unit, and sometimes, the culture from which the reading derives.

Overall, I would say my reading diary posts are relatively well done and thought out. If they weren't I suppose, I wouldn't be able to use them as a guide for my other class posts.