Preferred studying method?

[eunhye]

I prefer the Slumdog Millionaire approach. Get all emotional in every aspect of that subject. Three people are given a test, Mary, Jane, and Phil. It's a 10 question test. Mary gets 8/10, Jane gets 7/10 and Phil only gets 5/10 questions right. Mary and Phil passes the class while Phil wonders why those 2 girls got the questions he got right, wrong. To Phil, those 5 questions he got right were taught to him because he was a Slumdog Millionaire. In other words, tests don't teach you jack shit.

[Maguspk]

You mean something like the integral of 1 is -1? :D

lmfao, good memories. "An integral is basically the opposite of whatever is given..." "So the integral of 1 would be -1?"

[fstfrk13]

bleh, I've always been against the use of addies on the sheer virtue of it being an unfair advantage. It's always been the same thing as a cheat sheet or copying the answers to me, and I've never used it. The only time anyone I've known has used them was a friend of mine who was studying for the LSATs, and he said he had to overcome his own guilt to take them. So yeah I guess they're effective, but just something that tips too far over the line of dishonesty for me.

Once you get over the fact that no one cares how you get good grades, as long as you get them then you won't feel bad. Plus when like half of the students you are competing against use it, you pretty much have to too.

Where do you guys get yours? I can't seem to get a hold of any on campus. Is there any reliable site out there that sells it? I am gearing up for GRE so this would really help.

I don't use sites, practically like half the kids at my school use them and prescriptions are pretty easy to come by, i can say i know at least 15 people that have a prescription. All you have to do here is go to a doctor and say you go to gatech and you have a hard time focusing and they will write a scrip for you right there and say if it works you can keep it. There are literally 100 symptoms for ADD, you will probably have a few of them anyways and most doctors don't really care, the side effects are trivial and its one of the few drugs that actually makes you productive to society.

[Darus Grey]

I don't use sites, practically like half the kids at my school use them and prescriptions are pretty easy to come by, i can say i know at least 15 people that have a prescription. All you have to do here is go to a doctor and say you go to gatech and you have a hard time focusing and they will write a scrip for you right there and say if it works you can keep it. There are literally 100 symptoms for ADD, you will probably have a few of them anyways and most doctors don't really care, the side effects are trivial and its one of the few drugs that actually makes you productive to society.

That has got to be some of the worst advice ever. Trivial? Adderall is essentially a legal form of meth, is addictive, and has severe consequences for long-term use.

[Conrad]

Once you get over the fact that no one cares how you get good grades, as long as you get them then you won't feel bad. Plus when like half of the students you are competing against use it, you pretty much have to too.

I'll give you that, although I've never felt like I was competing in any of my classes. I've always just had the attitude that as long as I pass, it's not going to matter how I did.

And I'm graduating in two months anyway so I don't really care too much about my classes anymore.

[fstfrk13]

That has got to be some of the worst advice ever. Trivial? Adderall is essentially a legal form of meth, is addictive, and has severe consequences for long-term use.

Its not meth considering meth is the most addictive drug know to man, and adderall defiantly isn't. the only severe side effects are if you have a heart condition or addiction which is only caused if you overdose on it, which is stupid or if you take it everyday for months. so if your taking it for studying, i don't see the trouble. go to any doctor and they will tell you the same thing.

I'll give you that, although I've never felt like I was competing in any of my classes. I've always just had the attitude that as long as I pass, it's not going to matter how I did.

yeah most of the classes here are graded on curves since the average test is failing, so you have to just beat the other kids, not actually learn everything.

[Darus Grey]

Its not meth considering meth is the most addictive drug know to man, and adderall defiantly isn't. the only severe side effects are if you have a heart condition or addiction which is only caused if you overdose on it, which is stupid or if you take it everyday for months. so if your taking it for studying, i don't see the trouble. go to any doctor and they will tell you the same thing.

lol...they're both amphetamines, well slightly different in chemical composition the primary difference is the dosage you get in Adderall compared to what the average Meth user takes.

Saying the risks are trivial is beyond ignorant though, you build up tolerance to Adderall extremely quickly, even taking it once a month will build up a steady tolerance until you need to up dosage to get the effects, leading to dependency. Just because doctors(hey, I'm a doctor too!) are extremely irresponsible in it's prescription does not make it "safe" or "trivial".

[Bearsan]

Its not meth considering meth is the most addictive drug know to man, and adderall defiantly isn't. the only severe side effects are if you have a heart condition or addiction which is only caused if you overdose on it, which is stupid or if you take it everyday for months. so if your taking it for studying, i don't see the trouble. go to any doctor and they will tell you the same thing.



yeah most of the classes here are graded on curves since the average test is failing, so you have to just beat the other kids, not actually learn everything.

Isn't nicotine the most difficult substance to quit?

Which Drugs Are the Most Addictive?

And what major are you? Setting the average to failing seems pretty fucken retarded, and I've never heard of that done here at at UC Berkeley.

[fstfrk13]

lol...they're both amphetamines, well slightly different in chemical composition the primary difference is the dosage you get in Adderall compared to what the average Meth user takes.

Saying the risks are trivial is beyond ignorant though, you build up tolerance to Adderall extremely quickly, even taking it once a month will build up a steady tolerance until you need to up dosage to get the effects, leading to dependency. Just because doctors(hey, I'm a doctor too!) are extremely irresponsible in it's prescription does not make it "safe" or "trivial".

You can make the same argument about building up tolerance for most prescription drugs. Hell even diet soda is addictive. I actually know multiple people addicted to diet coke. Maybe calling the side effects trivial wasn't the right wording, but as long as you use it responsibly and use it as recommended like any other drug, it can be pretty "safe". Maybe if addiction runs in your family it could be worse but i was just speaking from personal experience and many first hand accounts you are more likely to get addicted to alcohol or aspartame before adderall.

Isn't nicotine the most difficult substance to quit?

Which Drugs Are the Most Addictive?

And what major are you? Setting the average to failing seems pretty fucken retarded, and I've never heard of that done here at at UC Berkeley.

i think meth is the easiest drug to get addicted to vs hardest to quit. they don't curve to failing, the average for the class is failing at the end of the semester and the teacher curves everyone up at the end, its how the spread people out. there is always that 1 kid who always who makes an A no matter how hard it is.

[EckoGecko]

i use flash cards on my ipod through an app i downloaded.
less messy then regular flash cards and more organized.

[Korietsu]

And what major are you? Setting the average to failing seems pretty fucken retarded, and I've never heard of that done here at at UC Berkeley.

Yeah. Engineering majors.

My school sports a 60% attrition rate on students graduating with the degree they started with in engineering, or actually finishing an engineering degree. 50% quit EE degrees after Diff EQ/Vector Calculus.

Class average in my 3k level courses is around a 50%. 60% of students failed the first Digital Circuits Exam, 50% failed EE/CE Prob Stat (shit teacher though), my Electronic Network Analysis class sports 120 point tests because the teacher teaches so that you actually learn, and will more often than not, fail his tests because of the length and difficulty of them.

Man, I love how my GPA's trashed because the people who founded my school founded Texas Instruments. Gotta love industry faculty expecting you to learn a months worth of content in two class periods.

[Galkaeater]

By doing work and practising

[Sanoske]

I just don't study.

But I'm smart enough that as long as I go to at least half the classes and don't sleep during those half... I can pull at least a B by the end of the semester.

Just kidding. Kind of. But not really.

I am horribly at studying, and rarely do anything even close to it until finals week. However that's just how I seem to operate best, doing everything in the eleventh hour. I've tried getting everything done before time... and honestly, it never produces the same quality of work.

Bad habit to have gotten into, but I'm in my 4th year of college (transferred, took time off, I'll be here a while) and changing now will be a bitch.

[Tokitoki]

Class notes.

Any textbook I own just makes the material more confusing. Stupid engineers think they can write textbooks, but they cant.

[Zieara]

I was blessed with a photographic memory. To study for a test, I just once over my notes right before it, and ace it like a champ. I also like using mnemonic devices. Like to remember the direction the arrow points on npn and pnp BJTs, I just remember Not Pointing iN and Pointing iN Pops.

[Cesaria]

I can read something and then see it back when I close my eyes on the textbook page - it came in rather handy being a lazy fucking bastard while doing my degree. I just read things through a couple of times - but my degree was in politics - doing stuff like math I need to work through problems repeatedly to fully understand them in my mind, but my brain works with words it's not a friendly place for numbers.

[Darus Grey]

I was blessed with a photographic memory. To study for a test, I just once over my notes right before it, and ace it like a champ. I also like using mnemonic devices. Like to remember the direction the arrow points on npn and pnp BJTs, I just remember Not Pointing iN and Pointing iN Pops.

Finally someone else in this thread with the right idea.

Personally I'm amazed we don't teach mnemonics methods anymore in school, it's one of the most valuable life skills you can develop.

Contrary to popular belief, people aren't "born" with eidetic memories, it's a developed skill(why some people develop it naturally is the actual mystery), so anyone can do it.

I like to kick it old-school with the method of loci myself.

[Natallon]

i tend to go over the notes and then talk them out in conversation form as if I was speaking to some one else

it gets weird when people walk by and see me muttering to myself

[Ace-o-fire]

i would always bring in a tape recorder to class and record the lectures. THen just play them back.

i hate when teachers wouldn't cover materiel in the test

[Max™]

I can learn virtually anything by just reading. Pulled off 90s in a couple of calculus courses just by reading a solutions manual.

I always like to explain things to people or talk about them because it's a great way to confirm you actually understand the material.

Same, in school around the time they started giving book reports, I just began ignoring the teachers and reading the textbooks they gave me in the first few days to see if there was anything new, dicked around til the end of the year, passed the final tests flawlessly and told them they should just pass me. Worked through 6th, 7th, and 8th, in 9th the principle told me to cut that shit out or leave, I said "holla atcha boyee!" and got my GED.

Had I understood fully that I could have breezed through high school and gotten a free college education, I would have kicked my own ass, but hindsight, 20/20, etc. I was too busy worrying about physics to give a fuck about biology or social studies or whatnot, and rote memorization/busywork pissed me off.

I like teaching others, particularly children, to help myself understand things in physics.