Stealth Studying and Taking Notes
As the beginning of term begins to come into view, there are plenty of posts on numerous websites on how to survive your three years of pre-employment bliss (hollow laugh).
One caught my eye recently: The Art of Stealth Studying from Study Hacks. Also worth trying is the Cornell Notetaking Method or, if you think in a less linear way, a mindmap.
Whilst you may not have end of year exams, it is still immensely important to take notes and keep on top of all the information being fired at you during lectures. Many modules in the second and third years assume you have mastered the basics and if you didn’t pay attention in year one, you’ll get lost in year two.
Reading Books Online
The problem with distance learning is that you are often miles away from any library and the books on the Bibliography are, in any case, on restricted loan. Before shrugging in despair, it is worth looking to see in the books you want are available online. I have found two sources particularly useful. The first is Google books who often have portions of books online. If you are doing the Isaiah module, have a look at The Church’s Bible: Isaiah.
The other source is Amazon who often have a “search inside” feature available. I think you will need an account to look at the books and it is worth trying both .co.uk or .com. To get an idea, try looking at Biblical Exegesis and the Formation of Christian Culture.
Free Lectures
Ok, I acknowledge that the thought of more lectures might not be the most pressing issue for you at the moment, but bear with me!
There are a number of universities who are putting their lecture series online. These are recordings made of undergraduate lectures and are therefore well within the scope of things you should be engaging with. I tend to listen to these whilst driving the 100 minutes from my house to Bristol and it is surprising how much you can get through. I’ve mentioned some on Dante’s Divine Comedy, but there are others:
University of California, Berkeley
- History 106B The Roman Empire
- History 5 The Making of Modern Europe, 1453 to the Present
- History 4A The Ancient Mediterranean World
Yale
For the following, you’ll need iTunes:
Stanford
This is a classic piece of scholarship of the New Quest for the Historical Jesus school.
Reformed Theological Seminary
- History of Philosophy and Christian Thought
- Church History Courses
- New Testament Courses
- Old Testament Courses
Also look at Concordia Seminary
Taking Notes in Lectures
Copying class notes after the fact is a time-consuming way to study for an exam, but it was the only thing that truly worked for me back in college. But next week I’ll be in a classroom again for the first time in 8 years, pen poised over notebook, and this time I’m going to perfect a strategy that gets my notes right the first time: the Cornell Note-taking method.
Take Study Worthy Lecture Notes from lifehacker.Taking notes in lectures can be a hit and miss affair. When you get back they don’t make sense and the pile of scribbles is not the most inspiring thing in your life. Many people recommend the Cornell method. It’s worth a look at least.
Getting the resources you need
It’s really not enough to quote McGrath’s Theology: An Introduction and some flakey website trying to tell you that Jesus will return three weeks next Thursday (just after lunch). The key to a good essay are the resources you use – the more you put in, the better the result. So here’s some tips for researching that are useful for all essays, not only dissertations.
“Research skills are rarely taught very clearly professors assume students know or can figure out how to do good research, or at best turn their students over to a librarian for a tour of the library’s facilities and resources. Is it any wonder that so many university students rely on Wikipedia as the first and last stop in their research itinerary?
To help students get up to speed on basic research skills, here’s 10 tips to help you find, organize, and use the information you need to put together a decent research paper.”
Advice for Students: 10 Steps Toward Better Research from lifehack.org
More Free University Resources
Spot a theme yet? I keep putting up these links because it’s useful to see different perspectives on the topics you’re being taught. So go look!
No tuition money? No problem! There are many top universities that offer free courses online. This list ranks some of the best free university courses for people who want to enhance personal knowledge or advance in their current field.
Universities with the best free online courses from EducationPortal
Open Yale
There is a growing movement among universities (mainly US at the moment) to put course material online. A lot of stuff is available through iTunes U, but there is also a lot worth looking at the websites of the institutions too. Yale have got one Theology course online at the moment, an Introduction to the OT, and I’m sure will follow. Please take some time and look through the material.
Making Presentations Great
Be kind. Make your presentations interesting!
From grade school though grad school you will be doing presentations at least once a semester. Often these fall toward the end of the term and are your largest project. It is important to make them clear, concise, and memorable. So here are a wide range of tips, tricks, and guidelines to use.
Creating Impressive Class Presentations from Gearfire
Sabbaths
Student Tilley has made a comment about the lack of posts on this blog, so here’s one to keep you happy. I am always keen to stress to people working in the church the importance of keeping a life balance and taking sabbaths. Ever practical as I am, let me pass on an article on grabbing time for yourself.
“Sometimes it seems like your life just isn’t your own anymore – work, family, and other obligations swallow it up to such an extent that we often look back and wonder where all the time went! No wonder, then, that many of us feel as if life is just passing us by, and we can do no more than helplessly watch. However, with these tips and a little willpower, you can create time to center yourself and face the world with renewed enthusiasm.”
Five Hints to Reclaim Time for Yourself from Lifehacker
The .edu Underground
There are more educational resources available on the web than you are aware of…
Little appreciated outside the world of academia, there are literally thousands of .edu sites bursting with incredibly useful and interesting information and resources. Most of these sites won’t pop up to the surface of the average search engine quest, and so they wait, neglected and underused…until now. Keep reading for a quick tour through the mysterious underground world of .edu.