Before Attending Lecture:

1
Study Tips
by Masa and Renee

• Before Attending Lecture
• There is one thing you can do to prepare to stay
  focus and enjoy listing to the lecture. However,
  I have written down two methods. The only way to
  know which method is best is to try them both
  first for a week and then stick to the method
  that you feel comfortable to practice for the
  rest of the quarter
• Read through the Lecture Notes I believe that it
  is always a great idea to know what the professor
  would be talking about for that day by going
  online and looking at the lecture notes. If you
  find anything confusing or thought provoking, you
  can remind yourself to listen closely to those
  parts during lecture. In addition, you can ask
  the professor during lecture. I will guarantee
  you that not only your classmates will see you as
  an intelligent student (which you might already
  happen to be), but above all you would be making
  an impression toward the professor (which you
  probably have not done).
• Skim through the assigned readings I believe
  this method provides students the same benefit as
  reading through the lecture notes. However, I
  believe this method is best for those students
  who either forgot to print out the lecture notes
  or lookup online before lecture starts (I follow
  this method often). The main thing that students
  gain from doing either of the methods is that it
  makes the students mind alert and think without
  any surprise once the lecture begins.

2
Study Tips
by Masa and Renee

• Before Attending Lecture (continued)
• (1) Read through the Lecture Notes
• In doing so, the student can focus looking at the
  professor rather than reading along the lecture
  notes during class (you might be tempted to read
  ahead because may be you cant stand the
  professors pace of lecturing on the current
  slide and want to find out immediately the
  exciting information presented in the next few
  slides).
• If you have forgotten either to read through the
  lecture notes or to skim through the assigned
  reading, I suggest that you to write your notes
  on a separate sheet of paper. In doing so, you
  will gain the same benefit as the student who has
  prepared before attending lecture. Simply put,
  you would not be distracted in reading the text
  or looking at the figures in the lecture notes.
  It is always important to have your eyes on the
  professor as well as the lecture notes presented
  in front of the class.

3
Study Tips
by Masa and Renee
II. During Lecture If you printed out the
lecture notes (if the professor has them online),
I believe its best for you to write your notes on
those lecture notes. In doing so, you will see
your notes written down in comparison to the
professors notes typed on the paper. However, I
suggest that a student should write his or her
notes on the lecture notes after having read over
it (in other words the student has done Bring
a digital/ tape recorder (optional) This enables
you to catch the important stuff that you might
miss while you are busily writing down what the
professor is saying. These recordings will help
you keep track of which concepts the professor
took more time explaining and thus which are very
important for the midterm or final. Lastly,
after you look it up in the book, recording
lectures allows you to go back at a concept that
you were originally unsure of and hear what the
professor is saying about it.
4
Study Tips
by Masa and Renee

• After Attending Lecture
• There are three things that you can do to prepare
  yourself for upcoming discussion sessions or
  examinations. You are not required to fulfill
  all three of them, but the three methods would
  certainly make your studying interesting. (1)
  1. Refer to the Text Book
• I believe the text book is a reference book.
  Students should read the text book if they find
  some information hard to understand (I find
  always everything hard to understand). The
  assigned readings that the professor post on the
  class website for students to read is not exactly
  what the professor would be testing. Instead,
  the professor would like to test the students
  based on the lecture materials. This means
  however that the information presented in the
  text may turn up during lecture and this
  information may not have been typed into the
  lecture notes (or even if the text book
  information is presented in the lecture notes it
  might be incorporated in a statement in the
  summary page or in the introductory page of the
  lecture notes). That is why I believe it is best
  for students to follow Before Attending Lecture
  (1) Read through the Lecture Notes and After
  Attending Lecture (3) Refer to the Text Book.
  Text books are another form of resource!
• 2. Recopy the Lecture Notes
• I believe its a great idea to recopy the
  lecture notes. One of the benefits is that
  students will have not only the professors
  lecture notes reproduced but also their lecture
  notes incorporated into an organized fashionable
  way. Rewriting also makes the students mind
  think and remember the information presented in
  the lecture notes. Practice makes a difference!
  
• 3. After doing these things, concept map it to
  previous lectures to see a pattern emerging that
  links together all the main conceptual themes. 4.
  look at previous exams that have topics from the
  lecture you just learn from that day. This helps
  me see a pattern of what the teacher likes to
  focus on a particular concept and he wants you to
  thouroughly understand it.

5
Study Tips
by Masa and Renee

• If you have any questions, mark it () and go to
  the professors office hours or bio department
  tutoring
• I believe talking to the professor is a great
  way for you as a student to get the answers you
  need to your questions (The fastest and easiest).
  
• This also gives you a chance to get to know your
  professor and vice versa. They will see that you
  are a hard-working student has taken in your
  class. Establishing this kind of relationship
  will help you later on when you ask for a letter
  of recommendation.
• Do practice problems
• You can get these from previous exams or weekly
  worksheets from the free bio department tutoring.
  
• The best thing to learn a material is by
  interacting with it. The more practice you get,
  the better. You cant just read something and
  expect to understand it fully. You have to
  understand it from every possible way. You should
  also anticipate how it can be asked in an exam.
  Doing worksheets and practice exams with relevant
  questions from that days lecture are a big help.
• Also, in previous exams and worksheets, you
  start to see a pattern of what topics and
  concepts the professor likes to focus on and he
  wants you to thoroughly understand for a test
• In addition, they give you a measure of how well
  you can do when you need to take the real test..
• You can go to previous years website (through
  eee.uci.edu/05s/05300/) to see whether or not the
  professor has any old examinations.

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Study Tips
IV. Other Successful Tips Always keep up
with the course load Give yourself at least 2
weeks for every midterm/ final2 days for every
quiz For midterms and finals, you should be done
studying 2 days before the midterm. You should
already know everything from the lectures and the
reading. This time should be used just to concept
map and recalling everything from memory. Do
practice tests, previous years exams, and bio
department worksheets. You should feel really
calm and relaxed during this time. Most of the
people in the class probably has not started
studying until 2 days before a test, anyway, and
are scrambling like crazy. Save any in-class
assignments, discussion section worksheets, or
quizzes When it is time to study for
examinations, it is best for you to solve the
type of questions presented in these worksheets
because I believe the problems reflect the kind
of exam questions. Also, it serves as a back
up in case your grade is recorded wrong. Dont
discard anything graded until you received your
grades for the quarter. Compare your Lecture
Notes with other students I believe that
students should wor together to succeed. While
one might find some things confusing, the other
student may find such things easy to understand
and explain. The other student can share his or
her lecture notes to the one or better yet the
other student can teach the one which I believe
will make the other student remember more. Best
of all, friendship can be established!   . There
are many other survival tips that I have which I
did not write on this paper. Furthermore, there
are other strategies to be successful in Bio 99
(getting an A) that you might be using that I
have not mentioned here. The important thing to
remember is to enjoy studying and use the method
that you feel comfortable practicing