I was told that the formula for success in university is to study 2 to 3 hours outside of class for every 1 hour inside of class, and to increase the number of hours for exams.

Do any of you actually follow through with this formula that's supposed to give you a grade of B?

Study? LOL

But seriously, the amount of studying needed depends on the person. For example, I'll never study and get an A whereas if someone else studies for a few hours and only gets a B. You can't study too much, but always remember to get a good night's sleep or else you're screwed.

>>2 You sure are smart

>>1 Never heard of that "formula for success." I usually don't agree with those types of things - it implies that there's a right way of doing things.
General rule of thumb: if you're not doing well, study more. Study until you get it. If you don't do well, that means you didn't get it. If this is the case, see the first two sentences. Adjust.

Despite the asinine wording, Dude was right that study habits are malleable. It also really depends on the class and professor - some just require more input. And the case of Dude's classes, they require literally none at all! It begs certain questions about those courses, but that is straying off topic.

>>1 Like Misu, I don't really believe there's any formula. Just read over whatever you have to until you get it. There should be mock tests at the end of each chapter in your books, right? I suggest taking them. They're a really great way to tell how much you do and don't understand/remember. Once you know that, you can make those things the basis of your studying. The night before a test/quiz, quickly read through/scan over that chapter's notes.

I think you should be good with that. Unfortunately, I can't say much more since I've never properly studied before.

And on that note...
>>3 I generally don't study but get A's and B's on tests, as well... :|

But then again, I'm one of those weirdos who actually pays attention during class. If you pay attention and retain what you learn during class, you don't need to waste your time studying afterwards.

The only thing I do particularly bad in is History, and no matter how much I study, I can never remember that shit. (Although I've been doing rather well this year. I guess being forced to take a lower level History class is actually doing some good. Probably because we don't have to remember dates or names or write unnecessarily long essays about people we never met.)

My grades are mainly affected by my horrible homework habits /shot

It appears my joke flew clear over your head, so I'll elaborate.

From personal experience, university/college coursework differs vastly from high school. Incredibly so. Those that went through highschool, priding themselves in how little work they had to do to achieve success suddenly found themselves failing miserably. Our valedictorian is bogged down with coursework, I've known people who lost GPA based scholarships due to unchecked hubris after merely the first semester, and I know literally no one who currently holds a 4.0 anymore.

But this is my college specifically. And it's known to be notorious for hating its students. The point I was trying to make was that you and dude generalized the concept as if you could get by all your problems with minimal effort, and that is simply untrue unless you aren't fully applying yourself in the first place. But you are in high school, so it makes sense for you at least. I can relate; high school is kind of a joke in hindsight, but they were asking about university study habits. Dude, on the other hand - I have no idea how old he is.

>>5 Didn't fly completely over; I just gave it a serious reply.

And now that I think about it, I don't really have any place giving advice for college study habits when I'm in highschool :I /derp. Ah, well; I'll leave my opinion there in case it does help with something.

It all depends on the person, subject, and the difficulty. I never studied, and probably never will. All I do is some problems that are assigned, and I get A's and B's in my classes and tests.

>>6 Apologies if I came off a little callous, nonetheless. I responded basically right after waking up (yes, at 2 pm) so I was a slight bit irritable. I just dislike it when people provide themselves as the exceptional example of competency; no matter how justified, I can't help but read it as complacent arrogance.

I made this thread because not only did I fail 2 extremely hard courses, but it's also because my university is 'kind enough' (note sarcasm) to force me to take a study skills course on how to succeed in university. Currently, everyone in my class is a failed standing student (I disagree, I'm conditional, not under 1.5 GPA yet).

According to them, this course is based on what successful students are doing in school. I used to get good marks in high school also without studying (so studying is REALLY new to me). Apparently a lot of those 30 Hours are based on reading the textbook. I was also stupid though... I failed my midterm by 4%, I should have just dropped the course instead of go through hell with it. Now it's permanently scarred on my record... TT_TT

>>9 I might end up in the same boat as you if/when I get off to college :\

I know it's a little irrelevant, so you don't have to answer if you don't want to, but would you mind if I asked what your major/minor are?

>>2 lol omg I died

Name what are you doing, Name

Stahp

>>9 Well why are you failing? Do you not grasp the concepts being taught or are you just forgetting the material learnt? Because if you don't understand it in the first place, I'm pretty sure studying won't help much. I only know of studying as a form of review so I generally do it a few hours prior to a test or something like that. If you pay attention in class, I don't think there's a need to study 2~3 hours just to learn what you did a few hours ago. Unless your memory's like.. really bad. Instead of studying, you could always get a tutor. I know some schools have a student peer tutoring program, though I'm not sure if every school offers something similar.

And hey, you could always ask someone in the same class who's /not/ failing. I'm sure they're doing something right. I'm ngl here, the people around you definitely influence who you are so getting a bit of advice from those who are doing well wouldn't hurt.

>>10 I don't mind. I'm currently majoring in Accounting TT_TT worst choice I've ever made in my life. Now I can't switch to education because my GPA's too low, and my GPA's low because I not only don't like the program I'm in, but because I'm also not motivated to learn things that I find useless in the future. My minor is currently in Classics (Language and Lit.)

>>11 I'm failing because I didn't bother to read the textbook when taking the courses. First semester I did alright, with a 2.2 GPA, not great but not horrible. Thought I could go through 2nd semester doing the same (textbooks were just too expensive... even when I bought them). Financial Accounting and Introduction to Business Statistics... were just not my thing, especially when I had them together PLUS Macroeconomics. I also had a friend in the same class... except they were never IN class... they stayed home and read the textbook most of the time (plus I was working).