How do you guys study for exams?

[j03]

Just curious.

Personally, I'm not much of a studying person but I really need to get in the habit of doing it, so I figured I might as well read about how other people do it.

No. Well last semester I went through a few review notes once. That's all.

[tchaikovsky]

Honestly the most effective way to study is to take your given notes and ready them over, and then make an outline and recite relevant data afterwords. This enforces the accruance of memory, and flexes your brain as well. Also, studying a little bit over the course of 5 days vastly dwarfs studying a lot in 4 hours. Although, cramming up to the last minute has always got that nice rushing feeling to it.

[Celestial]

But more fun than the students writing their exams,

Try it, it's really not. Especially when there's 50+. You also get disappointed by how badly many students go, their lack of effort and sorry, but stupidity!

Also, studying a little bit over the course of 5 days vastly dwarfs studying a lot in 4 hours. Although, cramming up to the last minute has always got that nice rushing feeling to it.

My memory is pretty bad, always has been, once I sleep most of what I studied before is gone, unless is practical and I've actually done it. All theory is gone. Ｉ find the less I sleep the more I retain, so short sleeping periods over 8 hours of review give me the best results. But every person is different.

[tchaikovsky]

Try it, it's really not. Especially when there's 50+. You also get disappointed by how badly many students go, their lack of effort and sorry, but stupidity!



My memory is pretty bad, always has been, once I sleep most of what I studied before is gone, unless is practical and I've actually done it. All theory is gone. Ｉ find the less I sleep the more I retain, so short sleeping periods over 8 hours of review give me the best results. But every person is different.

Yeah I don't study much, but a quick glance over the material before exam day can get it lodged into my memory to where it's so much easier to resurface come test time. Like you said though, everyone's there own student, and should make sure to find whats best for them and go with that.

[Mod]

Try it, it's really not. Especially when there's 50+. You also get disappointed by how badly many students go, their lack of effort and sorry, but stupidity!

This for, elementary/middle/high school, right? It's justified you feel that way, as a teacher's responsibility to ensure student success as best they can.

College level, as you know, is a different story. If it's a standardized test/assignment, anything outside of the answer key is a quick 'X', easy as that. And professors could care less if many students do poorly (except when the class average is extremely low - then the professor's teaching position is at risk). As a former TA, assigning low grades was standard. I couldn't help if I wanted to, random audits from my lab coordinator could get me cooked.

[Celestial]

This for, elementary/middle/high school, right? It's justified you feel that way, as a teacher's responsibility to ensure student success as best they can.

College level, as you know, is a different story. If it's a standardized test/assignment, anything outside of the answer key is a quick 'X', easy as that. And professors could care less if many students do poorly (except when the class average is extremely low - then the professor's teaching position is at risk). As a former TA, assigning low grades was standard. I couldn't help if I wanted to, random audits from my lab coordinator could get me cooked.

I've never taught primary/high school students. I've only been a university lecturer. I don't know about your university, but many of us do care about our students results.
Often the questions the students are given aren't simple and take time to go through, I would never just X at will. If I wanted that I'd just give them all multiple choice exams and have them run the the machine.

I'm not talking about giving all the students amazingly high marks, I mark to my rubric and sometimes scale to our scaling charts when needed. Since I often don't need to coordinate multiple classes at multiple campuses I also have to review and possibly scale the marks of other lecturers if their marks are inconsistent with the other campuses.

The paper work isn't fun at all.

Sometimes if a class is rather better than others in general and they all legitimately get high marks, then there's more paperwork to justify the unusual marking scale and high average marks.

It's very disappointing when you pretty much give the students the exam questions and state many times very profoundly, "everything in this revision lesson is very relevant to the exam, take notes and study these hard", and you still find students answering these badly.

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Other than the exams you also have mark assessment items (assignments), which requires going through multiple pages per essay, or so much code that you don't want to look at it for a month.

Sadly none of my students seemed to take the SQL Injection notes seriously as I recall. 1 student would have gotten full marks if not for that.

[Mod]

At my university, instructors are happy if the class average is high, meaning they did their job well. But if students perform badly, they just shrug it off as the student's responsibility, little sympathy is given.

The only time there is a chance of a grade being bent is when a student has been active with the instructor whilst still performing poorly, bumping an F to a D is my example. Essay and open-ended question marking is dependent on the instructor's wishes and TA's level of care. If a block of text is wrong, some will just 'X' the entire page, others will write small footnotes explaining why it's wrong.

Usually every class larger than 40 here has a TA assigned to do the marking, with guidance from the instructor. Perhaps that is different at your Uni, or different because of the program you teach (I am science-based).

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I wish my instructors would give hints for exams on review lectures, but they won't (and can't). The standard is that everything is examable, instructors cannot hint specific topics with greater weighting, other than greater emphasis on material not previously tested. Whenever a student asks a question like that, the instructor refers to the 'standard', or simply ignores the student.

[Celestial]

I wish my instructors would give hints for exams on review lectures, but they won't (and can't). The standard is that everything is examable, instructors cannot hint specific topics with greater weighting, other than greater emphasis on material not previously tested. Whenever a student asks a question like that, the instructor refers to the 'standard', or simply ignores the student.

Well, strictly you can't give them the exam questions, but your revision materials can be very relevant. It really depends on the subject, but some subjects have so much content, it would be unrealistic not to give them any guidance. Otherwise their marks would most likely be based on luck from which areas of the subject materials they semi-randomly chose to look at.

They're still being graded on an equal level against each other and due to their abilities, in some subjects it's not realistic to know everything, especially in more useless subjects that are there just for course certifications.

In a programming subject I wouldn't give much info as the content isn't that great, just the ability to fit the pieces together in a different way for a new result.

[tchaikovsky]

@(you need an account to see links) yes, very, very little sympathy... I still have nightmares of the TA's that would go down the row on papers and take one look at them and give the work no marks. Disappointing to hear about, but it's the truth.

[janikanicolepi]

I find it easier for me...well personally to write things out. Compose your own study guides...highlight the important part that the professors or instructors mentioned. Read before going to class and attend review sessions. If there are exams from previous year...use that as part of your study guide. Practice, practice and practice. I don't know what particular subject you are trying study for, but I am a business major, and everything is very math oriented, so practice, and memorize formula.