# Reading for a degree. Input appreciated.



## low (Sep 27, 2009)

My background: I'm going to be (re)starting my degree next year after I do a year of college. I'll be studying biomedical sciences. I passed the first year previously but that was some time ago now (it's taken a long time for me to get back on track). I basically want to start over and move away to a university away from home, I studied at a local campus last time (I hated it). I have the credits to get in already but I wanted to do a year of math and chemistry to help with my foundation understanding and writing out formulas especially. 

Because I basically have no commitments (very little work, still get payed which is nice) and nothing to do (no social life) I am in a situation where I can devote myself to a lot of study. 

Anyway, I was once told by a lecturer that you are meant to read around 40 hours total a week when studying for a degree (minus your lecture time). That's why they used to call it reading for a degree. 

So my questions were: 

1) How much do you read for your university studies weekly and what kind of split, if any? 

2) Out of that, how much do you revise previous subject matter and how often do you come back to it? 

3) What are your main types of reading? Textbooks, notes, flashcards? A type of mix?

4) Do you use any other types of revision aides or useful techniques?

So for example. 

1) I basically decided to go with 7 subjects for now. I've been doing like so:

Mon - subjects 1, 2, 3
Tues - subjects 4, 5, 6
Wed - subjects 7, 1, 2
Thurs - subjects 3, 4, 5
Fri - subjects 6, 7, 1
Sat - subjects 2, 3, 4
Mon - subjects 5, 6, 7 etc...

Half an hour each generally starting around 2 or 3 o'clock at the library (I wake up too late, trying to phase in waking up earlier). Mostly textbooks. Five minute breaks in between subjects. I'm trying to build up the time.

2) I'm really not sure if I'm doing this the optimal way. I'm basically going at a slowish pace trying to grind in information, re-reading quite often. Then going on to a new topic 2 to 3 sessions later most times. Even then I'll randomly come back and skim over, making sure I don't forget anything. The idea is to commit things to long term memory so they become more automatic. I could use some input here. I'm not sure if I would be better off learning new things most days with shorter revision once every one or two weeks. Last time I forgot most things after 3 weeks but I'm not sure how much of that was due to my mental state at the time. I had SA, depression, insomnia...not good for cognitive function.

3) I mainly use textbooks for their detail. Moving onto notes when I think I really have understanding down. I don't write things out so much, sometimes randomly, more for recall or a different way of revising ('switching off' / boredom factor) than revision taking notes.

4) I'm trying to be more interactive and subconsciously recall information rather than just sit and read books. I use my ipod ALOT. I use apps, interactive models where you can zoom in and out, and watch lectures as such from a programme called Khan academy and a couple of different universities who put their lectures up as podcasts. I like this personally because it's a different way of absorbing information and a bit more fun. I spend at least half an hour most days on this. Other times I might spend 3 to 4. I should probably have more of a set routine here and keep the random factor for if I travel on a bus etc as well.

Please share yours and give me advice if you feel like it. I'm totally open and interested in any pitfalls I might be making or anything I can change round to be more efficient.


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## IntrovertGirl (Apr 17, 2006)

Your studying techniques sound fine to me. Everyone learns differently. My suggestion to you is that you maybe study slightly less, and think about spending time developing contacts and communication skills. I don't know what your goals are, but unless you're studying to become a doctor or academic of some sort, excessively efficient studying may not be worth it.


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## marenubium87 (Jan 11, 2009)

I would also consider the Zeigarnik effect for when you schedule your breaks.


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## Belshazzar (Apr 12, 2010)

low said:


> So my questions were:
> 
> 1) How much do you read for your university studies weekly and what kind of split, if any?
> 
> ...


1. I read a metric ****ton, but I was a liberal arts major. I don't know how much I read for studies and because I'm also a major nerd, some books I read on my own ended up going into research papers and some books I read for research papers I re-read because they were interesting. I'll just say that last semester, the books I had read literally made a stack taller than me, and I'm not short.

2. Depends on the course. Once again, major nerd here, so a lot of material in class popped up again in stuff I read outside of class and vice versa. Also, classes with pre-reqs often did a quick review of prior material, and, even if it was just one lecture, that was usually good enough.

3. For psychology, mostly academic journals and texts. For history, mostly books, historical documents, journals, and other various texts like ethnographies.

4. One thing I like to do for courses that require lots of memorization of straight factual information is to re-read the chapters and, as I go along, make a "cheat sheet" of the important concepts and vocabulary, then study from that. Also, for the occasional essay test, I tried to guess which topics the prof considered the most important (i.e., most likely to be an essay) and then guess the question and make a short outline of an argument. If the prof assigned one text that argued for a monetarist explanation of the Great Depression and another that argued for a Marxist explanation, you can bet there will be a question asking: "Compare and contrast the monetarist explanation of the Great Depression with the Marxist explanation."


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