ATAR Notes: Forum
Uni Stuff => General University Discussion and Queries => Topic started by: kenhung123 on January 29, 2011, 09:47:17 am
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Hey guys,
Lots of people on here including myself would soon start school in a completely new environment. In order to get myself prepared I hope I can get some advice as to how to get organised with assignments, tests and the exam. As in VCE I personally learnt the basic theory and then went straight into questions from textbooks, study guides or exams. However, I am not sure if that is the case for uni anymore. If anyone has some advice as to how to prepare your help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance
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What course and/or subjects because I can only speak for science
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Studying for uni is necessarily very different from studying in high school because in high school you can realistically learn the entire syllabus by heart if you want. Yet, sometimes a whole semester of high school will be covered in greater detail in the first two weeks in the course at university. You can't possibly memorise every figure or entire definitions of everything. I find it helpful to make sure I understand all the concepts and everything that was covered in class and then pick out what seems to be the main themes of the course and study what is most relevant to that. Sometimes examiners do surprise you and have an exam question about some footnote from the lecture of week three, but this is really quite rare, usually they'll test on what seems to be the main points of the class.
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What course and/or subjects because I can only speak for science
I guess any science subjects in general in particular chemistry
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Studying for uni is necessarily very different from studying in high school because in high school you can realistically learn the entire syllabus by heart if you want. Yet, sometimes a whole semester of high school will be covered in greater detail in the first two weeks in the course at university. You can't possibly memorise every figure or entire definitions of everything. I find it helpful to make sure I understand all the concepts and everything that was covered in class and then pick out what seems to be the main themes of the course and study what is most relevant to that. Sometimes examiners do surprise you and have an exam question about some footnote from the lecture of week three, but this is really quite rare, usually they'll test on what seems to be the main points of the class.
So Uni is more about learning the key concepts and not every fine detail in the course?
And does that mean there is no longer practice exams and questions as much and mainly understanding concepts only?
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cram a week before exams
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Studying for uni is necessarily very different from studying in high school because in high school you can realistically learn the entire syllabus by heart if you want. Yet, sometimes a whole semester of high school will be covered in greater detail in the first two weeks in the course at university. You can't possibly memorise every figure or entire definitions of everything. I find it helpful to make sure I understand all the concepts and everything that was covered in class and then pick out what seems to be the main themes of the course and study what is most relevant to that. Sometimes examiners do surprise you and have an exam question about some footnote from the lecture of week three, but this is really quite rare, usually they'll test on what seems to be the main points of the class.
So Uni is more about learning the key concepts and not every fine detail in the course?
And does that mean there is no longer practice exams and questions as much and mainly understanding concepts only?
It depends on the subject, but by and large, examiners seem to be more interested in seeing that you understand key concepts rather than you've memorised everything the lecturer has ever said. In any case, because the latter would be very difficult if not impossible, the best you can do to prepare is really understanding those key concepts.
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I've found that the biggest difference from VCE is that the exams are pretty much the same as the tute questions, and match the lecture material almost exactly, whereas in VCE if you were pretty good at doing textbook questions, it didn't mean that you could do well in the exam, but in my uni subjects if you knew how to do all the tute qns the exam is pretty much the same.
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Oh so the study material is mainly in lecture/tute notes and not in the textbook.
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yep^... sometimes you get prac exams but yeah exam is whats covered in lectures but if you want to impress the examiners then maybe the more detailed textbook explanation would be good to know
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Oh so the study material is mainly in lecture/tute notes and not in the textbook.
Lecture notes, there generally aren't tute notes as such. The textbook is basically for finding out something that isn't explained in a lecture or for checking material etc.
The way I studied for my subjects was as follows: print off the lecture notes and take them to lectures to annotate. I annotated really heavily when it was required, it depends on the sort of lecture notes you get (I attached examples of the two extremes). That's just to make sure that I had all of the information required. Nobody can just turn up to a lecture, listen and then get good marks on the exam because there's just too much detail being presented too fast.
So I'd take the notes home and start writing them up in an A4 book. Heading (lecture one etc.) and then go through each slide writing out the information on it, making notes of what was important for the exam etc. It was really important that I did this during semester, starting straight away. That way, when I had a mid semester exam I was prepared and already had revision material. At the end of semester, in SWOTVAC, I'd finish those books because I invariably fell behind. For my 6 lecture a week subject I was playing catchup by about 7 or 8 lectures.
Usually took me ~90 minutes to get down all the detail I needed for a single 1 hour lecture (some are way shorter, some way longer). So if I have 9 lectures a week, that's about 13 hours outside uni studying, which is perfectly manageable.
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2 days before an exam I go through all of the lecture slides and make detailed notes in a book. The day before the exam I do practise questions. 10 minutes after an exam I'm in the pub.
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2 days before an exam I go through all of the lecture slides and make detailed notes in a book. The day before the exam I do practise questions. 10 minutes after an exam I'm in the pub.
I managed to get to end of exams celebration before the finish time of my final exam last semester :D
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Is there a program that allows you to make lecture notes available on blackboard into that sheet print outs that have spaces next to the slides to write notes? I hope someone knows what I mean...
I'd like to change my ~learning style~ this semester. Previously I would download the lecture slides so I could refer to them during the lecture in case the lecturer went too quickly or I missed a detail like a name or something, but write my own notes on my macbook during lectures, then condense them in a book each week as a summary. I think it might be easier to work with my notes AND the lecture slides at once rather than two different things.... bah I don't know if I am making sense but yes program that does this? (free and available for mac)?
:)
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You can print out slides with lines next to them on powerpoint.
As for all that...don't bother. You'll probably be way too busy to make annotations AND take notes AND make summaries every week AND make them into a book. :P
(to nobody in particular:)
Uni study guide:
DURING SEMESTER:
- Go to as many classes as you can
- Make sure you understand the content so that when you read back over the slides come exam time, you won't be completely lost.
- Do practise questions regularly (as you cover the relevant content).
SWOTVAC:
- Go through all of your lecture notes for the next subject and make a detailed summary from start to finish
- Do practise questions up to the afternoon before your exam
- Do last year's exam in the evening.
- Rinse and repeat for each exam.
If you do all that you'll be well ahead of most students and tearing it up. You'll be that busy in uni that you won't have time for anything more and will just mess yourself up by wasting time at the start trying to hold yourself to strict study techniques/routines.
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Is there a program that allows you to make lecture notes available on blackboard into that sheet print outs that have spaces next to the slides to write notes? I hope someone knows what I mean...
I'd like to change my ~learning style~ this semester. Previously I would download the lecture slides so I could refer to them during the lecture in case the lecturer went too quickly or I missed a detail like a name or something, but write my own notes on my macbook during lectures, then condense them in a book each week as a summary. I think it might be easier to work with my notes AND the lecture slides at once rather than two different things.... bah I don't know if I am making sense but yes program that does this? (free and available for mac)?
:)
I think this method sounds the best, and with my 12.5 contact hr/wk it doesn't sound too difficult (if anything it should be relatively easy)
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You can print out slides with lines next to them on powerpoint.
As for all that...don't bother. You'll probably be way too busy to make annotations AND take notes AND make summaries every week AND make them into a book. :P
I would just do annotations, I'd skip the extra notes part and just write revision notes up from the slides and my annotations.
One other VERY important tip: If your subject has a participation mark for part of the assessment, MAKE SURE YOU TRY AND PARTICIPATE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. Losing 10% at the end of the semester makes SO much difference to your final score... (easier said than done, I am so shy amongst all the opinionated arts students ;___;)
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I think this method sounds the best, and with my 12.5 contact hr/wk it doesn't sound too difficult (if anything it should be relatively easy)
Revising at the end of each week is a really good idea, as long as you keep up with it. I only had about 13 hours and managed to fall behind and feel stressed... definitely going to try and improve this semester :) (especially with my language, I never revised that at all...)
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One other VERY important tip: If your subject has a participation mark for part of the assessment, MAKE SURE YOU TRY AND PARTICIPATE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. Losing 10% at the end of the semester makes SO much difference to your final score... (easier said than done, I am so shy amongst all the opinionated arts students ;___;)
How does the participation mark work? Do you have to answer or ask a certain number questions in each tutorial to gain full marks?
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One other VERY important tip: If your subject has a participation mark for part of the assessment, MAKE SURE YOU TRY AND PARTICIPATE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. Losing 10% at the end of the semester makes SO much difference to your final score... (easier said than done, I am so shy amongst all the opinionated arts students ;___;)
How does the participation mark work? Do you have to answer or ask a certain number questions in each tutorial to gain full marks?
It's assessed in a very informal manner - for example, when your in a tute and the tutor is going through questions from the text book, you would put your hand up to answer it or show working out on the board etc.
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So is it basically an all or nothing score e.g. if you occasionally participate then you get the 10% if not 0
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So is it basically an all or nothing score e.g. if you occasionally participate then you get the 10% if not 0
I dunno if it applies to all subjects, but for most it's a no. You can get, for example, an 8%.
But from talking to past tutors of mine, they say that they are really lenient on this. Pretty much if you rock up and at least say something, you'll get full participation marks for that tute.
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yeah depends on the tutor though so maybe if you say something you might get 8 or something
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yeah definitely try not to skip class... a uni lecture is like a school week
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yeah definitely try not to skip class... a uni lecture is like a school week
Or in some cases, half a uni lecture is an entire semester of a year 12 subject, but that's if it's revision.
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Is there a program that allows you to make lecture notes available on blackboard into that sheet print outs that have spaces next to the slides to write notes? I hope someone knows what I mean...
I'd like to change my ~learning style~ this semester. Previously I would download the lecture slides so I could refer to them during the lecture in case the lecturer went too quickly or I missed a detail like a name or something, but write my own notes on my macbook during lectures, then condense them in a book each week as a summary. I think it might be easier to work with my notes AND the lecture slides at once rather than two different things.... bah I don't know if I am making sense but yes program that does this? (free and available for mac)?
:)
I have no idea if Microsoft Office works on Mac (I'm sorry for wasting your time if it doesn't) but Microsoft OneNote can do that. It allows you to "print" anything into a OneNote document as an image, which you can type all over.
In fact I'd recommend it for anyone studying a language-heavy subject (and maths students if you can type formulas quickly I suppose :P) because it's a great way of keeping everything in one place.
It's so simple to use.
(http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/6204/onenote1.jpg)
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(http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/2015/onenote2.jpg)
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OneNote is a brilliant program and one I would be using if I could afford a Macbook
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Any crappy laptop could run it - my $500 eee PC runs it fine (okay maybe a tiny bit laggy)
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But then I wouldn't have a macbook...how can a uni student use a computer that's NOT made by Apple :O
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But then I wouldn't have a macbook...how can a uni student use a computer that's NOT made by Apple :O
Easily.
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But then I wouldn't have a macbook...how can a uni student use a computer that's NOT made by Apple :O
Easily.
Yep.
But if only I had OneNote.
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Do they have the lecture notes book (like printed slides with the lines next to it) for every subject to buy? If so, where do i get them from & when can i get ?
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Very few subjects publish lecture notes, they're generally available as pdfs or ppts on Blackboard
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For maths subjects, the lecture slides can be bought from the University Bookshop (the one next to the Baillieu Library) for ~$15. You can usually buy them in the first or second week of the semester. Your lecturer will inform you of when they are available. Until then, the lecturer will print out notes and distribute them in the first lecture.
But those notes are the skeleton notes; you will need to annotate them. And full, completed lecture slides will not be available on the Learning Management System (LMS).
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As said, none of the subjects in his sig have purchasable lecture notes. Some might have prac notes though (the biology ones)
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As said, none of the subjects in his sig have purchasable lecture notes. Some might have prac notes though (the biology ones)
Yeah I know. I just wanted to add the maths bit in because it is unique and doesn't operate like the usual sciences.
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OneNote is a brilliant program and one I would be using if I could afford a Macbook
I did a quick search and couldn't see a version for mac. I do have Microsoft office for mac but I don't know of there is a version that will work with it... the program looks really good, I want it now...
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As said, none of the subjects in his sig have purchasable lecture notes. Some might have prac notes though (the biology ones)
Very few subjects publish lecture notes, they're generally available as pdfs or ppts on Blackboard
Wait, do you mean few subjects put them up on blackboard or print off? Because if few actually put them on blackboard that sucks so bad :|
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Very few subjects sell collections of the semesters notes.
Almost all subjects put them on the LMS/Blackboard. Most of the time they go up a couple of days in advance but some subjects put them up after lectures.
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Very few subjects sell collections of the semesters notes.
Almost all subjects put them on the LMS/Blackboard. Most of the time they go up a couple of days in advance but some subjects put them up after lectures.
Ohh i see, thanks for the info.
I'll just get used to printing them off myself then !
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yeah definitely try not to skip class... a uni lecture is like a school week
haha, that means ive skipped almost an entire year of school LOL