How to Study

From your textbooks: Working from your textbooks, you should
identify the main ideas, rephrase information in your own words, as
well as capture the details with which you were unfamiliar. Take brief,
concise notes in a separate notebook as you read. You should write
down questions and answers to ensure your mastery of the material,
starring those questions for which you don’t have answers so you can
ask them in class.
In class: Class preparation is the key to class participation. By read-
ing material to be covered before class, you will be able to concentrate
and absorb the teacher’s interpretations and points. Using a topical,
short sentence approach or your own shorthand or symbols, take
notes on those items that will trigger thematic comprehension of the
How to Study
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subject matter. Your notes should be sequential, following the teacher’s
lecture pattern. Review your notes at the first opportunity following
class. Fill in any blanks and add your own thoughts.
In the library or online: What’s the difference between taking
notes at the library or working at home with library books or those
you’ve found online vs. your own textbooks? Sooner or later you’ll
have to return library books (if you’re allowed to take them out at all),
and librarians tend to frown on highlighting them. And unless you plan
to print out every Web page you find and wield your magic highlighter,
you need an effective system for taking notes right from the source,
whether it’s a library book or Web page.
Score: Are your note-taking skills sufficient to summarize the 
necessary data from your textbooks and capture the key points from
classroom lectures and discussions? Do they allow you to get the
information you need from a variety of sources, prepare detailed 
outlines, and write good papers? Give yourself an A. If you feel you
are deficient in any one of these, give yourself a B. If notes are what
you pass to your friends in class, give yourself a C.