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votes
Advice on a study schedule for an exam
I have a 14 chapter text book to go through.
So far my plan is to read 1 chapter per weekend ( okay maybe two weekends ) and take solid notes on it.
Weeknights I am usually used up from work and got life to live. My thinking is review what I have already covered then.
My question is how to schedule the reviewing of old stuff so I don't lose it.
Example: If I just finished chapter 10, when would I review chapters 2,3,4...etc?
Anyone have experience with preparing for such a big exam?
Do you have access to previous exams? Are they standardized in any way? Mixing those in among reviewing the study materials can be very helpful.
For a big exam (technically 5 different exams over 2 days) I did in April I went back like 8 years and did all the exams a couple of times through
This is the way Ive always had to do it
The people who write exams just think so differently from me that no amount of studying the actual material will help me pass an exam, the things I study are never on the exam its always the stuff I didn’t think was important.
I sat for a nursing exam one time and one of the questions was about what temperature water I should use to wash my hands. I’m sure that was written somewhere, but its not something I thought to try and remember. I got it right cause the answer is ‘warm’ but damn.
Thankfully Ive never had to sit for an exam for which there were no practice exams available.
I recently had to study for a large certification exam (8 modules spread over 3 textbooks) and did the following to study/review:
Today I learned of Pocket Prep. Thank you.
I am very happy the text book I bought comes with a URL for prefabbed flash cards. I tried rolling my own once for Anki/Scheduled-Review flashcards. Oh man, it was a lot work to just make a few.
That's a long enough gap to potentially cause you some trouble, IMO. Spaced Repetition is the key.
For myself, if I have a large corpus of text to digest, I read through it several times, and only take my final notes on the last pass. I've found that a few informal, low-stress passes, where I read for the fun of it, gives my brain a chance to chew on things even if I'm not actively thinking things, so that by the next read through, the more salient parts pop out from the pabulum. Also, it allows me to 'study' when I'm not at 100%, which is pretty important as a working adult with more things to do than time to do them.
To use your example, I'd start reading, and stop when I hit the point where my lack of understanding of what came before impedes my ability to follow along with where I'm currently at in the material. If that's past the first section, that's fine. If that's only halfway through the first section, that's fine too; it is where it is. Once I hit that point, or if I am just too tired at that moment to continue, I stop for the day. The next time I start back up (no more than two days later), I start from about a third of the way back from where I was, and carry on. Rinse and repeat until I've finished my first pass. By this point, I'll know where I need to focus, and then I repeat the same process until I have dealt with all the 'I really don't get this' sections. Then I do my final notes pass.
A word on notes while I'm at it- I almost never look at them again once I've finished making them. The value is in actively thinking about what to write down, and thinking deeply about what you're writing as you create them. The act of writing itself is a strong mnemonic. Once done, they've served most of their purpose simply with their creation.
That is what I trying to find advice on. How to schedule spaced repetitions for retaining what I've worked on. The only place I see "spaced repetition" mentioned is for flashcards ( and I don't want to make them ).
The first review of the material should be within a day, two maximum. The next loop 2, 3 days is fine. Slowly increase the spacing to whatever works best for you, in my case, after the second or third review, I can go to weekly or longer, depending on my work schedule.
I approach them with one segment per week, so like 1 chapter with three sections gets three weeks. Then a month at the end to synthesize/connect/final review, and hit practice exams to shore up weak points before testing.
I would do the initial read when you have downtime and review/related exercises through the week for probably an hour a day. This is the sort of thing that does require sacrificing time spent on other interests, so I would see where you can shift time reasonably to study.
So you read/take notes on 1 chapter a week and on week 4 you use the weekend to review the 3 chapters you did that month?
That is my thinking so far. I often don't get time to study until the end of my evening. I have had my day, I'm used up, and I don't want to read/take notes. On the other hand, active reviewing tasks like small programs, taking quizzes, reviewing old quizzes, flashcards, and reviewing prefab chapter summaries seems much more appealing during those times.
No. If I have one chapter with three sections, each section gets a week, depending on how many chapters. I give a month between when I finished the last of the reading to when I take the exam to focus on shoring up my knowledge so I have a month of focused review.
I try to do most of my studying on weeknights so I can decompress on the weekends, I find it let's me avoid burning out too soon, but also don't really go out much.
What would you do if you had 14 chapters? Still allow 3 weeks per chapter?
Probably pare it down to a week a chapter, a unit a day with time for broader review at the end.