Quote Originally Posted by EaglePhoenix View Post
You do not 'remember all that'.
It's not plausible to go through a 300p thick book for every subject, and remembering everything. It's impossible, it is also not required.

You have to read it and consider what may be more important. You have to look for the red line and follow it through the course. They cannot ask everything on an exam, as such - you needn't to know everything. This is where attending the classes comes in handy - as, during these lessons, the emphasis on certain parts of the course is laid upon. These are the parts you must know very well - the rest comes through reading thoroughly and understanding what you read. If you understand the core/basics, you can put the dots together when it comes down to a "lesser question". This is what some may call the "common sense" in regards to that specific subject.

When attending an exam, do not be silly by trying to fill in anything in everything just for the sake of it. If you do not know it, do not waste your time jotting something down in there for the obvious reasons:
1) you ARE wasting time,
2) it will not magically come to you by just staring at it,
3) writing something completely off is worse than skipping it altogether. You can understand the question, but not knowing its answer = fine. You can just write something silly in there and show that you do not understand nor master the subject,
4) did I mention that you are wasting your time? Not only yours, but that of your lecturer as well.

Read all questions before starting to just cram everything in there. Take your time for that. Take your time filling in your credentials (name, etc..). Many people forget that part, it's not only stupid, but can cost you marks as well. It also helps getting your focus on the task at hand.
Only then you go for the actual questions. Do not wait with the biggest/hardest ones till the end. To the contrary. Since you have read the exam, you will know what questions are the easiest.. wait with those till the end.

Be thorough, but not to the extend that you are writing a book. Your lecturer has to correct a hundred exams after yours, do not waste his time.. he's already aggravated enough. You do not want to be the cause of that.
Always flip over your page, and read when finished. Too many people forget the backhandside.. not even kidding.



If you don't trust yourself with the pc (facebook, etc).. just study through your books. Write down any questions/subject matter/etc on a piece of paper. Go to a library where you have to pay for computer usage. You do not want to waste money, you're a student - you need that to buy drinks and too much food - so take the paid time to search those questions/subject matters, get your answers and get going.

Here (Belgium), every College has such forum, since half our courses are given through PPT's and the likes (laptop/tablet is mandatory) as it reduces the carrying weight of too many books.


Since I did not know how to study (as I never needed to), I had a hard time doing College. You do not change that all of a sudden, that's why small steps are important. Failing a subject is not the end of it. Do plan on which subject you can and cannot have lesser marks as not to waste too much of that precious time on those subjects you are going to fail anyway. At least, that was my strategy.
Here we can take subjects from the 1st grade along with us to the 2nd grade - so i don't know about that over there (where is that?).
In Algeria we don't have such things, there is a library in the college yes but it's really nothing different than your home lol, and when it comes to its books the books are ancient, I doubt you would even find a book that talks about anything related to "Now adays" law.
Those 4 steps you said I actually do know as those I was doing in my high school exams, im not a failure, I actually had quiet good grades in high school. It's just that I wasnt that kind of a person who would sit down infront of books for many hours, I rather used to listen to the lecturer, understand and then when the exams come I write down what I understood, though the questions in high school exams were entirely something else, The longest answer you would write was 5 lines.
We also don't have a forum for the college, neither do we study with tablets, all u have is the book and a sheet u get to write down notes.
There is also no option to fail in a subject lol, I l can't take less than 172 each year, failing a subject means the end of my life.