College Students! discussion

(Please excuse the grammar, haha.)

Reading for college is pretty different than for High School. I always read it all in one short burst, and then worked off what I remembered and what the teacher gave us for notes. I've imagined reading it once quickly and then going back to underline and take notes. Hasn't happened for me yet.

How do/did you guys do it?

Well, I think it's different for everyone. For me reading whole articles/chapters had to take place in complete chunks (whole article or whole chapter). I didn't take notes, really, or underline. When it was covered in class I made a point to discuss what I remembered which, undoubtedly, lead to me remembering more. Then I took notes to solidify it in my mind.

Graduate school is an entirely different animal too. We generally have one week to read an entire book...and that's for only one class. You learn how to get the gist of the book by reading the introduction/preface, then you look at how each chapter is lined out. Sometimes there will be an introductory section at the beginning of the chapter that you can read. Then you read the conclusion and the bibliography section. You find out the point of the book, the main arguments, and the kinds of sources. For our purposes, the step by step building of the argument isn't as important. Of course, sometimes you get a book that doesn't lend itself to such easy reading. Then you have to read the book.

Personally, I hate taking notes as I go, but I know that it's necessary. Slows me down considerably. But I'm able to write my review without much flipping back through.

Depending on how well I understand the subject, I usually read before class, go and take notes in class, and then read the chapter afterwards and fill in anything from there that I didn't feel was well explained in class. Writing things down is what helps me remember. I may never look at what I wrote again, but as long as I physically wrote it, I will remember.

For discussion based classes, I read beforehand, take notes while reading/in class, and usually don't re-read (lazy, I know).

For science and math classes usually I skim the chapters and get a pretty good feel for what's in them by doing homework problems and going back through them looking for equations and tidbits I need to do my work.

For literature classes, I read the assigned section all at once, sometimes underlining or taking notes as I go. Then I take notes on the discussion in class, and mark any specific passages that the teacher points out. Those are what I focus on when preparing for tests.

For non-literature classes like science or history I skim the chapter, highlighting any important terms or ideas so I can find them later. If there is homework I pay the most attention to the sections covered in the homework and kind of ignore the rest. I take lots of notes on what the teacher says in class. When I study I rely on my notes more than the book.

for the novels, i use the things my english teacher in high school makes us. annotate the crap out of the book in like seven different colors. it takes time, but it really helps me understand and analyze teh text better, so im prepared well for tests.
the other stuff, i take notes with an almost-religous obsession. i have to write things down over and over to remember them, so that's what i do.

For me it is different for each class. Usually I read then make notes on the chapter, highlighting what I think is important so that I have the info all on one sheet without having the flip through the book, notes also help because I usually paraphrase and doing that makes me actually think about what I read. Then when I study for tests I make note cards mostly based on my note sheets In classes where the lectures go along well with the reading I usually combine the readings and lecture notes together for my summary.

I've had so much required reading this semester it's sometimes tough to get through. For my "Postwar American Fiction" class it's usually a book every week or two, plus I'll have and essay or two to read for "Contemporary Practice in Print Media" and then there's a book every two or three weeks for "Bandits & Outlaws". I try to get through them one by one throughout the week based on when I have the class, highlighting or underlining important things and maybe writing a few notes. The fiction I can normally just read in my spare time, but the denser stuff I have to put time aside and focus on. Unfortunately, this often has me reading it at the last minute.

I find it so difficult to keep up with reading now that I'm in college. I usually go over lecture notes, then read through the chapter that has to do with those notes, and type up summaries along the way. It can be kind of overwhelming to make notes for a whole textbook (I actually managed to summarize a whole 800 or so page textbook because it was being used in 2 of my classes at the time!), so luckily a lot of the time student's make chapter summary swaps so we only have to do about one chapter each. Unfortunately I'm picky and like to write extremely detailed notes (most people don't seem to), so maybe I need to learn to be more concise :P Then I usually make "key term" pages, write out notes if I need to, read them out loud, whatever I have to do to remember it (or try to).

Textbook textbooks it depends on the course and the teacher, if they give thorough powerpoints or lectures I may only skim, if not or they have quizzes before actually going over the material I'll generally read it. Journal articles if they are less than 15 pages I'll usually read them in one sitting anything much longer or a novel and I'll usually read it in chunks over the given time I had. I usually only do notes when I'm reading when I know what I'm going to have to write on for a novel, journals only when I have to write a summary, and textbooks if the prof doesn't give extensive notes themselves.

October 21, 20014

To whom may concern:
I succession the Textbook and summery
repeats.
Best regards.