Hello, it’s #optomstudies here again with another Sunday Study Tip on university life! Although it’s been a while, this will be a multi-part series that hopefully will give a unique insight, since I can go on and on about university :)

PART 3: STUDY

I wish I had known that there’s a lot more work that you can binge in university. It is super easy to fall into the trap of leaving everything to the last minute. Revise regularly and finish all your recommended reading. The workload is a lot more than I ever faced in my final year of high school, and somehow I did get used to doing more in a shorter period of time. 

Keep up with your tutorial homework. Especially for subjects for maths, I can’t stress this enough, especially since this was the one of the causes of my subpar grades the first semester of uni. Even if you have to stay up late to finish it, I’d suggest that you do it. Because if you don’t finish it this week, you’ll just have more to do next week. 

Make study notes for everything at first. To be absolutely honest, there are a lot of subjects where you don’t end up needing study notes all that often. But I’d suggest making notes for everything the first week, because very often I’ve done notes for a subject, decided that I didn’t need any, then regretted it later on in the semester when there was too much to study. If you’re a notes person, make notes for everything. 

That being said, know that you can’t write notes for everything forever. Sure, first and second year you can. But keep in mind that notes are time consuming to make, and tbh not the most optimal way to get the most information into your mind in a short time. It’s good for when you’re trying to learn each and every thing in a subject, like in high school for your HSC for example, but in uni, it’s better to understand concepts and memorise big picture things at the end of the day. 

Learn as much as you can in class. Skim through the lecture notes before class, and write down any questions, but you basically want to understand the concepts in class. If there’s anything that you don’t understand, try and ask the teacher and follow up on it at the end of the class if there’s not enough time for questions. Try your best to follow what’s happening at the moment it happens. 

Revise regularly. The reason for this is so that you can change the shape of the forgetting curve. This is the number one easiest thing to procrastinate, because it is probably the hardest to do regularly. I find it easier to set aside one large chunk of time to revise, even though it’s not optimum. The reason is because if planning one hour a day to revise, it’s usually at the end of the day after all your homework is done… and homework almost always runs over the time that you set aside for it. In addition to that, you want to avoid having to write anything new in that session, so make sure you have your study notes already done! 

Don’t forget who you were in high school. I can’t count the number of people who have studied their hardest in high school and scored ATARs of 95+ and yet completely bum around in uni, and don’t seem to care as long as they pass the course. Idk, personally, it’s just not an aesthetic that I would want myself to have; you tried that hard in high school, was it just a means to an ends? Now that you’re in your dream course, it suddenly doesn’t matter if you can’t make heads or tails of it? My cheesy message is: You made it! Celebrate it! Embrace it! Love learning it! Evolve and develop your mentality for university now that the goals are not a 99.95 ATAR, but a goal of your own choosing. 

Explore new methods of note taking. There is a plethora of information concerning lecture note taking, writing summary notes, and specifically for university too. Or try your own thing. I personally am someone who likes taking notes in red font on my lecture slides - any explanations or emphases that are expressed are highlighted, without missing anything while typing up the main points. And I don’t bother to rewrite things in my own words, as long as I understand a concept; I know this is heavily emphasised as a good way to take notes in high school (in almost all the note making tutorials I’ve read), but in uni you don’t have the luxury of time. Lecture notes usually are anywhere from 3 to 6 A4 pages per hour of study notes, so it’s unfeasible when you have 8 hours of lectures a week. Try something different!

Do a brain dump on paper. My friend swears by this method. You go to a lecture, and straight afterwards write down everything you remember from that lecture right there and then. Then the day when you sit down to study it, do the same thing. The amount of things you’ve forgotten will be in plain view, which gets you to put the hard yards into memorising. Do the brain dump again once you’ve finished everything to check that you’ve memorised more than you did that initial brain dump. 

MY STUDY TIPS

Please see my #optomstudies tag or my study tips directory (web only) for the full list of study tips + see my langblr posts + stationery + bujo spreads! ^_^

UNIVERSITY STUDY TIPS SERIES

• Part 0 Choosing a Degree - what’s right for you? popular!!
• > Things to Consider Before Switching Degrees!
• > Changing Degrees
• Part 1 Administration - choosing majors, available services, choosing class times etc.
• Part 2 Getting to Class - pros and cons of attending class, when you should choose not to attend, advice about choosing a backpack and other essential equipment.
• > Laptop Considerations and Recommendations
  
• Part 3 Studying - differences between high school and uni, basic tips on how to keep on track, class types like lectures, tutorials, etc.
• Part 4 Extra-Curriculars - what clubs to join, what to do outside class, and other great things to discover around campus.
  
• Part 5 Exams - everything to know about examiners, how to prepare, what happens during the whole examination process.
  
• Part 6 Social Life - differences between high school and university, some hard learnt lessons, etc.
• Part 7 Part Time Work
• Part 8 Four Secrets The Uni Tells You
• Part 9 Best Study Spots On Campus
• Part 10 Saving Money 1 - Food, Transport, Entertainment
• Part 10 Saving Money 2 - Textbooks, Tax, Scholarships
  
• Part 11 Adapting to Uni Study - 3 big differences from studying in high school popular!!
• Part 12 How to Study From Textbooks in Uni
  
• Dealing with Lazy Group Members - five options for what to do and how to do it! popular!!

OTHER POPULAR POSTS

• Weekly Planner Printable with Extra Space for Sat/Sun  popular!!
  
• Overcoming the Planning Fallacy
  
• Study Spaces Masterpost
• Studying and your Visual System
• Catching Up with Your Studies  popular!!
• Sleeping and Waking Up Early  popular!!
• My 2017 Planner and Bullet Journal  popular!!