Comments on: The Grade Whisperer: Mike’s Pre-Med Nightmare

By: Julie

Julie — Mon, 09 May 2011 03:23:46 +0000

The student that Mike describes himself as during his younger years is an exact replica of me. Although I not yet a university student, only a high school senior, I notice that as a secretary and minutes recorder for different councils and organizations, I am petrified of missing any detail that may lead to the big picture. I’ve been so consumed that I don’t understand this “big question” phenomenon yet.

I’ve been following your blog since April and since then, I can attest to the how much I’ve developed all in part of you. I cannot thank you enough as I continue to venture through your blog to perfect my flaws, just kidding, to approach my academic student experience with intelligence

I always look forward to your new posts.

Thank you very much,

Julie

By: Jose

Jose — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 02:00:13 +0000

*throw*

By: Jose

Jose — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 01:59:26 +0000

I also have this fear of missing details mentioned by the professor. I disagree with the idea that “the majority of the details mentioned in lecture never even appeared on the exam.” For me, it is often missing these little details that lower my performance on the test…you get the feeling of “Oh if I had just remembered that little detail I would’ve gotten a much better grade, life is so unfair, blah blah blah.” Professors are out to make a curve, so how can you say that you should ignore the details??? Basically, my question is that for any test, the professor will through in the “detailed” questions to distinguish the A students from the B students. How are you supposed to get around this???

By: Ed

Ed — Thu, 28 May 2009 01:56:09 +0000

Cal rules!

I applied some of your tips from your books and I managed to get A’s in all of my pre-req course work this year!

Thanks man.

By: Study Hacks

Study Hacks — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:35:30 +0000

As for what I’m responsible for, usually summarizing each article in 1-2 pages and being somewhat intelligent-sounding during discussion.

I wonder if the morse code method would work here…

http://calnewport.com/blog/2008/02/18/monday-master-class-rapid-note-taking-with-the-morse-code-method/

By: Chris Ward

Chris Ward — Sun, 10 May 2009 05:11:16 +0000

What subject? And what are you responsible for each week?

I’m in Information Systems, so a decent blend of CS and various business disciplines. As for what I’m responsible for, usually summarizing each article in 1-2 pages and being somewhat intelligent-sounding during discussion. Occasionally (as in, this upcoming fall) I have a seminar heavy in memorizing methods and formulas (financial economics).

By: Jirka Lahvicka

Jirka Lahvicka — Sun, 10 May 2009 04:27:31 +0000

I second the recommendation of some spaced repetition software. I personally use FullRecall, but there are many applications out there (both free and paid, both simple and complex).

Time to really master the application: maybe 5-10 hours
Time saved during learning: many hundreds of hours so far

It is possible for flashcards to completely replace your notes (you can even create them during lectures if you use a netbook/notebook).

BTW, any software solution is way more efficient than paper cards (measured by time required to actually learn the majority of all the cards), because it takes care of all the card management (scheduling, difficulty rating…).

By: RT Wolf

RT Wolf — Sat, 09 May 2009 14:53:24 +0000

Mike, Have any of you tried learning memory techniques like from The Memory Book by Harry Lorayne? I know Cal’s wary of techniques that require time to master, but for an abnormal situation like yours, memory techniques will be invaluable. I’d say they take about 5 hours to master (from the book) and after that you can memorize short lists in a minute or less.

You brought up an excellent point at the end: “There are minimal differences in the grades produced by obsessively trying to learn every possible detail and trying to efficiently capture and learn most stuff, fast. Yet, these two strategies induce huge differences in the quality of your life. ”

That’s where the 80/20 rule comes in:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle
Which is actually a version of the Law of Diminishing Returns:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diminishing_returns

By: Pratik

Pratik — Sat, 09 May 2009 05:23:26 +0000

Building off the not copying everything down mentality, I have noticed that some people do not understand this. For example, my organic chemistry professor would specifically state “Do not write this down” and I would look up and half the class was still writing down everything that he put up! I don’t understand what these people are thinking by going against someone who is actually gonna write the tests. My advice: listen to your teachers…they know what they are talking about.

By: Pia

Pia — Fri, 08 May 2009 18:57:22 +0000

Another really useful way to deal with courses that have a lot of information dense slides that works really well for me is going through the slides and making a cheatsheet – you write out definitions that are important and mini diagrams that relate information together, which forces you to think about how its connected/what it means and also just how to condense it into its simplest form. Making cheat sheets tends to take me around 45 minutes to an hour for a given lecture/chapter of about 60-70 slides in Neuro/Bio classes, and then you’ve learned what you have to, and you have the cheat sheets to look over before midterms and finals if you have any cumulative tests. I think the reason it works is because it makes you process the information heavily since you go from verbal information -> visual information + verbal information + conceptual structuring, so its a time efficient method that also forces information into your long term memory and connects it to other information so its quickly accessible. Do any of you use this method?