Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Stingy Studying

I've noticed a lot of recent interest in notetaking and studying. Below are some of the most helpful tips and tools:

TIPS
5 Notetaking Systems - Summaries of the Cornell, Outline, Mapping, Charting, and Sentence Methods.

How to Study - Detailed instructions from a SUNY Buffalo professor. He teaches in Comp Sci, Philosophy, and Cognitive Science so I imagine these tips work in a variety of disciplines. It also has many comics.

AskMeFi: Being Productive in College - Contains a number of personal strategies and anecdotes that might resonate.

AskMeFi: How to Take Notes on Big Books - Lots of tips on taking notes on thick texts. Short version? People like index cards.

Study Skills Archive - Links to dozens of university guides on how to study and test better.

TOOLS
The Uncalendar - Cool notebooks designed to make you organize your notes.

How to Use Backpack to Organize Your Classes - Using Backpack to organize your classes and take notes. Looks like a cheap and efficient way to orient yourself on a WiFi campus.

Pocketmod organizer - A clever tool from the hipster PDA/GTD crowd.

My Stickies Notes for the Web - Because you can't stick index cards through your computer screen.

FreeMind Mind Mapping Software - A free mindmapping tool.

Additionally, here is a great detailed guide on writing non-fiction, and for graduate students, a step-by-step guide to preparing a dissertation or thesis.

My father gave me the best advice on studying that I ever received: treat it like a 9 to 5 job. Those evening and weekend hours can drive you crazy. When you set realistic and specific times to study, you also have time to relax. And to go on celebrity blogs.

Thanks to Carlos in Madrid for the great glasses photo.

Update -
Here are some other good celebrity blogs. My wife reads them, not me. Really.
I Don't Like You In That Way
Pink Is The New Blog
Hollywood Rag
Popsugar

OK, sometimes I read them. For gems such as James Lipton (Actor's Studio) reciting PopoZao (Kevin Federline):



Update -
Evernote looks like nice, free notetaking software. I think it used to cost money.

4 comments:

Wynn Williamson said...

How to Read in College

Wynn Williamson said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Wynn Williamson said...

David T. tells me he uses this online graph paper for the Cornell notetaking method.

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Detailed instructions from a SUNY Buffalo professor. He teaches in Comp Sci, Philosophy, and Cognitive Science so I imagine these tips work in a variety of disciplines. It also has many comics.