Exams are here

[taylor192]

Originally Posted by unit

i said 20% of your studying results in 80% of your knowledge.
in................................................ ...........................out

not like your 80/20 rule where you just fudged some random meanings that really meant nothing.

Dude, you're not the example to follow:

Originally Posted by unit

i have an exam tonight that i didnt study for
and a project due that isnt done yet.
im at work sorta half working on it as you can see from me posting here.

You're actually an example of things I said you shouldn't do. Good work.

[unit]

i'll give you another example of the 80/20 rule:

80% of the stupid comments in this thread come from 20% of the posters (you)

i'll give you a second to figure out what that means since you have SUCH a hard time grasping the concept.

shifting the topic didnt help your case either. i could completely skip the final thats worth 35% and still pass this course that i dont even care about.

[taylor192]

Originally Posted by unit

i'll give you another example of the 80/20 rule:

80% of the stupid comments in this thread come from 20% of the posters (you)

Shall I report you, or will you stop now?

Originally Posted by unit

i'll give you a second to figure out what that means since you have SUCH a hard time grasping the concept.

No need, I graduated in the top 20 of my engineering department, that's all of engineering in case you have a hard time comprehending.

Meanwhile you're slacking on studying, behind on projects. You should stop giving advice now, cause you just look like tard.

Originally Posted by unit

shifting the topic didnt help your case either. i could completely skip the final thats worth 35% and still pass this course that i dont even care about.

Yes, that's that's the way to succeed in school! Everyone should follow your great behaviour.

[unit]

i lol'd

ok im done

[xXDragonXx]

Originally Posted by twitchyzero

i dont think any employer would give a rats ass about grades unless you're in accounting/finances

most of us are trying to polish our grades because of applications to grade/professional school in the future.

that said, i fucked up royally in 1st and 2nd year (cGPA is around 69%) and I need to up that to at least 80% when i walk across the stage during my convocation.

Now that I'm in my senior years (3rd yr) it's time to get really serious about school =T

I only have 2 exams (this Fri and next Fri) but so many assignments before that.

I think that's the situation with almost everyone, as in they feel they could've done better in their 1st and 2nd years. Almost everyone doesn't truly anticipate how difficult university is compared to High School, so they don't realize how much more effort they have to put in. For those who do make it through 1st and 2nd year though, out of my friends (and myself), they find that they do better in their 3rd and 4th years because they know the amount of work they need to put in (that doesn't mean they get 100% and stuff, but they don't totally bomb some assignments/midterms like they did in first year.. which im sure a lot of us did).

I really like that a lot of grad schools only look at your last 60 credits (which they should, cause they're the most relevant to your degree and not the general courses that you take along with anyone in your faculty in 1st year at least). Unfortunately, that's not the case for a lot others =P

[kazuki]

Cramming for the last 2 days for my exam tomorrow. I'm pretty sure I'll do fine. I'm in healthsciences.

Cramming doesnt exactly mean you'll do bad. Some people work best under pressure.

[hotjoint]

at this fail war between unit and taylor

[twitchyzero]

Originally Posted by taylor192

No.
If you're easily distracted while studying, find somewhere less distracting.
Learning to not be distracted is a skill so many lack today.

This is probably one of the biggest tips most students need: get away from the computer
- More and more classes/materials are being offered online, which encourages students to sit on the computer with easy access to a lot of distraction.
- Studies show we retain more knowledge when reading from printed paper than a computer screen.
- Print your material and get away from the computer. You'll learn more without distraction, and retain more.

QFT. I fucking hate online courses...my eyes get strained reading that shit too...I dont print either because i'd be changing toners so frequently.

That and the group works required..like wtf...online course was meant to do your own things at your own time...endless mass readings and no notes that can summarize the key concepts

[taylor192]

Originally Posted by kazuki

Cramming doesnt exactly mean you'll do bad. Some people work best under pressure.

I agree that different people will work best in different manners.

My point is most employers won't tolerate this. Most people work on a team, and if you lag behind you let team members down. Plus what happens if you wait till last minute and something goes wrong?

Its best to rid these bad habits before entering the workforce.

[taylor192]

Originally Posted by twitchyzero

I dont print either because i'd be changing toners so frequently.

Get a laser printer for just B&W. They are as cheap as $100, and print 1000s of pages.

I had one during school, helped so much.

[xXDragonXx]

Originally Posted by hotjoint

at this fail war between unit and taylor

haha I'm definitely enjoying it too.

I do agree with one point though. I think you should go over and really understand the 80% you do know really well.. then if you have time go over the 20% that you don't understand. Also, emphasize on stuff that is later in the semester as they'll put more questions from the later half on the final because you didn't really have a midterm to be tested on it.

I hate it though when I try to understand everything, and then when it comes to a question you should understand or know that you did at one point, you lost simple marks because you forget simple things. ARGH I just hate that, especially since it would've taken less time to just review that part "better" than to understand a something you know nothing about. And you end losing marks for the things "that you don't really know" anyways, just for the mere fact that you don't understand it.

[taylor192]

Originally Posted by xXDragonXx

haha I'm definitely enjoying it too.

I do agree with one point though. I think you should go over and really understand the 80% you do know really well.. then if you have time go over the 20% that you don't understand. Also, emphasize on stuff that is later in the semester as they'll put more questions from the later half on the final because you didn't really have a midterm to be tested on it.

I hate it though when I try to understand everything, and then when it comes to a question you should understand or know that you did at one point, you lost simple marks because you forget simple things. ARGH I just hate that, especially since it would've taken less time to just review that part "better" than to understand a something you know nothing about. And you end losing marks for the things "that you don't really know" anyways, just for the mere fact that you don't understand it.

I find it really hard to get this across to students. Students want to "know everything" which just isn't possible or reasonable.

I didn't get 90s cause I knew 90% of the material really well. I could teach the 80% to friends, and knew about half of the remaining 20%.

Another tip: exams tend to focus on "core" material and not the extraneous one-off fact. How do you determine what is the core material? Get old exams/midterms/labs/assignments/projects! I cannot stress this enough, get as much old material as possible.

My first week at school I made friends with a dumb-ass in 3rd year. His marks sucked, so he had no problem giving away his old tests/assignments/labs. I never went into a course without having an idea of exactly what I would be tested on, and it sure helps narrow that 80% to study and know well.

[Armind]

[xXDragonXx]

Originally Posted by taylor192

I find it really hard to get this across to students. Students want to "know everything" which just isn't possible or reasonable.

I didn't get 90s cause I knew 90% of the material really well. I could teach the 80% to friends, and knew about half of the remaining 20%.

Another tip: exams tend to focus on "core" material and not the extraneous one-off fact. How do you determine what is the core material? Get old exams/midterms/labs/assignments/projects! I cannot stress this enough, get as much old material as possible.

My first week at school I made friends with a dumb-ass in 3rd year. His marks sucked, so he had no problem giving away his old tests/assignments/labs. I never went into a course without having an idea of exactly what I would be tested on, and it sure helps narrow that 80% to study and know well.

Yeah, definitely! I've found that I've been able to get 80-90s in courses with really low class averages (55% ish, i'm in sciences) by:

1. Focusing on knowing how to do the questions that have been tested on in previous exams, and from which will most likely be tested in future exams. There's a difference from just massively reading a textbook compared with actually knowing how to do the question. In some ways, I've been guilty of knowing how to do the question but not really understanding what the point of this question is/or how it led to the answer. Usually if it's important enough, you'll encounter it in future courses and you'll recognize it, and understand it there (whether it be through the teacher re-teaching it or cause you have to understand it cause it's vital for your success)

2. Firm believer that studying is time used effectively rather than time spent studying. I'm a big procrastinator myself, but when I feel I need to study I virtually surround myself around as little distractions as possible. At times, just tell yourself that "starting to study" is harder than the actually studying. I don't know what gets me to overcome that feeling, but when I can, it works.

3. Like previously mentioned, focus on the "core" stuff. There's so much crap that they feed you in courses, but a lot of it is just for your knowledge, even if they say its important. A good thing to look over is the course objectives, and if you're able to "perform/understand/utilize" the course objectives, you should be fine.

4. This last point, I don't know if it's true for everyone but... go with your gut instinct. If you think that's the answer, just go for it. And even if you start second-guessing, don't change your answer from your initial answer unless you know WITHOUT A DOUBT that you did it wrong. But if you have any doubts after your initial thoughts, just stick with it.

Oh yeah, and if you're studying and you find your sleepy, take a POWER NAP. I don't mean one of those naps that last a couple hours.. just 15-30 mins max. Get someone to phone you or a family member to physically wake you up if you're afraid of oversleeping. Like I said about studying time.. quality over quantity. If you're still sleepy, slowly sip on pepsi or an energy drink or something... don't chug it all down, cause you're just going to get extremely wired and then set yourself up for an extreme crash that you're going to have to work yourself through if you really want to study.

[twitchyzero]

Originally Posted by xXDragonXx

I think that's the situation with almost everyone, as in they feel they could've done better in their 1st and 2nd years. Almost everyone doesn't truly anticipate how difficult university is compared to High School, so they don't realize how much more effort they have to put in. For those who do make it through 1st and 2nd year though, out of my friends (and myself), they find that they do better in their 3rd and 4th years because they know the amount of work they need to put in (that doesn't mean they get 100% and stuff, but they don't totally bomb some assignments/midterms like they did in first year.. which im sure a lot of us did).

I really like that a lot of grad schools only look at your last 60 credits (which they should, cause they're the most relevant to your degree and not the general courses that you take along with anyone in your faculty in 1st year at least). Unfortunately, that's not the case for a lot others =P

Totally agreed, I hate how majority of the professional programs look at ALL 4 years for cGPA.

That's why I think pharmacy is a faculty to get in since most people apply with only 1st and 2nd year grades...it's probably best they finish their degree and get a higher cGPA before reapplying.

[PiuYi]

Originally Posted by hotjoint

at this fail war between unit and taylor

bahahhaha fail-a-thons

[xXDragonXx]

Originally Posted by twitchyzero

Totally agreed, I hate how majority of the professional programs look at ALL 4 years for cGPA.

That's why I think pharmacy is a faculty to get in since most people apply with only 1st and 2nd year grades...it's probably best they finish their degree and get a higher cGPA before reapplying.

I've found that the majority of the grad schools look at cGPA but emphasize or really care about the last two years (although there are exceptions like medicine, which look at certain courses like Organic chem, which is done in 1st or 2nd year as well as MCat). From a lot of "talks" I've had, even if your cGPA is not that high but your last 60 credits are high, you should be fine. A lot of grad schools look at that student who cannot only perform (which is shown in your final 2 years) but that you also have the versatility to grow, adjust, and improve as a student (cause grad school is another different transition, and you have to able to adjust to it to be successful)

[CP.AR]

I forgot how to do Integration by parts and Integration by substitution... (prostitution?)

ah FML. I haven't been on RS for 2 days and I was suffering from withdrawal symptoms

[AzNightmare]

I think some of you guys need to reformat your computer until exams are over.
Too much failing, not enough studying.

[CP.AR]

^ Yeah i gotta get my Windows 7 installed (currently running RTM so I can't do a direct upgrade)

[terkan]

Originally Posted by taylor192

If you need to cram now, don't bother, just take the C/D and move on in life.

Nah, you've obviously haven't mastered the art of cramming. It's not how long you study, it's how you study.

[tegz]

because RS > Medical genetics.. :/

[tegz]

5:50AM, reporting in...

just finished studying... now to go to sleep and repeat the cycle tomorrow.

Oh school life, how i will miss you.

[taylor192]

Originally Posted by terkan

Nah, you've obviously haven't mastered the art of cramming. It's not how long you study, it's how you study.

That wasn't my point.

My point is cram all you want, an employer will find out your bad habits and even your good grades won't matter.

[ajax]

First experience with exams in post secondary. One every day this week.