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I've been holding "How to Study/Learn" sessions last week and this<br>
coming Tuesday, tomorrow. We have over 270 students in both my<br>
Chem 1250 classes but so far maybe 45 people have attended. I think<br>
a lot of people don't think they need this but it helps, even if
you've<br>
been doing pretty well. The following is related to this.<br>
<br>
A former student sent me some information about how to study/learn.<br>
He took a course offered through the Dennis Learning Center (DLC).<br>
The course he took was ESEPSY 1259 (a class OSU offers that teaches<br>
how to study effectively in college) about the Pomodoro Technique.<br>
This is an in-person class (no prerequisites) for 3 credit hours. It
didn’t<br>
count towards his degree but he thinks it can count as a general
education<br>
course for students that still need to fill those.The following is
from his<br>
e-mail,<br>
<br>
"I credit it with raising my grades last semester by at least 1
letter grade<br>
for each course. It’s an easy class to do well in, but the
techniques it teaches<br>
are very valuable for any student, especially those coming from high
school<br>
or returning from a leave of absence. It teaches everything you went
over<br>
(almost word for word in terms of how to study effectively with
skimming<br>
chapters before class, writing in the margins, reorganizing notes
after class,<br>
creating your own questions, etc) and then some. I really can’t
recommend it<br>
highly enough. The textbook we used was even similar to the one you
mentioned<br>
in class"<br>
<br>
"ESEPSY 1259 is at best going to allow them to study much more
efficiently and<br>
raise their GPA, and at worst is an easy A, so it’s a no-lose
situation for students. I<br>
think the Younkin Success Center did a study on students that took
the course,<br>
and they averaged raising their GPA by .25 points."<br>
<br>
He had attended OSU before but was dismissed from his major for a
poor GPA<br>
of below 2. He came back this past year and took this course along
with the other<br>
freshmen courses he needed for his major. He got a 3.9 GPA his
first semester<br>
back. <br>
<br>
There is an on-line course ESEPSY 1159 and workshops offered through
the<br>
DLC. Some of these may be 1/2 semester courses so you could
possibly still sign<br>
up for one.<br>
<br>
Here are some of the links he sent. The first one is about the
Pomodoro Technique.<br>
It's essentially what I spoke about, studying for some period of
time, taking break<br>
and then coming back and studying more and then a longer break and
switching to<br>
another subject. Honestly, most studies show that spending more
than about<br>
45 minutes on a given subject is the limit for retention. Even
taking a break and<br>
coming back to the same thing makes it harder to understand anything
after about<br>
the first hour. Everyone is different, so you might find your like
30 min, followed by<br>
only a 10 min break. I would say though don't go longer than about
45 min on<br>
any given subject before taking a break and then switching to
something different.<br>
<br>
Here’s a link to an article about the Pomodoro Technique (there are
some links to<br>
timers in there as well):<br>
<br>
<a
href="https://lifehacker.com/productivity-101-a-primer-to-the-pomodoro-technique-1598992730">https://lifehacker.com/productivity-101-a-primer-to-the-pomodoro-technique-1598992730</a><br>
<br>
Here’s a link to an online timer that can be used in browser:
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://tomato-timer.com">https://tomato-timer.com</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Here’s a link to the Chrome extension he uses
(there are phone apps as well):</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a
href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/marinara-pomodoro-timer/lojgmehidjdhhbmpjfamhpkpodfcodef?hl=en">https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/marinara-pomodoro-timer/lojgmehidjdhhbmpjfamhpkpodfcodef?hl=en</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Here’s a link to the ESEPSY 1259 course:</p>
<a href="http://dennislearningcenter.osu.edu/es-epsy-1259/">http://dennislearningcenter.osu.edu/es-epsy-1259/</a><br>
<br>
The textbook used:
<p class="MsoNormal"><a
href="https://www.amazon.com/College-Study-Skills-Becoming-Strategic/dp/0495913510">https://www.amazon.com/College-Study-Skills-Becoming-Strategic/dp/0495913510</a></p>
I also stated in my sessions to turn off notifications in your phone
so you aren't always<br>
checking your messages. You need to be concentrating on the task at
hand<br>
and not what your friends are doing. Here's one more thing from the
same student,<br>
<br>
"Other things that have helped me is turning off my phone
notifications and keeping a<br>
post-it note next to me when I study: if while I’m studying I think
of something I NEED<br>
to take care of relatively soon, I just write it on the post it note
and quickly get back to<br>
studying so I don’t lose my flow. This allows me to take care of
things during my “break<br>
cycle” and not during my “study cycle”.<br>
<br>
I told you I've had countless students come back to me or e-mail
over the years about<br>
how much this helped them in all their courses. They stated it
improved their grades<br>
and learning (better retention and understanding). Countless
studies have shown this<br>
works. Certainly for those of you struggling you might as well try
something different.<br>
What do you have to lose by doing so? Even for those of you who are
doing well this<br>
can help for retention and maybe even reduce your study time since
it's a more efficient<br>
way to learn.<br>
<br>
This is all pretty much what I state in my talks at the beginning of
the semester.<br>
I know a number of you attended but perhaps wont use the techniques
I suggested<br>
or only parts of it. This early material isn't too hard for most of
you, especially those<br>
who had a decent high school chemistry course recently (w/in the
last 3 years).<br>
However, that's going to change real soon when we get to the end of
ch 9, parts of<br>
chapter 10 and then from chapter 11 on. There's material there that
most of you<br>
will not have seen before and certainly not at the depth we expect.
Starting this now<br>
and planning on more time later once we're in these chapters will be
helpful.<br>
Often time people who've come to see me have told me they're only
spending 6 hours<br>
per week outside of class. Again, that might be okay for this
material if you've seen<br>
it before and you're satisfied with "average" or maybe a little
above. However, I can<br>
assure you 6 hours, even 10, is not likely going work for the newer
material coming up.<br>
It certainly won't work if you've never had chemistry, it's been
more than 3 years or the<br>
course wasn't very good.<br>
<br>
Finally, attending lecture is important. While you don't "learn" in
class and I'm not there<br>
to "teach" you anything (only to help you learn and make things
easier), you will pick up<br>
important insights. Studies have shown that students who attend
class generally have<br>
scores at least a partial letter grade to one full letter grade
higher than those who don't<br>
attend on a regular basis.<br>
shown that<br>
<br>
Dr. Zellmer
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