Current Events > Anyone have any college tips for a newbie

(+) Yeah! (+)

Have to read a chapter from a text book and make a relatively short discussion board post about it but I'm having a hard time focusing on this shit >_>. And I'm not sure what the good info is and what I should discard with regards to taking notes prior to formulating my post.

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Get a highlighter, read it through and highlight the main words (usually verbs and nouns). Then condense
What topic TC?

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Summarize the thing through a hierarchy of elements

If you were going to explain this to a class of 9th graders, what are the things they need to know? What are the things that you currently remember and how helpful are those things? Those should definitely be in there first especially if you know it off the top of your head.

What is the point of this chapter in relation to the whole book? Is it the environmental chapter? Is it about the skeletal system?

If youre a liberal arts major, you dont have to do any actual work and can be drunk all the time.

Discuss how you don't know what to discuss

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Sounds like you have apathy to the homework, cant really help that unless you have a firm goal in mind for post college that can make use of your degree. If you do, then just keep thinking about the goal.

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awesome999 posted...

Get a highlighter, read it through and highlight the main words (usually verbs and nouns). Then condense
What topic TC?

All the materials are digital so I don't have a highlighter. Also kind of annoying, I like having a physical thing in front of me (but also not gonna complain about not having to spend hundreds of bucks for a book >_>).

Subject is about environmental factors on forests and hydrological processes.

This is the easy class, too - the other one I gotta actually do a more legit term paper with a story map to chart the data and visualize the narration. THAT'S the intimidating one just because I've never done any serious essays like that and I know I'm gonna waste a lot of time just reading a lot of information that ends up being irrelevant >_>. Thankfully just taking these two courses to get my feet wet so with this easier one I can take a day to really study the material and formulate a good response and then for the other one I can dedicate more time throughout the week to putting stuff together.

Unsugarized_Foo posted...

Discuss how you don't know what to discuss

That's what I'm doing here so that I don't wind up failing the discussion board posts lol.

GodIsImaginary posted...

If youre a liberal arts major, you dont have to do any actual work and can be drunk all the time.

Probably should have done that but wanted to go for something a little more engaging and challenging and scientific in nature.

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Have Desi (or Mulder or Scully) help by sitting on the book while you try to read.

In all seriousness, I'd say Red Jackson's advice is spot on as this seems more an exercise of the skill than heavy grasping of material.

I'd add that while you may be tempted to break it up, doing the whole thing in one go may give you an overall better impression of what the chapter is about.

@Ruvan22 Scully put herself on time out because she got *really* aggressive to Desi and then Desi had a seizure, and while I'm not 100% certain they're related, it looks like "stress seizures" are a thing. Desi's lying on her kitty bed next to me. Mulder's on his kitty bed on the other sofa lol.


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Hexenherz posted...

@Ruvan22 Scully put herself on time out because she got *really* aggressive to Desi and then Desi had a seizure, and while I'm not 100% certain they're related, it looks like "stress seizures" are a thing. Desi's lying on her kitty bed next to me. Mulder's on his kitty bed on the other sofa lol.

I've heard studying with cats, especially when you have to write, can be challenging as they think you are making a fun new set of exercises for them :P

They've certainly been making my meetings a little more difficult throughout the week, between getting into little spats I have to run to break up or just jumping on my laptop and pressing keys right before the meeting starts >_>

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Hexenherz posted...

They've certainly been making my meetings a little more difficult throughout the week, between getting into little spats I have to run to break up or just jumping on my laptop and pressing keys right before the meeting starts >_>

You could always pretend you are having a stroke so as not to get them into trouble

PrideOfLion posted...

What does the post have to be about? A summary of the chapter? An argument with the author over one of their points? Diving deeper into the material and connecting it to a current event?

It *seems* like it's supposed to be 80% summary of information, 20% independent critical thought about it.

Welp... Guess I have 10 chances to get it right so if I screw up the first one I can still pull a 90% >_>

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Thanks @PrideOfLion and @RedJackson and @Ruvan22 since ya'll mentioned that and it finally clicked.

I've always been terrible at *summarizing* information, it's a tricky skill, but that honestly gives me a clearer direction to work towards. I was leaning towards free-styling more than explaining but that might also not be too great >_>

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awesome999 posted...

Get a highlighter, read it through and highlight the main words (usually verbs and nouns). Then condense
What topic TC?

No offense but this is terrible advice. Highlighting is demonstrably less efficient than note-taking (which I...still don't really do in grad school, whoops), there have been studies done about this, and if you're going to highlight or take notes, you want to note down headings and main ideas, not verbs and nouns...

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And yeah, pretty much just either take issue with something, expand on something in your own opinion/what you thought about it, and so on. Worth noting that a lot of professors *in my experience YMMV* are more concerned with whether or not you did the discussion post than what exactly you talked about or how well you synthesized/argued.

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my advice is C's get degrees

join clubs you're interested in, meet girls, lifelong friends, encounter ideas you never would have encountered otherwise and let life take you where you're meant to be

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Coloradough posted...

my advice is C's get degrees

lmao
I do believe I won't have to repay the tuition if I get a C, too. Not that I'm not aiming for higher but I know it's gonna happen at least once in this program.

Geisterdrache posted...

And yeah, pretty much just either take issue with something, expand on something in your own opinion/what you thought about it, and so on. Worth noting that a lot of professors *in my experience YMMV* are more concerned with whether or not you did the discussion post than what exactly you talked about or how well you synthesized/argued.

That's an interesting point.

It is all very new to me since the only online course I've taken up to this point was Math, so... that was hella straightforward, you just did the assignments on the homework interface and showed up to take the tests in person at the testing center.

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Hexenherz posted...

Subject is about environmental factors on forests and hydrological processes.

Summarize and present the concepts in a way that allows and encourages all readers to participate in discussion.

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Man I can't focus at all and it's terrible. It doesn't help that I'm so used to cramming that I don't know how to properly allocate my time when I still have a good cushion to build off of.

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Use other students posts as examples for how to build yours.

Also find one topic in the chapter that excites you and explain the rest of the material relative to that point. Usually for discussion board posts, in my experience, profs dont care about the substance of your post as much as did you hit the post and word counts.

Theyre mostly there to basically keep attendance on you.

If its a traditional textbook and not an actual book you have to read, you can use the summary at the end of the chapters to help shape your post.

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Lol the problem with using other students' posts is that then I feel like I'm not being original because I'm using their structure to formulate my response.

That is interesting about selecting some aspects in the chapter that excite me. It's a "Seminar" course and the posts seem focused on ensuring students understand the presented material, so I feel like that's a good approach if I hit on the more generic broader concepts and then develop one of the more interesting ones.

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I just need to get over my own personal mental inhibition and anxiety of being judged on something and do it is what it boils down to -_-

Since it's an entirely new subject I don't know anything about it's really intimidating writing to it, even though it literally is just summarizing information from a text book.

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hey how old r u and what state

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Go. to. class.

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@Doe y tho >_>

@BeyondWalls Thankfully no physical classes, doing a 100% online program. Which is also dangerous, I feel like having in-person sessions might increase accountability, especially when you can physically interact with the people to whom you're responsible for turning in assignments.

I love how my spellchecker doesn't recognize every other word here lol.

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Dont overspend and fall into a shitload of debt

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Thanks for that lol. My tuition is covered, as long as I don't change majors midstream (though it'll still be mostly covered in that case), just have to pay for books.

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I just mean did you come out of high school or are you an adult college student

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I'm an adult college student, been out of high school for almost 15 years now.

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Would it be weird if I emailed the professor and asked what his thoughts for improvement or change are? Since it's literally my first assignment ever I feel like that might be justifiable also there I go over thinking things again.

I do have some words to paper now at least.

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This might just be me, but I don't understand what your assignment is

Also, you probably didn't know this, but Desi is an ethnicity and naming an animal after an ethnicity is kinda eeehhhhhh
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@teepan95 It's basically just summarizing information from a text book to demonstrate comprehension. It's a Seminar class so it's more about raising awareness and understanding of contemporary issues and science rather than full-on memorizing and applying information, if that makes sense.

Also I didn't know Desi was an ethnicity lol. We called her Desi because we like two-syllable pet names and because she reminded us of a little cheetah that might live in the desert. So... her full name is technically Desert but we call her Desi for short. Also to be fair Desi was the guy on I Love Lucy. >_>

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If i've learned anything

Don't copy the powerpoint slides if its up on your schools learning portal write down what the professor says and what's on the board.

Don't wait too long to do the homework of w/e class if it's a hard one.

Don't be afraid to ask the professor anything, even if you think it's a dumb question, just wait till after class to talk to them if you're shy.

Take notes in different colors to highlight the important things to know about something.

I'm sure i can come up with more but can't think at the moment

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Hexenherz posted...

It's basically just summarizing information from a text book to demonstrate comprehension. It's a Seminar class so it's more about raising awareness and understanding of contemporary issues and science rather than full-on memorizing and applying information, if that makes sense.

OK. I never had anything like that so I can't help you there, I'm afraid.

General tips:

stay up to date on your online classes/homework/etc. That's something I had trouble with this past semester

try to get in touch with other students. Support like that can be invaluable
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Don't take out studies loans
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teepan95 posted...

OK. I never had anything like that so I can't help you there, I'm afraid.

General tips:

stay up to date on your online classes/homework/etc. That's something I had trouble with this past semester

try to get in touch with other students. Support like that can be invaluable

Yeah I'm also going to have problem staying on top of shit, I already know it, even though I have a ton of time to work on it.

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Pick the same time every day to work. Let it become routine.

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Discussion board posts are garbage and should be treated as much. Pick two paragraphs from the chapter highlighting a main idea. Summarize. Ask a hypothetical question you could ask from about the idea. Answer your own question with a possible answer.

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