How to Study

What to Do After Class
As soon as possible after your class, review your notes, fill in the
“blanks,” mark down questions you need to research in your text or
ask during the next class, and remember to mark any new assign-
ments on your weekly calendar.
How to Study
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I tend to discourage recopying your notes as a general practice, since
I believe it’s more important to work on taking good notes the first
time around and not waste the time it takes to recopy. But if you tend
to write fast and illegibly, it might also be a good time to rewrite your
notes so they’re readable, taking the opportunity to summarize as you
go. The better your notes, the better your chance of capturing and
recalling the pertinent material.
It is not easy for most high school students to do so, but in college,
where you have a greater say in scheduling your classes, I recommend
“one period on, one off ”—an open period, even a half hour, after each
class to review that class’s notes and prepare for the next one.
If you find yourself unable to take full advantage of such in-between
time, schedule as little time between classes as you can.
“Sleeping in” Isn’t an Option
Even if you diligently apply all of the tips in this chapter, it will all be
moot if you regularly miss class. So don’t! It’s especially important to
attend all classes near semester’s end. Teachers sometimes use the
last week to review the entire semester’s work (what a great way to
minimize your own review time!), clarify specific topics they feel
might still be fuzzy, and/or answer questions. Students invariably ask
about the final exam during this period, and some teachers virtually
outline what’s going to be on the test!
If you must miss a class, find that verbatim note taker who hasn’t
followed my advice and borrow her notes. That way, you get to
decide what’s important enough to copy down. (Some professors
might even lend you their notes. It’s worth asking!)
Chapter 5
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How to Excel in Class
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S
tart any research project by working with the broadest out-
lines or topics (and the broadest resources) and slowly narrow
your focus, getting more and more specific in topic and
sources as you go along.
Encyclopedic entries are usually the most comprehensive and con-
cise you will find. They cover so much territory and are so (relatively)
up to date that they are an ideal “big picture” resource.
And don’t forget to seek out a subject-specific encyclopedia. It seems
there is such a tome on anything you can think of, to wit: Encyclopedia
of Christmas, Charlie Chan Film Encyclopedia, Encyclopedia of
Paleontology, Encyclopedia of the Renaissance, Dictionary of Theology,
A History of Women’s Writing in France, Encyclopedia of Deserts,
Encyclopedia of the Solar System, Encyclopedia of Human Nutrition,
Encyclopedia of Smoking and Tobacco, Historical Encyclopedia of
Nursing, and the Oxford Companion to Food.
Chapter 6
How to Conduct 
Your Research
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If you are writing a paper about a historical or contemporary 
figure, also consider skimming a biographical dictionary or, even 
better, one of the specific volumes in the Who’s Who series, which
ranges from Who’s Who in Art and Who’s Who in American Jewry
to Who’s Who in Vietnam and Who’s Who in Theatre.
Needless to say, new CD-ROMs and reference websites appear
almost hourly. These many current resources should make it in -
creasingly easy to choose a good topic, establish a reasonable thesis,
and gather enough information to construct an initial outline, with-
out having to do any further research.
But completing an A+ paper will still require you to turn to other
sources for more detailed information. You need to read books
written by experts in the field you’re researching, as well as magazine
and newspaper articles about every aspect of your subject.
Why stop there? Pamphlets, anthologies, brochures, government
documents, films, and videos are just some other possible sources of
information for your paper.