A Way to Study

Life is extra crazy just now, so i'm polishing up a draft i wrote last month.
  This weekend sometime in January we turned a lot of stuff out looking for our checkbook.  It had gone missing about the middle of last month December, and we just noticed it Sunday.*
  Fortunately i found it yesterday.  This sort of thing doesn't happen often, but it's not unique.

Follow-Through is Important!

  The reason i graduated from college with high honors instead of highest honors could be a metaphor for my life.  i thought i'd turned in the independent study work, but it went astray somewhere, or i didn't complete all the requirements, something, and i didn't know about it until 20 years after the fact, when going through my mom's things after my dad's passing.  i was surprised at the time, but thought checking up would be "ungrateful" for the honors bestowed.
  Yeah, doesn't make sense to me now either.

Getting Other Things Right

  That and this article which MyGuy sent to me reminded me that, though i'm ditzy in some ways, i guess i do have a decent handle on how to study, and maybe i should share it.

Problem

  My college classmates seemed to think they couldn't pass our exams without having a big study party around me & my notes.  My original handwritten notes are an illegible mess, but by the night before the test, they were beautiful.

Process

  In this particular course, the profs believed in giving us 100 ID questions and 10 essay questions the session before the test would be given.  A test would consist of half those questions.  If you looked at the linked article, that is actually good technique.

  After the class period in which i had taken down those illegible notes, i would rewrite them, slowly and carefully, because if i didn't, even i wouldn't have been able to read them!  Later, i would come back again and refine them, arranging them into a rough outline maybe, or at least some sort of order.
  Again, unbeknownst, exactly the research approved technique shown in the article.
  Our study sessions would be based on my notes and the questions given to us, quizzing each other - again, unknowingly following the approved technique.

Results

  And what results did this net us?
  My friends insisted they would have failed if they hadn't studied with me.  They often came out with C's or D's , scoring higher in the essay questions.  i made A's, usually hitting every ID correctly, but getting marked off in the essays.  The profs would leave mononotous comments, along this line: "You hit every point we wanted -- now discuss it!"
  At 19 i had no idea how to "discuss it."  i think i've  figured that part out since then, but i still can't keep track of important stuff in other areas of life!


  *The checkbook was in a bag that i used the day i last used it.  Follow-through!  Gotta empty out the bags & pockets, clear out the paperwork!