Life Lesson Number Eight : The Importance of Studying

There are two types of people in this world; those that are naturally smart and don't have to study and those that have to study their butt off just to get good grades.  I happen to be the second type of person and I'm pretty jealous of those naturally really smart people.  It's safe to say that over the past year of being at Penn State, I've spent more time in the first floor stacks cubical than anywhere on campus.  If college has taught me anything, it's that you have to study, not the day before, day of or twenty minutes before the class.  I'm talking at least a solid five days before the exam. After all, college is much much harder than high school.

As mentioned in one of my previous blogs, I remember sitting in orientation and a man from Penn State explained that our high school GPA's compared to our college GPA's would be drastically different.  In my head I was laughing, telling myself that I'm a pretty decent student and there is no way that college could be that much harder.  That man was right however and with only a month left to go in  my freshmen year I finally understand why it's such a large accomplishment graduating from college, because it isn't a walk in the park.

I'll admit that I am a nerd; I do really enjoy school and learning, which may sound crazy to some.  In high school I got good grades and studied.  However, there were a handful of times I found myself just studying during lunch for a test or in the hallway five minutes before a test, but in college that isn't possible. The thing about college is that many classes only have three tests, so if you do poorly in one, your whole grade is affected.

It seems to me however, that the first exam in a course is always the exam I tend to do the worse on. Last semester I took a sociology class that made me lose lots of sleep at night.  I remember when we got our first exams back.  I looked at the score.  It was a D and I thought that never in my life have I done this bad on a test.  The girl next to me saw how distressed I looked, turned to me and said, "You're a freshmen aren't you"?  She explained that usually the first exam is always the worst grade and you learn how the professors ask their tests questions.  Then she talked about how professors tend to curve the first exams of classes more than any other test.  The moral of the story is, if you fail the first exam, don't panic just yet, after all I ended up getting an 89 in that class.

One of the greatest things in college that has been beyond beneficial is group studying.  In high school I never used to study with others, but in college I find myself every night in the business building studying and doing work with my classmates.  It definitely helps the time go by faster and I find it very beneficial to have another person besides your professor explain information about an exam, essay or project in their words.  In a way, you are learning from a whole other prospective. However, some people need to just study alone in order to fully concentrate on the material, which is completely understandable.

There are two ways that I study for every exam.  The first one is that I make note cards.  This helps me memorize the material faster.  After all, I can flip through a bunch of terms and questions in just a few minutes. The note cards also help to pull out the important information.  In addition, I tend to rewrite my notes until I have fully memorized them.  Yes, the process is long and tedious, but it tends to work. There is research out there that shows that if you write out information, you tend to remember it better.

Lastly, your syllabus is your best friend.  She explains to you all the topics that will be on the exam. Also, she can even give you some helpful websites to visit for extra help.  Remember, she available twenty four hours a day and weeks before the exam, so make sure you see what she has to offer.