<p>I am a freshman at a small LAC and had my first test in Neuroscience 101. I studied for about 25 hours, however, I failed the test. Is this normal? Do a lot of freshman, or college students in general, fail tests?</p>
<p>When you say “failed”, what do you mean? A 60? Lower? Is the teacher grading on a curve? Did he show the class average?</p>
<p>When you said “studied for 25 hours”, what do you mean by that? Did you study efficiently? Did you just pretty much stare at the textbook? What were your study methods?</p>
<p>Staring at a textbook for 25 hours doesn’t constitute studying. </p>
<p>Sometimes, depending on the course, staring at a textbook helps a lot. In other cases, not so much…</p>
<p>I didn’t “stare at a textbook” for 25 hours. I made a study guide, said the stuff out loud, things like that. I guess I don’t know how to effectively study though</p>
<p>I never failed a test… ok, maybe that one time, but that was because I stared at the tasteful illustrations of the textbook for 25 hours.</p>
<p>I failed my honors physics midterm today.</p>
<p>there’s no need for sarcastic comments</p>
<p>First, don’t get too upset, because that really won’t help. Do you know for sure that you “failed,” or did you just get a poor score. Sometimes the curve in science classes will be different than what you are used to from high school. So, you’ll need to find that out.</p>
<p>Then, you need to go to office hours and talk to your professor and see what this means for you in terms of the class. What you missed, what you need to focus on. Bring your study material so you can show it to the prof, who may be able to point out to you where you aren’t focusing…</p>
<p>In the future, just so you know, you should be going to office hours at the start of a class to get to know the prof and to find out if you are focusing on the right material before you take the first test. Study groups can be helpful, too, because people tend to study what they already know, for some reason, maybe because it is what interests them, and to miss other things. Other students will have other interests and strengths.</p>
<p>Just remember, it’ll be all right. No matter what, you can figure it out, even if you have to drop the class, it’s not that big of a deal in college.</p>
<p>To be honest, I don’t know how much of a help the professor will be. This is his first year teaching and he just got out of grad. school. I should’ve switched sections but wasn’t sure if I should just stick it out. He answers questions with ummmmmm…we will discuss that later. I am not blaming my poor success on the test on him, but simply saying that going to office hours may not be all that helpful.</p>
<p>Your high school must’ve not prepared you for the college workload</p>
<p>@ OP: Going to his office hours can help. You might be able to go over the test with him and see what you did wrong. He can help clarify things for you. Also, it shows that you care about your grade. And when teachers see this, sometimes they are willing to cooperate more if they see that you are trying and are concerned about doing well in their class.</p>
<p>And if worse comes to worst, withdraw from the class – unless it pertains to your major.</p>
<p>Also, if your college has tutoring, try going to that, and get recommendations as to how to effectively study.</p>
<p>My high school is irrelevant, because I’m in college now, and worked very hard to get here, and am continuing to work hard. Also, I will go to office hours and see how that goes. Thanks for the help. Anyone have any suggestions on how to study in a science class like this?</p>
<p>Find someone who didn’t fail and form a study group</p>
<p>Try this: google “cal newport study hacks” </p>
<p>The site has loads of very helpful advice regarding studying. Remember that its Quality >> Quantity</p>
<p>I skimmed some of the books by Cal Newport. To sum up his entire writing career into 1 sentence: “Studying for 1 hour with focus and without distraction >>>> studying for 10 hours without focus and with distractions.” </p>
<p>I spend a lot of time at the library. Sometimes, it’s packed and noisy. Some people go to the library to talk and screw around on their laptops. It’s sad.</p>
<p>I guess you’re not one of those people. Try practice tests. Go over examples. Don’t just look at your notes and read the book. Going over examples prepares you for the problems you will do. Reading the textbook over and over is completely useless, it lets you understand the concepts, but it doesn’t give your practice for the applications.</p>
<p>Well, this relates only to studying accounting, but what the hell:</p>
<p>Do the problem sets in the book, if there are any. Do the largest, multi-step problems in the relevant chapters of study. I find that I tend to do better on tests when I do problems over and over again and again. It helps me to apply the concepts. Basically, what ISUClub said.</p>
<p>“Don’t just look at your notes and read the book. Going over examples prepares you for the problems you will do. Reading the textbook over and over is completely useless, it lets you understand the concepts, but it doesn’t give your practice for the applications.”</p>
<p>Thats a good advice for most courses except that there isn’t much problem solving in intro to neuroscience courses apart from some exceptions. I’m currently doing fundamentals of behavioural neurobio (which I think is similar to what op is doing) and the key is simply to read the material until your eyes bleed. Read the assigned chapter before and after the lecture. Preferably record the lectures and try to focus on what the prof stresses out the most.</p>
<p>If you feel you cant wrap your head around a concept, try looking for material outside the textbook and lectures. Typing ‘action potential’ in youtube, for example, gets you some really cool links which definitely helped me out.</p>
<p>good point. The reason I despise biology related courses - the memorization.</p>
<p>I have friends who are taking this molecular bio course that I will have to take eventually. It consists of memorizing bullet notes on powerpoint presentations. The tests are done online by multiple choice questions. Looks a lot like hell.</p>
<p>
What you need is not generalizations about a lot of freshman at schools all across the country. What you need is specific information about how students in this particular class did. </p>
<p>If you’ve made some friends in the class, find out how they did. Some profs, especially new ones like you say this one is, write tests that are too difficult for students to answer because they have a PhD in the subject and students are learning it for the first time. Or if you’re not comfortable asking others how they did, go to the prof and ask about the grade distribution. You’re not asking about how any particular student did, just how many got 10% right, 20% right, etc.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you failed but already know most people did not, then obviously this is telling you something.</p>