Web Apps

Flashcard Exchange is the world’s largest library of printable flashcards, according to their slogan. A free membership will allow you to create unlimited flashcards and share them if you choose. Without an account, you can study with the millions of flashcards available the public. A one-time membership of $19.95 allows you to use images in your flashcards, print them out and use the Leitner card files as well as export cards to Word or Excel. The free membership is fully functional and unless you want to print, is a great way to study.

Flashcard Machine is a great way to create, study and share flashcards online. With free registration, you have the ability to create unlimited flashcards and share them with others (even non-registered users). You can separate flashcards into multiple subjects and groups and include images and audio. The website isn’t as polished as Flashcard Exchange, but it does offer a few more options and is free.

Software

iFlash is a Mac shareware program designed to help you study with virtual flashcards. There is a free trial and for $14.95, you can purchase the program. It allows you to print, edit and share your flashcards easily. You can create multiple card faces (word, definition, example, etc.) and export flashcards to your ipod.

Genius is another memorization software for Mac that I’ve already posted about here. It organizes info using the “Leitner “learning cardfile” system, and it quizzes you using a spaced repetition method.” It’s also free and my favorite way to study.

Memory Lifter is a free Windows flashcard software. It’s a pretty basic flashcard software and since it’s PC only, I haven’t been able to test it, but the features seem nice from the website

Digital TV

1. Don’t tackle too much at once.

If you’re assigned a five chapter chunk for homework, work on one chapter at a time. This doesn’t make the challenge seem endless. Also, don’t procrastinate, I know it’s hard, but if you start early and have time for breaks (a few minutes to an hour to a day), then it’s much easier.

2. Read once for main points

Skim through the reading, get all the main points, headers, bold words, everything that sticks out.

3. Take good notes.

Write down the big picture, either in an outline, a mind map, anything.

4. Read once more for details.

Once you have your notes on the important ideas, go back through and see if there’s any details you missed. Think dates, names and places, stuff that your professor might ask, but isn’t necessarily what you’d call “important” in the grand scheme of things. This is more for history, political science, and psychology classes. When you’re getting into physics or the like, this isn’t as important.

5. Study your notes.

Now that you’ve got your great notes, don’t look at the book again. If you’ve gotten the important info out of if, you don’t need it anymore. Knowing that you only have to go through your book once or twice helps.

1. Be flexible. Experiment with what helps you remember, whether it’s a mnemonic or simply adding color.

2. Overlearn. Practice and reorganize what you intend to remember in as many ways as possible. Use it while speaking and writing, even act it out. The more time you spend, the more it’s ingrained.

3. Imitate. Schedule study time to reflect the time of day when you’ll be using the material (make study time the same as test time). Create a similar environment. Study without music if the room will be quiet. Study at a desk instead of on your bed.

4. Rephrase and explain. Try role-playing. Take the view of the teacher and explain the material to someone else, your dog, or a stuffed animal. You definitely understand the material when you can teach someone else.

5. Eliminate accidental and unrelated associations. A study situation where a phone rings constantly produces breaks in the association process. If you’re singing along to Eric Clapton throughout your study session, you will relate the material to Eric Clapton. This is only helpful if your topic is indeed Eric Clapton.

6. Eliminate previous mistakes. Take note of any previous mistakes you’ve made while studying and don’t do them anymore. If music distracts you, don’t play music during your next study session.

7. Decide on order of importance. Some things are more important than others. In a particular chapter or topic, decide what’s the big picture and organize everything else around that.

8. Become emotionally involved. This doesn’t always work with schoolwork, especially if you don’t care about a particular subject. But notice how you remember things you care about. If you can somehow relate the topic to something you care about, you’ll remember it better.

Research outline

This will be the guts of your paper. Once you’ve figured out your topic and the general direction of your paper, creating an outline is pretty straightforward. You really need to know your thesis before completing the outline and my suggestion if you’re confused, is to not worry about the thesis until the end. Start with the information.

Once you’ve gathered your research, you generally know the idea of what you want to talk about first. If you’re completely lost, choose the idea that would be a great opener – something that’s controversial, interesting or your audience would agree with. To choose what’s next in line, ask yourself, “After idea A, what is an easy transition?” If you’re going from dogs to VCRs, there’s probably not going to be an easy connection. Transitions between different sections can be made very simple if you choose topics that seem to flow well together. Also remember that nothing is set in stone. If later you realize you should have put topic B where topic F is, change it.

Because this article is so long, I’m going to cut it off here and allow you to view the rest of entry if you choose to do so.

Depending on what your professor wants, sometimes you include your thesis and sometimes you don’t. Make sure you ask. Here’s a sample outline for an academic research paper:

United States’ policies on the War on Terrorism
I. Introduction
  1. History of United States
  2. Examples when U.S. gave up rights and negative effects
II. War on Terrorism
  1. Modern terrorism
  2. Compare modern to previous
  3. Where is the end?
III. Legislation
  1. PATRIOT Act
  2. Domestic Security Enhancement Act
IV. Policies
  1. wiretapping
  2. illegal search warrants
  3. enemy detainees
V. Current laws
  1. Constitution
    A. 4th Amendment
    B. 5th Amendment
    C. 6th Amendment
  2. Geneva conventions
  3. International Humanitarian Law
VI. Conclusion

Chapter outline

Basically, this is just notes from the chapter(s) in an organized form to make digesting the information much easier. Take one chapter at a time and realize that if you outline it properly, this will be the last time you read this chapter. You’re making your life easier when the test comes.

All chapters have headings, sometimes they are listed at the beginning of the chapter. In this case, I create a short outline of the chapter headings and then fill in the information as I read. It works the same as online headings – h1 is the main, h2 is underneath that and so on. Here’s an example:

United States Bill of Rights
I. First Amendment
  1. Freedom of religion
  2. Freedom of speech
  3. Freedom of the press
  4. Freedom to assemble peacefully
  5. Right to petition the government
II. Second Amendment – Right to keep and bear arms
III. Third Amendment – Soldiers shall not be quartered in houses of citizens without permission
IV. Fourth Amendment
  1. Protection against unlawful search and seizure
  2. Warrants to search/seize only issued with probable cause and affirmed by judge/magistrate
  3. Warrant must give detailed description of place being search and item(s) being seized
V. Fifth Amendment
  1. Right to a trial by jury
  2. Protects against double jeopardy
  3. Protects the right against self incrimination
  4. Right to due process
VI. Sixth Amendment
  1. Right to a speedy and public trial
  2. Right to impartial jury in district where crime was committed
  3. Right to confront witnesses against oneself
  4. To have a defending attorney
VII. Seventh Amendment – Right to trial by jury in civil matters over $20
VIII. Eighth Amendment
  1. Prohibition of excessive bail
  2. Prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment
IX. Ninth Amendment – Protection of rights not specifically enumerated in the Bill of Rights
X. Tenth Amendment – Powers not granted to the federal government or denied to the states are reserved for the states

Cal’s suggestion for power point lectures is to download (if available) the power point and simply take your notes in the notes section of the slides instead of printing them out first. That way, after the lecture, you can print out the slides and your notes together. See his post for more details. This is a great idea, even though this semester I don’t have any professors that actually use power point. The only notes I take are for political science, the class I stopped going to (I just read the chapters and take the tests, it’s a ridiculous class).

My personal suggestions for great notes:

• If the lecture is over a chapter, read the chapter first (seriously), outline it in Word and print it out. Bring this to class and in a colored pen (blue or red stands out the best), write notes, questions, and comments.
• If it’s a simple lecture, use different colors. I use black for main ideas and then for any comments/questions, I use a blue pen. This way it’s easy to tell what’s what. Color is also a great tool for memorization. Brains remember color distinction.
• If you like to handwrite your notes, type them up later. This is a great way to study for the test because you’re going over the material again and making it easier to read. When I do this, whatever was in blue, I keep in blue on the computer to further distinguish comments.
• Use lots of color. Sometimes switching pens while writing notes can be distracting, but during study time, highlight and draw pictures. Color really helps, even if it seems pointless.

These things work for me, but they might not work for you. What does? Do you have any strategies or tips you’d like to share?

Genius is a flashcard-based application to help you memorize things. I use this, especially for political science in memorizing hoards of vocab words. It organizes info using the “Leitner “learning cardfile” system, and it quizzes you using a spaced repetition method.” Based on performance, it repeats certain words.

Schoolhouse is the homework manager for Mac. It sorts and organizes assignments, tests and projects. The smart notebook feature introduced in other Apple software is there, as well as classcasts so you can publish subscribable assignments on the web. My favorite thing about this software is the grade calculations. You can input all of your grades for each class and it keeps track of your average. It’s much better than trying to do it myself. Schoolhouse integrates a calendar/GTD program with keeping track of school work as well, which makes this an excellent tool for students.

Skim is a PDF reader (yes, I know, Preview is wonderful!) that lets you write on them so you don’t have to print out notes to take notes. I use this for my political science class (well, when I actually went to his class, I haven’t in over a month.) The professor gives us a copy of the powerpoint in pdf format and I use Skim to write all over it. It saves me from the cost of ink and paper.

First, I tried mySchoolog. I like the way the schedule works. It’s pretty and uses Ajax so it’s nice. The one thing I don’t like about it is that sometimes it’s slow to save and load things. I think it’s overwhelmed. It has a way to integrate your grades and tasks. Another downside is it doesn’t really have a nice way to incorporate my bills.

Next I tried Vitalist. It’s just a GTD website. It’s very color-coded, which is really nice. But it doesn’t have a specific way to include my school work or schedule. It’s simply a task manager.

Does anyone have any programs or online web applications they use and recommend or know of but haven’t had a chance to try? I’m really looking to try anything, whether it’s software (Windows or Mac) or a website.