Study Hacks

This is the seventh blogisode of College Chronicles, a blog-based reality show in which we follow three real students struggling to balance academics with the rest of their life. Halfway though the semester we will stage a study habits intervention to overhaul their student experience. Click here for the full series archive.

A Time for Celebration, Not So Much for Work…

As for last week, it was hectic. My birthday was on the 9th. I had it setup so that Saturday was empty and I could get some hardcore studying done (my friends demanded a party on Sunday.) Instead, it turned out my family had planned a huge surprise for me — my mom flew out from California and arrived Saturday morning. I ended up hanging out with her all of Saturday and most of Sunday. Sunday evening I came home with every intention to work, but my friends had baked me a really awesome cake and we had an impromptu dance party.

Then Reality Sets In…

I didn’t really get any work done over that weekend. This proved to be unfortunate. I had a lot of work to do and it seemed so overwhelming that I started skimping on sleep. Soon I was in the classic sleep deprivation cycle — you’re tired, so you’re stupider and take longer to finish your work, so you wind up even more sleep deprived the next day, and so on.

Once Nyquil Enters the Scene, Things Can Only Go Downhill…

I tend to oversleep, so towards the end of the week I started missing class. I was so tired and felt so overwhelmed, that I ended up procrastinating all day and only working super late at night. This went on until Friday, when I fell sick and then started sleeping constantly. I discovered Nyquil, and ended up being concious for only about 10 hours that weekend.

Today, I woke up and basically feel well enough that I think that the rest of the cold should be gone in maybe 2 days and I can get back to my normal life. This is good because this week is sort of brutal — I have to start producing things at my new UROP [ed: undergraduate research internship] and I haven’t even learned C++ yet. I also have 3 psets and a research project proposal due.

Lessons Learned…

In summary, what I learned over the last week: I can’t skimp on sleep. Studying in my room is not effective; people keep wanting to talk or get medicine [ed: everybody loves Nyquil] from me. I have to eat right and excercise. (I actually started taking pilates and yoga and excercising in the morning with my friend last week). And, attend all of my classes! Which should be facilitated by going to bed on time.

A Brave Concession…

And yes, I will even attend probability lecture, which, for all intensive purposes, seems completely worthless.

This is the sixth blogisode of College Chronicles, a blog-based reality show in which we follow three real students struggling to balance academics with the rest of their life. Halfway though the semester we will stage a study habits intervention to overhaul their student experience. Click here for the full series archive.

Even Sickness Can’t Damp Jake’s True Party Spirit…

This week went surprisingly good as well, despite the fact I was sick for a few days. I finally determined which class I want to drop. I was able to get all of my problem sets and assignments done with confidence. I played in yesterday’s rugby scrimmage; which we won. And yes, I was able to go out during the weekend without any “work” conflicts.

Jake Ponders the Big Questions…

I talked with my advisor about possibly starting a research project. I’ve hit a bit of a crossroads in what I want to do in life. Part of me wants to go to a top grad school and do research in the areas of computer science that seem interesting to me. Another part of me doesn’t know if I really wants to set aside 4-6 years of my mid-twenties on a meager salary, working long hard hours for a degree that I may very well never get.

Jake’s Confidence Breeds and Ambitious Schedule…

Judging by the fact that I’ve been able to get my work done pretty easily thus far (although it’s only the beginning of the semester), I should have enough time to do rugby, take five classes, do a research project, and join another group I’m interested in: an entrepreneur’s club here on campus.

This is the fifth blogisode of College Chronicles, a blog-based reality show in which we follow real students struggling to balance academics with the rest of their life. Click here for the full series archive.

A Good, Busy, Inebriated Start…

So my first week of classes, while a little hectic, was actually pretty successful. My entire days have basically been going to class and working from 9:00am to 9:00pm to keep up while I decide which classes I’m going to stick with. Even with this temporarily heavy workload, however, I’ve managed to still go to Rugby practice and get plastered 3 nights this week. It could have actually been 4, but I was a little burnt out one of the nights, so I just chilled in my room for that evening. [ed: wimp!]

A Plan Develops…

This week I’ll focus on getting the first round of problem sets and readings in my classes done well, while still going to rugby practice. I’ll also drop one of my classes and look for a club to join that I may be interested in.

Wisdom Learned…

One: I’ve really noticed the importance of getting a laptop for taking notes, even for my technical CS courses. Two: My advisor introduced me to an advanced-level class I may be interested in taking…I would never have come across had I not made it a point to meet with my adviser.

This is the fourth blogisode of College Chronicles, a blog-based reality show in which we follow real students struggling to balance academics with the rest of their life. Click here for the full series archive.

A Brutal First Week…

[Friday, Sept. 7] It’s Friday afternoon, and this is the first large chunk of freetime I’ve had since Tuesday [the first day of classes at MIT]. This is somewhat terrifying, because I wake up at 6:50 AM and go to bed at around 1:30 AM.

But Things are Looking Up…

I’m pretty excited for the weekend, however. After the busyness of the last couple days, I’ve emptied Saturday (except for breakfast with a friend) to really get a nice chunk of my work done and figure out my final schedule for the term. I’m also very excited about making up my sleep deficit.

My classes look really cool this term, so I’m excited about that. One of them has amazing course material, so I’ve actually already been reading the textbook for fun. One of my classes seems like it may take more time than I thought it would mostly because neither my Lecturer or my Recitation instructor seem to be very effective with the material, meaning lots of quality of time with the textbook.

Leena’s Anti-Insanity Prescription…

I think that the most important thing I’ve learned this week is that I absolutely need around 1.5 hours of free time to myself in a day, because otherwise over extended periods I’ll feel like I’m going insane.

This is the third blogisode of College Chronicles, a blog-based reality show in which we follow real students struggling to balance academics with the rest of their life. Click here for the full series archive.

Meet Leena

Leena* just started her junior year at MIT and she needs the new semester to go well. True to its reputation, MIT’s brutal pace recently extracted its due:

Last term I sort of had a meltdown during my finals week. I changed my major, quit my job, and decided to go premed. So I really need to do well this term

To stave off another academic disaster, Leena knows where changes will have to be made:

I have abysmal study habits. I don’t attend class particularly regularly. If I do go, I take notes…but then never actually look at them again. I tend to start studying for tests maybe 2 days before I take them, and I tend to start homework either the day its due, or the day before the day its due. When actually studying, since I start so late and am so stressed, I don’t do a very thorough job.

MIT culture is notorious for encouraging students to get by with terrible habits. “You started at midnight? Loser. I started at 2!” But, as the story so often unfolds down here on the Charles, this only can last for so long.

It somehow managed to work for a while until last term, when I took a particularly heavy courseload which, with my study skills, I just flat out could not handle.

Time For a Change

I bought How to Become a Straight-A Student this summer and am going to do my best to apply some of the methods. I’ve been practicing using the 5 minute time management method…I’ve used it consistently for 2 weeks now, and I’ve noticed that I’ve become much more realistic about what I can accomplish in a day, so I wind up a lot happier with what I do accomplish.

In a perfect world, my academic life would be one in which I didn’t pull all nighters and I felt prepared when I walked into exams. I think that I would be really happy if I could honestly say that I was doing the best that I could be doing, and that was resulting in good grades without intense sleep deprivation or depression.

Stay Tuned…

Will Leena’s new found appreciation for tactical studying repair the damage of her spring meltdown? Can the MIT beast be tamed without all-nighters? How will her life change after our mid-semester academic intervention? Stay tuned this fall to find out.

* not her real name

This is the second blogisode of College Chronicles, a blog-based reality show in which we follow real students struggling to balance academics with the rest of their life. Click here for the full series archive.

Meet Welton

Welton is a rising junior at Harvard, where he studies linguistics. He’s no stranger to diligent school work:

“The key to my studying is taking excellent and well-distilled notes from lecture and discussion section, as well as on all the required readings. It’s a ton of work initially, but for me, the payoff is enormous.“

An Old-Fashioned Studier

Welton admits that he often defaults to brute force tactics to make the grade:

“One strategy I use a lot when studying for tests is ‘rote review.’ For two classes last semester…the only way I could think of to tackle this was to sit in the library for about 12 hours each day (with requisite breaks) and go through all my notes, memorizing as much as possible. “

A Full Schedule

Will Welton be able to keep up in the new semester? His time-consuming tactics may have gotten him this far, but this fall his slate of activities includes:

1. Editing a quarterly magazine
2. Doing research with a professor
3. Remaining active in an undergrad political organization
4. Begin preparation for the LSATs

“Ideally, I’d be able to get everything done with less caffeine and more free time!”

Stay Tuned…

Stay tuned, this fall, to see how Welton handles this challenge during the first half of his semester, and, also, to discover what will happen after his mid-semester academic intervention.

This is the first blogisode of College Chronicles, a blog-based reality show in which we follow real students struggling to balance academics with the rest of their life. Click here for the full series archive.

Meet Jake

Jake* is a rising junior at Tufts, where he studies computer science. Defying the tradition of geekdom that permeates the major, Jake also plays for the Tufts Rugby team and enjoys partying as much as (if not more than) the average undergrad.

To date, Jake’s study habits have served him well. A believer in the How to Become a Straight-A Student method, he describes:

“[I use] a calendar to schedule out blocks of time, then make a time sheet to
follow for the day. When I am taking a liberal arts course, I use the quiz and recall method. I also use mega problem sets when taking a math or science course.”

A Rocky Start

Things weren’t always this smooth for Jake. In the preceding years, he experienced both extremes of the college academic experience:

“My freshman year, I was all about the grind, and barely went out. I got a good GPA, but I pretty much had no social life and a botched activity sheet with only one activity that I later quit.”

“My next semester, I did the exact opposite. I tried to pledge the most party-hard fraternity on campus, joined the rugby team, took fewer classes and focused on my social life. And my grades plummeted that semester. So much that I had to stop pledging the fraternity to bring them back up.”

“Last semester, after I started really applying [the techniques from How to Become a Straight-A Student], I went out more than I did even in the fall of my sophomore year, took the most intense course load I’ve taken thus far and I wound up with a 3.8 for the semester, better than either my freshman fall or spring GPA.”

An Ambitious Plan

Jake’s ambition for the new school year year is to push his new found skills to their limit. His goals for the semester:

1. “I want to enjoy my classes a lot more.”
2. “I want to be well-known in the CS department”
3. “I want to be involved in one or two activities that I enjoy, possibly holding an officiating position in one of them. If I could fit in the time, I’m will start a business and manage that through the school year.”
4. “I don’t want to have to turn down the opportunity to go out on Tuesday/Thursday/Weekend Nights because I had too much work to do.”

Stay Tuned…

Can Jake make the impossible possible, and realize this ambitious mixture of goals? Stay tuned this fall to find out how he fares, and, also, to see what happens after our mid-semester academic intervention.

* not his real name.

As hinted at earlier, this fall we are kicking off a new series here at Study Hacks titled: College Chronicles.

The premise is simple. For the first half of this semester, we will be following the academic travails of a small number of Boston-area colleges students. We will learn, firsthand, of their struggles to balance studying with a social life and extra-curricular interests.

Then comes the makeover.

Halfway through the term, your humble host will stage an intervention. Throwing years of advanced study tactic research at the students, I will attempt to overhaul their habits and improve their student life. Will it work? You’ll find out, as we follow them in the aftermath of the upgrade, in their march toward the dreaded finals.

The drama begins this week! The first blogisodes, introducing our main characters, will be posted over the next few days.