My First Semester Mistakes

Hey guys,

It's very important to recognize your mistakes in order to start dealing with them. In this blog post, I will list a few things that went wrong during the first semester, which limited my fullest potential. Maybe, it's going to help you recognize your mistakes as well! So, be mindful!

1. Not Asking Questions
I still made sure I would write or mark down all the questions I had during class or homework, but I miserably failed double checking on the answer. This led to either misunderstandings or an insufficient understanding of a concept, so some of my quiz grades suffered.

2. Insufficient Time Management
My insufficient time management came from something I will discuss a bit later, the underestimation of difficulty. So, because there is a lot of resources, I didn't quite understand what I should start from, and to be sure that I cover all of the material, I tried to do EVERYTHING. The problem was that I either didn't finish some of it, or I didn't have time to thoroughly go through all of the questions I had at the end.

3. Insufficient Group Studying
Groups, as I figured, can either help you or make you waste your time. You must come having the majority of work done, and you should have your questions ready for discussion. However, together in a group, there is a higher chance to come up with shortcuts and clearer explanations to the concepts.

4. Underestimation of Difficulty
This was my problem for a long time. Overconfidence. Just because there is a lot of revision from grade 12 in a science program, I got an illusion that I completely understand the material. I had no idea, however, that 99% of all test questions are based on application and inquiry. <1% are raw knowledge questions.


Summing all of this up, I wish I knew to base the majority of my studying of off the practice tests. Next, I'll write a blog post about how to divide up the study resources and techniques for maximum efficiency.

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Creating a Study Guide

Hi everyone,
I'm very sorry for such a long absence. I am now barely managing to post once a month, but as soon as I can, I will resume blogging more often.
This blog post is about study guides - how to make them, and what to include.

Firstly, study guides must be comprehensive, and very often we have multiple materials to take information from (lectures, tutorials, videos, textbook, etc.). The goal of the study guide is to include all this information into one file, while being as concise as possible.
A good study guide is being prepared as you go through your course, adding unit by unit. However, it still makes good sense to make them prior to your exam as well.

Here is what your study guide should include:
- definitions
- concepts
- examples (not all; just 1 per each type of concept)
- solutions
- shortcuts to solutions
- diagrams
- tables
- concept maps
- corrections from last tests (or practice examples)
- chapter (or page) numbers

Short-cuts are actually extremely helpful! For instance you were doing some practice tests before your chemistry midterm, and you've identified a few similar questions on each of those tests. A VERY good idea is to determine a general procedure with some short-cuts on these questions. Not only you are forced to understand the concept better, but it will also save you a lot of time during the exam!

Your study guide can be organized in different ways:
- typed
- hand-written
- using blank or lined paper of different sizes
- it can also be in a notebook

I recommend it typed and on a blank paper. My reasoning for that, is that if you will make mistake, or will have to add or remove something, your study guide won't be messy. Same reasoning with blank paper - it will appear cleaner.

It's also a wonderful idea to include a table of contents after you finish your study guide. It helps with several things:
1) you won't be flipping back and forth, dirtying the paper
2) you'll save yourself some time

Good Luck!

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