20180308

Online reading assignment question: helpful/unhelpful Midterm 1 astronomy study tips

Astronomy 210, spring semester 2018
Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA

Students have a weekly online reading assignment (hosted by SurveyMonkey.com), where they answer questions based on reading their textbook, material covered in previous lectures, opinion questions, and/or asking (anonymous) questions or making (anonymous) comments. Full credit is given for completing the online reading assignment before next week's lecture, regardless if whether their answers are correct/incorrect. Selected results/questions/comments are addressed by the instructor at the start of the following lecture.

Describe something notable that either helped or did not help with studying for this midterm. Selected comments may be discussed in class. (Graded for completion.)

The following are all of the student responses to this question, verbatim and unedited.
"I wish we had a study guide."

"Enjoy going over stuff in class. ALSO DO WE NORMALLY HAVE HW TWICE A WEEK OR ONCE I FEEL LIKE I ALWAYS FORGET EITHER ONE."

"I find it useful to go through all of the quiz questions that are offered on the website. I'll try and look over them every couple days just to keep the information fresh in my brain so that it's more likely for me to remember what we learned from the beginning of the class."

"Reviewing notes, slides, and quizzes is really beneficial when studying for the midterm. So far, doing practice quizzes has helped me prepare for the quizzes, so studying them for the midterm should also help."

"What is helping me is going over all the quizzes and practice quizzes. "

"I have always used flashcards to study, but this semester I have begun studying with classmates and I have found it helps tremendously. "

"The calendar in your blog is too confusing to use and to know what I have or have not completed"

"Not crazy about the course website; it always seems too confusing to navigate. It's too much info without a logical map of how to find what I need to study."

"Maybe a cheat sheet that helps us with certain specific questions. For example, the snowboarder model for what we can see in space; or definitions of certain vocabulary words."

"Doing in class assignments help a ton."

"Go over notes and either rewrite or say things aloud that you're still confused about. Also, have friends or family ask you questions to test how well you know something and what you need to study more."

"While studying, stay off your phones! ha"

"For me listening to music helps while I am trying to study but not too loud just a faint background of it. another thing that helps me is to take little breaks in between studying just like five minutes to help you get refocused and less frustrated. "

"Procrastination does not help for this midterm but I would suggest going over past quizzes and the review online. "

"Study every day for about an hour a day and then you will be ready (hopefully)."

"I find going through the lecture notes, worksheets, and practice quizzes to be effective. The book is great to fill in some gaps, but most of the material is straightforward and doable."

"Reviewing the material in class before the midterm has always been really helpful to me."

"The biggest thing that helps me is having the lectures ahead of time so I can look them over to clarify things."

"Setting up the lunar phases like a clock helps a lot for studying them."

"Looking over the questions I missed (and not missed) on the quizzes. Also, the in-class review session."

"Looking at old quizzes as well as the midterm practice questions help."

"Flashcards help me immensely, along with drawing out the various diagrams we need to remember. "

"Flashcards help for with remembering the names of astronomers and their discoveries."

"Having links to past assignments and activities is huge in preparing for this midterm. "

"Reviewing quizzes helps."

"Honestly, going over the old tests is something that is very helpful to me currently. It really helps to create your own flashcards that use the information provided in past quizzes and from the essay question prompts provided during the review session we had last week. Taking the time to quiz yourself at home is something that I am finding to be very helpful."

"Doing examples."

"Practice using the starwheel."

"Too much candy, Tinder and shin splints...it can go either way honestly."

"Reading chapter notes."

"Working with other people in the class during in, class assignments."

"Looking at the Twitter hashtag for this class: #CuestaAstr210, and seeing the notes we have in class. This alongside relooking at the in-class activities and notes taken in class really help me."

"Procrastination."

"Asking the teacher questions."

"The practice quizzes."

"I like to go through the chapters and write down all of the key terms on note cards before I read the whole chapter. This gives me a little preview of what's to come. "

"Just looking at the past midterm answers does not help while studying. It's imperative to have all hand=written notes, all online presentations and textbook to actually get all the information needed to answer midterm questions. "

"Reviewing notes and group work from class."

"When I am studying, I do much better in the sections I am genuinely interested in. For the subjects that I am not, I try to come up with a funny anecdote to remember them."

"I am having a bit of a hurdle with this flipped-class thing. Mainly because it is different than other classes. I am used to a big, long lecture every class. It is just taking a bit to overcome that. I think a lot of the group work helps that way we can discuss together, some of the things that could help is maybe like a flashcard of notes for quizzes or just exams. There is a lot to learn conceptually."

"If this is a class we need to take."

"It helps that there are questions from old exams so I know what to expect on the exam."

"I go through all of the questions in the practice tests and really dissect them. I used to just use them for a quick practice but I have found that it is better for my learning if I look at each question individually and compare it with my notes. I have found plenty of questions that I thought I knew the answer to but when I looked farther into it I was completely incorrect."

"I personally do well with visual information. And talking about it. I've been talking my roommate's ear off about all things astronomy-related."

"Something that helps me are flashcards and repeating important terms. If I repeat/stare at diagrams or words, I can actually close my eyes and remember the words."

"The presentation slides help out a lot. The past exams posted help out as well, thank you!!"

"All the notes you draw for us in class. As I review them for studying I can literally go through the lecture you gave in my mind because you make them so detailed and interesting with the fun comic-like drawings and words."

"Drawing the diagrams is very helpful! I'm such a visual learner and drawing everything out (or even demonstrating with my hands) really clarifies what is going on."

"Study guide."

"Going over the material in class was really beneficial for me because I feel that I better understand what is expected from me in this midterm."

"Flash cards, drawing things out and studying with a friend helped."

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