Goals For The Study Guides
Making your own personalised guides is quite different from your normal note-taking. Study guides are more exam-oriented, instead of merely summarising and organising information. It is a tool to help you to study for your exams, and to guide you through answering exam questions. This how-to guide is a summary of my learning experiences in both high school and college, so I hope this can help everyone here.
Goals for the study guides
It has to include everything on the syllabus for the examination
Omit things that are not going to be useful/helpful in exams
There are things that may be very informative, but if they have no relevance to the exam, it’s better to take them out of the study guide
Basically, the goal of making this study guide is to have one booklet/notebook that contain things you have learnt in that course, and most importantly, everything you need for the exam.
That means you (supposedly) wouldn’t have to refer to any other materials unless specified in the study guide
Making this booklet will help you to summarise and analyse information - a great way to study
Materials that you need
If you are in college, lecture notes are usually the most important material you should refer to when studying for exams. If you are in high school, textbooks are more likely to prevail. It depends on your course structure and the way your teacher/lecturer teaches.
Past papers / practice papers are great guidance for you when making study guides, because they help you to understand what will be on the exam paper, and most importantly, how you could answer the question.
Important tip: while making your own summary of the knowledge is useful, write down the model answer from the past paper in your study guide instead. That’s the way you should answer the question related to that topic in the exam, so you shouldn’t waste time putting in and memorising information that is not helpful.
For college students: tutorial questions usually offer great guidance as to what is going to appear in the exam. Putting those in the study guides is usually very helpful.
Organising the study guides
Here are a few tips when organising your notes:
Put a red star next to topics that you think are going to come up in the examination
Circle topics that you don’t understand / fail to grasp when making the study guides
Definitely use bullet points if possible
Highlight key words with definition in one specific colour, or anything that requires direct recitation
Because this is what you will study for the exam, also put down tips that are going to help you with the exams. (You can either draw a box to alert yourself or use a post-it note for these).
Answering structure / attack plan for common exam questions
Some common mistakes previous students made in the exam (which is usually brought up by the teacher / lecturer)
Important concept / clarification of misunderstandings
Remember to leave a page for each chapter and write a summary of it during revision
This will help you to understand the flow of the chapter and it is a great way to recall the information you have just organised
If you want to know more about how to take notes, here are some of my other posts:
A summary on how to take good lecture notes - #13
Type or write?
Type or write? updated + my approach
Should I take notes right now?
How to take outline notes?
Consolidating lecture notes and textbook notes
How to get better handwriting?
How to incorporate colours into note-taking and studying?
More Posts from Study-astronomy-biology-ref and Others
Use studying techniques to your advantage:
Got these notebooks for 5 cents so obviously going to buy more than one :D # strongnotebookgameisstrong
There’s a method to my madness I swear!! OK so on avg I seem to use up two of those 80 pg notebooks so I got two for each class. And consequently I needed the 4pack 32pg exercise books.
The 80 page notebook is used for in class notes. As soon as anything important is said it is scribbled down into the notebook. The 4 pack 32 pg exercise book is divided to two groups: Feymann technique and Cornell method.
Feymann Technique
Right after class I grab my textbook, my notebooks and two of my exercise books. I teach myself the lesson primarily with my notes and if I don’t understand something I turn to my textbook. If I am still lost I leave space and note that there is something I need to clarify with my professor. Even while I am doing this, I force myself to decrease the writing and increase the connections between every topic since the 32 pg is quite smaller than the 80 pg.
Thankfully when I am done with this, my 32pg becomes the go to whenever it seems like I am in need of revising a topic since it contains relevant notes from both my textbook and my notebook in my own words.
Cornell Method.
When exam time approaches I convert my notes into the cornell notes so that I can easily test myself with the main ideas and key questions.
There is no better way to revise than to try to make connections. That is all you are going to get tested on since it’s not that hard to spit back words on a page. Instead of being asked about photosynthesis for example, you might be told about some chemical that is sprayed on a plant that will block one process and asked about how that affects the growth of the plant overall. See what I mean?
I usually get a whiteboard and write all of the connections out and in front of me. When THAT is done I write it down in flashcard mode and quiz myself for the next week using the Leitner system, along with the topics that are basically just memorization.
LEITNER SYSTEM
Label 5 boxes 1-4, where 1 is for cards you don’t know and 4 is for cards you are basically a pro in. You frequently test yourself in box 1 (maybe every 30 mins, you choose) and increase the time in which you test yourself until you reach 4, where you would test yourself just once a day.
In the beginning all of your cards go in box 1,and as you get a card right it goes up a level and if you get it wrong it goes down a level. That way you are spending more time with ideas and topics you don’t have a strong hold on, rather than spending equal time with all the topics.
At this point I have rewritten my notes twice in my own words and then converted them into flashcard mode :) I recommend this method when it comes to the sciences or humanities. For the maths I have already done a post about it here.
Hope this helps for those still looking for study techniques!
-F
Yes! It’s not ~very~ legal, but I think this is very important to know if you gonna do research.
I also read somewhere saying that if you have this kind of issue and you aren’t really in a rush, you could reach out to the people that did the research and ask them for the article! We all have the same problem with publication sites and most people just want their research to be known and cited. They would love to help you too, we’re all scientists after all. I, personally, haven’t tried this yet since I’m currently not doing any research, so I’m not 100% sure about the success probability. But hey, it worth a shot I have to say.
I havent seen anyone talk about this yet so im making a post.
So lets say you’re researching something for a paper (or just for fun) and the research paper you want to read is behind a paywall, or the site makes you create an account first, or makes you pay to download, or limits you to only 5 free articles, or otherwise makes it difficult for you to read what you want.
do not fear! copy the link to the article
go to sci-hub.se (the url is always changing so its best to check out whereisscihub.now.sh to find what the current url is)
slap the article link in there
bam! free access!
This Year in Space (infographic)
From Pluto to the most Earth-like planet ever discovered…this years was a fantastic year in space. Here are the most notable astronomical events from 2015.
May you all journey well into 2016.
See all our infographics at: http://futurism.com/infographics/
The astro-fashion-loving Internet collectively gasped when ESA’s Hubble twitter account posted three gorgeous gowns, by Czech designer Jirina Tauchmanova with only credit “Photo: Vasek”, which google thinks is a Canadian tennis player. For four long days I couldn’t find anymore images, until, today! Which is why I’m sharing a belated #FashionFriday and #StarrySunday combo.
These gown were shown at Serbia Fashion Week back in December 2015 as Jirina Tauchmanova‘s Spring/Summer 2016 collection – I hope that means they will be available for purchase soon!
I think I recognize at least two of the images, NGC 602 & 30 Doradus, but I’m going to have to see these in person to be sure, yes, definitely, and probably try them on, too.
–Emily
FAMOUS AUTHORS
Classic Bookshelf: This site has put classic novels online, from Charles Dickens to Charlotte Bronte.
The Online Books Page: The University of Pennsylvania hosts this book search and database.
Project Gutenberg: This famous site has over 27,000 free books online.
Page by Page Books: Find books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and H.G. Wells, as well as speeches from George W. Bush on this site.
Classic Book Library: Genres here include historical fiction, history, science fiction, mystery, romance and children’s literature, but they’re all classics.
Classic Reader: Here you can read Shakespeare, young adult fiction and more.
Read Print: From George Orwell to Alexandre Dumas to George Eliot to Charles Darwin, this online library is stocked with the best classics.
Planet eBook: Download free classic literature titles here, from Dostoevsky to D.H. Lawrence to Joseph Conrad.
The Spectator Project: Montclair State University’s project features full-text, online versions of The Spectator and The Tatler.
Bibliomania: This site has more than 2,000 classic texts, plus study guides and reference books.
Online Library of Literature: Find full and unabridged texts of classic literature, including the Bronte sisters, Mark Twain and more.
Bartleby: Bartleby has much more than just the classics, but its collection of anthologies and other important novels made it famous.
Fiction.us: Fiction.us has a huge selection of novels, including works by Lewis Carroll, Willa Cather, Sherwood Anderson, Flaubert, George Eliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald and others.
Free Classic Literature: Find British authors like Shakespeare and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, plus other authors like Jules Verne, Mark Twain, and more.
TEXTBOOKS
Textbook Revolution: Find biology, business, engineering, mathematics and world history textbooks here.
Wikibooks: From cookbooks to the computing department, find instructional and educational materials here.
KnowThis Free Online Textbooks: Get directed to stats textbooks and more.
Online Medical Textbooks: Find books about plastic surgery, anatomy and more here.
Online Science and Math Textbooks: Access biochemistry, chemistry, aeronautics, medical manuals and other textbooks here.
MIT Open Courseware Supplemental Resources: Find free videos, textbooks and more on the subjects of mechanical engineering, mathematics, chemistry and more.
Flat World Knowledge: This innovative site has created an open college textbooks platform that will launch in January 2009.
Free Business Textbooks: Find free books to go along with accounting, economics and other business classes.
Light and Matter: Here you can access open source physics textbooks.
eMedicine: This project from WebMD is continuously updated and has articles and references on surgery, pediatrics and more.
MATH AND SCIENCE
FullBooks.com: This site has “thousands of full-text free books,” including a large amount of scientific essays and books.
Free online textbooks, lecture notes, tutorials and videos on mathematics: NYU links to several free resources for math students.
Online Mathematics Texts: Here you can find online textbooks likeElementary Linear Algebra and Complex Variables.
Science and Engineering Books for free download: These books range in topics from nanotechnology to compressible flow.
FreeScience.info: Find over 1800 math, engineering and science books here.
Free Tech Books: Computer programmers and computer science enthusiasts can find helpful books here.
CHILDREN’S BOOKS
byGosh: Find free illustrated children’s books and stories here.
Munseys: Munseys has nearly 2,000 children’s titles, plus books about religion, biographies and more.
International Children’s Digital Library: Find award-winning books and search by categories like age group, make believe books, true books or picture books.
Lookybook: Access children’s picture books here.
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION
Bored.com: Bored.com has music ebooks, cooking ebooks, and over 150 philosophy titles and over 1,000 religion titles.
Ideology.us: Here you’ll find works by Rene Descartes, Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, David Hume and others.
Free Books on Yoga, Religion and Philosophy: Recent uploads to this site include Practical Lessons in Yoga and Philosophy of Dreams.
The Sociology of Religion: Read this book by Max Weber, here.
Religion eBooks: Read books about the Bible, Christian books, and more.
PLAYS
ReadBookOnline.net: Here you can read plays by Chekhov, Thomas Hardy, Ben Jonson, Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe and others.
Plays: Read Pygmalion, Uncle Vanya or The Playboy of the Western World here.
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: MIT has made available all of Shakespeare’s comedies, tragedies, and histories.
Plays Online: This site catalogs “all the plays [they] know about that are available in full text versions online for free.”
ProPlay: This site has children’s plays, comedies, dramas and musicals.
MODERN FICTION, FANTASY AND ROMANCE
Public Bookshelf: Find romance novels, mysteries and more.
The Internet Book Database of Fiction: This forum features fantasy and graphic novels, anime, J.K. Rowling and more.
Free Online Novels: Here you can find Christian novels, fantasy and graphic novels, adventure books, horror books and more.
Foxglove: This British site has free novels, satire and short stories.
Baen Free Library: Find books by Scott Gier, Keith Laumer and others.
The Road to Romance: This website has books by Patricia Cornwell and other romance novelists.
Get Free Ebooks: This site’s largest collection includes fiction books.
John T. Cullen: Read short stories from John T. Cullen here.
SF and Fantasy Books Online: Books here include Arabian Nights,Aesop’s Fables and more.
Free Novels Online and Free Online Cyber-Books: This list contains mostly fantasy books.
FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Project Laurens Jz Coster: Find Dutch literature here.
ATHENA Textes Francais: Search by author’s name, French books, or books written by other authors but translated into French.
Liber Liber: Download Italian books here. Browse by author, title, or subject.
Biblioteca romaneasca: Find Romanian books on this site.
Bibliolteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes: Look up authors to find a catalog of their available works on this Spanish site.
KEIMENA: This page is entirely in Greek, but if you’re looking for modern Greek literature, this is the place to access books online.
Proyecto Cervantes: Texas A&M’s Proyecto Cervantes has cataloged Cervantes’ work online.
Corpus Scriptorum Latinorum: Access many Latin texts here.
Project Runeberg: Find Scandinavian literature online here.
Italian Women Writers: This site provides information about Italian women authors and features full-text titles too.
Biblioteca Valenciana: Register to use this database of Catalan and Valencian books.
Ketab Farsi: Access literature and publications in Farsi from this site.
Afghanistan Digital Library: Powered by NYU, the Afghanistan Digital Library has works published between 1870 and 1930.
CELT: CELT stands for “the Corpus of Electronic Texts” features important historical literature and documents.
Projekt Gutenberg-DE: This easy-to-use database of German language texts lets you search by genres and author.
HISTORY AND CULTURE
LibriVox: LibriVox has a good selection of historical fiction.
The Perseus Project: Tufts’ Perseus Digital Library features titles from Ancient Rome and Greece, published in English and original languages.
Access Genealogy: Find literature about Native American history, the Scotch-Irish immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries, and more.
Free History Books: This collection features U.S. history books, including works by Paul Jennings, Sarah Morgan Dawson, Josiah Quincy and others.
Most Popular History Books: Free titles include Seven Days and Seven Nights by Alexander Szegedy and Autobiography of a Female Slave by Martha G. Browne.
RARE BOOKS
Questia: Questia has 5,000 books available for free, including rare books and classics.
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
Books-On-Line: This large collection includes movie scripts, newer works, cookbooks and more.
Chest of Books: This site has a wide range of free books, including gardening and cooking books, home improvement books, craft and hobby books, art books and more.
Free e-Books: Find titles related to beauty and fashion, games, health, drama and more.
2020ok: Categories here include art, graphic design, performing arts, ethnic and national, careers, business and a lot more.
Free Art Books: Find artist books and art books in PDF format here.
Free Web design books: OnlineComputerBooks.com directs you to free web design books.
Free Music Books: Find sheet music, lyrics and books about music here.
Free Fashion Books: Costume and fashion books are linked to the Google Books page.
MYSTERY
MysteryNet: Read free short mystery stories on this site.
TopMystery.com: Read books by Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, GK Chesterton and other mystery writers here.
Mystery Books: Read books by Sue Grafton and others.
POETRY
The Literature Network: This site features forums, a copy of The King James Bible, and over 3,000 short stories and poems.
Poetry: This list includes “The Raven,” “O Captain! My Captain!” and “The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde.”
Poem Hunter: Find free poems, lyrics and quotations on this site.
Famous Poetry Online: Read limericks, love poetry, and poems by Robert Browning, Emily Dickinson, John Donne, Lord Byron and others.
Google Poetry: Google Books has a large selection of poetry, fromThe Canterbury Tales to Beowulf to Walt Whitman.
QuotesandPoem.com: Read poems by Maya Angelou, William Blake, Sylvia Plath and more.
CompleteClassics.com: Rudyard Kipling, Allen Ginsberg and Alfred Lord Tennyson are all featured here.
PinkPoem.com: On this site, you can download free poetry ebooks.
MISC
Banned Books: Here you can follow links of banned books to their full text online.
World eBook Library: This monstrous collection includes classics, encyclopedias, children’s books and a lot more.
DailyLit: DailyLit has everything from Moby Dick to the recent phenomenon, Skinny Bitch.
A Celebration of Women Writers: The University of Pennsylvania’s page for women writers includes Newbery winners.
Free Online Novels: These novels are fully online and range from romance to religious fiction to historical fiction.
ManyBooks.net: Download mysteries and other books for your iPhone or eBook reader here.
Authorama: Books here are pulled from Google Books and more. You’ll find history books, novels and more.
Prize-winning books online: Use this directory to connect to full-text copies of Newbery winners, Nobel Prize winners and Pulitzer winners.
Z is for Zika virus!
Science Alphabet Game!
A is for Adenine!
Reblog with the next letter.
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This is a studyblr for everyone have some passion for science, especially astronomy and biology
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