The Student Room Group

Revision and getting the most out of your lectures

So it's time for second year, and the prospect of having to study stats for another year at a harder level utterly terrifies me. I suppose i just want a bit of advice on revision....A few people have told me to study in short bursts through out the day i.e 15 minutes at a time 6 or 7 times a day. Where as others have said after you finish a lecture go to library spend an hour or so on the material you've just learnt and keep going back to that same material the next day and so forth (spending less and less time on it). I suppose i just want some tips on reading and taking notes on lecture material??

Also, would it be worth getting a dictaphone? I'm awful at note taking

thanksssssssssssssssssss
Reply 1
I think you have to find the style that suits you the best, but I have noticed that the second advice you were talking about, really works.

Try this:

go through the material day before the lecture; which things you don't understand and which you have a clue about
pay attention in the lecture and try to find answers to your questions
after the lecture, go do your homework/do some statistics in library

And every time you start a "new" material, always go through again a little bit about the thing you learned last, just to refresh your memory.

I think this is the best way to learn, cause then you learn in four different occations and it gives you time to evaluate and think about things and also it's very pain-free, cause even though it takes time, every learning time isn't that long and your attention in there all the time this way and also, you don't have the stress about understanding it right away (although you obviously should try :wink:), cause you will know that this is not the ultimate last time you try to learn this stuff. :smile:

Good luck!
Reply 2
As said above, different things work for different people.

I've never been able to take notes in lectures, writing stuff down stopped me from being able to actually concentrate on what was being said and then I found the notes useless anyway. I used to do external reading within a week of the lecture, choosing stuff that was interesting over stuff that was more directly relevant as that way you actually pay attention. One thing I also found really handy is I used to plaster my walls with notes during revision season, that way it involved spatial memory and I could think about where different names/dates/facts were in relation to everything else.

Unhelpfully, there's a good chance this won't work for you and just because you're doing things differently to anyone else you speak to doesn't neccessarily mean you're doing it wrong. Experiment a bit and see what you like.

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