First Semester In College What Do You Think ?

[ValiantSalvatore]

Hey,

the first semester of college just ended for my pretty much today. I would like to get some feedbacks on things I have been implementing because I definitely did not achieve what I planned for this semester. In one subject I recived an equivalent of a GPA of 3.0 and overall it is now around 2.0. Which is definitely not what I had in mind or as a goal. I study mostly 2-4h a day, each week and on saturday. Sundays most of the time not. I have always been a roller coaster student and never been an over-achiever somehow average or above average sometimes and I am ok with that. Besides in 6th grade I was one of the best students in class lol.

Back to the question, so I study 2-4h a day and take notes in class attend most classes one I did not take mondays because I would go home over the weekend and I only had one lecture on monday. So, I learned instead most of the time and went back to the city I was studying at this day there were some others classes I skipped because I was overwhelmed with the amount of work we had to do especially with the design class. ( It is a computer science "related" major.)

After getting a couple results now from the exams. I was suprised that I did so poorly in one class, one result is still missing and in math I received a GPA of 1.7. I set a high goal for myself in math, yet after studying with a friend. I noticed that it will not be possible to achieve that and set an more achievable. Which was to pass the test with a decent grade. 1.7 is not so decent I don`t know I was just happy to pass the class. I was not able to keep up with the speed of the material presented and the exercises were harder than the actual test out of the 12 exercises sheets ( or however you call them in eng). I finished 4 of them. Math is weird I understand the concept but don't know how to apply the idea and a lot of fundementals are still missing. Or I don't understand it at all because the material was presented to fast and I did not study a lot or focused on a different subject which "seemed" more relevant at times. Now I recived a 1.3 GPA at technical computer science I don't know exactly how to translate. We learned what grey-code is huffmann encoding how mealey automats work, converting binary to dezimal,hex,octal how to read the ASCII table, boolsche algebra, how to create combinational circuits etc. etc. Just to give an idea what we actually did. I did every exercise sheet beside one and we get "bonus points" which go into the actual grade we recive from the exam. I also did not do very well on them, still I understood the concepts, mostly I struggled with small things and mathematical rules (distibutive law and others ) and I don't know how it is in the U.S in Germany we have the right to see the results from the exams. Guess the same applies for the U.S and I want to see were I messed up.

I did not party or wasted my time mindlessly playing video games since my pc is at home. On weekends I played since I was home then and only after I finished studying or directly when I came home and studied afterwards. So let's say I reduced it by 70-80% I used to play to much. Considering I did not party, do drugs, studied 2-4 hours on average and up to 8h a day for exams1 week before the test. Is the result I received just ? I feel people think I am weird and most of them do not engage or talk with me and when we talk it's like all their flaws come out sometimes. Even though I am quite good socially I don't get along with my peers. It is like a curse from the past since I have been very negative then and people tell me all the time why I look so serious and I start laughing everytime because I am quite happy now since I am meditating for 2 almost two years now.  What I want to say is basically because of that I was not able to form a study group. Ok, before this post get's to long again what do you think about the situation I am in and how "well" I did for the first semester. ( I watched all of Leo's video about school and studying 2-4 times each).

[Evilwave Heddy]

Strange..

[Saarah]

It could have something to do with how you study, are you sure it's the best method for optimal learning and understanding? 

Also could have to do with answering the test questions in the right/ a specific way 

[Christian]

I agree with @Saarah

Maybe your way of studying --method -- was not for you. I know from personal experience that just taking notes and just doing study is not enough.

If I just take notes and study that way, I forget what I had learned a week or two later. But I know how to correct that. What I did was I studied through active recall and I can confidently say it works. 

It is basically a method where you actively try to recall the information you have just learned rather than reading over your notes again and again or just reading the textbook. That is passive learning where as active recall is active learning. It is more engaged. 

You can do it by asking yourself questions based on what you study and then recall the same information later in intervals where the time between each interval expands gradually over time. 

Check out the forgetting curve -- it will make you more clear on when to do active recall and help you apply the method. You can thank me later  

[ValiantSalvatore]

That would be great, finding a study group. I did the course learning how to learn at coursera and at one point they said you pretty much learn all those lessons the hard way. That's what I really do not like about learning things online through videos or shortcuts they help a lot. Still, I feel or think that my brain switches into default mode and forgets the lessons most of the time till they are needed. For example studying with the recall method. I do that with test a lot but only with tests and not with notes. That's basically how I prepare and write down answers tbh I felt like I could have aced that test. I just did not practice enough. I hoped to fall through the test so I could write it again and write a better mark, it was easy I took to long to answer each question because some days of practice were missing. I always keep in mind the Dunnig-Kruger effect so I hope I am not to biased on this part. Still, I believe it was not that difficult and that's why I want to see the exam and to see what kind of mistakes I did. @Christian Thanks for the tip and in general for all the responses. I will definitely use the tip with spaced repetition and active recall or questioning method with the notes I took that day. Did not think of that and it will definitely help. 

Edited February 5, 2017 by ValiantSalvatore