As many of you know, as school has become more and more integrated with technology over the years, learning has become less about your ability to memorize sentences and more about your ability to use your resources to help you understand and speak on concepts and ideas.
At the end of the day, no one knows how to better prepare themselves for a class than yourself, but there a couple of smart things you can do to make life easier and more efficient as a student.
One of the first things that comes to mind is how many exams these days are open book and online. My first thought when this started was that I could type out study guides to use rather than having to handwrite something when the open note exam is in person. I was taking remote exams even before COVID-19 hit so they’ll likely continue. My suggestion, though, is that when typing up your study guide, feel free to outsource your content. The content of your study guide is not going to be put word-for-word in your exam. . . so when someone has already written out a definition or something of that nature, why rewrite it before the exam when you don’t even know the specifics of the exam content.
Overpreparation can drain you out quicker than you think, so warming smarter rather than harder has big advantages. The technology you write your papers on and read for class on is also a tool to connect you with all kinds of help, so don’t forget that.
