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When you fail an exam, or when you are lagging behind your classmates in studies,
you surely will want to catch up with them. But how?
This article discusses three study methods that may lead you to success at college.
1. Where and when and what you study are all important. But the neatest desk and the best
desk light, the world¡¯s regular schedule, the best leather-covered notebook and the most expensive t
extbooks you can buy will do you no good unless you know how to study. And how to study, if you don¡¯t
already have some clue, is probably the hardest thing you will have to learn in college. Some students
can master the entire system of imaginary numbers more easily than other students can discover how to study
the first chapter in the algebra book. Methods of studying vary; what works well for some students doesn¡¯t
work at all for others. The only thing you can do is experiment until you find a system that does work for
you. But two things are sure; nobody else can do your studying for you, and unless you do find a system
that works, you won¡¯t get through college.
2. Meantime, there are a few rules that work for everybody. The first is don¡¯t get behind. The problem of studying,
hard enough to start with, becomes almost impossible when you are trying to do three weeks¡¯ work in one weekend. Even
the fastest readers have trouble doing that. And if you are behind in written work that must be turned in, the teacher who
accepts it that late will probably not give you full credit. Perhaps he may not accept it at all.
3. Getting behind in one class because you are spending so much time on another is really no excuse. Feeling pretty virtuous about the seven hours you spend on
chemistry won¡¯t help one bit if the history teacher pops a quiz. And many freshmen do get into trouble by spending too much time on
one class at the expense of the others, either because they like one class much better or because they find it so much harder that
they think they should devote all their time to it. Whatever the reason, going whole hog for one class and neglecting the rest of
them is a mistake. If you face this temptation, begin with the shortest and easiest assignments. Get them out of the way and then
go on to the more difficult, time-consuming work. Unless you do the easy work first, you are likely to spend so much time on the
long, hard work that when midnight comes, you¡¯ll say to yourself, ¡°Oh, that English assignment was so easy, I can do it any time,¡±
and go on to bed. The English assignment, easy as it was, won¡¯t get done.
4.If everything seems equally easy (or equally hard), leave whatever you like best until the end. There will be more incentive
at half past eleven to read a political science article that sounded really interesting than to begin memorizing French irregular verbs,
a necessary task that strikes you as pretty dull.
5. In spite of the noblest efforts, however, everybody does get a little behind in something some time. When this happens to you, catch up. Don¡¯t
skip the parts you missed and try to go ahead with the rest of the class while there is still a big gap showing. What you missed
may make it impossible, or at least difficult, to understand what the rest of the class is doing now. if you are behind,
lengthen your study periods for a few days until you catch up. Skip the movie you meant to see or the nap you planned to take.
Stay up a little later, if you have to. But catch up.
6. The second rule that works for everybody is don¡¯t be afraid to mark in textbooks. A good student¡¯s books don¡¯t
finish the term looking as fresh and clean as the day they were purchased: they look used, well used. Some sections are
underlined. Notes are written down the margins. Answers to some of the questions are sketched in. In fact, the books
look as though somebody had studied them¡ To get your money¡¯s worth from your textbooks, you must do more with them
than just read them.
7. To begin with, when you first get a new textbook, look at the table of contents to see what material the book
covers. Flip through the pages to see what study aids the author has provided: subheadings, summaries, charts, pictures,
review questions at the end of each chapter. After you found what the whole book covers, you will be better prepared
to begin studying the chapter you have been asked to read.
8. Before you begin reading the chapter, give it the same sort of treatment. Skim through the first and last paragraphs;
look with more care at the subheadings; if there are questions at the end of the chapter, read them first so you will
know what points to watch for as you read. After you are thus forewarned, settle down to the actual business of reading.
Read the chapter all the way through, as fast as you comfortably can. Don¡¯t mark anything this first time through except
the words that are new to you. Circle them. When you have finished the chapter, find out what these unknown words mean,
and write the definitions in the margin opposite the word.
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