The WAYS to PREPARE for EXAMS

"Are my ways for studying for exams effective at all?"

I always wondered if it was, but never dared to change. I mean if it really was effective, I would have gotten better grades than what I got last semaster. Maybe there are other things involved like procrastination, which I am working on right now along with other things. The ways I study for exams are not really ways. They are just getting to know the information that I need to know in order to take the test. All I did was read the chapters, go over the notes. Know the details, and what is most likely be on the test. What I always ended up doing was finish reading the chapters the very night before the exam. Because I cram for studying for exams, I get exhausted. After the chapters, I try to review the notes, the actual memorizing part. But nothing really comes into my head, so I tell meself, I need to sleep in order to take the exam, and then the first thing when I wake up, I will memorize all the notes. For a lot of exams that cover broad topics, this is a very hard thing to do. It will get harder for me to keep up with these kind of work ethics as well. So what I planned to do for this upcoming exam on wednesday was graphic organizer and writing my own test questions for CFS 255.

First, the graphic organizer. This was my first time using it, and I got to know how it works on me. It may look messy, but as I was writing the information down and filling in the gaps, I could see how everything works out with each other. In other words, the information in this topic "Language", are all related to each other in someways. I mean there are different subtopics in the one MAIN topic, but organizing the material in this way helps me to remember the materials more clearly, and it is easy for me to go back to it any time I want. One thing I did was that I tried not to get too wordy when I was writing down the information. I knew it would be harder to read and look over when it gets too verbose. Another way it can help me is that when I read the topics and the subtopics, I can remember what is included in them, and I will be able to explain out loud myself, rather than just reading and reading and over and over.

Just take a look at the notes that I take in class.

(It may be the color of the pen that I use, or that I did not organize it better in the short period of time that I am supposed to write all that stuff down?!?!)

But as for me, reading over all that does not really stick in my head. The 20 minute test prep helps me remember them again after each of my classes, since I just wrote them and they are still fresh in my memories. But when I try to go over them the night before the exam or right before I enter into the exam room, they just do not work out to stick to my brain. There are just too many words to read and too complicated to put them all into one thought. That is why I chose to utilize the graphic organizer into my studying habits. They are way more organized, and simple so I can take out the information easily and know what is important and what is not.

Secondly, I made questions for myself to answer. I remember I have done this as well back when I was in 6th grade. I do not know by what means I have done this for when I was that young, but I do remember that it was one of the best test scores I got for that year. So I decided to take that route again and make some questions that I thought might be important to know.

Here I go again with my Self-Made Study Questions. There are 10 questions for CFS 255 Chapter 4. It does not mean that it is a short chapter. And there are no answer sheet. It is either in the textbook, or up in my brain. The way I made the questions, there are no true/false, yes/no answer. They are more like short answer questions, with tons knowledges to put into, and explanations to scribble for. This way, it will help me learn the materials more thoroughly, and makes me feel like I am taking the actual test (even though the exams are multiple choices). I write down my answers at a different sheet of paper. Some of the answers, I knew perfectly, but some of them, I needed a little more thinking and going over the concepts. I think this is when I can utilize a topic outline, so that I can go over to the book and the notes quick. I will consider using a topic outline for the next exam. I think study questions do help because I am asking myself a question, and then I will figure out whether I know the answer to my question. This way, I know what I already know, and what topics I need to study review more.

I understood that I cannot just rely on my professors' notes and study aids. What I need to do is I prepare myself with everything first, and then when it comes to going over my professors' aids, I should know them perfectly.

And even before I make myself a Graphic Organizer and Study Questions, I need to know my materials first. I should have already read my chapters and know what is included in my course notes. Time Management comes into play when I am preparing for exams as well.

Exam Crammer = Exam Jammer

I was a type of student who would wait until the very night before the exam and try to cram everything. It didn't give me a devastating grade, but I knew that it was a very bad study habit. After taking CLS105, I changed my approach to exams. Instead of waiting for the very night before the exam, I studied in a small portion every day with consistency. It was much less time-consuming and effective. As a ex-exam crammer, I knew that the consequence for this kind of strategy was that 1. you are to use all the time during that day before the exam. It's quite true though. When you wait until the very night before the exam, you are probably going to have tons of materials to go over and memorize. However, are you really able to cover everything if you spend a whole day? I don't think so, at least for me. There is a limit to how long I can study in each interval. I would probably start to lose my focus after the third hour of studying. So during that whole day which I chose to cram the exam, I would end of spending all day, 2. but realistically only use eight of that amount.

I would always write down a question or two or even three during every lecture. As those adds up, I would have good number of questions by the time I take the test. Now, like I said, I am no longer a exam crammer. I would study those questions on a daily basis in a very short term period, just enough to make sure I remember the question and answer. Writing down your own exam questions is really effective. Not only does it help you study for the test, but it also assists you in focusing during lecture everyday. Try to think that you must come up with at least 2 good exam-friendly questions by end of every lecture. You will have to listen and you will listen. I know that you can think of this as a additional work added to the loads of work you have, but when you make your own exam questions, it will stick into your head and never come out. By making the study questions for yourself, you are already studying for the exam. So, I don't think of it as a time wasting process. I think it is very effective and efficient and most of all it works!~

Another strategy I would recommend is the Topic Outline. Even for exam crammers, I think this is vital. There is a big difference between a crammer who doesn't have a topic outline and who does. As I have mentioned above, I was once an exam crammer, but I still had a topic outline (which is what saved me from failing all the courses). Topic outline will let you know instantly what to study and where to search the info. Instead of panicking, you can immediately get to the study materials and start studying!

Preparing for an exam

When an exam comes up, I usually study a day or two before the exam. I will stay up until around 3 or 4 a.m., studying the materials that will be in the exam. There will be times when I need to struggle with the textbooks and the notes I took in class, because I do not remember most of the informations that are in front of me. I will then grab the book or the note and just stare at it for a while until I understand or remember what the material is. Making a review sheet or an outline? There was no time for me to make those kind of things. I know that this was not the right way to study for an exam, but I couldn't help it. I do not review the materials that was covered in class and do not study until the last moment.

When I was about to change my way of studying, we learned a strategy about exam preparation. I thought that this was a good chance to change my method of studying for an exam: studying the night before the exam to studying about a week before the exam. Luckily, I have an Astronomy exam very soon, so I thought that i would try the exam prep for this exam, since I need a good grade for this course.

This is one of the materials that will be in the exam, an H-R diagram, which is in the astronomy textbook. It is a diagram that shows the temperature and the luminosity of a star. There is pretty a lot of informations to know in this section, so I made study guides about this diagram. I used two strategies for this section: a graphic diagram and making a question.

The first strategy I used was a graphic diagram. Using the note and the informations from the textbook, I made a graphic diagram about the H-R diagram.

This is my graphic diagram that I made; it might be more accurate to say that it is a summary for the H-R diagram. I categorized the main topics into several parts and wrote them in green. I then listed the details of the topics next to the topic. The details are the definition or the information of the topics. The part that is written in red is an addition information that is related to the material. This diagram helps me to look at the materials and the informations more easily than looking at the H-R diagram and the several paragraphs of informations in the textbook. I memorized most of the informations by just making the graphic diagram!!
The second strategy I used was creating my own exam questions. I made 10 questions about the H-R diagram and some other materials that we learned in class. Based on the previous exam that I took few weeks ago, I tried to made the practice questions as similiar as possible. I wrote the question and wrote several choices that might appear. I also wrote down several traps in the choices. I made up some choices; the red choices are the answer part. This was also a big help to me studying because I could guess the traps that might appear in the exam. Also, I could know the exact answer without being confused with other choices.

By using these two strategies, I was able to memorize most of the materials while making the study guides. Because Astronomy is about the universe and the stars that has great amount of informations, there is a lot of methods and materials to understand and memorize. In the previous exam, I spend several hours struggling with the textbooks and the notes the day before the exam, which was not really effectively. The course did not gave out review sheets, so I also had a hard time studying for the exam. However, with these study guides (of course, I need to make more with other materials), I now can look the the materials more easily without going through the large amount of text and notes. These strategies really helped me study effectively, and will try to continue use these strategies.

Perfect Strategies for Exam Prep!

The graphic organizer (concept map) that I have created for Chapter 15

Due to copyright issues, I cannot take the picture of the questions inside the exam. Take a look at the cover though!

This upcoming Thursday, I have one exam: Chemistry. Luckily, I had this professor last semester and I am used to her types of questions and exam format. What is good about this professor is that she hands out a review sheet with 20 sample questions that is about the same difficulty as the exam questions. Thus, if I was able to solve all 20 sample questions without any trouble, I knew that I was all set for the exam. Although I did well for all the exams during the normal exams, I did not do as well on the final, which got me the B+ at the end. I was hoping that I would receive an A this semester. Then, I was introduced to exam preparation strategy in CLS. The first strategy that I have tried was the graphic organizer. I have used this strategy as I believed that when I was creating this concept map, I am forced to review the materials and see the relationship in that major topic. As I was creating the concept map, I thoroughly went through the textbook and before I knew it, I have already reviewed a chapter which I was supposed to study for the exam. The chemistry exam covers 2 chapters and just in 30 minutes, I have already reviewed half the material and that makes it two times that I have looked at it. I have done the same for chapter 16. When I was done making the concept map, I was visually able to see the relationship between the major topic and the topics that were contained in that major topic; further helping me to understand the materials better and faster. Hence, with the review sheet and the graphic organizer, I have been able to study within shorter period of time.

Another good thing about this professor is that she gives back the exams that we previously took, unlike Biology. Thus, I am able to familiarize with the types of questions that are going to be on the next exam. In addition, I have all the exams from the previous semester, so with all 5 exams that I have accumulated in the past, I was able to see what types of question this professor usually asks. Most importantly, due to the large number of students and limited number of faculty and staff members, the exam is always conducted in multiple choices. Because the course is a factual course, it asks for lots of definitions and understanding the concepts. Occasionally, the professor asks for true & false, and calculations based on given information and equations. So, I am proud of myself that I didn't throw out the exams and have actually kept them as it is being really helpful right now. By having previous exams beside me, I am able to pick out the important materials and the materials that the professor actually emphasizes on. I have never thought of using previous exam as my study aid before taking CLS. Overall, both strategies helped me a lot and even though I would like to use both strategies for all my courses, it is unfortunate that not all of them provide review sheets and hand back previous exams. I guess I'll just take advantage of this strategy in Chemistry only and receive good grades this semester.

Looking for Test Prep Options?

As the Spring Break approaches, I am pretty sure that most of the students are pulling all - nighters to study for the upcoming midterms and writing essays before the relaxing vacation. Just like many students, I also am cramming my brain to study for upcoming exams. From my own experience of last semester, all I did for studying exam was to receive a review sheet from the professors of each course and studied with that study guide. However, unlike last semester in which I received review sheets from all professors, this semester's professors did not give out any review sheets. I was being too used to studying by professors' review guides that I did not know what to do at first when I did not get any review sheets. Thus, I decided to create my own study guide this time: a study guide that fit my style of studying.

Next week is going to be a very busy week for me because I have two exams coming up, which were HOA 106 test and CFS 388 test. And unfortunately, both exams are on Thursday, March 3. :( I could not start studying two days before the exam. I had to start atleast a week before in order to have enough time to study for both tests. Since I had HOA 106 test before CFS 388, I decided to prepare study guides for this first. I used two strategies for this test: the flashcard and a review sheet.

The first strategy I used was the flash card. It was actually easy to make because I could use the slide shows that Professor Ray uploads at the end of every lecture.

As shown in the above image, this is what we received every lecture. The good thing about this slides was that I could print them out and cut each sections. After I cut it, I can fold the middle margin to make it into a flashcard form to study the images and its information. Along with the information provided, I used the blank spaces to write down other contexts of each artworks from textbooks. I carry these flash cards everywhere I go and whenever I have a free time I just look at them over and over in order to memorize them. And because I started doing this at the beginning of last week, which was Monday, I memorized almost all of them.

The second strategy I used was to create my own study guide, a review sheet. The good thing about this was that I was able to study the information as I made the study guide. I was able to organize the chunk of inforamtion by making this. In this review sheet, I put down all names of the artists that we learned in the course. Next to each of their names, I put down their period, their artistic style, and a brief context of each.

Because HOA 106 was about the Arts History, we had to learn a tremendous amount of art pieces, the medium, the periods, and most importantly the artists. The problem was that because there were way too many areas to know, I could not fully memorize the entirely artists. So, I decided to highlight the artists who I think was mentioned a lot in class lectures and in the textbook. Since they were mentioned a lot, I guessed that the highlighted ones would mostly be on the exam. This way I could first focus on memorizing the important ones first and then memorize, or just familiarize the less important ones.

I combined the two strategies to help me memorizing the information more effectively. I first memorized the names of the artists, their period, and style from the review sheet. And with those memorized it was easier to memorize the images in the flashcards because if I knew which artist belonged to which artwork, I automatically knew the period and the style of it. I just needed to look at the images and connect them with the artists. This way, I was able to save more time in trying to memorize all the information.

If you have an exam coming up but did not get any review sheets or study guide from your professor, I suggest you not to panic because you can create review sheets on your own. Although creating the review sheet might seem like time consuming and you might that you can just start studying instead of wasting your time making a study guide. However, it really is not a waste of time because you will realize how you actually remember the information as you organize and put them down in your review sheet.

iExam Prep

This week, we discussed strategies focused on how to prepare for an exam. This is one of the topic that I was really looking forward to, because no matter how hard and long I study and prepare for an exam, I never seem to get a comparable grade for my effort. So, the strategies that will help me to boost my grades? Count me in! I was eager to spend my time with strategies and apply them to my exam preparation schedule.

Since my assignment for next class is to create a source outline and topic outline for a test I will be taking in another course, I decided to apply them to my NSD 225 class and also show how I used it as one of my strategy for this weeks blog. My NSD 225 exam is exactly in two weeks so the timing is perfect for the exam prep project as well. I felt so much more organized and prepared after creating source outline and topic outline. Instead of hunting down the pages and things I need to read, I now have a guideline that will lead me to the pages and handout to prepare for my exam.

Source Outline for NSD 225 Exam 2

The source outline is really helpful because it organizes you. You can identify where the material is that you need to review. Theres no time wasted to hunt down the pages and handouts you need to read and asking friends about the chapter pages. It's also neat and motivates you to really study and finish those pages. I organized the source outline with chapters and general concepts that will be on the test. Because I wrote on the handout itself, it was much easier for me to organize the lecture and handout section of the outline. I know my notes and important thing professor said are in my handouts so I just wrote the general topic there to remind me.

Topic Outline for NSD 225 Exam 2

The topic outline is little different than topic outline because you need to divice the material into sections by topic rather than source. Its still good way to organize your exam prep schedule but topic outline is really about organizing by topic and helps you consolidate the information into one place and by topic. After creating both source and topic outline, I realized that both works really well together and because they are designed to work together, I think it's important to follow the instructions on the textbook and really learn how to use it properly. I follow the sample topic outline posted on blackboard which worked perfectly for my NSD topic outline. The headings and other structures might need a change depending on the subject, but for most of the classes, this sample template is a great start to make your own. For topic outline, I divided each topics and wrote down the chapter, pages, and handout that go along with the topic. This way, I can just cross out or highlight the topics that I'm done with and move on to the next.

The second strategy that I've been using is the 20 minute test prep. I was little skeptical about this strategy at first, mostly due to my laziness, but after trying it out for few times, I was hooked to the idea and its effectiveness. I use 20 minute test prep for my nutrition class. After the lecture, I go over the handout and the notes that I took on the handout. I went one step further and every lecture, I make test questions based on the lecture and notes for that day. This way, I will have a good study guide or study questions before the exam. Here are the study guide that I made for exam 1 using the above strategy.

Test 1 Review for NSD 225

Test 1 Review for NSD 225

Ranking My Priorities

I am sorry, you have to tilt your head sideways to read my picture, it just would not upload on the right angle...

Yes, I do not know what to do sometimes. And, yes, this is how I start to procrastinate. And you know, once I start procrastinating, nothing ever gets done, and it becomes an FAILURE. To stop this from happening every once in a while, I start becoming very friendly with my planner. From my planner, I can tell what my priorities are, and what the little things are that I still need to do. My planner can be utilized in every single, little ways, and I always love to keep it handy, and read it every 2~3 hours to keep everything organized in my brain. Even if I have everything written down on my planner, sometimes I get lost of track what to start working on first. That is because I do not know how to distinguish what is the most important thing to work on, vs. what takes the least amount of time to finish. So, what I usually do not do, I did this certain week, after I learned how to use "Ranking ma Priorities". I highlighted what was the most important and time consuming with RED, showing that that is the RED ALERT. Then, the ones tagged under the green lines are the next important things to do. The ones not colored are the least important things to do for that certain day, and they are the kind of jobs that I just need to start working on, or just skim through. The words that are colored are also important jobs for me, and I just wrote them in color because they are something that I promised myself that I would do.

So I wanted to organize my RANK into one clean chart. I hope you can read this; the dates are written on the left-hand margin, and the ranks, as I ranked A,B,C are on the head margin. I organized everything I need to do for the week into the boxes. In CLS class, Professor Blumin mentioned about utilizing the boxes, the charts to make your information look more organized and alive to you. I utilized that skill into this one, wondering how it would stand out to my own eyes, and guess what, they are clean as a pair of brand new NIKES! They stand out to my eyes, and right when I look at it, my brain starts functioning, telling me what I should work on first, then what's next, and so on. With this strategy, there is no procrastinating whatsoever, since you know what you are doing right now, in the next few hours, and can estimate at what time you will be done. What a useful strategy it is. I put down all my classworks into the boxes, and every box I complete for one day, I can move on to the next one for the time being. What I learned was that work that consumes the most time should be done first, because they are usually the ones that account for more points, or more studying. I used to never think this way. I always liked to finish "easy tasks" first, but unless I want to pull out an all nighter, it is not a good idea, since I get in a hurry to finish the bigger tasks, the more important one. Too bad I do not have the right technology to utilize iStudiez application, but I still like to write myself, and read on the papers. This strategy helped me in a lot of ways, getting my self organized, saving my time, and being able to focus on one subject at a time.

LET'S DO IT!!

First Priority

I can definitely say that all of us here must have experienced a time where they had more than one assignments due for that week. The problem is, can that person finish every assignment on time? I find it quite difficult without proper time scheduling and prioritizing what to do first. Here is how I do it, I will first determine which assignment is the biggest, meaning that which one has most points worth in it. The bigger the work, greater the effect toward my grade will be. Then I will try to get an estimate time consumption on each assignment. There are assignments that can be done in a short time and there are assignments that can consume a lot of time. For me, Chinese homeworks are relatively less time consuming than blogging or writing journal for CLS.

So here is how I prioritized my work for every week. Normally, I will have assignments from each class on a weekly basis. I have workbook assignments for Chinese class, paper assignments for Economics, online quiz for Statistics, and most importantly, blogging and journal assignments for CLS. Now I will priortize them solely based on time consumption level from lowest to highest. Chinese homework takes about half an hour. Online quiz for Statistics takes about fourty minutes. Economics homework takes about an hour. Blogging and journal assignments combined together will take approximately three to four hours. Now, I will priortize them based on how much points it's worth to your grades from lowest to highest. First comes the Statistics as it is essentially a quiz thought it may be treated like a homework. Next is blogging and journal assignments which basically covers up CLS grade points value when major projects and experiments are excluded. Then comes the Economic homeworks where the assignments are counted as 25 % of the grade. Finally, the Chinese assignment comes as last as the assignments are designed to help the student through the course rather than having a high value toward one's grade.

So I combined the time-consumption prioritizing and the grade-point-value prioritizing and reached my final prioritizing tab. First comes out to be CLS (no duh!), then Statistics followed by Economics and Chinese. Now I know what to work on first and what to work on last. I've tried it and it works! CLS takes immensive effort and time and Chinese is a stress-free work. If I was to work the other way around, by the time I reached CLS, I would probably put less of an effort than I would've had when I worked on CLS first. So everybody, start prioritizing!

Yong-Jin's Ranking Priorities

Ranking priority; done on my daily planner


Ranking priority; done on my iPhone

When I sit down on my desk and get ready to begin on my work, I am sometimes confused on which homework I should work on first. It takes a lot of time planning on which work will take the longest and which work is the most important. Luckily, in CLS class, I have explored a strategy called Ranking Priorities. This is a strategy which helped me get going on my work without having to consume a lot of time thinking about which homework I should work on first. Although it is not required, I have used this ranking priority strategy for all my courses, not only 2. I have ranked my work in alphabetical order; A being the most important and next alphabet indicating the next important homework. As well, I have color coded with my highlighter to easily distinguish the rankings. I have used this strategy for the week of February 14 - 20. As far as I have tried it out, it really helped. Even though it took a bit of time and lots of brainstorming of deciding which work was the most important; once it was created, I was able to follow it very easily and efficiently. Not only have I done the rankings on my planner, but I also have created a ranking system on my iPhone as I carry my phone at all times. By setting priorities on my work, I was visually able to see which work I should work on first. Thus, without having to think in your mind which work should be done first, creating a ranking prioritized planner really helped. By following my planner, I was able to get the most important work done first and surprisingly, able to complete all of the work that I had planned for. There was another effect that ranking priority strategy had. As I was working, I found out that there was no procrastinating between homework as I was able to see that I had work to do immediately after completion of another. In summary, the creation of ranking priority had got me going on my homework without any dilemma of choosing which homework was the most important and made me not to procrastinate between each work, thus, being very efficient in both time and work itself. I am going to use this strategy for all my future plannings and hopefully by reading my blog and experience of using this strategy; I think that everyone should use this method.

Ranking the Priority

There are times when I get confused with my priorities. I waste time thinking of what should I do first, and actually do not do anything for a while. I keep on questioning myself, "Do I have to do this first, or that?" There are also times when I do something else first, such as playing game or chilling with my friends, before I finish with my studies and works first. I end up with these situations because I do not acknowledge my priorities. With the knowledge I gain from CLS 105, I decided to try out the Ranking Priorities for this week (from the 14th to the 20th).

I divided the priorities to three groups: A is the most important, B is the important, and C is less important than the others. I than went over my syllabus for all of my classes, and checked what I need to do for the week. (Of course) There were fair amount of homeworks. I had some quizzes and tests to do, and also had 2 exams that I needed to study. When I was ranking my works, I had a hard time deciding which is more important or not, because everything seems important to me. So, I decided to rank the works that counts more in grading. Because the exam takes great amount of a class' grade, I ranked the exams as the most important priority, which goes to the A section. The quizzes and tests, which take fair amount of grades, are also placed in the A section. But, before I study for the exams, quizzes, and tests, I decided to do the homeworks first. Unlike the tests, homeworks have limit amounts, so I can finish the homeworks, and have time left to do the studies. Section B is mostly homeworks or study beforehand. Reading assignment are placed in section C, because they are going to be covered duriing class.

Thanks to the Ranking List, I was able to recognize what I need to do first. As I finished my works one by one, I crossed off the list that I accomplished, so I can know what I did finished. Starting with the A section, I accomplished my works one by one. Unlike when I tried to figure out my priorities in my head, the ranking list really helped me because I could see my priorities with my eyes. It was a big help in managing my time, and I was able to work in an organized way.

Priority Table Chart

At last week's CLS class, we learned about different strategies about problem solving. Among the strategies, which were Is versus Want chart, Cost, Ranking Priorities, and COPER, I decdided to use the Ranking Priorities strategy. However, instead of following the exact direction of the strategy, I decided to mix some of the strategies from past weeks' lectures with the problem solving strategy. Instead of making a list of prioritized works, I created a chart, with the dates and 3 columns of priority A, B, C (A being the most important work).

On the 2/21, Faculty Interview Project is due, which is a high priority. The image shows how that assignment is listed on the A column and 2/21 row. the arrow is then drawn to the 2/18 to remind me to start on the project on that date. The readings are not as important, so they are usually listed on the B or C column.

As shown from the above image, I drew a table with dates on the first column. In each 3 columns after the date column, I wrote down the list of work I had to do. What I did was that if I had Astronomy exam on Feb. 16, I would put down AST 104 Exam down according to how important that is. Since it was very important, I put it on the A section, the highly prioritized section.

The reason why I made this table chart is because I am a visual learner. Because I need to see things visually in order to keep on track of what I am doing, I always look at the monthly calender. The reason why the monthly calender is better than weekly calender is that I can see the whole upcoming assignments in one sight, thus giving me a full idea of what I should be doing in a certain day. So, with this Priority Table Chart, not only was I able to keep in track of what I need to be doing before the due dates, but also I was able to decide which work should be done first. As shown in the picture above, the weeks of Feb. 23 and March 3 are the busiest weeks for me. On the March 3, I have 2 straight exams for HOA 106 and CFS 388. If I don't organize and set priorities of my works, I would not be able to take the 2 exams very successfully because I wouldn't study for the tests very well. By setting priorities and deciding to work on them way before the due dates, I will be able to use my time well and chunk the tasks beforehand to give myself enough time to finish the paper, or prepare for the tests. As I learn more strategies in lectures, I feel that I will know so much by the end that I can make strategies of my own.

iPrioritize

Whether you are a student surviving in college, a editor of a newspaper, manager of a factory, or even a CEO of Apple, prioritizing your work is one of the most important step to take in order to succeed in your field. If you always get your work done in time and have time left to go over them to make it perfect, then there's a good chance that you are using the strategy that involves prioritizing your works. Prioritizing your works not only helps your schedule to be more efficient, but it helps you stay focused on the task you are given. However, if you are stuck in a cycle where you feel like you have a infinite load of works and can't never focus on one thing without worrying about other assignments, there's a good chance that you are not prioritizing your works. Rather you are just finishing assignments one by one hopelessly without efficiency and hoping that eventually you will be freed. If you ever thought to yourself "How in the world am I ever going to finish all these today?", this strategy is for you. This week, I will discuss about the strategy that will help you prioritize your work and make your life less stressed out. Let's take a look.

Before we begin, I recommend you to read my previous post about the planner that I use, because this strategy involves the use of the planner. You can find the posting here. Because I modified the original ranking priority strategy to work with my current workflow, it might not work with your planner or strategy and should only be used as a reference to help you create your own strategy.

First of all, you should have a planner with all of your assignments, projects, and exams with their respective due dates written down. Prioritizing your work require you to examine the due dates, how long it will take you to finish, how important the assignments are for your grade, and requirements to finish the assignments.

*CLS 105 assignments written down, ready to be prioritized*

Once you have your assignments written down, it's time to prioritize them.

Few things to consider when prioritizing your work:

- take a quick look at your assignments

- think about what needs to be done today and what can wait

- don't underestimate the time it takes for you to do your part in a group projects and always finish them early to have time left to go over them

ex) group projects that require your parts to be done in order to move on to the next

- if you know you are never going to tackle certain assignments and find yourself pushing dates back constantly, get rid of it

- don't be afraid of re-prioritize. Things change, so should your planner

- keep your planner simple and focused; only put things that are absolutely important to you

- KISS; Keep It Simple and Straightforward. Make sure your planner doesn't end up as your to do list for everything

*ranking a priority to assignments*

Now it's time to assign priorities to the assignments. There are few options for adding priority to individual assignment. You can add priority when you are initially adding assignments. You can also re-prioritize them later by double tapping the check circle next to the assignment title. As you can see in above image, the ballon menu with option to assign low, normal, high levels of priority appears. Simply choose the priority level for the selected assignment. When you are finished, tap once to check them off from your list.

It's that simple.

*assignments that are given priorities*

(you can see that each assignments have different priorities)

*you can also view assignments in different categories*

(let's you view assignments in due date, courses, and priority)

There are many ways to customize this strategy to fit your current workflow. That's what I did. Whether you are using classic planner, or digital planner on your phone, everyone can take advantage of this great strategy. For example, using the planner on my phone, I can chunk the big projects into smaller tasks that can be done over time and also keeping track of my progress along the way. For the smaller tasks, I can assign them for less priority level and high priority level for the final project which requires greater attention. I applied this strategy for the faculty interview and it blew me away in terms of efficiency and consolidating tasks. Because of my unique way of adapting to these strategies, I have combined three strategies in one unique strategy that works perfect for me: ranking priority, chunking the task, and target planner in one simple planner that's always in my pocket.

*Applying 'chunking the task' strategy into my planner was suggested to me by

Dr. Blumin and helped me to find that last missing piece to make my planner perfect.

Thank you Dr. Blumin for great suggestion!*

How to save and increase your time

Fritter Finder has revealed hidden times that I have had during week days. It may not be as much as empty Friday that I have, but when you begin to utilize them well, it will sum up to be something worth a lot. So what do I do in those short amount of time? Doing home works and projects that takes more than your usual time limit is a bad choice. It is much more effective to review and preview your notes from the previous lecture on this empty time between classes.

Compared to first semester, I am taking more credit hours this semester. My schedule looks very different from last year as the credit hours increased from 13 to 17. After taking several lectures of CLS105, my approach to second semester has been changed drastically. Not only was I enjoying more relaxed and stress-free college life in second semester, I was loaded with extra times! The irony in this is that when I was taking 13 credits in first semester, I thought it was the end of the world. Realistically, I had much more time in first semester, but I just didn't utilize those times very efficiently. Had I known the strategies in the first semester, I'm pretty sure that 13 credit hour schedule would've been as easy as high school.

I have a bad habit of studying the day before the exam. I will cram everything up in the very last night and go take the exam in a half-awake state. Although it may work for some people like me, I know that it is a very inefficient way of studying. On second semester, I approached the exam differently. I put the 20 minute exam prep into practice and experimented with it a little to see if it would actually work. Guess what? 3 A's for all three tests so far! I was amazed. When I took 20 minutes to review the material every day, there really was nothing left to study on the actual test night. Was it because I took easy courses? No! I was already well informed with the material, therefore having no needs to study other than just a little quick review. 20 minute exam prep strategy is, at least for me, the best strategy CLS105 has taught me yet.

Using these notes/jeopardy questions to study for 20 minutes is my current strategy for exams. You won't have to stay up all night cramming up exam materials if you just spend 20 minutes per day to review what you've learned. I never understood what good a review and preview would do to my academic life, but I feel so foolish to not have utilized this strategy in my life until now.

iTime Management

I time management. Yes I learned how to from the past month I have been going to this class. The two strategy that I used is D's and Dues and Target Planner. I always bring around and write important things in my Planner. But when I first started attending this class, my TA told me to write down everything from all my classes, from no. 1 till the end in my planner. I have never done this before, and I thought it would be a great idea to do this, since it will give me heads up beforehand. This was my hypothesis: I will know everything that is going on. I will know when the things are due, when the exams are, and the exact date I have to start them. Everything will be on the palm of my hand. When I study or do my work, I like to stay organized, because it helps me focus and know what is on stake. If I know what I am supposed to do, it is easier for me to stay on task. So what I first did was I wrote down every due dates and exam dates, in my planner until the end of school date. Then on another column, I wrote my "To Do" list for every day. I wrote my "To Do" list a week ahead for every week because that is when I knew what I was supposed to be doing. Things started getting much clearer and easier for me, because I calculated everything that was due everyday and what I needed to do on each of those days as well. Even though I did not have the times estimated, I still had what I had to do in my mind, and all I needed to do was just to put them to work. Like it is posted on my D's and Dues, some days, there are less than two things that I am supposed to accomplish. That can be an easy day, or the time when I really concentrate on one subject. I had a lot of days like that before. But before I started utilizing my planner into full effect, I had no idea what was going on, what I was supposed to do on a particular day. So that led me into wasting my time and energy. Now, it all works out perfectly. I can stay on top of everything I do, and there is no need to waste a single bit of time.

I also learned to use the Target Planner. I utilized this skill in HTW 221 class, which is my major class. There was a project that was due on February 8th. It was a project that was done by researching and writing a paper based on it. I drew the concentric circles and put down realistic dates for my goal. The first circle would have my note, “Write in the planner: HPP#1 due 2/8/2011”. Then I thought it would be a good idea to start the project beforehand. So I gave myself like a week of time to actually do the project. January 31st was when our topics had been assigned to us. That was when I started to think about how I should write my paper, and what I should do with the given topic of mine. Since it was a group assignment, I thought it would help to actually talk to all my group members next time when I went to class. Then February 2nd, after I met my group members shared our emails, and talked about the topic and what each of us should do in class, I started the research. I saved the information I got, and on February 4th, I started writing the actual paper. This was 4 days before the actual project was due. I had tons of time, and I did not want to cram at the last moment, which had always been my problem in the past. I finished my writing probably on Sunday with enough time to talk to my group mates and to revise and go over my writing. On February 8th, it was the due date, and I turned the project in on time. I fixed everything that needed to be fixed and everything was in perfection. I used Target Planner in a good manner and it helped me use my time manageably and everything was done as I planned myself. Utilizing Target Planner will help me stay on point and not waste any time. Just like the planner, it will keep my organized and let me get my work done thoroughly. I prefer using this for any important, big projects or even exams.

Let's Get To Work Agents!

iTime Management

I'm a first year student at Syracuse University, and I have learned a lot of interesting things about college while living on campus. Because of the fact that I'm a full time student living on campus, it's important to adapt quickly to the new way of managing things and adjusting to new environment such as balancing your time, schedule your assignments, knowing your professor's office hours, and remember all those due dates for your papers. Even if you believe you are well prepared for college, there's a good chance that there's something you didn't expected and overwhelming. If you've been to college, you know what I mean.

This is where the handy monthly planner comes in. It's impossible to remember all those due dates for your classes in your head. As a student surviving in college, I recommend iStudiez Pro as your planner. It's a weekly/monthly planner for students. It works with iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. There's also a Mac version coming soon. It helps you manage your course schedule, assignments, and your grades for courses you are taking. For me, this little app is a life saver because it really helps you to perfect your schedule and to stay top of all your assignments and it's due dates in a efficient/intuitive way.

I've been using this app since high school, and I can't imagine myself without it. I think this shows how technology can contribute in education area and students in a way that everyone can take advantage of it. Before the discovery of this planner, I've been hunting for perfect planner that can do the following: flexible enough to replace classic note planner, easier to use, small enough to carry with me all the time, and one that I don't have to worry about losing all the time. I've found it. People carry their iPhone everywhere they go, which means this planner will be in your pocket all the time. No need to hunt down a pen and planner to write down simple assignments and worry about changing the entire page to change something. As a result, I have experienced increased productivity and motivation that makes me to work more. Ok, maybe not, but you get the point.

iStudiez Pro is divided into two versions, one that works with smaller devices like iPhone and iPod Touch, and iPad version that is optimized for bigger screen. I use the iPhone version more often just because it's smaller and easy to carry around. It's also easy to just take out my phone and add/edit things on the go. If I'm in my room and want to focus on variety of works at once, I use the iPad because I can see all the things I have to do in one view and it's just great to interact with my assignments on iPad!

*Calendar View for iPhone version*

(let's you check schedule in a weekly calendar)

*Assignment View for iPhone version*

(let's you check assignments by due date, course, priority)

*Assignment View for iPhone version 2*

As you can see, I've put in all the courses, assignments with due dates, and things that I need to do beside school. As soon as you open the app, you are welcomed with today's schedule and assignments that are due today and tomorrow. If you use this app, there's no excuse to miss classes, or assignments. But let's face it. It's college. You have to prepare for the unexpected. You might forget to open your planner or essays that is due tomorrow. That's when the awesome notification mechanism comes in. It's one of the many advantage iStudiez Pro has over the paper planner. It supports push notification and icon badging. You can see how icon badging works in below image. It displays the number of assignments that are due in various different set of time frame. I've set mine to display assignments due in one week. But you can also customize it to display only the ones that are due tomorrow or the whole month. If this is not enough for you, it even alerts you the assignments to your device like the way you receive a text message.

As I mentioned earlier, the iPad version is more like a chalkboard planner that stays in your backpack or in your room for you to use at the comforting time. Sure, it's portable enough to carry around but most people would prefer the smaller sized iPhone when they are out and on the go. The size and the user interface seems that it want you to put in more time to set it up and use it when you have to plan something big. Here are some images for iPad version.

*Today View for iPad version*

(let's you see the schedule, assignments)

* Assignment Bar for iPad version*

(let's you add, edit, check off, and view assignments)

However, even this perfect looking app has few shortcomings. The grading mechanism is not perfect. It does not support weighed grades nor option to add assignments/extra credit papers toward your final grade. Also, because the app is developed for the sole purpose of education planner, it does not support adding other activities. I would love to add things like doing the laundry and workout in a intuitive way like I do with my school assignments.

Overall, iStudiez Pro is a perfect way to organize your life in a college. It will help you to stay on top of your classes. It motivates you to do the assignments to see that little animation that appears when you check off the work out of your planner. You don't need to worry about losing it, because you can always retrive information using the backup stored in cloud. It's always with you, in your pocket. If you have an iPhone or iPad, I strongly recommend to give this app a try. Because it works for me and many of my friends. I guarantee you, once you get used to this app, you won't be able to go back to your paper planner.

Andrew's Time Management Strategy

After I came to college, one of my hardest difficulty that I had to overcome was time management. Unlike high school, where you spend most of the time in school and had someone who can help you manage your time, I had to choose my own classes, plan my own schedule, and manage my time well. It was not a easy task at first; I could not handle the freedom that suddenly came out of nowhere. Comparing to high school, I did not have that much of pressure about studying, so I spend most of the time with my friends or goofing off in the Internet. During my first semester, the only time I studyed was when I was in class and when I was doing homework. But, I soon realized that I was not managing my time wisely. I was not satisfied with my grades, and thought that I need to manage my time better at my second semester.

Luckily, at CLS 105, I learned several time management strategies that could help my studying in college. Among those time management strategies that we learned, I thought that the fritter finder and the 20 minute test prep will help me the most, because I thought that these two strategies will help me use time efficiently. The first strategy that I made was the fritter finder. This strategy helped me realize how much free time I have when I exclude my class times. I always thought that classes take lot of my time during my daily routine. However, after I completed the fritter finder, I found out that there are a lot of free times.

This is a picture of my fritter finder; the blue part is my free time, and the white part with red 'Class' in it is the time when I have class. The schedule starts from 8:00 a.m. (when I wake up) to 2:00 a..m. (when I sleep). I was suprised to see that there were lots of free time that I could use. I often thought that I did not have much time to complete all of works that were required. But, after I made this, I began to manage my time better and used my time more wisely than I used to.

The second strategy I chose was the 20 minute test prep. I usually go over the notes that I took in class only before test or exam. Unless then, I do not go over the notes; in other word, I do not review the lecture after the class ends. So, it usually takes me more time when I try to go over the informations that the class went over. When the test or exam period comes up, I do not remember most of the materials that the professors taught us. I sometimes struggle trying to remember the informations when I review the notes and the textbooks. For this reason, the 20 minute test prep is a big help. I save my time studying more later (like right before exam). The strategy also helped me memorize the class materials better because I reviewed them right after class. I used this strategy for my AST 104 class, which have a lot of things to go over.

One note is the note that I took during class. After the class, I reorganize the note by making a new one. I use the green pen for the title, blue pen for the examples, black pen for important term, and red pen for exculsive information. While I reorganize the note, it helps me go over the materials.