Studying for tests the right way.
How the heck am I supposed to study for this professor's tests?
I feel your pain. Test taking strategies are some of the most important skills to have in college, and most students think they have them. Coming back to multile choice questions you don't know, and eliminating the stupid answers aren't very good test taking skills. In fact, they're obvious idea that every student implements. If you want real test taking strategies, you need to take a step back and consider the overall context of the classes youre in.
Now, most professors give pretty clear expectations about what you're going to be tested on. But some professors keep you guessing, and it is usually because they aren't good at their job. These are the teachers who might even create interesting discussion about topics in class, but then, for some weird reason, test you on arbitrary, loosely related facts. This gets particularly annoying if you are the type to participate and get active in class, because your engaging yourself in the information you aren't texted on.
Here's a straightforward way of analyzing whether you are in a class that will throw you for a loop.
The best college study skill you can implement is taking time to reflect and ask yourself a few key questions after the first test of the semester:
- "Did the questions on the test correlate strongly with what we discussed in class?"
- "Did the teacher's test questions focus on information we only glossed over shortly in class?
- "Is this teacher probably using a "stock", textbook-created test, or did they hand-craft this?"
- "How can I approach my studying differently for the next test to approach it with more success?"
When the teacher has a divide between what is taught in class, and what is on the test, you have a big problem. Not only are you digging a deeper hole for yourself just by attending lecture, but the professor probably doesn't realize the incongruence. If you answered "no" to the first question, or "yes" to the third, then you are probably better off using the textbook as your aid than your professor. In fact, if the teacher is only glossing over (or worse, ignoring completely) information that ends up being on the test, then you are probably best off not even paying much attention during class.
How the heck am I supposed to study for this professor's tests?
I feel your pain. Test taking strategies are some of the most important skills to have in college, and most students think they have them. Coming back to multile choice questions you don't know, and eliminating the stupid answers aren't very good test taking skills. In fact, they're obvious idea that every student implements. If you want real test taking strategies, you need to take a step back and consider the overall context of the classes youre in.
Now, most professors give pretty clear expectations about what you're going to be tested on. But some professors keep you guessing, and it is usually because they aren't good at their job. These are the teachers who might even create interesting discussion about topics in class, but then, for some weird reason, test you on arbitrary, loosely related facts. This gets particularly annoying if you are the type to participate and get active in class, because your engaging yourself in the information you aren't texted on.
Here's a straightforward way of analyzing whether you are in a class that will throw you for a loop.
The best college study skill you can implement is taking time to reflect and ask yourself a few key questions after the first test of the semester:
- "Did the questions on the test correlate strongly with what we discussed in class?"
- "Did the teacher's test questions focus on information we only glossed over shortly in class?
- "Is this teacher probably using a "stock", textbook-created test, or did they hand-craft this?"
- "How can I approach my studying differently for the next test to approach it with more success?"
When the teacher has a divide between what is taught in class, and what is on the test, you have a big problem. Not only are you digging a deeper hole for yourself just by attending lecture, but the professor probably doesn't realize the incongruence. If you answered "no" to the first question, or "yes" to the third, then you are probably better off using the textbook as your aid than your professor. In fact, if the teacher is only glossing over (or worse, ignoring completely) information that ends up being on the test, then you are probably best off not even paying much attention during class.
Yes, I just said that.
There's no sense listening to the professor lead you down a path to learning what you won't be tested on. Instead, focus on the textbook, or whatever source seems to shed more light on what you actually need to know.
Another thing you might do is write your professor an e-mail, or, better yet, visit them during office hours. Be careful about this, as you don't want to come off as disrespectful, but, with the right tone, something like this will work wonders.
"Hello Professor _____,
Thank you for taking the time to read this, as I have a couple of questions after the first test. As a strong auditory learner, I really get engulfed into the lectures and the information you present in them. Thanks for having such interesting class period. But my problem when the test came is that it seemed like a lot of the questions came out of left field when compared to the lectures. I was wondering if there might be any tips you could give me to do better on the next one, given what I mentioned above? I don't want to give you the impression I skimp on the other areas of class (I read and do all the work, as I take my education very seriously), I'm just saying I do best at remembering in-class lectures. If a study guide or a short lecture-review would be possible leading up to the exams, I'd really appreciate that. Thanks."
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