Tips from Students for Approaching Lecture Material

Here's feedback from some of your fellow students who have kindly provided study tips...  these students have passed multiple exams/ audio-lecture courses with a mixture of C, B, and A grades, depending on the exam and the course.

Student 1:  "I have finally realized that just listening does not help you learn the material.  So, I actually write everything you [the instructor] say down.  I can't just write the key points because when I go back and look at my notes... they just don't make sense.  So, I write it all down.  This way I can learn as I am reading them and I can listen again and it all makes sense.  I have to see all of the notes so I can grasp everything.  Also when taking your tests I immediately rule out the wrong answers first.  I don't make the best grades but I have improved from doing all of this."

Student 2:  "What I have been doing (with not as much success as I would like) is first listening to the lectures and typing notes at the same time.  Next I read over the typed notes and highlight what I think would be material for a question.  I especially focus on items that contain lists: i.e. "so and so states that there are three methods for determining such and such".  Last, I read over the highlighted items multiple times and memorize them the best I can.  I tend to do the last step the day before the test so that the information is fresh in my mind.  If I try to study too far in advance I don't remember much.  It probably is not the same for everyone."  "I copy the typed outline you provide in the course documents for each lecture into my word document and then as I listen to the lesson I add the information in the appropriate places.  I don't know how anyone else is doing it, but it saves some time."

Student 3: "Basically what I do is listen to the lectures with the notes before test day!  Hope it helps!"

Some additional feedback has been provided by your fellow students  on how to approach the audiolecture material and prepare for exams.  Although they have had different degrees of success in passing courses and exams, together they have all passed the majority of these by far; all have been in school 2+ semesters.  Their feedback follows:

• More than one student says: pay particular attention to/ write down/ learn names, lists of information (such as criteria, guidelines, characteristics, etc.), and information that is repeated.
• One student says that she sits and listens to the lectures and writes out the material lecture-by-lecture.
• Another student says that she does the above but with her hand on the pause button so that she can stop and capture information and then restart the lecture.
• One student says that she really doesn't review her lecture notes except for lists before the exam and that listing and writing out notes captures allot of the information in her memory.
• A couple of students have indicated that they mark/ highlight their notes while listening to the exam review in order to know what to focus on more.
• One student says that downloading the lectures on her MP3 player has helped.
• One student says that she studies her notes 24-48 hours before an exam in order to try to memorize the material.
• Another student says that she studies 24 hours before an exam to become familiar with the material she's captured in her notes.
• Another student says she starts studying a week in advance of an exam.