I have been a fan of mixed martial arts for the past two years. I think it’s because I am competitive by nature, and nothing can compare to the raw physical competition between two individuals just duking it out in a ring.

There is one quote from mixed martial artist Tito Ortiz that I have always remembered, which went something like this: “It’s the training that’s hard. The actual fight is the easy part.”

I look at tests the same way. A test takes only an hour, but you might spend hours, days or weeks preparing to write it.

All of the hard work happens in the preparation and studying – the test is the easy part If you are completely prepared for a test, then there is nothing to worry about. You just go in and do your best. In general, tests only become hard if you aren’t sufficiently prepared, both physically (the actual studying/test-taking preparation) and mentally (the psychological aspect).

In this article and the next, I focus on this preparation that I believe has made me successful in my university courses.

Approaching Lectures

Every professor has a different approach for lectures. Some professors don’t use textbooks, so everything they say or show you in class is everything you need to know for the course. Some professors like using textbooks, and their lecture is just a way to help you better understand the material in the textbook. Other professors are in between, using parts of the textbook while also coming up with their own original course material. In my opinion, how you approach the lectures should be a function of how the professor approaches it.

If your professor is lecture-based, then you should try to never miss a lecture. Your should also try to write down any notes that the he puts up, and in addition, anything important that he says that is not written down in his notes. There are some professors who put a few notes up, but add many new pieces of information when they speak. Some students make the mistake of thinking that only the information on the black board or the PowerPoint slides is important – don’t fall into this trap! If you’re not sure, write down anything important the professor says. There are some lectures where I will write down almost every single word the professor says.

Personally, I always bring my laptop and type up my notes for lecture-based professors. I type much faster than I write (which can also get quite messy), so unlike some other students I often see struggling to keep up with professor, I almost always get all the important information down. So if you enjoy typing more than writing, and you have a laptop you can use, I would definitely suggesting typing your notes during lecture.

What if there are diagrams to take down? Well, that’s harder to do on a laptop, so a friend and I have devised a system for our classes that involve diagrams. I type up any notes or things that the professor says, and my friend draws all of the diagrams. After, we just scan/photocopy the diagrams so that we both have all the information necessary for the test.

If your professor is text-book based, then you can probably be more liberal with your lecture habits. I had one professor who essentially just followed the textbook, and because of her strong accent, I could not understand a word she was saying in class anyways – so I did not go to a lot of those classes. I also had another professor who spent most of his class telling random stories, making jokes, and occasionally picking out random things from the textbook to talk about – I didn’t see much value in this class, so if I didn’t feel like it, I just didn’t go. Conversely, my philosophy professor this year does a wonderful job of explaining our textbook readings, so even though his class is textbook-based, I still never miss a class.

Some people might say, “well since you paid for the course, you’re doing yourself a disservice and wasting money by not attending every single lecture”. I don’t agree with this viewpoint, because that’s like saying if you go to a restaurant and order something, and it turns out that the chef just served you something from the trash, you should eat it because you paid for it. The fact of the matter is that you are adults in university now, and it is up to you to figure out whether there is value in anything that you do, from whether you should go to lecture to how much you should be studying for a test.

If your professor is somewhere in between, then you should probably go to class because something he says might be important. And in general, in those types of lectures, you probably won’t have to take too many notes anyways.

Do Your Assigned Readings on Time

Now I don’t actually follow this, but I suggest that you do. I think my life would be a lot easier if I at least kept up with my readings instead of trying to learn everything for the first time, last minute.

For professors that do use a textbook, the point of doing your assigned readings is so that you will be able to understand the lectures better. In addition, by keeping on top of your readings, you will quickly figure out which concepts you need to spend more time on. Imagine not doing your readings, and finding out the day before a test that you don’t understand something! Moreover, you will probably retain many of the key concepts or ideas you have read throughout the year, and therefore, there is less you will need to learn or study the days leading up to a test.

So if you have the time, doing your readings on time can only help.

Should I Take Notes from the Textbook?

I really don’t think there is a right or wrong answer to this, and the best answer is to do what works for you.

In general, I just study straight from the textbook, so I rarely if ever take notes from the textbook. However, some students find it helpful to take notes while going through their readings, so that they can just study their notes (and forget the textbook) when preparing for tests. In addition, some students find that taking notes while reading helps them retain the information because they need to put the material into their own words. Other students highlight the key points in their textbook, so that they know what key concepts or facts to memorize when studying.

You just need to figure out if taking notes makes sense for your learning and studying style. One thing you’re going to learn in university is that there is often no one right way to do something, and different techniques have their merits.

Form a Study Group

One of my close friends at York University was the only student in my class to achieve a perfect GPA after two years of undergraduate science. One night during second year, our study group was working through one of our professor’s past tests before a biochemistry midterm. Together, our study group went through each question and tried to come to a consensus for the answers. This way, we could see many different perspectives to the problem, and hopefully converge on the line of thinking that was probably correct.

However, for some reason, my friend could not make the study session and went through the practice test on his own. My friend got an 80-something on this midterm, while the rest of the our study group got high-90’s. My friend has always attributed his mark on that midterm to not being at that study session, and has always wanted to go through practice tests as a group since that moment.

The point I’m trying to make is that even for students acing courses, group discussion, practice, and studying is imperative to their success. Every successful student needs to have a group of friends he or she can rely on for support and advice.

When I say study group, I don’t necessarily mean that you need to have a group of students always studying together, many times a week. How you organize your studying, whether in a group or not, and how often you do so, is up to you and a separate issue on its own.

When I suggest that you form a study group, I just mean that you should find a small group of close friends that you can rely on for asking questions about course material, working through practice problems or past tests, or even meeting up to study in a group if that works for you.

No one is perfect, and you’ll rarely find a student who never has problems with the course material and never has to ask a question. I get confused all the time, but I’m never worried because I have a close group of friends who I can always go to for help.

Part 4 –Studying for Tests >>

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Read the other parts of the How I Aced First Year University Science series here:

• Part 1: The Jump from High School to University
• Part 2: How to Think
• Part 3: Lectures, Readings, Note Taking, and Forming Study Groups
• Part 4: Studying for Tests
• Part 5: The Art of Test-Taking