How do you study?

[Paul Hanson]

There's a freak of nature, you mean.

[Proteus_MST]

Well let me see:
In Biology I relied heavily onto the questions of old exams, just as Shi meontions. They are especially helpful at the Exam at the end of the first half of the study (so called Basic Study), where you have to write tests in Physics, Chemistry and of course Biology (where it isn´t uncommon that 50-70% of those who take part fail the tests).
But my strategy was different for the verbal Diploma examinations. There you are have to choose a main subject, a special subject and a minor subject out of different fields in Biology and another minor subject from outside the biology (so it´s 4 Examinations; you are free to choose the Dates for them, but all examinations have to be completed within one month after the Date for the first Examination).
Afterwards you´ve got to speak with the Profs where you want to make those examinations, to further clarify on which Subjects out of the fields you chose the Examination should concentrate. Many Profs just let you choose several Chapters out of biological Textbooks (as for example for my Examination in Animal Physiology [main subject], where I chose the Chapters "Heart and Blood Circulation" and "Gas Exchange and Acid-Base Balance" from Eckert: Animal Physiology (so I had 210 pages to learn))
other Profs just make a general outline of the subjects to be tested (as for my Examination in Microbiology [minopr subject / Biology] where the Prof just said "O.K., so we make a little bit of the basic principles of Molecular Genetics and also the lac-Operon and trp-Operon, this should cover the 30 minutes, the examination takes".).
Of course you shouldn´t be too confident that only those subjects, you spoke of, are tested within the Examination, the Profs are free to ask other things out of the field of study as well
I chose the Date of my Examinations so that I had 2 Month to learn.
For those Examinations I made a lot of handwritigns. For example for Animal Physiology I just tried to compress those Chapters, and tried to express all things mentioned with much fewer words (and also I drew those Illustrations in the Book [for example of
the various types of hearts and Circulatory Systems] for myself).
I spend maybe 8-12 hours a day with learning for the subjects and maybe 1 month before the first Examination I stopped going out with friends on weekends.
Maybe 1-2 weeks before the Examination I started making Cards with Questions about the Subject on the one Side and the Answers on the other side (Animal Physiology was the first one with my Special Subject (Neurobiology) being examined at the same day (Main Subject and Special Subject are always tested the same day and your Special Subject has to be connected to the Main Subject and has to be examined by the same Prof).
After all, my learning proved to be successful

As for my study in Computer Science,
I learn a lot at home and rarely attend to Lectures. In those subjects tested we get several problems we should solve at home and the answers are discussed once a week. Solving those problems helps me more in learning the subject at hand, than attending to the lectures.

[Az]

In high school, I did nothing. I just studied for the finals, and a lil bit to exams, generally.

Now, in uni, I do some of the homework, the one that is graded, that is. I also read the links that are given on the site to various pages explaining the material. I usually listen to music, and sit infront of the computer.

[Ecthy]

stop gloating about uni, dave

paul, you at the london meeting? if not, I mean to spend some time in the north of the country, any ideas?

[Paul Hanson]

Not planning on going to London, no. If you fancy spending time up north, York is always a good bet. Depending on how far north you want to go, you may want to give Edinburgh a visit too.

[Ecthy]

not that far.

[Az]

stop gloating about uni, dave

Sorry. .

I am just very proud of myself.

[Ecthy]

I wish I could be, too.

[Case]

I try to keep on top of the material presented during the course as it comes up - ie I go to most lectures and properly prepare for all tutorials.

When exams roll around, I summarise my notes and go over any tutorial exercises. It seems to work - my average mark is a distinction.

[Az]

Andreas, I thought you would soon be going to the Uni, too. am I right?

[Ecthy]

yes, but uni is not the kind of thing that makes me proud... I obviously hold myself to a higher standard than you hold yourself to

[Urban Ranger]

Didn't study much for my undergrad degree, I completed all my exercises and homeworks though, which was very important to do wll in mathematics and Computer Science. Get quite a bit more do read in the humanities though, not that the material was overly difficult (except for some philosophers, who were intentionally obtuse).

[BeBMan]

Originally posted by Paul Hanson
I read for several hours every day.

Err, you mean except Poly threads?

If so then I´m impressed

[Ecthy]

should do the same... can't be arsed though

don't buy Bob Woodward's book

[Asher]

Originally posted by Pekka
Asher, do you guys use lap tops at classes? Is it popular there?

Yep. Yep.

In the computer building, every lecture hall seat has a ethernet hookup (100Mbps) and power jack. That's in addition to the 802.11b wireless network that's free to use anywhere without hooking up.