Latest Posts by marathon-notasprint - Page 4
Tips for Studying History!
I don’t see a lot of posts about how to effectively study for history classes, so I’m going to give it a shot! Warning: long post coming up!
Practice identifying the significance of something. The entire point of history is to learn the significance of different events and people. I guarantee that at some point you will be asked to state the significance, which is where this comes in handy. Also, knowing how to do this will vastly improve your essays.
Use timelines. Even if your teacher doesn’t make it mandatory to know dates, you should understand the order that major events happen. I will either write out a timeline or order my cue cards in the order they belong in after studying. Also, if your teacher does mark dates, you can at least be sure you know the decade it happened in even if you don’t know the full year.
Write extremely thorough notes. In some classes, like math, if you get something really well, you can kind of relax on the depth of your notes. I do not recommend this in history! Write down everything that seems important: names, dates, symbols, fun facts. The more you know, the easier it is to get full marks on a test without bullshitting.
Don’t rely on crash courses or internet research while studying. Your teacher taught you what they want you to know. While watching a crash course video might be a good way to start preparing for a course while on summer vacation, it is not an effective way to study for a test. The information in the video is not what you were taught in class, so it won’t be that helpful. Internet research is the same – you can easily find dates and locations, but the specific information taught in class can only be found in your personal notes.
Talk to people in the class. Some things in history are open to interpretation. A good way to get lots of opinions and viewpoints on a certain subject is to hold a study group and discuss the material. You guys can also help each other remember small details from the notes. Certain things will just stick in your brain while others won’t, so reviewing the notes with other students is a really good way to make sure you aren’t missing anything.
Write essay outlines. In a history class, you will probably be writing a lot of essays. So many of my friends have massive problems with history essays because they don’t organize them prior to writing. If you just start talking about an event and don’t know where to go next, you’re going to have a total trainwreck. Organize your thoughts!! Plan what you are going to write!! It doesn’t take that long and it will save your life every time you write an essay.
Read “Politics and the English Langauge” by George Orwell.
Learn how to write footnotes manually. Writing footnotes and formatting your paper yourself isn’t that hard to do. It will help you out a lot when Word isn’t working or something goes wrong with the formatting feature.
Be an expert during presentations. If you are doing a presentation, be an absolute expert in the topic. Try not to read from any notes and be sure that you can answer any questions the class or teacher might have. Presentations are a good way to boost your mark, so try and be super knowledgeable and impress your teacher.
Learn how to write a thesis. If you’re writing an essay, your thesis should be clear. In high school, you can usually figure out what your thesis should be by figuring out what the main question you’re trying to answer is, then answering it. Make sure that your answer is focusing on just one viewpoint, not somewhere in the middle. And, ask a teacher or friend to look at your thesis before you start writing!
This is all I can think of for the time being, but I might add more later. Or message me if you have other ideas you think I should add to my list!
Some of you have requested that I show you my note taking technique. This is in no way a proven technique, but it really works for me and many of my professors have applauded my structure. So try it, and if you like it and it works for you, great! If not, I commend you on having a more structured system! These are my general rules when I take notes:
1. Leave space. A lot of space. While going through previous notes, whether it be right after class or a month later, I always found that I had information that I wanted to add, and cramped pages never allowed for that. Plus, it’s a bit less daunting on the eyes when there is some room between ideas. I do realize that this is not very eco-friendly, but hey!
2. Use the margins in a smart way. I have developed a “legend” of symbols to draw in the margins so that when I need a quick scan of what pages in the textbooks I referenced or vocab, I can find what I need easily. It might not seem useful on this one page, but when you have a whole 3″ binder full of notes, it’s a blessing.
3. Write on one side of the page. Again, not a eco-friendly option. However, I’m sure there are those of you (my past self included) who have wished you just had another page to write down book notes or additional thoughts without having to get a fresh paper. This solves that!
4. Make it pretty later. I know this page is visually appealing, but keep in mind that I was in my nice warm room by myself and listening to music while writing this. My notes straight out of class aren’t color coded and they definitely don’t have cute little decorations on them; just get the information down, worry about aesthetics later.
5. Put yourself in the classroom. You might think: “but I’m physically in the room what the hell are you talking about”. The concept is weird but it works. I always try everything I can to make sure I place as many visual cues in my notes as I can so that when I look back on them later I remember exactly where I was and what was happening. Are you not paying attention and thinking of food? Write it down. Did someone fart? Write it down. Placing yourself in the room is the most beneficial thing you can do for future you.
6. Keep it short. I can’t tell you how many times I freaked out when I first got to college because I was trying to write everything down. I was certain I was going to miss something. WELL HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU. You aren’t going to miss anything if you keep your bullets to a minimum of one sentence. It’s proven that short phrases in your own words help memory better than full sentences that the professor gives you.
Finally, make it yours. This is a system that works for me because my brain is weird and can’t take notes the Cornell or outline way. The most important thing to learn in school is your own flow of things. Experiment, be creative! I hope I have helped those of you who aren’t traditional learners realize that there isn’t just one way to process information. If any of you have any questions or need specific examples, let me know! (I realize there is a typo on this but hey don’t worry about it) 🙈
