Hardcore Studying

So I've been bemoaning my lack of a laptop lately.  I'm not sure why, since I seem to be getting along just fine with the tablet, but it is true that my tablet doesn't have a lot of oomph.  It's great for reading books and, uh, writing stuff, but it's slow and it takes ages to connect sometimes--like tonight, for example, as I sit out here in my car, scamming off of Starbucks and their free wifi.  And speaking of free, my phone company has thrown me for a loop.  They want to give me a new tablet for free.

Well, nothing's truly free, especially from a phone company, but this is the next thing to it.  It's a Galaxy Tab A with LTE connectivity, and all I have to do is pay for another line for the tablet.  Given that I've been in the market for a new tablet anyway, and that the Galaxy Tab A was on my mind (since the Note came out and the A plummeted in price), it sounds like a pretty good deal.  The downside is, of course, coming up with yet another x amount of dollars per month to make this happen.  I'd be money ahead to just get a tablet, but then I'd still have to have a line to plug it into, wouldn't I?  And it doesn't help that I have a conference next week where it would totally make sense to have a fast, high-powered tablet on which to take notes.  I hope they can get it to me that quickly.

Speaking of the taking of notes, a new and exciting survey has just come out that proclaims the the taking of notes by hand to be the best way to actually learn a thing.  Plenty of people take notes on a laptop (or a tablet), but apparently that's not the best way.  Using your actual hand is somehow best for getting those facts to hang around in your brain.  It has something to do with making words on the page lighting up some parts of your brain that don't get lit up when all you do is type.

This is particularly interesting to me, because of the way I have always studied for things. Any things.  Actual school subjects for which I'm being graded, certification exams that I need to pass for my job, continuing legal ed.  It's by far the most time-intensive study method I've ever heard of, but it works, and given my remarkably dyslexic makeup, anything that works is to be hugged to the chest with both hands and never turned loose.  Er, except to be shared with somebody, I suppose.  And if you've just started college and you can't figure out how you're going to remember all this stuff, pay attention.  It'll work.  I promise.

Step 1:  Read the material.

Yes, it's easy to skip Step 1.  Why read the material when the professor's going to talk about it in the lecture anyway.  But seriously, read the material.  Even if you read it fast, to the point of skimming it, you're still going to be ahead of a lot of your classmates.  Did you know that 71% of college students don't read the material?  And 85% of statistics are made up.

Step 2:  Read the material again, while taking notes.

Oh no, I can hear you saying.  Are you kidding me?  I just plodded through three chapters of *The Brothers Karamazov* and you actually want me to go back and read them again?  Yes, I do.  And this time take notes and write your questions in the margins. You're going to have questions.  Everyone has questions.  Even if it's just, "Why was Solshynitzen so depressed?"  you're going to have questions.  So write them down.

Step 3:  Listen to the lecture and take notes.

By the time you get to Step 3, you're going to be way ahead of most of your classmates and well on your way to actually comprehending all this material they're throwing at you.  So listen to the lecture, instead of playing with your cell phone or making little doodles in the margins of your notebook.  You're bound to hear a lot of stuff from the readings that will make more sense now, and get a lot of your questions answered.  The questions you don't get answered, you can ask the speaker about later on.

Step 4:  Type up your notes into an outline.  Yes, this requires actually being able to read and comprehend your notes, so maybe handwritten notes aren't such a good idea after all. (Y'all ain't seen my handwriting.)  But anyway, make an outline.  You know how this works, right?  Category A = Ducks.  Subcategory 1, 2 and 3 are different kinds of ducks.  Under subcategories 1, 2 and 3 are little a, b and c, where you note the anatomical features and calls of said ducks.  Category B = Egrets.  You see what this is forcing you to do?  You're having to *organize the material.*  This task requires actually *thinking* about all the stuff you've written down.  And actually thinking about it is the best way to get your brain to retain it.

Step 5:  Well, I'm not so sure Step 5 is an actual step.  It's more like Step 4 1/2, I guess.  But it is this:  Read the outline, top to bottom, over and over again.  You don't have to actually memorize it, but if you get to the point where you see Category A: Ducks and you immediately think, "Ah, yes.  Mallard.  Mandarin. Masked." (You need a subcategory: Ducks whose names start with M.), then you are on the right track.  By the time the exam rolls around, all you should be doing is reading that outline.  And turning it into a song or a rhyming thing, if you can.  Songs and rhyming things make it easier to remember stuff.

Sound exhausting?  It is. More so in that I had to make it up.  Nobody was around back then to explain to me how to study for things when dyslexia made it hard.  But, it has never failed me.  So guess what I'm going to do.  I'm going to log on to the conference Web site and start downloading speaker papers.  I've got a hell of a lot of reading and notetaking to do before next Wednesday.