STUDYING SUGGESTIONS

Here are some questions and suggestions that may help you prepare for exams like the ones you take in COM 270.

1) When you study, do you leaf through your notebook? If so, you may not be learning the material. Instead you may be learning where the material is in your notebook, which is helpful only if you're studying for an open book test. Here's a better strategy. Write down all of the main concepts on a piece of paper. Then on separate paper, define each concept, describe how it is related to other concepts, AND how it is different from other concepts. (In multiple choice tests, part of your success comes from understanding the distinctions among similar concepts. If several answers to a question seem correct, you probably don't know the definitions of the concepts in enough detail.)

2) Do the concepts seem like a laundry list of terms? They shouldn't. No concept is independent of the others. It may be helpful to separate concepts in to major ideas or theories and their components. For example, Agenda Setting is a process. Like any theory, it has one or more purposes. And it has components or parts. Can you describe the process? Do you know what the theory attempts to do? And can you name and describe its components (e.g. Public Agenda, Gov. Agenda, etc.), and describe how they are related to each other?

3) Do you study with friends? Study groups can be useful if other members help you recall or find information you don't remember or have in your notes. Study groups can be detrimental if you don't stay on task. (Many students say they studied for 4 hours, when they actually sat at a table with friends and talked for 3 hours and studied for 1 hour.) They also are not helpful if you mistake listening to someone else read their notes for learning the information yourself. If you study in a group, I recommend you give each other written tests. Ask a question, then have everyone write a brief answer. Then discuss and compile the answers into one good set of information about that topic. It's very easy to listen to someone else describe a concept or relationship, and then say, "Yea, I knew that."

4) Do you look over the material at least once a week? As I said on the first day of class. The more time that passes between learning information and recalling that information, the less you will be able to retrieve from memory. If you don't look at information for two weeks, you'll probably remember only about 50% of what you originally learned. (And of course, if you were distracted in class, you didn't learn 100% of the information in the first place.) It is very important to review material more often than at exam time. Students who wait to study are trying to re-learn half the material. Students who study regularly have to re-learn as little as 10%. They therefore have the opportunity to learn new information and to better understand what they have already learned. Remember, everyone is competing for grades.