Creating a good study system (study method)

[iQing]

Good Day,

The reason I set up this forum is to increase our awareness on the way we study... as we are students and the right study method is essencial for our future success.

As I have observed, a lot of people who scored good result in thier exam are not really smart.. as good result only prove that u r hard working... u know.. malaysian exam system ----> Book worm system
our exam system only test our logic-math inteligence, which is insignificant in our future success.

in fact I find a lot of talented students are not a high scorer. some of them are very good programmers, while others are talented speaker... Some are gifted in bizness/management and some have great ideas....

Well, let's get back to the bottomline...

as most of us are still adhere to our old mindframe...
we are "programmed" to believe that we should study very hard to achive good result... do lotsa homework etc. (something like a geek's life isn't it)
and we bring this mind frame to uni/college... a sad thing indeed.

And u must be surprise why some people r lazy yet they score good result.

I strongly believe that we are able to throw away such mind frame..

We should be aware that it's possible for everyone of us to create our own study system... where we can use the minimum amount of time to produce maximum result... something like entrepreneurship right? we can choose to be a smart study entrepreneur... or a geek :(

We should know our stength and weakness... our learning pattern... and we should analyse the examination requirement... and our surroundings... (people around us and the conduciveness for studying)
from there we can design a suitable system of study to achieve our academic goal (setting the goal of being the best student in the class isn't a good goal to me)

I guess we can share our experience in creating a good study system...
R & D I guess?
and it's a wide field to explore....
of course... science subject, arts subject and practical subjects require different study system...

let's see what can we learn from each other..
that's all.. have fun

"think, try and triumph"

iQing

[chenchow]

thanks iQing for setting this up...Hope a lot of people would share their experience over here and hopefully we all could learn from each other..

[eeyore]

i don't know if my idea is that relevant, since i don't consider myself one of the "smart @<hidden>$$es", but anyway ...

whenever i attend lecture, which is pretty often, i try to grasp as much as i can, i try to look at the big picture of the stuff being taught ... i leave the nitty gritty details to a later time cos for me, usually if i get the overall picture of what we're trying to do/learn in class, it makes learning easier

but yes, i must admit, i am kinda lazy, but i make sure that i don't lose focus. i do things at the last minute very often :( .... but i think the spirit of learning isn't just about getting the grades, it's about, simply put, learning. i don't care if something is gonna be tested on the exam or not, knowledge is always good ... and i mean, later on, who gives a @<hidden>#$% what our GPA is, people care about our attitude, how knowledgeable we are, our communication skills, organizational skills, etc.

[iQing]

Yes... welcome chanchow

I believe it's important for us to increase our inteligence instead of spending hours studying.

let's bring in the concept of money into our discussion...
let time = money.

if we spend time doing homework, reading textbooks, time become "expenses" as what we do with the time don't benefit us for a lifetime.... it becomes useless after 30 years.. so on...
something like paying time for our education.

but if we spend time increasing our inteligence, we "invest" our time..
the reason is.. the things we do with the time benefit us for a life time..
for example, if we increasse our spatial inteligence, we can use it over and over again.. even after 30 years...

that's why studying like geeks is inefficient..
in fact we should find ways to :
1. increase our inteligence (this includes creativity, thinking skil + memory mastery)
2. create an effective study system (can be used over and over again)

after having these 2 stuff, studying becomes easier and we can use much less time to produce very good result... the time remaining... we can use it for personal mastery... such as reading etc.


"think, try and triumph"

iQing

[iQing]

I would like to share some of my experience in incresing inteligence...
for memory mastery, Tony Buzan's books are good...
got to see Use Your Head by Tony Buzan

of course i have been doing R&D for years on this subject as well...

To increae the linguistic inteligence, writing diary is a good practice...
Gao Xing Jian, the first chinese author to receive the noble prize has been writing diary since the age of four.

I have tried online diary b4...
the first few day I can't even write 5 lines of daily story
in just one week I'm able to write very long diary.... lotsa paragraphs...
that means writing diary uncover my ability to express ideas in words...
a friend of my experience the same thing as well...

after all, it takes less than 2 weeks to develop your linguistic inteligence.. after that u can write any essay smoothly with lotsa ideas popping up... if u write diary more often...
I personally guarantee the result.. go and try out yourself dude....

that's the blue pill I'm offering to u guys... :)
have fun

"think, try and triumph"

iQing

[littlebigone]

i;m confused...is this forum for better scoring skills or learning skills?

[eeyore]

better learning skills

[littlebigone]

r u sure?

[eeyore]

well ... the topic is about better studying skills ... therefore my previous post was about how to be a good student, i made that post to share the way i study .... attending lecture etc

but now this forum is developing into better learning skills .. which is even better!

[eeyore]

oops ... now that i've read all the posts again ... i realize that i misinterpreted the discussion topic .. sorry ...

[Thirdshifter]

I always believe that there are 2 type of person you could be. Either be very deligent or be very creative.

I never could read a book longer than 2 hours straight. I had never in my entire life read a novel or any kind of books including Text book, Manuals or journals. If you could read and enjoy reading, more power to you. Remember you don't live long enough to experience everything.

For me, I love Discussions, Debates and experimenting. This process does take longer but i think it's a better solution for people like me. That hate reading.

Concentrating in classes and Asking questions seems to be the thing that got me through school. I took very few notes in classes and i guess i might be gifted with superb memory.

The way someone is going to learn something varies from person to person. Setting a "way/technic" to teach would not help. Trying to get students to study whats important in school and grades should be the priority since thats what school is pretty much for. I'm sure all schools is Malaysia have languages, Arts and science clubs.

Speaking from my own experience, I never joined any club or association in School. I find it to be more of a social gathering then anything else.

So above all, the only thing i would love to see happen in Malaysia is to introduce some sort of law that would help children in rural areas to get better teachers and equipments and of course financial aides.

I had met so many under-privilaged boys and girls helping their mom&pa selling "kuih" and loosing out in school. Potential wasted.

For most of us that grew up in the urban part of Malaysia, exposed to the modernity and the better schooling system and ofcourse comes from middle class only have University and getting a high paying job in mind.

Majorities that finished high school in Malaysia might have never worked their entire life. Some that are seniors in Universities.

I say give everyone the opputunity to finish school with the fullest attention without burdenning the poor parents would be the first step.

[silverblue]

Hmm... well one thing for sure, it is easier said than done. I know that we always say that grades don't matter blah blah blah, but maybe we should rephrase it somewhat so as to not seems as if we don't care about it at all. In reality we all do care about grades! It is probably the degree of emphasis that we put on grades that we should reduce..

I mean... afterall, good grades was what got me a full scholarship and gave me the opportunity to expand my horizons in such a successful country like the US... and the good grades that I should (but am not :? )be getting now may lead me to another scholarship (for masters etc..). So grades do matter as a means of getting us somewhere. However, the point we are making here is that we shouldn't compromise achieving 'real' knowledge and skills by focusing too much on getting good grades.

Like honestly, I realised alot of times, I am so tempted to take courses which are easy - just to get a good grade in it, although I actually don't need the knowledge at all! But I know that if I take the other class that can really teach me something, I might not get a brilliant grade and have to work hard for it.... haha at the end, I opted to take the latter class ;)

Sigh..sometimes I am still a little confused here... I know I shouldnt take grades so seriously and strive for real education, but at the same time, I can't help feeling that a getting bad grade would somehow affect my future...it's just a natural response I guess, but I hope I can reduce that feeling too.

Yep, I have always believe that hard-work was the thing that got me to where I am now, not intelligence. And I know this mind-set is what IQing is asking us to throw away. He said that 'we can all find a suitable system to study effectively'. Can we really? I don't know... maybe you can teach me how... cos I need to learn it fast... lol

I don't know if I made sense... :oops:

[eeyore]

i agree completely with silverblue that as students we have to at one point worry about our grades ... we need something to show for how good students we are, and naturally grades are what people look for first ...

i don't know if there's necessarily a hard and fast formula for effective learning ... i mean, hard work itself is a way of learning i think ... i mean it's about knowing yourself and realizing that different people do things differently. the fact that you've done so well thus far and are still doing well in college, and the fact that you love knowledge, shows that you have a good method of learning.

[littlebigone]

ahhhh...good good...hehehe...this is the kind of discussion i like. First off, there is something that I want to share about what i admire most about my really "incredible" friends here in the US. I think they have been exposed and encourage to cultivate a passion for their dreams.

1st person is my roommate freshman year. This guy is not that smart I would say. Definitely above average. But he is hardworking and best of all, he knows what he wants to do with his life. He wants to be a researcher. And i think his life helped him as all the while he was ecouraged to do research. In fact, he had already been involved with research on plant genetics at a local research lab even while in high school. In university, he has won grants to do HIS own research. Rite now i think he is doing research on cancer cells.

2nd guy is really i think out of this world. Incredibly smart. Remember that scene from Hollow man where one of the protaganist tries to explain the meaning of genius? He says something like a smart person figures out the way to get from A to C through B. But a genius sees the way from A to C without needing B. Or something like that. This guy has been doing stuff with his computer since High School too. He also has other curricular interest which will not be mentioned here. He built his own computer, built his own electric guitar. He dares to do things that many of us would shy away. He was on Cornell's Robocup world champion team. His confidence is currently leading him on a AI facial recognition project.

I guess, i gave a lot of examples for no reason. But these guys didn't excell in everything. They only do well in things that they want to and dream of making a difference to the world. I think that often times, parents stress too much on the 10 A1's and not on the thing that their kid really excels in.

Wouldn't the world be a happier place if everyone was given the chance to do what they want to and are good at. Instead of following the norm and trying to keep up with societies idea of the perfect student. The happiness bar would rise and also, I believe we would get more advancement because people will do what they like and really work hard to excel in it. It's like Adam Smith's writings on capitalism, the best way for improvement is if everyone did what's best for themselves, or somehting like that, some hand of God thingy. This is as opposed to some socialist Marxist conformist standard which I think is very much in practice in Malaysia rite now.

My whole post probably made no sense, it's just something I've been thinking about.

[eeyore]

littlebigone, i think your post was very relevant to the discussion ... i'm not sure how many share this, but for me, my parents stressed a lot about grades when i was in high school ... therefore, i limited my learning to only what was taught in school ... i now i feel the effects in the sense that i feel that i have very limited knowledge, and lack the ability to talk on many issues ... also, since i had to only learn for the exam, this has stiffled my interest in many fields ...

hope none of you are like me though ... :cry:

[silverblue]

Wouldn't the world be a happier place if everyone was given the chance to do what they want to and are good at. Instead of following the norm and trying to keep up with societies idea of the perfect student. The happiness bar would rise and also, I believe we would get more advancement because people will do what they like and really work hard to excel in it. It's like Adam Smith's writings on capitalism, the best way for improvement is if everyone did what's best for themselves, or somehting like that, some hand of God thingy. This is as opposed to some socialist Marxist conformist standard which I think is very much in practice in Malaysia rite now.



Hehe... well... this was probably a little 'idealistic' ... and probably not as easily achievable as we would like it to be.. but I get your point. :wink:

I know people always tell me to follow my 'heart', but most of us are just rarely so daring and carefree as to not to listen to their 'brains' first... Is there a way to achieve some balance here? :)

[littlebigone]

I don't think there is a need for balance. If you truely want something and you feel the urge to succeed in it so bad, then i think that something would be worth you failing for.

Does that make sense?

[Schye]

I can?t deny that grades mean a lot to me although I am a lazy guy as I am getting this scholarship because of it. But getting good grades doesn?t mean anything. Just like littlebigone's friends, no one can say that they are dum'b as they are excelling in what they are doing.

About studying, I think concentrating in classes or lectures are the most efficient way. This is because the first time when we saw or hear something, it will leave us the most impact in our memories. To score, a last minute guy like me always study just before the exam.

After all, I feel that what we need is to understand , not to memorize. Once we have understood it, then we may recall/memorize them easily. We may refer to books anytime we want if we forget about it .Wasting too much space memorizing those which are unnecessary is not rational to me :wink:

[Schye]

I know people always tell me to follow my 'heart', but most of us are just rarely so daring and carefree as to not to listen to their 'brains' first... Is there a way to achieve some balance here? :)

I think it depends on the situation :?
Let?s say you fall in love with some one that you shouldn?t, what would you do?
I don?t know the answer, so I think we are all balance usually until something errr... unusual happens on us :wink:

:roll: sorry, bad answer huh

[Chyi]

the best way to study is enjoying study.

[chenchow]

I fully agree with the current phenomena where people study because they have to study. And this phenomena does not limit to Malaysia only, and I have seen many cases over here in Cornell.

I have seen many basically just transporting themselves from whereever they come from, and basically just taking class because they need to take those class to graduate and find a way to graduate with taking the minimum number of courses needed as well as trying to find the easiest courses to take. What those people care about is their CGPA. Getting full score etc, but is this what is going to be achieved by "EDUCATION"?

I strongly believe that any textbook that we use over here in overseas, whereever it is, we could purchase it somewhere. With Amazon and other online bookstores, it is not too tough to do so. A lot of lecture notes are online as well, so if we are going to just read in the textbook, lecture notes and churn those out in exams, then you may as well do so back at your home sweet home.

The experience of tertiary education is well, way beyond that. There are many opportunities for you to do, and I would strongly advise everyone to do whatever you like to do. Getting a 3.5 and 4.0, would not make a big difference when you apply for a job. As long as you are doing decently well, I think don't worry too much about it. Your CGPA may affect in some way to give you a better starting job, but after you work for some time, that CGPA may as well be forgotten, not useful at all, except for boosting your own ego.

I like what one of the professor in Cornell said, "Learn whatever you like to learn. After all, almost everything that you learn would not be used in your work in the future. Within 5 years, most current technologies would be obsolete anyway. The main thing that you should get from your degree is LEARNING HOW TO LEARN".

Memorizing something and churning out in exam would not be the real case in real world. I am sure when we work, we could refer to whatever textbook that we wish or whatever documentation available, so we do not need to memorize anything. We just need to LEARN how to find those information.

[masterof_none]

I really hope I could find some kind of method to learn something, like iQing proposed in his first post. I may try his method as well, thanks iQing!.

On grades, this is really confusing. I'll do whatever my limited brain can do and leave it to my professor to give me A or B or C or...

I once argued with my instructor at Starbucks about bunch of things. I love it because I can talk as loud as I can, and he didn't mind. (by the way, his office hours at Starbucks. )
He ask me so much questions that I wonder who's the instructor in the discussion. He told me something like: " This is what we call the Socrates method".

I think I have to agree with iQing. There's a method that you could apply in acquiring knowledge - Ask questions.

[chenchow]

besides asking question, a very important element is listen attentively and utilize what you have listened.

I remembered Rob Ryan, a multi-billionaire, who started Ascend in 1989 and sold to Lucent in 1999 for $27 billion, told me that most of the idea that he got that turned up to be billion dollar business, actually came from his customers. He always listened to his customers, and from there, he brought in products that met their needs...

And good listening skills is important in our studies in the same aspect!!!

[CrAzyCow]

We study because we are signalling companies tht we are educated..we hav "some" kind of knowledge.

Watever u do later in ur life... is no longer based on books. Therefore, my idea of "studying" is... learn wat u need to learn n apply wat u learned in class into real life.

[littlebigone]

I like being able to apply what I learn into my life. That's y i like computer science, anything u learn is not far from anything that you can do with your little old computer at home. If only I can get the motivation to do something :P.

I think a good way to study is to actually understand the material. If you really want to get good at something, I think u have to explore beyond the class. This doesn't mean do more work, or do more exercises. For me, htis means, sitting down and thinking about the stuff. Appreciate the historical aspect of how it came to be. UNderstand the time when the idea was come up. What was the motivation, waht was the basis for the development of the idea. Then you can try to undestand the material really well and appreciate that it;s not just something that you HAVE to learn. But somethign that has contributed to the world taht we live in today.

[iQing]

Good day,

it's nice to receive lotsa responds in one day... it shows that u guys are really interested in this matter...

good debate here... it's good if we try to question ourselves why we are doing this or that... not just follow something... this is an important element in intrapersonal inteligence.

The main purpose of setting up this forum is to create a good study system where we can use it in learning lotsa things....
but it's great to here everyone's view on education in general...

I never denied that everyone has his learning skills and learning ability,
that's why I didn't say I want to introduce u guys a study system...
in stead I wish that u guys will create a study system base on ur study style and ability...
not just applying an existing system but creating your own study system.

As to study well a person have to consider many factors such as exam requirement, surroundings, people, events, ability, subject type (science, art or practical)

I just wish that we can all create a guideline on how to create our own study system.....

it's going to take some time but it's worth the discussion...

oh... come to grades
I will use another column to discuss about it...
have fun guys...
i hope this clear things up...

"think, try and triumph"

iQing

[iQing]

good day,

let me introduce an analogy to discuss about grades
let's say grade is something like money

we always say money isn't the most important stuff in life....
we shouldn't emphasis money so much ...
yet me must have money to live...
just like grades.... some of us say that we shouldn't emphasis on grade so much..
yet it's essential when come to uni entry.... scholarship etc.

it's just mind frame, perception, idea.... concept.. both money and grades
in fact the money and grades u see...
is just....
numbers

For money, we cannot say we should ignore it...
in fact we should work hard to gain financial freedom
it needs effort and it gives a reason/motivation for us to live our lives... otherwise we would be couch potatoes
but we shouldn't be obssess with it as well...
if we are wise enough, we should "see" money as a tool, a power that enables thing to be done..
so as grades..

we need effort to gain good grades so that we can make use of it...
making it one of our weapon in life... to gain access to scholarship... to gain reputation so that we have more chance to do more things...

good grades is also a reward for our hard work... just like money
but it's better to get good grades/money through a good system.

so it's better for us to set a good perception towards grades...

so now forget of setting high grades in exam...
first of all... the ultimate goal we have to set when facing exam is NOT to FAIL...
not scoring high

if we can get pass this bottomline... then we can move on.. to score A...

we should analyse the examination requirement, not just being a geek to gain full marks..

but sometimes grades are essential, esp when we are facing exams that our scores are considered to enter higher level of education...
normally there's competition..

now only the goal have to be changed where we have to have a study system that enable us to achieve good result..
so u see, we don't have to score high everytime... unless competition is too important.

another reason for us to have a good study system is to save time... if we can save much time in studying, we can have more time focusing in self mastery....

and I wanna promise u something....
people say that inteligence take years to develop but it's not true..
in fact it's a myth that kill of lotsa opportunity for us to advance in knowledge....
for eg... like I have said, it takes less than a week to see great improvement in our linguistinc inteligence by writing diary...
so is other kind of inteligence. this is my personal experience....

i wish to promise u that increasing ur inteligence is :
EASY
and it really WORTH YOUR TIME AND AFFORT
so don;'t let your old mind frame trick u... change urself today !

"think, try and triumph"

iQing

[chenchow]

Although typically we would say that grades are important, a lot of times, grades are not the sole determinant. I was never a perfect score, be it in PMR, SPM, or even UPSR. In my JPA interview, what I talked was not academic matter, as my grade was not good, but mainly about my vast co-curricular experience.

Again, when i got into Cornell. My SAT was about 100-200 points below the rest who got in... Again, I believe it is not grade that brought me in. I am not sure what's the main reason, but I think it would again boil back to co-curricular activities.

On studying and good grade, I would say that littlebigone has fantastic studying skills. Sorry littlebigone for revealing this, but he attends lecture not very often, but irrespective whether he attends or not, he makes sure that he fully understands his stuff... I have taken a number of classes with him, and i drag myself to class at 8:40am etc, and he stayed home and slept... When results came, he is always way better than me... Why? Luck? of course not, since he consistently do so... Smarter? Part of it... Then why? I believe he has a very good learning method and fantastic attitude on learning.

[eeyore]

I often speak to my faculty advisor, and I like his opinions, because I must say they actually has affected many of my academic decisions. He gives me advice on how to view learning. Since I am in engineering, he reminds me that technology evolves so fast that what I learn now will not be the same in years to come. He then jokes on how I know more about currect technology than he does and how he has to read up on so many books.

So why do we even learn then? Well, because we need to get the big picture of what we're learning. Technology evolves. This means that the same technology is used but in a smarter more efficient way. So if we can understand the idea behind the technology, it won't be difficult to catch up and follow the most recent advancements. He also told me that the best thing to learn in college is to learn how to learn (and to gain as much skills such as communication skills etc that we can). Kinda philosophical I must say.

Someone also once told me, I don't remember who anymore, that we must learn how to learn, to unlearn and to relearn. What do you guys think?

[eeyore]

Yeah and I agree with chenchow that littlebigone has a marvellous way of studying. From my observation, he has a great love for knowledge, and is interested in soooo many fields. He never limits his learning to stuff in class. I think maybe this love, thirst, hunger, however you put it for knowledge could well be the best learning skill.

[littlebigone]

I think you can do better if you learnt your learning style. No one technic is going to fit everyone. People learn through different ways. Listening, Doing, Reading,...i think htat's it. Learn your learning style and put more effort into that style and you will find things much easier to understand and remember.

[littlebigone]

I personally think people who write books on how to study better or give talks and seminars on the topic are ripping people off.

First off, I htink that if they were sincere they should just give this knowledge out for free. It is not very good knowledge to begin with, most of it is common sense. All their ideas are so cheesy and have been recycled from books and seminars that have come before.

Secondly, if they're such experts in studying, why don't they study some field that would actually have them make practical improvements to the human race. I think it's so easy to say, look I have a phd in education, therefore what i tell you is right. Buy my grossly overpriced book so u can feel better about studying and also help pay for that retirement home down in florida.

[chenchow]

i fully agree with littlebigone about the fact that there is NO ONE particular studying method. It is the method that works best with a certain particular methods. What we could do is read what others have done and experiment and see whether it would help us or not, but what is more important is that the method must work with you.

Everyone studies differently and even though everyone studies exactly the same way, the outcome would not be the same. Some people have higher concentration level, better learning attitude etc...

yeah, i agree with eeyore about littlebigone's learning attitude... i always sense that like after watching a movie or hearing something new that interests him, he would go and research on that matter and know more... frankly, how many of us do that?

on eeyore, he has a very strong determination and learning attitude. He is taking unprecedented 5 ECE courses and 1 CS course in Cornell in a particular semester, plus playing the chime... For me 2 ECE courses per semester is tough enough and he is with 5 and of those 6 courses, 4 of those are project courses... and yet he is able to spend time in Recom!!!

[silverblue]

Aww.. so many praises for littlebigone...
haha.. and I will be yet another witness to those testimonials... :D

sometimes I wonder if it's really actually the mindset of individuals that sets us apart, not really how intelligent we are...

[jiahui]

This is indeed a pretty interesting topic. Nyways, just thought of adding a few bits of my personal thinking with regards to this issue.

In a more narrow context, for example, exam...many of us, I would say, will just stuffed our brain as much as we could and then regurgitate them when asked in a question, be it relevant or not (nwyays, our brain will, after some time automatically discard the potential-unrelevants, so that aint the point). The point is, how much could we possibly take in in the first place and how much can be thrown out again?

I've always been using some sorta cartoons (definitely not the tv kinda cartoons, heh)/figures/diagrams in helpin me to picture the whole idea..getting the big picture of whatever u're dealing with is critical as it makes the whole thing sounds more sensible and easier to pick up. Coz for me, I realise I gain more from visualising than anything else, and diagrams are always more attractive than those long-blowing sentences. It just stick to ur mind so naturally and at the same time creates u with space and freedom to add in what have u (be it from the materials or your own opinion). Making sense? Say, for example, if I were to remember the mechanism of action of some sort, what I tend to do is picturised the whole action first, then add in bit and pieces as needed, written words aint required, u can just voice it out as if u're telling your friend or somebody bout it. If u think u've made your message across proficiently, mate, u've grabbed yourself the required. Btw, dot points help at times. Also, as mentioned before by some of you, question-asking session is undoubtly the quickest way of absorbing information, more efficient if u can repeat the answer after getting it from someone or somewhere else. Our brain needs constant stimulation, if u don't 'read' it out again in your brain but just acceptin it without processing or analysing it, I can say u'll be more likely to forget what u've just received to certain extent at least.

And personally I feel, the fastest and more efficient way of learning, set aside whether it's ur savoury or not, is to share it with others in anyform, conversation, emails, messages, anything at all. The main point is, don't think what u've with you is crap, a lot of discoveries come from crazy thoughts (of coz, that is after loads of modification in between the process to succeed, heh). And who knows when u're conveying your msg to others, u'll gain extra stuff which u've never thought before and maybe change your preception in some way (*wink wink*, that's what the recom for I guess? heh). We may have the same thinking, perceptions, opinions and what have u, but undoubtly we need someone to STATE it out, in words. Assumption is good only when it's exposed to others especially if u're using on someone or certain cases. So all in all, my point is COMMUNICATION is the best tool in learning. Oh, of coz, communication is in part of this learning scheme too. It's more of a cyclic thing I would say, in the process of communicating, u learn, at the same time, u improve your communication skills (for example, come up with a wiser question based on ur knowledge and what have u) and hence learn and gain more.

Sheesh, din't know that I can actually write this much. Nyways, that's what have been with me thus far and just thought of sharing it with u guys..hope they all make sense, else I shall start reflecting on my way of expression, heh.. what say u?

[chenchow]

jiahui, thanks for joining and Recom and help us build up on our expanding members.

What you have written really summarizes what is in my mind. I fully agree with you. Sharing something with others would not only allow you to share knowledge, gain insights and feedbacks, it would also help you to build your confidence, improve your communication and articulation skills, build your thinking skills and also share your experience with others.

Frankly, I learn a lot from this wealth of forum discussion over here. I always tell myself before I post a message in Recom nowadays that I have to think whether it makes sense or not and make sure I don't make myself a fool. And I believe it really helps us improve our communication and expressing ourselves. I have to admit that I still have a lot to learn in expressing myself in English, but writing in these forums allow my mind and thoughts to flow and i type it continuously and waiting eagerly for others to comment. It is a very good practice for all of us and many get to benefit from these forum discussions.

[eeyore]

I must say that I agree with chenchow that participating in the discussion over here have had an impact on me as well. For me, as an engineering student, the readings that I do have little to do with stuff like say the economy, or history or real life scenarios. I have been thinking in terms of mathematical symbols and equations, and I haven't had the chance to write many reports or papers articles. These discussions have helped me
(a)open my mind to the various issues discussed
(b)by reading the responses, give me ideas and to see how people think about the issues
(c)improve my writing and communication skills because I have to phrase my thought carefully so as to make sense and to be comprehensible and nice to read
(d)be more thoughtful, observant and mature
So, thanks you so much guys!

[iQing]

Oooo... I guess it's sad that people disagree to have a set of proper study system...
as I have stressed...

1. Each people has differentr study ability / style, then we should find a way to create a study system
2. Study systems enables u to save time and study effectively... u study with a system for an hour equals to people study 10 hours...

Well, I haven't say anything about study system yet... only suggest a few ways to increase our inteligence...

I'm going to show my own study system below, a system that I created myself... just to share with u..

it's only an online, a frame work, not the details...
I hope this helps u guys...
maybe I will fill in the nice details later...

have fun guys..

"think, try and triumph"

http://www.friendster.com/viewfullphoto.jsp?id=5870748

just testing my photo... sorry... :P[/img]

[iQing]

studying without a good system is like doing business without having a business plan.....


here's several sections of systems used in my study system (outline)

1. Input system (notes system)
2. Output system
3. Memorising system
4. Exam Strategy
5. Personal Improvement
6. Social Network

Input System
This is how I organise my notes..
if the notes system is not good, it's hard to understand the ideas from the notes and it will make revision harder
I have my own date system and my own set of format, my symbol system and color pen strategy etc.

Output System
have to see how much homework / exercise r u gonna do.. how to do it effectively... doing one question = doing 0 quyestion by others..
take notes on your work etc.

Memorising System
After researching about memory, a system is created for the purpose of memorising facts
memory is the most important role played in exam scoring
a note-list system is made...
the system has been refined many times to include the subtopic list, data, formula, picture in nice order
mind mapping is used but I find my own system is more effective to me

Exam strategy
important part....
doing ramalan
calculating the period before exam and what should be done in certain period
analysing the trend, style of the exam and tailor my own study requirement... some topics can be skip and some not ... some need memorising and some needs analysing etc...

Personal Improvement
this is an important part as I have say earlier
this is the part where I do mental exercise to increase my inteligence
just like sport...
If u dun have muscle or stamina, can u play well,
but if u have a trained mind, it's like going to gym everyday and we can play sport very well compare to other people
and this makes us having more ability to absorb knowledge, study better and study more effectively
it's complicated as well..
in personal improvement, 3 basic skills must be mastered...
1. Memory
2. Thinking skill
3. Creativity

for memory, there r so many methods to master it... try to learn photograpic memory
thinking skill is complex... and pls avoid the "thinking error"/... there are 15 types of thinking flaws... for eg ad populum

and of course... improve ur 8 inteligence....
like writing diary to improve our linguistic inteligence

and also emotional inteligence...

Social Network
Social factor is always an important factor for your success...
I always have a good relationship with my teachers...
and lotsa friends who help me when I need thier help
lotsa ideas gan be garnered through social network

that's all for now. have fun

"think, try and triumph"

iQing

[chenchow]

i read with interest the post by iQing, I agree with some of your ideas, but not all of them. This is just my personal opinion.

One thing I wish to point out would be that I beg to differ on the point of memory. It is very sad that many students resort to the usage of memory, and in many cases root memory for exams. May be it is due to the fact that I do not need to memorize anything for any exam for the past year or two, so that may have swayed my opinion, but I think a lot of students memorize stuff recklessly, irrespective of whether they have a good system of memory or whether they have a good memory.

I disagree with the statement by iQing that "memory is the most important role played in exam scoring". This only shows a serious flaw in the study method. Do we really need to memorize? Even if we are studying history, I think the exams would spare us from all the nitty-gritty details, but rather on the reasonings of it. Even SPM History essays, do not require us to chuck in a lot of details. I do not put in much details, but rather write with arguments on why a certain thing happened etc, and I still did fine.

"Doing ramalan, analyzing the trend, style of exam" as part of exam strategy would be not ideal. What is the purpose of our studying? Are we studying just for the sake of getting good grades? Or are we studying so that we understand the topic and could potentially be utilized in our future life?

Again, I stress that it is only my opinion. However, I would say that the part on personal improvement and social network are very well-written.

Thanks for sharing, iQing!

[littlebigone]

er...IQing are you in uni?

Coz your method will fail if i tried to use it in my uni. I barely have time to finish my readings and stuff let alone do all that stuff that you suggested. The pace is so fast. We have maybe 2 or 3 classes a week. Sometimes we cover a whole chapter in a week sometimes a chapter and a half.

Also, I don't think analyzing past year questions is good, firstly because the professor teaching your course may have only taught it for a year or 2 so there is vey little past year questions. Even if there are past year questions, these only serve to help you understand the diffficulty and expected thoroughness of your answers. There is rarely any pattern as these professors come up with this funky ass shit like every single day.

Memory may be important in your intro level courses, but as you go higher, I think there is more stress on creative and original work.

I think you have the right idea with networking, though you have to be careful about plagiarism and academic integrity. I have a class where discussion of hw is disallowed. :( But it really depends on the professor again.

I think the most important thing is discipline. :) Something which I evidently lack. I think going to classes is very important.

Last but not least, I think we should have fun studying. I think people in Malaysia are spoiled by their grades. Getting A's is all there is to life. HEre i think a B+ would make me really happy. I still aim for an A, but i know that there are really smart people here and I have made a calculated decision to not focus too much on my school work. I want a social life, and to build a network of friends. Other than that I am also very interested in lots of things that are in no way related to class. THe way I see it, my education does not end when I walk out the lecture hall.

Life is the best teacher.

[royston]

Study system... When I first read this topic, I have no mood to give any comment or share any experiences because I am not a University students, I am not qualified to speak here. My studies, exams, Std 5 Assessment test, SRP, SPM... sucks. After I entered my college life (sorry, although most of you guys are talking about Uni life... but I don't have...), I realized something. Basically in our life, we have 2 type of study:

1. Schooling Study
This type of study method, normally we face (a) short of time, (b) fight for grades, (c) Lotsa homework. I believe now you guys will have to study more than 1 subject with a short given time. You will need to set up a study system for yourselves to get rid of your nightmares--exams. Besides, you need to fight for your grades. Even for a high school student, they are facing the same problem like you all.

I agree that, paying attention in class, asking important questions, understand the whole concept of what you have taught, are all the key-point you need to have in the class. But how many people can do that? How many people will pay attention in class if you have no interest in that subject?

I am not sure how you guys study in Uni but I am pretty sure that, let's say we have 30 subjects to be completed in our course, there should be about 40% of the subjects which we don't like much... right? Well you have to make yourself like that subject before we can talk about asking, understanding and so on...

Unfortunately for those who still can't find the interest of these subjects... they will have to use cara kuno... memorize. Memorizing information will provide a little help to that particular subject but in the meantime, it will damage the brain-space that you used up to understand those your favourite subjects. It doesn't cause you to lose your memory but it will make you brain tired...

2. Working Study
After you obtained your grades, your Master and so on, you find a good job and you start your working life. On and off, you should also build up the interest of study. Well, this time, you have your own sweet time, slowly read the books, magazine and so on. No one is going to rush you, force you to take your grades... things like that. Your absorbing rate will increase.

My reply here does not give any idea on how to build up a study system, so I am so sorry that if my reply wasted your time. I am not a good student either. But one thing is, no one will tell you, your study system is wrong or you should follow my way and things like that. Whichever way you feel comfortable and suitable for you, just do it. After all, once you finished your Uni, there is another new life you need to learn, totally reset what you have practised in school. I am waiting to see you guys finish your study and step in your working life... 8)

Good Luck...

~ roy ~

[chenchow]

About the point brought up by Rosyton about the courses that you need to take, while you do not have much interest in it. I believe that it would depend on the education system.

It would be a digress from study method, but I believe that it is related to this topic. I would argue that a sound education system would need to allow a great level of flexibilities in terms of courses to be chosen to take, not required to take.

For instance, someone who is taking an Electrical and Computer Engineering major in Cornell University (sorry for using the case from my university, but I am more familiar with it). The number of required courses in Electrical and Computer Engineering are just 5 courses. Each student is then required to choose 7 courses from other ECE electives out of an array of about 50 courses in diverse topics. Students are also required to choose 3 technical electives outside of ECE, but within engineering school. Of these 3 courses to be chosen, there are a choice of about 300 courses ranging from Biochemical, to chemical, mechanical, computer science, industrial... So, there are a lot of flexibilities.

There goes 15 courses. Students are then required to take 6 liberal studies courses. Basically for this category, there are about 500 courses to be chosen, ranging from history of any kind, any foreign language, economics, arts, music, theatre, communication, government, psychology,...

There goes 21 out of the required courses. Then, students are required to choose 2 additional electives, which could be fulfilled by any of the 4000 courses offered in the university, as long as you can convince your advisor that the course is useful to you. So, any course that range from wine tasting, architecture, intro to china, arabic, islamic studies, buddhism ... would do.

There goes 23 of the required courses. Then, students are required to choose 2 writing seminars. Of these, there are 170 choices of writing seminars for students to choose. So, there is a lot of flexibilities.

There goes 25 of required courses. Students are then required to choose 1 of the 20 intro to engineering courses and 2 out of about 12 engineering distribution courses, which will provide students with greater insight on various engineering.

So, it would be 28 courses. What remains would be a required 9 fundamental courses, which consists of 2 courses of calculus, 1 course of differential equation, 1 course of linear algebra, 1 course of computer science(choice of java or matlab emphasis), 4 courses of physical sciences (physics, chemistry, biology).

This is what is required. Isn't it a lot of flexibility? And you are certainly allowed to take way more than what is required. I have had the opportunity to sample courses, that range from international relations, to accounting, webpage programming, debates, business law, quality control,... despite my being an ECE major.

Sorry for digressing for so much, but I write in depth to illustrate the point that students do not really need to choose courses that do not interest them. Of course, people like me who is an ECE major, but have no interest at all in ECE would suffer...

[wwhong]

i think we go to university to learn how to learn, that's the most important thing rather than just the grades. i m not saying grades are not important at all but no people will ever ask you again about your grades in university. of course u need good grade to to meet the requirement,etc but study really shouldn't just for exam.

iqing, based on what you wrote about studying methods, those are really just for exam. u did mention about some good points but i hope you are not practising them just for exam purpose. i guess you must be a good student but i hope you realize also that going to university is not just to get over with the exam.

study methods are really different for different individuals which left to themselves to find out and there's hardly any standard methods i will say. however, i never doubted your good intention in creating this discussion.

[chenchow]

i fully agree with what wwhong was saying... it is perfectly true.

[silverblue]

I am really having a hard time in college right now, in engineering courses. Everytime I study for a particular exam, I go through all my lecture notes, discussions notes, textbook, problem sets etc... I make sure I understand all the concepts and make sure I know the material well enough to do well in the exams. I also study really really hard for the exam...

However, I am still not performing as well as I should be. You see, although I feel I am well prepared for an exam, I always falter during exam times. It's like the moment I open the exam paper and bump into a question that I am not familiar with, and that I can't really do, I move on to the next one... and I keep on doing that until I realize that I don't have much time left in the exam and the panic button sets off. Then this makes things worse because then I suddenly black out and can't think of the formula or steps that I am supposed to use to tackle the problem. This makes me lose alot of points very often. I am also not a fast worker... I need a lot of time to think to do a certain problem and so under exam time constraints, I just don't have the edge at all. I normally do very well for homeworks or quizzes or term papers but not really on midterms or finals because of this tortoise pace... can someone offer some tips on how I can improve my exam taking shortcomings please?

[mpalanieppan]

There seems to be two threads of opinion going on here. 1) We should study what we like and concentrate on learning what interests us with passion and 2) Grades are tools that will help us advance and so approach exams in a systematic way in a detached manner (i.e. more as a task than as a personal activity)

I definitely support the 1st view. But I also understand that the 2nd view rises mostly because of the education system of Malaysia, our parents' emphasis on grades (I would not really blame them since in the Malaysian environment - as I understand- you are perceived as less capable if you do not have good grades, and though definitely not impossible to succeed in life with unimpressive grades, you have to suffer initially and go out of the way to prove your mettle to achieve what you want, but having a good grades )ensures that you start off your life with promise).
Consider whatever exams that you take in high school. Almost always it is a matter of raw memorizing - Moral, History for example. Many other science subjects, Chemistry for example, will have questions like identifying a flaw in the apparatus setup of experiments which require attention to details, which naturally brings memory to picture, since you need memory to remember the details. Continuous bombardment of these kinds of questions lead all of the students ( yes me too in the past) to either intentionally or unintentionally place more emphasis on remembering than understanding.

Now, considering the above, Malaysian students do not have much choice about how much emphasis they can place on grades, but they (which includes me) should consider the following:

1) As many have already mentioned above, it is easier to remember if you understand the big picture, i.e. the conceptual picture/idea of what is going on, why is it relevant, how it is connected to the things we have learned previously in the same subject, is there any loophole, anything missing in the set of facts (which then entails asking questions to fill that missing area). So in fact, memory is essential for success in whatever endeavor you are involved in, but the correct way is to develop memory by understanding and and relating to what you already have. So, obviously, the utilitarian approach of taking exams as a task cannot be totally done away with as far as at least until you get into uni in Malaysia, but we must always have in mind that it is more important to place emphasis on learning and understanding than on remembering. Sadly, i wasted much of my high school life pursuing grades. But nvm, its not too late :)

2) More importantly, we must realize that naturally we will do better in the end if we pursue what interests us with passion rather than just subjecting ourselves to the task of scoring. In the end, you get more satisfaction, gain more benefits (yes financially) and more importantly, the thought processes that you put yourself to in pursuing your interests will aid you in academic success as well, especially when you come to the university level where the ability to understand and explore the subject with your initiative and attempt to solve problems in that subject/field is very important. I agree with littlebigone point on this issue of understanding and exploring issues that interest you.

Those are my views on this issue. With regard to chen chow's post, i suppose we must note that, unfortunately, not many malaysian institutions provide tha vast array of courses as these big universities in US do. Furthermore, even if there are many courses, the students are usually presented with a structured course list that they must fulfil in order to graduate with BS, BA etc, hence the focus of students is directed on a limited set of courses.
So if there are opportunities for exploring wider subjects in university,do so, as chen chow says, but in any case, there is nothing to stop us from pursuing our own interests and gaining knowledge that way and so all of us should not stop at the limit imposed by course/subject syllabus.


I welcome comment and feedback. In any case, thanks for taking time to look at his post :D

M.Palanieppan
[/b]

[topdog]

I fecking hate exams! For all the praises showered on the American education system for its supposed emphasis on creative thinking over exams and grades, I am still ultimately judged by my GPA, which is largely influenced by my exams scores. However, you do need to thoroughly understand concepts and be able to apply them in exams. This to me is the biggest difference between the American system and Malaysian system. No past year papers and rote learning here. Memorizing stuff will not help, unlike back home, where it gives you an A in the SPM.

My personal philosophy here in college is I'm here to learn how to learn. I'm not gonna torture myself to get all As (it's not possible anyway, too many geniuses around me). What's more important to me is work experience. Anybody planning to intern over summer? It's so damn hard to get anything now, especially when interviewers learn you're on F-1 visa.

[CrAzyCow]

Dun need to study la.. all go back sell goreng pisang can oledi. :D

[chenchow]

yeah, topdog, while we are still judged by our GPA...

I believe that as long as we do decently alright, the difference in GPA would not make much difference. Say someone with GPA of 3.5 and someone of GPA 3.2. The 3.2 guy is full with activities, have lots of soft skills: leadership, communication,teamwork etc...

Which guy would you choose?

[littlebigone]

I just wanted to say that you had a great post mpalanieppan

[iQing]

Clarification

I guess I have to repeat this over and over again... seems like some of you still don't get my point'... ok.. let me write it in bold letters...

As I have said, Study System is Created by YOU and YOU yourself as the creation of a system is base on many many factors... just like a cake shop has to have his own system, differ from the optical shop...

and Secondly....

I Have just shown you a study system I created for my self base of my own environment, exam requirement, duration, type of course and many other Factor...
so....

I am not telling you an ideology

I'm just sharing my own system, which might not work on other people...

so pls don't judge my system base on a macro scale becoz I'm just showing an example.... it's relative, not absolute.. just a reference

just like I'm showing you my business stucture... I might have marketing, finance, R & D department...
you might not like the idea of marketing department.. ok.. good.. you can have your own system created by yourself... without the marketing dept..

but there's nothing wrong with a personal system ... it's tailored for each individual...

the ability to create a system is valueble... try and tailor a system for yourself and give us a feedback ... a good idea right?



Before I proceed further...
I would like to ask you one more time...

can you pls ad pls again understand what I'm trying to point out? before I continue? I dun wanna repeat these few important points again





------------------------------

and talking about grades.... I want to say that... Please face the reality...
and there's another of my point that I have repeat again regarding grades..

going to a course and saying that we do exam not for grades...

is like saying

I'm doing business not for earning money....

please... when come to exam, out goal is mainly set by grades
as I have said, the most important goal is not to failed exam, not scoring As...
I hope I don't have to repeat this many more times again...

another thing I wanna state here is...
I do agree I hate my own edu system in my uni... sure hate it
and I dun study much for high score...

what I'm telling u is that...

by creating your own study system you save time so that you have more time to learn other things by your own such as joining a forum, group and reading books....

In fact I'm NOT study much for grades as all as I have save time with a system..

vreating a study system in fact give u more time study NOT for exam, but for something u really want to study... like for me I have more time studying stuff like socialogy, botany etc...

hope i dun have to repeat this again

----

I say that memory is more essecial as I have read a book saying so... most of the courses require memory.... it's a reserach result
if memory is not important, I can just go to an intensive course and get one MBA...

of course certain course might not use much of memory..
as i have said before... there r science, art and practical subject...
and many factors add in as well

I hope I have clarified some important points regarding my ideology....
have fun guys

I suggest that you guys try and find a way to create YOUR own study method and share what you have learn from your experience

for those who say you dun have time for all these.... I'm just offering an ideology so that you can save your time.... and that's the purpose of study system... SAVE TIME
up to u....

"think, try and triumph"

iQing[/b]

[chenchow]

Thanks iQing for the post.

It is a very good one and I think it clarifies a lot of stuff. I agree with you on most of the stuff you typed. I was nodding my head as I was reading it... Good writing. Thanks for sharing with us... By disagreeing with you, that does not mean that we do not appreciate your posting, but rather we would like to share another perspective on that matter... it would be up to others to grasp the gist from each perspective... The last posting, I find that very beneficial and I hope others could read and utilize it...

The only one I disagree is "if memory is not important, I can just go to an intensive course and get one MBA... "

I have been taking my 2nd courses offered by Business School under MBA program. I am not doing an MBA, but just taking the advantage to take those courses.

Negotiation: It is a 2nd year MBA course. My classmates were generally adult and in fact, one of them, his daughter is older than I am. The class is fantastic. I learn a lot of negotiation skills, besides getting a lot of negotiation sparring/role playing opportunities. Every class is a role-playing. I took that class over 3 weeks in summer and it is 3 hours of negotiation each day. half an hour on theory of negotiation and preparation, 90 minutes of negotiation and 60 minutes of debriefing of the negotiation...

There is no need for memory, but rather practical working skills. We need to employ various strategy to negotiate with others under various circumstances. There is no need of memory in any circumstances. there is generally no exam in MBA courses... The grade for this course was based on our negotiation and feedback to others. We would need to write two papers on our negotiating experience and what strategies we have employed. The daily negotiation also builds up our reputation. We could be seen by others as someone who is a tough negotiator, or someone who likes to highballing (tries to start at ridiculously high price for seller, hoping to gain leverage from benchmarking)...

The second MBA courses that I am taking is Business Law. Law, while you may associate it with memory, actually I don't need to remember a single thing. We need to do cross-referencing a lot. We need to analyze and find parallel between the cases that we are looking at with other precedent cases, statutes around, but no memory is required. Exams are open book, where we may check on those statutes and precedent cases. After all, when we practice law in real world, we can check the references right?

So, at least from my experience in those two courses, memory is almost not needed... I would be taking my third course offered by Business school next semester... Entrepreneurship ... It would be taught via video conferencing from Silicon Valley by John Nasheim... The class has no homework, no exam... Grades are assigned by writing a 40-page business plan and present it. Any memory? I beg to differ...

[iQing]

I agree chenchow...
not all courses are memory based... maybe it's the mainstream edu system make us memorise stuffs...
no harm in strengtening our mental muscle right?

actually before I post my ideas on study system, I'm expecting some conflicts of though...
this is healthy
as education ... this kind of thing... the scope is too wide and the factors invoilve are too many..
it's not unusual to see some conflict of thoughs...
and edu this kind of thing
there are too many different kinda mindframes exist ...

talking about disagreeing, i think it's healthy..
as Dr M says himself
the opposition party is important
becoz in the parliament if there are no opposing voices, it wont be healthy...

I really welcome critics from you guys...
the posting above...
my objective is to clarify what I'm trying to stress... that all... :)
enjoy guys... thanx chen chow

[littlebigone]

and talking about grades.... I want to say that... Please face the reality...
and there's another of my point that I have repeat again regarding grades..

going to a course and saying that we do exam not for grades...

is like saying

I'm doing business not for earning money....


I think you misunderstood what people meant about grades. It's not that grades are not important but in the long run, there are more important things.

Although I don't agree with your analogy, I shall use it as an example. The number one main goal in business is not to make money, but actually longevity. If you have to lose money in the short term to make sure your business survives, then so be it. I'm not saying that businesses can survive without making money at all. Just that all this is encompassed under the longevity goal.

So same like education, the main goal is to learn and improve oneself in some field. So if we lose some kind of points in grades but we learn from our mistakes, then we are still meeting our goal. Don;t stress up so much on grades but approach your lessons from a more positive sense. I'm going to class today because I want to learn something new, not because I want to score 100 on the midterm.

[iQing]

i hope I dun have to repeat my points again....



------------

but talking about business, I have been to many seminars spoke by well known business men..

they say the main reason of business is earn money

but business may have noble mission and objective

so there are terms like

objective
aim
mission
strategy

etc...
complicated termology

[CrAzyCow]

Part of the problem why we are so concern about grades is tht we are used to our Malaysia Education system where students study to score good grades. The exam results put us under the spotlight n we will be judge based on tht. The objective of learning is no longer enforced.No doubt we learn a little bit in the process, but is just a small portion of what we are supposed to learn.

In college, i find tht studying is no longer about getting good grades. My grades are average.. not tht excellent. I chose to learn the concepts and understand what the course is about. Coz as u take upper level courses, the time u spent trying to grasp the foundations concepts pays off. I found out tht memorizing doesn't work in US examinations. Is either u understand the concepts or u dun.

Correct me if i am wrong, the degree we earn today will only last us for about 3-4 yrs. After tht, is about ur work experience.

Personally, i dun give much care about my grades. As long as i dun have to repeat any courses and get a GPA of 3.2 above i will be satisfied.

[iQing]

please stay focus on creating study system and sharing study method...

We should put aside the grade topic as it really make us not focus;...
if u guys wanna talk about grades.... let's open a new forum

[wwhong]

of course the main reason of business is to earn money or else it won't be called business, right? it will have the name of charity instead. BUT, you have to differentiate between reasons and goals. Goals are the long term satisfaction. Just like the goals you set for yourself ie what you want to achieve in your life. Grades is the stepstone for you to achieve your goals but is not your ultimate goal right? (i hope not) because you want to achieve your goals, you have reason to score good grade. no one here denied the importance of grade but just trying to bring out the fact that grades is not the MOST important thing. another simple analogy, you get a gf not just to have sex right? i dunno about you but if that's true i feel sad for your gf. it's just like sex is important in your love life but in the end is the love that matters, isn;t it?

i think we reply to you that way because based on what you wrote, you were trying to imply how to get a good grade.

i know you will ask me to go to another forum and oh yeah you don't need to stress your point again. i still managed to understand english.

[royston]

i know you will ask me to go to another forum and oh yeah you don't need to stress your point again. i still managed to understand english.

Hi wwhong, well, I believe iqing is trying to ensure all of us reply something related to the forum title, I am sorry if you got offended.

The anchors ever mentioned that try to make sure all our information in every single reply is related to the main title so that the main information can be archived in the server. this is used for future plan if the newspaper approach us, we may have lesser time to sort out our data, that's all. no personal attack involved... :)

Anyway, I do enjoy reading both you and iQing's article/replies. Maybe we can try to create a harmonic atmosphere here, use our knowledge and facts to constructively confront others.

Thank you.

~ roy ~

[wwhong]

oh no no. just that iqing seems kinda frustrated from what he wrote earlier that's why i asked him no need to repeat again. yup, i know we should write something related to the topic but i just want to say what i think since iqing already said we should create another forum.

no hostility involved. sorry if I caused any misunderstanding.

[__earth]

You want a good environment for studying?

I know the answer - stay anyway for niggas. They really BANG their stereo up to the roof!!!

[littlebigone]

study while listening to certain kinds of music helps me. This is a system rite?

[silverblue]

Hmmm.. I think things are getting a little heated up and sensitive here... esp the remarks about the 'sex with gf' part... (which is also not related to Studying Habits).

Just a note: Can we all just try to defend our opinions in a little more amicable way, please? I know everyone has his/her own opinion and we should respect that. If we disagree with something, everyone is welcomed to say it out, but make sure to double check that the replies also respected the other person. Thanks.. :D

[royston]

I believe each and everyone has their own study system.

mine is different from subject to subject... :P While I am practising math, I love to have loud music, for subjects that need to "memorize", I like to do it in quiet place, especially midnight, for subjects that need to understand concepts, I will do it fresh in the morning or after a shower... kinda weird... :wink:

~ roy ~

[iQing]

Well, what I'm not so satisfied is that our discussion keep going back to the square one and there's nothing much constructive here...

I think maybe students are lack of serious mind set when come to studying...

that's why not many people come out with a complete detailed study system..

talking about system, it's something detailed, planned and considering many factors, and having many strategies etc.

saying that I study when listening to music, or I listen well to the lecturer is just a study habit, not a system at all.....
it's not planned, not detailed and not conscious, just a habit

it's just like saying that I wear a suit when dealing with customer, or I don't smoke when I do account....

I hope U guys will come out with a serious study system... maybe we are not use to it but we should try ... once we got the formular we might benefit from it for a very long time...

it's interesting and challenging to create a system... an important ability... let's take up the challenge and create something new....

maybe we can start by thinking how to solve certain problem... like...

1. how can I manage to cover all the topic.. not miss out any math formula
2. how should I get to memorise these facts in time..
3. any tidy means of jotting down important stuff.
4. anyway to create a note system where I can remember it easily and save time?
5. do I really need to do all exercise? how can I maximise my understanding and how much exercise is just enough?
6. what is my weakness... how can I creare a system that enables me to see my strength and weakness?
7. how to make use of my social network?
8. I failed... what should I do? how can I change to curb the problems..

and many more...


good luck...

[littlebigone]

IQing, maybe many people feel comfortable not having a study system. Maybe they just go by intuitively and it has worked superbly for them thus far. Maybe that is their study system. Who are we to say if this study technic/system is right or not.

Maybe what people have been saying so far about grades not being important is just the basis of their system. With that mentality, they go about learning things the way that suits their study philosophy. That is their system.

Maybe you have too restrictive a view on a study system.

Maybe you're the one not getting it.[/b]

[CrAzyCow]

I really like studying in the morning while i am fresh. When it is in the evening or at night, i will get sleepy and i tend to be lazy. :D I have tried several systems of study but none of them are effective yet. So far, all the post tht i read, i have tried 90% of them. Now i am still looking for more ideas and adapt them to my style . :)

[iQing]

dear littlebigone

here's an analogy..

there is a forum on how to do business and how to set up a firm...
some people do business without a business structure and they say they don't need a system for thier business and they do thier business intuitively and they say that there should not be a proper system

but pls don't forget

they are other business people who wish to know more about proper business system to prosper thier business..

so if you might not be interested in study system, other people might be interested to know about it

so it's not fair to say for others that they too, need no study system.

I have seen people spend a lot of money seeking advice for having a study system...

and finally, it's up to u to have a system or not
but it's not right to say other people don't need it...
[/list][/quote]

[chenchow]

Lets stop all these arguments. I think the purpose of the forum is to share your experience, view points, and also promote understanding. Every individual has their own way and a lot of us are educated differently and that's where Recom can be very useful. There are some of us who have gone through British education, some Japanese education, some German, some American and many others and most of us have started from Malaysian education. So, it would be good if we can share our findings. I think all of you for the posts, but I think we should mind our language.

Before we click submit, read it over and think from various perspective. Do you need to "blast" others merely because others do not understand or agree with what you have said? Everyone of us has some pros and cons, and there is no need to criticize others, for them not following your wishes.

Lets have an analogy, we want to promote something. Do we do that in a noble way that others are convinced to follow suit, or do you want to just forcefully say "You must follow me"...

It would be great if all of us share how we study and we learn together and build our own way. Everyone over here, has more or less, been successful in their studies in different aspects, so there is no one view point that is clearly superior in comparison with other view points.

[iQing]

I think there's a solution here...

I suggest that members here should learn how to be assertive in order to avoid aggression and argument..

if everyone is assertive in here, I believe the arguments can be avoided...

Maybe there should be a code of forum where assertiveness should be stressed...

hope this helps...

[silverblue]

I dont understand how being assertive can avoid aggression and arguments.

According to Dictionary.com, assertive means
Inclined to bold or confident assertion; aggressively self-assured

I think that being assertive will actually cause more aggression and inclination to post sarcastic and hurtful remarks.

If we were to be merely assertive without respecting other people's thoughts and opinions, or if we were to be 'blindly' assertive (as in confidently assertive in something that isn't necessarily 100% known to be a true fact), then I think we are going to cause more pain than gain in this forum.

Please understand that other people have a right to accept or reject your opinions and there is no right or wrong opinion. We can choose to clarify and explain, but we shouldn't make sweeping statements like how 'students are lacking a serious mind set when it comes to studying...' It's not fair to judge people in that way just because people do not agree with what you are saying.

I am sorry if this seems to be another acerbic post. But I am just a little annoyed with all the 'destructive' assertion...
[/i]

[iQing]

Dear silverblue,

the word assertive used by me is not refer to the assertiveness in the dictionary..

Assertiveness is a branch of communication study on how we should talk..

in oral communication there are three trends

1. Aggressive
2. Passive
3. Assertive

Being assertive is not being aggressive or passive.

The word Assertive here is a technical term..

I think u can find books on assertive in library... it's good to know how to communicate assertively...

assertiveness is how we talk without offend other..

i believe it's the best way we can communicate here

[CrAzyCow]

Personally, i dun mind the arguments in ReCom post. It keeps my interest in reading all the post. We view our opinions n we rebuttle other ppl's opinion if we think tht they are biased or baseless. But we don't take it personal. Keep in mind tht this is an open discussion. If we start having rules and restrict what each individual can say n what he/she cannot, then i will stop visiting this website. It has restricted my freedom of speech.

Is up to an individual to convey his/her message in the way he/she likes. Not up to anybody to control wat other ppl can say or not.

As i mentioned earlier, don't take it personally but instead try to see the other person's point, perhaps tht would help much more in trying to solve this problem. We tend to be too defensive until we are just too ignorant to take note of other opinions.

[__earth]

i agree with crazy concerning the open discussion.
however, i have a suggestion, why don't the admins write something like a guideline in posting and make it a sticking thread.
ppl don't have to adhere to the guideline but it will act like a reminder.
I would really love if the admin could come up with this coz like in the other discussion, while arguing, some guy actually called out names and that shouldn't happened.
If a guidelines is present, maybe we could avoid ugly exchange.

just a suggestion. I'm sorry if i digressed from the topic.

[royston]

Is up to an individual to convey his/her message in the way he/she likes. Not up to anybody to control wat other ppl can say or not.

Hi Crazy Cow, I may say... I agree & disagree with you. Consider this is a chat when face to face. No one will control you to say whatever you wish to say but you should mature enough to know what you should/shouldn't say, right? None of us wish to control each other but as a reminder, you should control yourself. Unless you are a small kid and due to your childishness, you do not know how to control your emotion when you speak.

No doubt, this is an open discussion but if you do not know how to control yourself and speak whatever you like, you just showed to other people your naive and improper mental development only.

Again, if you consider by controlling your words, you will stop visiting this website, you are not prepared for adult discussions.

We are trying to promote harmony environment in our discussion zone, of course everyone has their rights to speak but speak wisely. There are always a few ways to convince people to agree with what you say but using improper arguement will definitely not a wise choice.

I hope you don't mind and please do not take my words personally. This is not only for you, but for all the members here, including myself.

Thanks,
~ roy ~

[royston]

i agree with crazy concerning the open discussion.
however, i have a suggestion, why don't the admins write something like a guideline in posting and make it a sticking thread.
ppl don't have to adhere to the guideline but it will act like a reminder.
I would really love if the admin could come up with this coz like in the other discussion, while arguing, some guy actually called out names and that shouldn't happened.
If a guidelines is present, maybe we could avoid ugly exchange.

just a suggestion. I'm sorry if i digressed from the topic.

Hi earth, I do agree with this suggestion but I foresee the effectiveness is quite minimum. When an arguement happened between/among members, they will not bother about the guideline or so-called reminder as they have blurred by their emotion.

I hope whoever read this reply, until here, since you are still remain calm, please remember... whenever there is an arguement, don't support whichever part before you clear with all the points brought out by each party. Try to be neutral before we say a single word.

Anyway, to be honest, I like to read the replies from both you and crazycow, and of course, the rest too... you guys are really mentally-educated students, just like I am chatting with adults.

Thanks,
~ roy ~

[littlebigone]

I apologize if i have come across as rude in this topic. I have just said things that have come to my mind and sometimes it may come across more strongly that I intend it too. However, I still think Recom should remain a platform for free speech.

The goal and ultimate aim for every topic is to provide and educate with as little bias as possible. When posing a reply, it should be as impersonal as possible. It should be used to state facts and your opinions on the matter.

I think a really good example of a productive and useful forum is the one on english that's going on rite now.

I agree with earth that guidelines should be set and we should adhere to them as much as possible. However, we are humans and make mistakes so there must also be give and take. I think we should also be gracious enough to admit when we are wrong.

I think this is taking too much of the worng forum so I'l stop here.

[iQing]

I agree with __earth... well, I don't mind about the argument or debate here... besides, the forum here make us learn more things... when I join forums elsewhere I make some mistakes too but that makes me learn something... I don't think it's something very bad if there's an argument or mistake made amongst us, as no one is perfect. besides, we are just young people who are still learning right?

it's normal when sometimes our emotional nerve is being touched but I believe we can learn to control it as time goes by....

My appology if my opinions have caused chaos here...


have fun guys...

[chenchow]

It is very nice with the way the forum in Recom has evolved.

Get back to study method or study system.

Just would like to survey how most people in Recom are studying?

Do you read it out loud? Do you like to read at a quiet spot? Do you like to jot down notes when you read? Do you role play when you read?(The role play is what I like to do, act myself as if I am the one and try to "menghayati"(mind someone remind me of the english word of it)).

Or any other means? I would be interested to learn from everyone.

[CrAzyCow]

yup i agree with u too Royston.. btw, u miss interpret my point.. not me not being able to control my words.. but if ReCom enforces a rule tht restrict it's members what they can say, then i will stop visiting.. hope this clears up things.

nah.. i understand tht this is an open discussion.. so is ur opinion n i respect tht. I am happy though tht u do agree with me up to certain point.

So, i hope everyone whenever u rebuttle an opinion, just remember is their opinion.

[iQing]

to give myself motivation, I always stick some quotes on the wall.. such as..

CONFIDENCE

YOU ARE THE BEST

YOU CAN WIN THE GAME OF EXAM

YOU ARE FRANK WILLIAM ABGNAIL

and so on...

sometimes I put some successful people's poster... like sports athlete

I think motivation is important in one's study...
we should always light up our motivation

thanx chen chow..

[chenchow]

I agree with iQing about motivation.

It will help spur us to work the extra mile to achieve what we hope to achieve. I find it very useful to read the bibliography of those successful people. The bibliography by Dell is very insightful, seeing how he starts to venture even during his college years...

[iQing]

I like to listen to new age or classical/folk music...
it increase our awareness and alter our brainwave until it reaches an optimal stage where we can study well...

rock, harsh music might make us less focused although it's popular nowadays....

[chenchow]

For me, when i am doing math, or those calculation problems, then I would prefer fast music, as that will help me increase the speed of my solving questions...

[Schye]

I need total silence to study because i will tend to sing or shake my head :roll: if there is any musics being played around... :wink:

[silverblue]

I think the best way to study is never to study alone!! Well in my case especially... cos I tend to lose concentration sometimes when my mind wander far off in dreamdream land... hehe

Benefits of studying in a group of two or more:
1) More productive - can check and motivate each other
2) Sharing knowledge - speed up understanding of difficult material
3) You can set realistic study goals together
4) You have more pressure to study faster... got competition mah.. u know la..the kiasu attitude...
5) You can test your understanding by asking each other questions
6) You can have a good chit-chat/gossip break when you need one!
7) You won't fall asleep or turn to play Counter Strike!!

[Schye]

7) You won't fall asleep or turn to play Counter Strike!!

This is really TRUE.... :P
Bachok.....:cough cough:

[iQing]

well, I have tried study with friends but it doesn't suit me... I prefer study alone.. it's my style :)

[chenchow]

I just found this link from www.smjk.edu.my , it is about study guides and strategies, by University of St. Thomas

http://www.iss.stthomas.edu/studyguides/#Studying

[iQing]

Here's a good site too but you have to pay to be a member

www.netcousins.com

I think we should have more links on this topic

[iQing]

thanx to ReCom Achor for providing a new link of studying

here's the link
http://www.iss.stthomas.edu/studyguides/#Studying

thanx

[iQing]

today I would like to share something with you...

this is something I have created.. I hope this system provides insigh for you guys....

u can alter the system and create your own one according to your needs...

b4 that I would like to introduce my philosophy...

let's say everyday we learn things from our lecturers....
each day we are given a piece of information....
and these informations are like jigsaw puzzle...
u get a little by little everyday...

and our job is to fix these puzzle into a big picture and get ready for exam...

that means we have to organise our knowledge

therefore I create a system that enables me to organise my knowledge...

here's another philosophy...
why there's a student.. he's very hard working yet still score badly?
he do a lot of exercise..

the problem is...
he didn't cover the whole course..
reason?
he only focus on a few pieces of jigsaw puzzles...
and he didn't organise the puzzle into a big picture..
so he couldn't "see" the whole thing and miss out the whole idea...

just like going to war without a map and direction...

since he didn't cover all the topics...
he didn't do well...

---------------------

so my objective is to
1. organise the knowledge of the course
2. cover all topics
3. getting the big picture... seeing the course from a bigger propective

if u can cover everything... i believe u wont fail the test, unless the course u r doing is not orthodox (practical etc)

here's what i have done...

-------------------

at first I create a list of main topics and subtopics...

when I have finished study a subtopic, I tick the topic... so i know which part I have not yet covered... just like a map...
at the same time i get the whole picture...
I also know which part I'm weak in..

after that I see that I have to memorise some important informations for the exams such as formula, graphs, definations, experiments etc

to enable me to cover these things I make more list... let's say list A, B, C and so on...

at first they are separated..

list A is all about formula.. a list of complete formula for the course..
list B.. a complete list of defination..
list C --> graphs
list D --> Defination
list E --> experiment
list F ---> pictures
and so on...

at first by doing so I can cover everything I have to learn in an ordered way...
I have a complete jigsaw puzzle in front of me, making my study much easier.. knowing which part I have covered an which part not yet ...

later I create another better system...

----------

by integrating list A B C D etc into one list...
the reason....

by doing such list I can know under which subtopic there are which formula, graphs etc... it becomes even clearer to me....

so here's my format for my multi functional list:

-------------

first of all, one list is for one main topic/chapter... so before doing this list it's better to make a master list consist a list of main and subtopics...

the list is devided into 2 parts, left and right.....

the left part is the list of subtopics....
the right part is the formula.... under that subtopic...
so by seeing a subtopic, we can immediately see the formulas for that topic in the right part....

if there are experiments, pictures etc for that subtopic, it is drawn in the left part under the subtopic...

sp the left part is for subtopic list, pictures and other information and the right part is for the formula....

the list of defination is wwritten behind the sheet of list...

so it's even more organise, save space and the jigsaw puzzle is even clearer now....

and by having such system... covering a course is not a problem and I believe by doing so, at least, worst to the worst you wont Fail the exam...

that's what I want to share with you... thanx for reading

[chenchow]

thanks iQing for sharing.

I agree that being able to look at the whole picture gives us a strong foundation in understanding. We must try to ask questions like What is it? When does it happen? Where does it happen? Why does it happen? How does it happen? etc... These kind of questions would help us in shaping the understanding.

As the saying goes "malu bertanya, sesatlah jalan".

[royston]

Just like how Han Qing described, if I have a well organized piece of paper with all my formulae, graphs, pictures, definitions and so on, I guess I will bring along that paper with me during exams... :P

Anyway, this is really a marvelous system BUT one of the disadvantages is, you got to be very hardworking. Why? Everyday... everyday you need to pay full attention in the class, just to collect each piece of jigsaw puzzle. After class, you need to generate a masterlist with all the main/subtopics, then sorta paste all your puzzles into that list. You need to do it very careful and you need to spend times on it. After that, you need to study again from that master list. Why? Because if you put all the information into the master list and leave it like that, before the exam, you will spend more time to find out again this is from where, how can this result be obtained, and so forth.

Besides, you have to have the same spirit daily to form up your master list and read it everyday. You are not allowed to miss out a single portion because before exam, you take that master list for granted. You fully depend on that master list and if the master list is not complete, your knowledge and all you have memorized, are not complete too.

By the way, this is a very good system as I have said earlier but you need to put a lot of effort into it. Anyway, once you have used to the way you build your puzzle, you should be able to do it fast and faster everyday.

Thanks Han Qing for your system. I know this method but somehow I have a very bad attitude which commonly known as -- lazy!! :lol: So I didn't got a good result so far...

~ roy ~

[iQing]

Hahaha... Royston... sorry for laughing when I read your posting...

just to let u know that...
as u say it takes a lot of effort...

but contrary to my experience, it takes much less effort when I use this system...

I design this system because I myself is a lazy person... hehehe...

talking about collecting every piece of info daily..? I think it's in another system...

in fact, I design this system so that some of my lazy friends can pass thier exam... at least...
the reason of this system is to Cover all the topics in a convenient way...

here's an explaination...

to make a master list u just need to open ur textbook, go to the content a write down the topics and subtopics...

after that go to each topics and extract the formula in the topic, make a list of formula...
then follow by extracting defination, graphs..
list A,B,C and so on is created easily...

can u get the idea... it's a study system that's simple and saves time

[/b]

[littlebigone]

That's still a lot of work. I guess i set the bar for laziness :P

[chenchow]

Welcome Dennis. There is a thread on introducing yourself. I copy your intro there already. Thanks for joining.

[1st_Spirit]

I would like to give special thanks to IQing as he open his secret road to success...

For now, I could only sort of preview what I'm going to write in my next msg...

I'm going to talk about how you be successful in your study or to be a nitch of the society by achiving a higher Spirit Awareness within yourself... Welcome to a world of Mystry and Advanture...

I hope everyone would be able to enjoy their life when they have acheive in spirit awareness...

And Spirit Awareness is very helpful to help you to shape your own personallity and finding out your very ownselves deep within your heart and your mind, also I'll relate study that show how your subconsious mind to support your consious mind while you're sleeping or taking your nap...

Imagine that you can study for 24 hours!!! 8O

[iQing]

Hmmm.. i never know Dennis will come so far to spiritual stuff...
OK... personaly I would like to introduce a bit of spiritual awareness myself...

Spiritual awareness is depite as the light in many religious symbol and the loosing of awareness to the multiple "selves" or egos (technical term) is always depite as darkness...

Let's go to the basic concept of psychological sleep

we have been zombie under the darkness for a long time and we r not AWARE of it yet...
we live as normal waking person but in fact we are "sleeping"
lets say, u go to school...
on the way are you...

1. Day dreaming, thinking of a lot of things, not focusing on the moment and journey.....
or
2. being aware of surrounding all the time... knowing what u see and hear and not being dragged away by day dreams and daily though...

most people are number one as they don't remain the awareness....
the daydream makes people asleep even when they are awake...
like a zombie

under this darkness condition a person is under the influence of his own subconscious, better say as the multiple egos consist of greed, hatred, lust, envy etc. which we have gathered for lifetimes.....

these multiple egos can be eliminated, fortunately, with spiritual process, which is very difficult, just like an esoteric war....

this is just a brief introduction

as egos die the conscious-subconscious ratio will increase... averagely the CS ratio of a person is 3% (not the same as we read in the book.. 10%)

more informationson esoteric knowledge of multiple egos are in the link
www.mysticweb.org

where we can take free online course on Self-knowledge

just be open minded and explore the arcane inner world of a living being...

[/b]

[1st_Spirit]

To IQing,

We have exactly the same thought, there are many ppl living in a world that bounded in their own nature(Ego), and they bounded to their emotion like Anger, Hate, Jeloucy, Sad, Depression and etc...

I've seen too many ppl bounded into it and I would like to share a little bit here from my experience,

I'm totally agree with IQing's "Zombie" theory which ppl don't know what's happening in the world and they don't have their own Identity or I called seft-Existing theory...

I read about a book and it stated that we would able to acheive awareness through certain ways for example, Medetation and praying to Devine... I didn't bring the book along with me when I come to US so I would say sorry that I couldn't go in detail for steps to acheive awareness...

Thanks IQing that shares your spiritual journey and experiences

[iQing]

ooo... sorry Dennis to say about his but according to ReCom Forum policy we must focus on the topic discussed, which is the study method... perhaps we can create a new forum topic so that we can discuss more about it...

many modern people are not interested in spiritual journey and self knowledge and I think it's best if we can tell them more about it....

thanx Dennis...

[huilinchin]

harlow everyone...

I am not sure if I am interpretating study methods/system correctly...
but I'll give it a shot :D

I hope you mean "study" here as studying for exam, research, and other fields of interest and not merely exams to get an A.
Firstly, before I create my study methods, I must have a goal - it can be anything, just to learn, to get an A, because it's too interesting, etc.
My study methods differ according to my goals.

Let's say my goal now is to understand the materials and get an A at the same time. Then the method would be:-

1) Buy the books in advance and start flipping through them. CMU seldom release name of books for courses early, but I always email professors in advance, about one month before class starts to ask for ISBN.

Just browse and read it leisurely to have a big idea what the course is going to be about even if you understand nothing about it (which is very unlikely).
Malaysia's best STPM scorer in 2001 gave me this advice.
Do quick reading before lecture so that I can ask question during class or at least know what I do not understand but was taught in lecture. This way, I put it at the back on my mind so that when I come to it again, I know I have understood or should pay closer attention to it.

2) I compile all the exams and final exams dates (even quizzes) on 4 sheets of paper (each sheet represents one month) and read grading policy thoroughly.
I always do this on the first day of class so that I am prepared what I should do for the rest of the semester later.
This way, I will know if I have 4 homework due on the same day and if I should plan ahead.

3) Stay ahead of class. Once the homework has been released, I try very hard to attempt it on that day itself since the first day of class. This way, I will also know if I understand the materials. Also, I learn better as I can go on and ask deeper questions to learn more after completing the homework.

4) I always attend professor's office hours and talk to him after lecture briefly. There are many times when the professor has no time and just explains what will covered in exams, so the materials are not complete and they don't appear in books too. So, I often ask professor directly and they explain to me how I can go get more resources.

5) Talk to coursemates. Exchange ideas. For example, tell them that you implemented this, but only linear-time. They may have better way to do it in logarithmic-time.
There are always many things that they know but I don't. Even if I know better, I always share. Even if they get smarter than me, it does no harm to me. I am competing with myself and not others.

I actually have a hard time checking answers with American students here, because they just discuss stuffs at top levels and are not willing to check answers. I guess I am used to that long before now, but I realized talking to friends at top level actually makes me think more instead of checking answers and feel happier after the assignment is done.

6) Study in group of 2-3 people, does not work for me if more than that. For example, this semester, a friend knows so much about Polya's Theory in Combinatorial Analysis course, but I know a lot about Probabilistic Method. So, I taught her for 1 hours what I know and she taught me for 1 hour what she knows too. We both get 100 in the exam(because only those two things are tested, hehe).

7) Do extra problems. Use all the sources available. Google is a good example. I learn more from Google than from my book...hehe...

I think the idea is there for the study method to fit that particular goal. For research, of course, it's different (talk about that some other time).


-Hui Lin ^_^

i couldnt help it to say that this study method is the best way for a student to study. to tell u the truth, i've tested this method when i was in my first semester, and it really work...although i didnt get an A, but atleast a learn something valuable, which made me more knowledgable about certain field i.e the situation in S. East Asia (politically and economically)...thanx iQing for reminding me this method again...really appreciate it

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

[chenchow]

On the point number 1 given by huilinchin, I fully agree that Pre-Reading is very helpful. I would say that even though we do not buy the textbooks early, what we could do is to pre-read or skim through the materials that the Professors going to cover the next day on the night before. I find it very beneficial, for the advantages that huilinchin mentioned.

For point number 3, I would like to elaborate that irrespective of whether we have homework given on the same day, we should ensure that we post-read the material and ensure that we really understand the material. If there is homework, I fully agree that we should attempt it early. It is not only good for the benefits mentioned by huilinchin, I would also say that it would be helpful, so that we would not be rushing at the last minute or burning the midnight's oil.

On point number 7, besides google, check out E-Learning section in RECOM. There are a few thousand course websites that are directly or indirectly linked from our E-learning section. Say for instance, you are learning about a topic in Operating System course. You could definitely find out the lecture notes from other universities in the E-Learning section. You can also find out about more problems/assignments given by Professors at other universities. It will give you a lot of variety for learning, besides other professors may cover it from different perspectives and you may understand better that way.

[huilinchin]

I fully agree with chenchow and must say that I am very impressed with the collection of e-learning links provided in Recom.

Actually, I kept track of the Computer Science assignments in Cornell when I was in my freshman year and realized that the assignments are very very interesting. Some of them actually apply the same knowledge taught in CMU, but they are different.

Chen Chow is definitely correct. Look at the E-learning section of Recom and see for yourself :D

I learn some Chinese words from one of the links, in fact =)
and hopefully can learn one word each day when I am more free after my finals.

I also realized that professors share notes with each other. Example is some of the Cornell's CS Discrete Math materials are pretty similar with CMU's (they have the same MS interview questions for example).
My Head TA actually told us that my Prof shares his notes with Cornell's Prof and other Profs in India when I took the class.

The website for CMU's famous course called the Great Theoretical Ideas in Computer Science is www.discretemath.com, but I just tried and discretemath.com is not available now - but I am pretty sure it will be up again on Jan 12 as the course is only taught in the Spring. I will email chenchow after the site is up so that he can add the link to the e-learning, and hopefully, everyone can learn interesting math puzzles from the site besides Microsoft interview questions :D

Now, can anyone advise me how to study for final (in 4 days)? ... scary ...

-Hui Lin ^_^

[jiinjoo]

www.cs.cmu.edu/~15251

Guess Rudich forgot to pay up for the domain name? :)

Click on PlayGround if you're not interested in serious material.

Thanks, Jiin Joo!
This course brings back lots of memories ( -worst result I have gotten in any course, but the one that I will remember vividly after I graduate). Glad I took it.

Chen Chow, can you help to add www.cs.cmu.edu/~15251 to the E-learning links under the name of Great Theoretical Ideas of Computer Science?

Thanks yah :)

-Hui Lin ^_^

[huilinchin]

oppss...forgot to login...

-Hui Lin ^_^

[masterof_none]

Thanks for the study method and the link Hui Lin.

Fortunately, I have 3 more semesters to apply the knowledge contributed by you and all wonderful ReCom members. Thanks a lot. I really appreciate it.

I hope that all ReCom members out there benefits from these wonderful study methods.

[chenchow]

Thanks Hui Lin and Jiin Joo, it is in e-learning now! Hope that other members could contribute links on your course webpages too!

[1st_Spirit]

Be Creative, dissaplin and systematic... sounds easy 8O

I belive study is not hard, but the fore most important thing is to dissaplin ourself and dedicated ourself and focus into studies... I have a fews notes to contribute here

1) Never stay up too late for studies
2) Sleep early and wake up early in the morning
3) Get at least 8 hours of sleep everyday

Well, it might sounds odd, and ask, what it is going to do with studies...

Attending every lessons is very important, complete every assignments is essential, and paying attention in the class is crusial...

The hardest things to do for me is to pay attention in the class, because sometime the lecture might be very boring due to the way the proffesor speaks in Mono tone, increative, and rigid class setting...

If you didn't get enough sleep at night or stay up too late, you won't be able to pay attention in the class and you will end up lossing interest in the class and not doing in the exam and so on...

For me, sleep is very important, and wake up early in the morning is very good for studying... Your mind will work ultra super efficient during the period from 9.00 to 11.00. within this 2 hours. you can study whole tons of notes and finished anything assignments...

The hardest part for me is the matter of dissiplin as well...

Hope it helps...

[soul_out]

Being a student for so many years, i personally feel that the most effective study technique is study with our "heart. Try to like the stuff that we're studying, understand it, check reference book or seek consultations from peer or lecturer and write down your feedback or important points on the notes or text book. Obviously, there more we study, the more we understand it but sadly there are always not enough time to do that....lazy nature.

[soul_out]

Being a student for so many years, i personally feel that the most effective study technique is study with our "heart. Try to like the stuff that we're studying, understand it, check reference book or seek consultations from peer or lecturer and write down your feedback or important points on the notes or text book. Obviously, there more we study, the more we understand it but sadly there are always not enough time to do that....lazy nature.

[Cirnelle]

what if i do not love or is not interested at all in the things i am studying now? any special remedy for this?
:?
dun tell me to change course or learn to like my subject.....u know it's impossible to force yourself to fall in love.... :(

[Cirnelle]

what if i do not love or is not interested at all in the things i am studying now? any special remedy for this?
:?
dun tell me to change course or learn to like my subject.....u know it's impossible to force yourself to fall in love.... :(

[jun_wolverine]

well...

i also never liked what i am studying..........

for me...i just suck it up......
because i am on scholarhip, i have no choice to just do it...even though i don't like it

i think fear of getting sent back if i don't do well motivates me....sort of....... :wink:

and yeah....when i study, i usually eat some junk food...so that i will associate studying with happiness (getting filled up with food).......

hmmm..maybe that's why i am getting f@<hidden> .. lol

[jun_wolverine]

well...

i also never liked what i am studying..........

for me...i just suck it up......
because i am on scholarhip, i have no choice to just do it...even though i don't like it

i think fear of getting sent back if i don't do well motivates me....sort of....... :wink:

and yeah....when i study, i usually eat some junk food...so that i will associate studying with happiness (getting filled up with food).......

hmmm..maybe that's why i am getting f@<hidden> .. lol

[__earth]

effective method?

just put your head on the book, close your eyes and sleep.
let osmosis do the work for you. works for me, at least for non-math/programming related courses.

[__earth]

effective method?

just put your head on the book, close your eyes and sleep.
let osmosis do the work for you. works for me, at least for non-math/programming related courses.

[qedx]

ah yes osmosis.... thas why theres tons of japanese, lit and history books on my bed :D

osmosis, youcant live without it

[qedx]

ah yes osmosis.... thas why theres tons of japanese, lit and history books on my bed :D

osmosis, youcant live without it

[chenchow]

Jun, I thought you are a com addict, and being a com engineer will definitely suit you...Judge from what i had seen of you in UiTM, you definitely have great interest in what you are studying...am i right, topdog?

p/s: Jun, ask others to join leh~!

[chenchow]

Jun, I thought you are a com addict, and being a com engineer will definitely suit you...Judge from what i had seen of you in UiTM, you definitely have great interest in what you are studying...am i right, topdog?

p/s: Jun, ask others to join leh~!

[angie]

i don't know whether this will work for you or not. i made a bet with a friend that if i score higher, i can ask for anything i want. and yeah he is one tough player!

set a prize for yourself to keep moving on! you'll do better. somehow you'll do your best too!

[angie]

i don't know whether this will work for you or not. i made a bet with a friend that if i score higher, i can ask for anything i want. and yeah he is one tough player!

set a prize for yourself to keep moving on! you'll do better. somehow you'll do your best too!

[budakkerek]

i agree with angie - you hv to, no matter what, set a target..so you'll know what you want n hv a clear focus of what you're trying to get.

As for me, i guess i'm more of a participant than an observer. i'm most active in classes that requires loads thinking about abstract stuff like literature, language, history. I enjoy sharing my views n hearing what others think..That's how i learn best, by participating n giving views n sharing what i know..At least that way keeps me awake in class :)

I'm not quite good in maths n science coz i think, dunno whether this is true, that i force myself to stop thinking when it comes to stuff that're related to math n science..hehe :D

choose to do what you do best, and what you enjoy most, coz that way, studying won't be that difficult! :D

[budakkerek]

i agree with angie - you hv to, no matter what, set a target..so you'll know what you want n hv a clear focus of what you're trying to get.

As for me, i guess i'm more of a participant than an observer. i'm most active in classes that requires loads thinking about abstract stuff like literature, language, history. I enjoy sharing my views n hearing what others think..That's how i learn best, by participating n giving views n sharing what i know..At least that way keeps me awake in class :)

I'm not quite good in maths n science coz i think, dunno whether this is true, that i force myself to stop thinking when it comes to stuff that're related to math n science..hehe :D

choose to do what you do best, and what you enjoy most, coz that way, studying won't be that difficult! :D

[aida_ikmal]

yeah, if u make it enjoyable! and fun!

[aida_ikmal]

yeah, if u make it enjoyable! and fun!

[iQing]

I am bringing up this thread.. might be useful for our SIG.. cheers

[Diesel]

huh, i only knew this thread today. well, it's not too late i guess.

i think the best study method is whatever works for you. i dont believe those "teknik studi berkesan" those motivators keep on telling me. nothing is the best for everyone. my style is always, last minute study; coffee, cigarettes, stay up all night. plus, trust textbooks; never take notes, because i wont read them.
though some may argue that that's not healthy, or not good for memory bla bla bla, hay, that works for me. who cares?

[chenchow]

Personally, I would say that this thread is more for sharing. It would broaden the perspectives of ReComers and perhaps they can try the methods out.

However, I agree with diesel on the aspect, that everyone would find different method working for method. So, it is about best match that matters. However, that did not prevent anyone from trying out new methods, if their current one is not working well.

[Randomphantom]

Dunno whether this has been mentioned or not, other then the fact that not one study style suits all, I believe different subs need different approaches-much like different mindsets.

Some subs require rote memorisation (like Bio) and a good style of studying would be flash cards, tons of note taking etc (I find that writing down notes repeatedly tends to hammer in some information).

Some subs like language need ongoing practise, and simply cannot be pushed to the last moment for study (learnt that the hard way for BM).

Difficult part about Math/physics type subs are the concepts but once one is able to grasp them the questions are easily solvable. Drilling/practising helps lots.

Subjective subs usually require lots of discussion and essays, which you need peers/teachers/lecturers to critically assess your work in order to improve. Best way would be to get a GOOD teacher willing to help you out-else, you're on your own.

I sometimes can't recall stuff and find myself remembering "ok that bit of info that I should be recalling right now is on the left bottom corner of page XX on my book" really weird... does our brain tend to remember positions easily compared to abstract information?

[ElansarGelmir]

Can anyone help me in my reading skill? i can't read for more than 30 minutes, not even the text books or novels.... is that good or bad?

[iQing]

go to the teaching section of INTEC library there are books on reading technique and speed reading....
check up the tony buzan books as well...

[kucingbiru]

i agree with both Diesel and Chenchow. nothing is the best for everybody. but learning good study methods is cool, since you have to experience it to see if it works for you.

[smy]

Hi, is it a good idea to take up a memory course for memory improvement because there r ppl who after attended a memory course managed to memorise JUST EVERYTHING. Is there any pros and cons of taking this particular course especially if my AIM of taking a memory course is to improve my memory when it comes to perparing for exams.Am taking stpm(bio+chem) now. Have been leading a Greek's life lately when it comes to studying STPM subjects.