Study Hints

• Read the textbook, and read it more than once.
  • Technical material cannot be fully appreciated with just one reading.
  • The most successful students quickly read a topic before it is covered in class and then more carefully after the lecture.
  • Going to lecture unprepared could turn out to be a waste of your time.
  • When I read technical material I have paper and pencil available so I can derive for myself whatever I do not quite understand. I also take notes, especially of numbered equations.
• Do not overestimate how much you know.
  • If have been studying with friends but have done poorly on exams, you may benefit from more time studying alone.
  • Sadly, many students feel that they "know how to do the homework problems" and then are disappointed with their exam results.

• Be prepared for exam problems that are different than homework problems.
  • An instructor will set exam questions than differ from homework problem to check whether students have tried to understand the material not merely learned to do the problems covered in homework.
  • In your career, you will need to solve problems unlike anything you've seen before. Courses where the exams and homework are very similar do not prepare you for this.
• Do not rely too heavily on practice exams.
  • If you have trouble on a practice exam, this may indicate a need to reread the textbook or review your notes not just study the solutions to the practice exam.
  • Learning to do the problem on a practice exam is not, by itself, adequate preparation for the real exam.
  • If you are well prepared for an exam, then you can do the problems on the practice exam and know that you have done them correctly without looking at the solutions.

• It is a sad fact, well understood by instructors but not students, that many students can do well in a course and yet remember little of what they have learned by the time they take the next course.
  • Students who study by learning to do problems without trying to understand the more basic concepts will forget most of what they have learned within a few weeks of the final exam.
  • Memorizing the steps used to solve homework problems is not the same as understanding the reasoning behind these steps and will not prepare you for exams, for the next course, or for your career.
• Technical courses build upon prerequisite courses.
  • If you are having trouble in this course, the problem may inadequate understanding of prerequisite courses.
  • You may need to review the material in previous courses.
  • For courses in your major, often it is a good idea to keep the textbooks after the course is finished.