I’m in my first year of college and I’m taking a world Civilization class. I missed a lot of Questions that weren’t multiple choice and the essay Questions. I don’t know if it’s my lack of studying, quality of studying, or lack of ability to write essays that did this. Does anyone have advice for doing better next time? There are no history tutors at my school and my instructor is a part time faculty member so he doesn’t have much time outside of class. I Know it’s kind of silly to do poorly in history because history because it’s not math or like math. It could of been that I didn’t study the weekend before the exam because I went on a vacation. He gave a study guide that includes the essay Questions but don’t know who to reach out to for them to see the quality of them, it’s probably not about about grammar or punctuation that affects my essay but my expression of the answer to the Questions. I’m hoping to get atleast a B in this class.
I wrote because twice in a sentence. Ignore that sentence mistake.
Hang around after class one day this week and ask the instructor: “I didn’t do as well I hoped on the last exam, do you have any suggestions for me so I can prepare better for the next one?”
He told us not to do that. He even said not to waste his time because before the exam he said “I know one of you is gonna come to me and say i didn’t do as well as I hoped and them I’m gonna ask where is the textbook, flash cards, lecture notes, and essays You wrote wrote from the study guide” and I have all those. He probably isn’t gonna give advice for high quality studying or essay writing. How did you do in your history classes @bodangles? Do you have advice for doing well on essay Questions?
Well, that weekend vacation certainly didn’t help…but you should talk to the prof one on one. Did you study by memorizing certain facts (names and dates?)? College exams often want you to connect ideas and see the larger patterns - so you did fine on the MC because the choices were there and you could recognize the right answer, but had a harder time on the essays because you need to draw those linkages.
I just didn’t do as well on my first test (In 30 years!) I am a mom going back to school. I can tell you one of the mistakes I made - was reading over something and thinking “Yeah I get that”
and not doing anything else with it. When what I needed to do was see if I could recall it without any hints or context.
Understanding the information and knowing the information are two different things.
Also does your school have a tutoring center? or a writing center? They may be able to help you with the essay questions.
Also a studying with someone if you haven’t tried that or studying alone if you had been doing everything with a pal.
I am anxious to see what replies you get.
One of my instructors sent us this link:
http://ucc.vt.edu/academic_support/study_skills_information.html
Well writing centers can’t help with the content of history essays but with only grammar, spelling, punctuation,etc.
If you had the exact essay questions on the study guide before you should have been able to commit the necessary information to memory. Sounds like you just didn’t study… there’s no shortcut.
Yes doing the essay by memory is the way It works but studying efficiently doesn’t always effect the quality of your essays.
That’s not true at all. Writing centers can help you learn how to write better- not just correct your English.
What did you get marked down for? Give us an example of a question.
Also have you tried Quizlet?
Try outling your readings and notes by typing them up. It helps organize the information and helps commit to memory. Research topics that are glossed over and read from other sources.
No never heard of or tried quizlet.
ooh quizlet is cool. It is free -go check it out. Make detailed cards - not just the bolded words in the books but the more detailed stuff. Just making the cards is studying and the the website will quiz you on them. You can also share the cards or look at other peoples cards -so maybe your classmates can share ideas
First read this:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-life/1920853-college-is-a-step-up-from-hs-16-tips-on-doing-well-in-college.html
Ask yourself…why did I get this question wrong? Did you not remember it? Did you sort of remember, but not enough to put something down? Did you not learns it at all?
It sounds like he gave you a good base of info and you went on vacation. Did you study then? If not, then you know what to do.
You could ask the prof if he could share some good essay answers if you’re not sure what he was looking for.
It can be helpful to prepare outlines for possible essays as a study guide because it forces you to think through what the main ideas are and to commit some key facts to substantiate them to memory.
I don’t think you can pinpoint the specific study habit that worked or didn’t work as the one thing clouding this process is the fact that you spent an entire weekend before the test NOT studying. Try NOT doing that next time and doing all of the other stuff you have been doing. If the results still aren’t great, ramp it up.
Welll I got a C in that class as a midterm grade. Hopefully I can get that grade up to atleast a B before the semester is over. I have a book review, presentation, research paper, and remaining tests and quizzes left to do for that class.
BTW, getting a C is not “bombing” except in crazy world where every kid goes into college with straight A’s and has the unrealistic expectation that that trend will continue because taking AP’s in high school is just like college lol. You can work to get that C up - just really crank on the other opportunities for grades, do any extra credit, and fight for every point. Good luck!