Throughout middle school and high school, I have established several studying techniques that work for me. An essential one is that I take notes from the lecture, take notes from the book, then compile the information in to a master study guide. This is my first college course, so this is helping me to organize a large sum of material, that I did not have in high school. If the exam has much vocabulary, I utilize flash cards. These really help me because I have to produce the definition without context. If I can produce the definitions without context, it makes me more confident when I enter an exam. For processes like action potential and synapse, I like to draw out the steps. It takes away the complexity of understanding something abstract, since I have a visual guide. These methods have helped me throughout high school, but there are several things I need to improve on before I am a full time college student.
Sometimes I focus too much on specific information, I forget to analyze the big picture. This happened to be in my Anatomy and Physiology course last spring. Although I impressed my teacher with specific details and definitions, they were not necessary to understanding the process as a whole. Another studying flaw that I have is studying in the wrong environment. I have a busy schedule, so I like to spend time around my family, even if I am just simply studying in their presence. My brothers are 15 and 12, so this environment can get loud, and I would be better off studying in a quiet space like my bedroom. Relating to my busy schedule, many times I find myself studying at extreme hours of the night. Since I am extremely tired, I am not very productive in my studying. Because this course is online and mostly at your own pace, it has helped me combat this flaw. I need to learn to combat this flaw before my 8am biology lecture in the fall.
For the first exam, I compiled my notes from the lectures and the textbook to create a massive study guide. It was essential for me to include examples for different topics. For example, I put an example of a case study in my study guide so I can further understand what that research method is. I got ahead of schedule for the first exam so I could spend an entire day reading over my notes and going through my flashcards. One thing I. would change is that I studied in a loud environment. For the next exam, I will find a quieter space to focus on the material. I will definitely implement these strategies for the next exam.
Courtney's College Blog 
Throughout your article, I could see that many of our study habits are very similar. I too like to take the notes that I have gathered from both the lectures and the book, and compile them into one large study guide. Although this may be a great way to consolidate all of the important points covered, I find this tactic tends to make studying somewhat difficult due to the sheer amount of information that you have to study. Going forward, it may be beneficial to break this up by chapter or the different topics that are being covered so that the studying session is evenly distributed and you are not burnt out from reading large amounts of information at one time. Utilizing the distributed practice technique could most definitely help many students whilst they are studying, because a majority of students do not give themselves enough time to study and subsequently burn themselves out when they are trying cover so much information. As stated in your post, it looks like you are able to successfully utilize this method as well as the organizational method. Utilizing both of these techniques will prove to be extremely helpful whilst studying for future exams. Wonderful post!
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Throughout your article, I could see that many of our study habits are very similar. I too like to take the notes that I have gathered from both the lectures and the book, and compile them into one large study guide. Although this may be a great way to consolidate all of the important points covered, I find this tactic tends to make studying somewhat difficult due to the sheer amount of information that you have to study. Going forward, it may be beneficial to break this up by chapter or the different topics that are being covered so that the studying session is evenly distributed and you are not burnt out from reading large amounts of information at one time. Utilizing the distributed practice technique could most definitely help many students whilst they are studying, because a majority of students do not give themselves enough time to study and subsequently burn themselves out when they are trying cover so much information. As stated in your post, it looks like you are able to successfully utilize this method as well as the organizational method. Utilizing both of these techniques will prove to be extremely helpful whilst studying for future exams. Great post!
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