Study Tips 101: Science

As mentioned in my last post, I promised to write a little bit on study tips to help review for tests and exams. Now, it's been said that studying can't be taught, as each person studies differently. However, in my case I also study differently for each class. Today, I'm going to look at study tips for science-based courses. I think I know a little but about this, since my own program is under the Faculty of Science :)

One thing that I've noticed is that a big hurdle in science-based courses is the terminology. From cyclohexa-1,3,5-triene to sternocleidomastoid to plasmolysis - we all have trouble with trying to keep up with what the professors say, and trying to actually understand it at the same time. One solution I've come up with for this is the obvious – flashcards! I love making these little guys – as I’m making my deck, I’m learning the words, so it’s almost like a two-for-one deal! I myself you the flashcard maker from StudyBlue.

Another resource that I’ve used (maybe a little too much…) are online videos. Nowadays, many textbooks come with an online key that let you access a bunch of great online content – such as my much abused videos! If not, a quick YouTube or Google search will likely turn up some results. I consider myself to be a visual learner, so seeing how things work in action with each other has helped me much more than I care to admit.

This is probably going to sound strange… Sometimes I like making mock Wikipedia articles on the subject I’m studying. I find that this technique helps me so much in my kinesiology class, because the notes I study from are just PowerPoint slides with a bunch of scribbles I made on it during lecture. I find that making mock Wikipedia articles really helps me with a few things – firstly, it helps me organize my thoughts. I’ll make a “Table of Contents” in the corner with headings and subheadings and subsubheadings, etc. This really helps me to figure out what is classified where. Secondly, making my own mock Wikipedia article helps me to condense and analyze the information. I don’t allow myself to put pictures in my mock Wikipedia articles, so I force myself to explain the concepts demonstrated easily by a picture in words – this helps to really understand what the picture is trying to convey. Of course, I really don’t want to sit there and copy  out all the notes, so I have to condense all of the information so that I get the juicy bits and leave the extraneous stuff behind.

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This is by no means a comprehensive list of all the ways one can study for a science-based course. Rather, these are methods that I myself find helpful. Hopefully some of these tips will come in handy when crunch time comes along, and let me know how these tips worked out for you!
P.S. If anyone would like to see any examples of the study tools I've mentioned here, just let me know in the comments :)

Just A Little Change

So I've just added this neat little commenting widget from Disqus to replace the basic commenting system from Blogger. I'm pretty excited about it - there a bunch of neat features, like mobile comments and inline media embedding and threaded comments. So now you can actually see who's replied to what!

Anyways, give it a whirl and tell me what you think - especially if there's any bugs; I'll try and deal with those ASAP! (meaning, I hope I didn't mess up the installation :p )

Midterm Madness!

Workload through the roof? Check. Food and sleep becoming optional? Check. Sanity floating out somewhere near Neptune? Check. Let's face it: midterms (and, well, exams in general) are stressful. So today, I thought I'd share a few tips on how I keep my head screwed on right while I slug my way through a veritable mountain of assignments and tests.


Make sure you get enough sleep.
If you sleep more, you'll be smarter. Really! Check out this lovely post on why you should be getting eight or more hours of sleep each day. I do admit, though, that unless you're really super-efficient at studying and getting assignments done during exam time, 8+ hours of sleep every night is kind of difficult. So I'd say it's okay to let your sleep schedule slide a little for the duration of your "Hell week", but don't make it a habit. And if you're falling asleep in front of your computer screen, it's time to throw in the towel and cut your losses. You won't learn anything through osmosis - trust me, I've tried :)

Study right.
Okay, this is a big topic. Honestly, I don't think that there's only one way of studying. Everyone has their own style. For me, I have lost of styles - depending on the class, I'll study for it differently than I would for another class. So all I can say is, find what works for you. Also, one major thing that changes from highschool is that you need to start studying  earlier. In highschool, I would study for my exams the night before, and that's it. In university, that's really no longer an option. For myself, I need to start studying at least two to three days before my exam. There is absolutely no way I will have time to review everything if I start studying the night before - it's just not possible for night-before cramming to work anymore! I'll cover some study tips and techniques in another post, but suffice to say, even the best study methods won't help you if you don't have enough time to cover the material.

Watch your eating.
This is another big thing that tends to slide during midterms and exams. Most people tend to forget to eat and just snack on junk food all day - which is exactly what I did during first term. I don't think I really need to talk about the results. And if you're telling yourself "Oh, that won't happen to me. I'll get so stressed I'll LOSE ten pounds!", have you actually tried it? I can count on one hand the number of people I've met that have had weight loss result from stress eating. Which is not to say that it's not possible, but either way, stress can turn healthy and balanced eating habits into dangerous and exceedingly unhealthy ones, whether you're eating too much or too little. So make sure you're eating at least two to three meals a day. If you eat dinner a little later, make sure you stop by the dining hall to pick up dinner in a take-away box before the dining hall closes. Nothing is worse than realizing at 1am that you haven't eaten dinner yet - and all the dining halls are closed for the night.

Work in groups.
I know that a lot of people are going to scoff at me for this, because it's what every professor and their TA says. But if everyone says it, they might actually have a point. Even if you're just catching up of readings or another "solo" study activity, working with other is a tremendous help. For one thing, I find that studying with others can keep me going for much longer than if I study alone - if I work by myself, I might be able to get through half of the material before I give up. However, when I study with others (even if it's just a small group of three), we'll get through all the material and then some in one night. It also helps me to "de-stress" a little, because our discussions tend to veer off-topic every twenty minutes or so - which is good, because discussing biological molecular structures at 3am had me quite close to tearing my hair out.


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Midterms and exam time are hugely stressful. Just keep ahold of the things I mentioned here, and hopefully you'll get though without being too much worse for wear :)