College Tips

[CatherineM]

8 hours ago, Nihil Obstat said:

That is a lot of debt. She might have bought a small country instead.

Agreed. Just because you get into an expensive private school doesn't mean you have to go. It was her Dad's alma mater, and she thought he'd pay. Parents divorced right after she started and he kept promising to help then started a new family with much younger second wife. Money never seemed to appear. 

[truthfinder]

1 hour ago, PhuturePriest said:

Thanks for the advice! I'll definitely be sure to read through it several times to make sure I didn't miss anything. The history class is on civilizations up to 1500 (it doesn't specify whether BC or AD, but it's assumed to be AD.) It was that or American history up to 1885, and I thought the choice between the two to be rather clear.

Any advice on notes, or reading and gathering the necessary information in general? This will be the first time I've ever done structured schooling like this, so I'm very much out of my element.

As I've said, watch out for the two general styles of history courses.  With a course like civilizations, you're probably going to be looking at the big picture: change over time, the major defining characteristics of a civilization, comparisons between civilizations, etc.  I'd suggest taking paper notes - but that's personal preference.  Big thing is don't take too many notes.  Depending on the text, I'd say 1-3 pages a chapter that focus on the author's main arguments, themes, etc.  

[NadaTeTurbe]

Watch at least one movie in german with german subtitle by week. Minimum. Or you can watch a serie (Hermat is a good one). But you can't learn a language if you don't hear it at least two hours by week. My natives languages are french and catalan, and I understand/speak english and a little of spanish. I have a "schedule" every week for it. On monday, I only listen to music in spanish. If I watch a movie, it's in english without subtitle (or, if there's a strange accent, with english subtitle). NEVER subtitles in your own language. It distracts you. Try to read in German every day. 

Good luck ! 

[Luigi]

Composition: They should teach you some kind of writing process (brainstorming, sorting ideas, developing a thesis statement, structuring supporting reasons, wring introductions & conclusions). There might be quizzes on the terminology, but more likely will be exercises that you submit. You may be required to submit journal entries - your unedited/unstructured thoughts/reactions to various prompts (current events, personal experiences, political questions). You will probably read several examples of intros, conclusions, and entire essays before you are required to write your own; when you read the examples, look for the structure. You may do peer editing - commenting on other students' work in an effort to help them push their strengths and address their weaknesses (and responding to their comments on your essays). Comp textbooks tend to be big - lots of pages - so get very familiar with the TOC (table of contents), the index, and/or with Post-It Notes. If you're required to write a research paper, they should teach you the research process as part of the coursework. You write well and you have experience doing it; you already have strong grammar & spelling - you'll be fine here. This is primarily a "skills course" but you'll have to learn some new terms & definitions. 

History - Listen to Truthfinder.  This is primarily a "theory course" dominated by terms, definitions, years, trends, with almost no skills involved. 

Sociology - An introductory course in any subject is about 50% terminology, because the terms express the important concepts of the field. The basic terms are recombined (or coined) by the leaders in the field into theories. There are almost always classic statements or examples of the theories - a short, pithy sentence that summarizes the theory. In a survey course (an overview of the entire field), the names of the theorists are important, as well as the year/period of time. Study aids include: flash cards (for terms), or charts (year - author/researcher - her theory - its main components/strengths & weaknesses/reception n the field), or timelines. This is primarily a theory course. 

German - This is a skills course, but completely different from Comp I. I'll write about that late - it's late, I'm sick and tired, and going back to bed. 

[NadaTeTurbe]

 as an history student, my advice are : 

1) You can't analyse what you don't know. Learn a max. By heart - date, geography, genealogy, people, etc... The more you know, the more you can understand a time period. Every time you learn about a new thing, try to remember what the world was at this time. Like, let's say you're studying Ottoman's empire, you have to remember what happened in Russia, France, Tunisia, US, South America, etc... in the same time. For me, it's the hardest. I have a big book on world history, when we do a new subject, I read a chapter in the book. Usually, the teacher expects you to know more than what is in the book. 

2) My experience is, the more you work, the better. Read more that was is asked, be curious, etc... 

3) Organize your thoughts. I know some teacher don't ask to respect a plan and to write "free", but it's easier to have a plan and to stick with it. Here, the mandatory plan to write dissertations  is : introduction (intro sentences/context/problem/plan, then a development in three parts, each part with three sub-part, each subpart with two or three paragraph (it's 14 paragraph minimum !), and then a conclusion). It's hard, but amazing. You think better with a structure. 

4) Try to get used to original source. If you're studying Roman Empire, don't only read historian's book about Roman Empire - read Jules César's Bellum Gallicum, try to search for Roman coins, etc... 

5) Always work like if you're going to be sick before the due date. Because maybe you're goin to be sick before the due date. 

Now, I just have to follow my own advices  

[PhuturePriest]

You are all fountains of knowledge. I'm beginning to think my mother may be right and I do not in fact know everything.  

[CatherineM]

Watching shows in German is a great idea. I've known several people who learned English as immigrants that way. 

[Basilisa Marie]

Do you know what kind of learner you are? As in, visual, auditory, kinesthetic? Most people tend to be some combination, and knowing how you learn best will help you develop study strategies that will ACTUALLY help you learn instead of wasting time with little payoff. Granted, you'll need to refine it with trial and error, don't expect to have a perfect system out of the gate. 

 

Like, for example, I'm kinesthetic with a bit of visual. I had to physically hand write my notes otherwise it wouldn't stick as well - granted, this was after years of forced note taking in a traditional school environment. Typing rarely got the same results for me. Being in the same physical place for a class also helped.  I also was big on reading.  On the other hand, my brother is a huge auditory learner. He would go to class with like a 102 fever because he knew he had to hear the lecture othewisr nothing would stick. 

The best study strategies take advantage of all three major learning styles - something you see (reading?), something you hear (saying it out loud?), and something you do (writing, pacing, whatever). 

[NadaTeTurbe]

If you like history, a good German TV serie is "Heimat". It tell the storie of a german family from 1919 to the 80's. It's a little old (first season from 1980, I think, black and white), and there's not a lot of action, but it's very good. "Generation War" is another german serie TV who is very good, about friends during 2WW. 

[HopefulHeart]

I'll add to my previous post with this little piece of advice: Get plenty of sleep! Sometimes it's necessary to stay up late working on assignments, but I believe it's important to get at least 6-7 hours of sleep per night. Your mind and body need sufficient rest for you to do your best work. To avoid having to pull lots of all-nighters, keep careful track of your due dates and start working early on papers and studying.

[cartermia]

14 hours ago, PhuturePriest said:

Thanks for the advice! I'll definitely be sure to read through it several times to make sure I didn't miss anything. The history class is on civilizations up to 1500 (it doesn't specify whether BC or AD, but it's assumed to be AD.) It was that or American history up to 1885, and I thought the choice between the two to be rather clear.

Any advice on notes, or reading and gathering the necessary information in general? This will be the first time I've ever done structured schooling like this, so I'm very much out of my element.

Hey! I just took a  World Civ 101 class up to 1500 AD last semester! it was not to bad with my professor (it was in class though) and I did none of the reading. I was lazy yet I got an A in the class. Lol I did the research paper the night before hand. Got an A on that too! I really should not be giving any advice. Don't follow my example FP!

[truthfinder]

12 hours ago, NadaTeTurbe said:

 

3) : introduction (intro sentences/context/problem/plan, then a development in three parts, each part with three sub-part, each subpart with two or three paragraph (it's 14 paragraph minimum !), and then a conclusion). It's hard, but amazing. You think better with a structure. 

 

I'd caution against this exact structure in American academics.  "Correct" writing is a bit culturally based, and French writing tends to be different (and very methodical).  Definitely don't do the "5 paragraph sandwich" which you may have learned though.  

My final tip, FP, is don't be discouraged if your first marks are 10-20% lower than you expected. (The failures are just as important as the successes - I can certainly remember what my handful taught me.) This is rather typical, and especially true if the prof is marking on the curve.  I often don't and my averages still tend to be C+s and these are the best students who were high As in high school. 

[PhuturePriest]

On 12/30/2015, 11:16:33, Basilisa Marie said:

Do you know what kind of learner you are? As in, visual, auditory, kinesthetic? Most people tend to be some combination, and knowing how you learn best will help you develop study strategies that will ACTUALLY help you learn instead of wasting time with little payoff. Granted, you'll need to refine it with trial and error, don't expect to have a perfect system out of the gate. 

 

Like, for example, I'm kinesthetic with a bit of visual. I had to physically hand write my notes otherwise it wouldn't stick as well - granted, this was after years of forced note taking in a traditional school environment. Typing rarely got the same results for me. Being in the same physical place for a class also helped.  I also was big on reading.  On the other hand, my brother is a huge auditory learner. He would go to class with like a 102 fever because he knew he had to hear the lecture othewisr nothing would stick. 

The best study strategies take advantage of all three major learning styles - something you see (reading?), something you hear (saying it out loud?), and something you do (writing, pacing, whatever). 

I honestly don't know which one I am. I struggle with keeping all the information in a book, as I tend to remember the general theme rather than specific facts. So when I was reading a theology book and had to meet weekly with a group, I always remembered what the point was, but when asked specific details from the book as proof I struggled to think of anything. 

When it comes to hearing lectures, it depends on the speaker and how interesting he is, honestly.  I've noticed I tend to struggle with paying attention sometimes because they'll say something interesting and I'll begin thinking about that and consequently not hear what they said afterwards. I like digesting I formation slowly. 

When it comes to things like math, I'm pretty much incapable of learning it online or from a book. I need someone there taking me step by step, and I have to do it repeatedly until the pattern sticks. 

So I don't know where all that puts me.  I'm best at remembering stuff from a lecture, I guess, but I tend to use all three for different purposes. 

Edited December 31, 2015 by PhuturePriest

[homeschoolmom]

You've gotten lots of good tips, so I will just wish you luck.

[Luigi]

Phuture -

You would do well to spend some time on the Internet learning about college-level study skills. You can, in fact, search that phrase. Many colleges also offer study skills courses, but I don't know how available they are online. You have a strong enough academic foundation that you probably don't need a course, just finding and trying the techniques will be enough.

One of the problems with the educational systems in this country is that it seldom teaches students how to learn. Teachers set expectations, they grade work, they encourage, they insist, they do all sorts of other things, but they often don't teach specific techniques for learning specific topics.

There are only five ways to learn - that is, to get information from outside your head to inside your head: see it, hear it, feel it, taste it, or smell it. Your five senses. Classroom education in this country is heavily based on hearing and seeing, with some feeling (kinesthetic). Taste and smell are seldom used except in chemistry, cooking, medicine, and a few fields like that.

READING: Even if you think you read well, your reading skills may not be suited to academic instructional material. But you can find productive techniques. Some that I'm aware of are: Preview the book - length, dense text or lots of graphics; read the table of contents to see what you will learn; preview each chapter; turn chapter headings into questions; annotate as you read; look for the answers to the questions as you read that section; write questions you think will show up on the test. Each of these can be broken down and expanded.

Since you'll be taking online classes, your learning will be based almost totally on reading (the textbook plus the online notes/lectures) unless the prof records-and-posts spoken lectures. You may also be presented with some PowerPoint slide shows, or even videos.

LISTENING: Some people can simply hear the lecture and know the material. Most of us have to take notes. So there are all kinds of note-taking methods out there. Insecure students often take too many notes. The Cornell note-taking system is highly respected: http://www.princeton.edu/mcgraw/library/for-students/great-notes/ But you can also use a split-sheet form for comparison & contrast or argumentation. Some students take "book notes" - writing in a spiral notebook as you read the textbook, pulling out a sentence and reacting to it, or writing a question about it that you want to ask in class, or relating it to something else you learned in another class. Index cards are probably the most common form.

MNEMONIC DEVICES: These are memory tricks. How do you remember the names of the Great Lakes? HOMES (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior). Henry the Eighth's wives? Divorced, beheaded, died; divorced, beheaded, survived. The Latin tense endings in the indicative voice? -o, -bam, -bo; -i, -eram, -ero (first person singular of each tense; the idea being that if you can get started properly, you'll remember the other five persons-and-numbers). The order of mathematical operations? Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally (Parentheses, Exponents, Multiply, Divide, Add, Subtract). In common or well-established courses, there are a lot of these already out there. For more specialized courses, you can make up your own.

THERE'S MORE THAN ONE WAY OF SKINNING A CAT: The more you work with the same information set, the better you'll learn it. So hear it, write notes about it, read it, say it out loud, paraphrase it into your own words, repeat your paraphrase out loud, draw a picture-map-web-schema of it, put it in alphabetical order, put it in chronological order, put it in best-to-worst order, sing a song about it, develop a metaphor about it, make an outline-timeline of it, invent an acronym, put sticky notes on it (frequently used for learning foreign language nouns), free associate, have Q & A sessions with a study buddy, write out a step-be-step-process (as you mentioned for math). Lots of people have developed successful study methods in various fields over the years. The educational system often doesn't pass those along to students, although a well thought out class exercise is supposed to achieve the same end. The problem is that an exercise may be productive for some students but not for others who have a different learning style. Typically, the student next to you tells you what worked for her, you try it on for size, and you maybe pick up a study skill that is productive for you. Since you'll be working online, you won't have a student sitting next to you to share these techniques with you, but as I say, if you look around online, you can find a lot of them. 

You probably won't have an entire set of productive study skills when you start a course because each course will present different kinds of information, which will challenge you in different ways. But if you're aware that your current study skills aren't very effective in a particular course, you can start developing new ones as needed.

Best of luck with it!