12 hours of class in a day...tips?

[insatiabl3]

My summer schedule will be my craziest, because thats when I can pack in the credits. My goal is to graduate next spring. I need to get rid of these gen.ed. requirements quick. To that end..

Monday/Wed schedule:

Statistics:
8am - 10:30am

Calculus:
10:40 - 1:10pm

(drive to another college)

World Religion:
1:45 - 5:55pm

Psych:
6:00 - 10pm

Tues/Thurs sched is the same but without my 3rd class..whew!

That adds up to 9 hours of class on Mon/Wed if they keep me the whole time, which is doubtful.

My main concern is not passing out from exhaustion. Since I only have 10 minutes between classes and probably breaks in the middle, I need to figure out how to get my body enough food and energy.

I am doing everything I can to prepare for these classes, including studying, reading the text, geting the syllabuses and doing assignments early. Since these are introductory classes I know this is difficult but entirely do-able.

Still, sitting in class for 9 hours is going to be the biggest challenge. I've decided to snack constantly on high-energy foods, drink water ridiculously, stay away from sugar, caffeine or anything that will make me crash, hopefully work out 20 minutes before 8am..and sleep as soon as I get home.

I'm reading all of Steve's articles on how he overloaded during college.

Any other tips? Thanks in advance!

[BetterMe]

One thing I find really helpful are podcasts related to the subject matter- that way you can lsiten to them while you're driving or whatever and get double use of the time. On the other hand it can also be good to schedule in occaisional rest days when you do somehting else entirely... Hope that helps

[Niki]

1) I agree with BetterMe, audio tapes and podcasts are very usefull in a situation like yours. Maybe you can use or buy paul scheele's paraliminam collection. They can boost whatever you want to get boosted.

2) Sleep enaugh. I think 8 hours a night will do it, but I'm not an expert. maybe less will do, maybe more will be needed. Follow your body. Dont push yourself to sleep in the evening, when your not tired or you will wasted time, lying in bed, with your eyes open ... Thinking.... If you wake up every morning and @ the same time, you will produce enough tiredness in the evening if your tired. This wont work as well when you drink alot of coffee and such.

3) Study in layers. Dont open a book, and go page by page. When you are reading page 54, you probably have forgotten what is on page 50. When i'm studying I read the back of the book, the end of the book, the headlines, images, starts and ends of paragraphs and highlighted text, the first time. Then I usualy mind-map the most important parts of the book. What I dont get, I read in more depth. Then I add some more leafs to my mind map. And so on.

Hope this 3 tips are usefull.

I wish you the BEST luck, courage and strength to end your journey well.

Keep believing in yourself! I know you can do it! I'm sure you can do it.

[JohnPlace]

First, a few obvious suggestions that you probably don't need me to tell you: Get plenty of sleep. Go to bed at around the same time every night. Exercise for at least one half hour every other day. Eat right.

The biggest dietary mistake my students make is skipping breakfast. My wife, a Dietetic Technician, is always telling me how important breakfast is. She's right. Do not skip breakfast. A bowl of oatmeal and some yogurt is a nice way to start the day.

Eating healthy and getting enough sleep is half the battle. One more point: If you have healthy eating habits, you should not need to "constantly snack on high energy foods." Instead, work healthy snacks into your regular routine.

Now, for a few less obvious suggestions:

1) Crackers and cheese is a fantastic study snack because it replaces your glycogen reserves without causing a high or crash.
2) If you find your obligations exceed your capacities, you may need to prioritize. Sometimes this means focusing on high impact assignments and using the 80/20 rule on lower impact assignments.
3) Know where your points are coming from in each class and prioritize your time accordingly.

I hope this helps. Best wishes to you, and good luck with your classes.

[Doku]

Again, echoing what others are saying:
Get enough sleep.
Get enough exercise.
Eat well.
Drink plenty of water in class.
Eat a snack during class (granola bar, etc. just beware of too many calories)

New material:
1) When you drive between classes, don't worry about showing up late. Better 10 minutes late than a visit to the hospital.
2) Take a weekend and pre-scan all of the material. Read the table of contents. Scan through the book, spend 10 seconds or so on every picture. Read the caption, and look at the picture. (This wil help you get a good idea of the material very quickly so that the stuff in class will make more sense than if you were hitting it cold.)
3) Relax. Stress will kill you. Don't sweat the workload too much. All of the classes are the mickey mouse gen-ed classes. Sure, it's a bit time commitment, but not really a big work commitment.

[Ilya]

Use mind maps!
Going through introductory material is one of the best uses for this techniques. This is great to prepare for exams later on. If you use mind maps and go through your books you may find that you won't need to sit through all of the classes.
Most lectures contain a lot of unnecessary material targeted to help the students who study by conventional (infficient) ways. So by using leveragу mind maps give you, you can get ahead of the class with less effort.

[insatiabl3]

Thank you all for the encouragement and great tips.

Ilya, Mind mapping sounds great, but how do I get started? I've heard of the term but don't know how to do it.

I am taking 5 classes in a 5week session. I have to go to two different community colleges because you're only supposed to take 2 at a time, because of the massive time commitment for lectures. Since they're intro classes, the workload should keep me busy but not drive me insane.

Isn't it bad for my body if I can't eat a healthy meal on those 2 days? I literally have no time except for snacking between classes. I don't want to make myself sick or anything. Maybe I should have posted this under the health section, haha.

But the study tips are helpful too! thanks!

[Michelle]

If I were on your schedule I would wake up at 6, and go out and run or speed walk for 45 minutes. This may seem crazy on your schedule, but it will actually give you more energy for the day.

Take a shower and then eat a big, nutritious, filling and healthy breakfast. Make this breakfast your biggest, most important meal. Eat as much as you want of whole grain breads, oatmeal, fruits, salmon, seeds an nuts. Drink one cup of tea or coffee.

I would take fresh fruit snacks and a big bottle of mineral water with me into classes. During the drive to the other campus eat a big sandwich with lots of fresh ingredients (especially veggies like tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, sprouts - and perhaps tofu, cheese or some kind of meat depending on your personal preferences.) and again whole grain bread.

Keep organic granola bars or veggie sticks in your bag for hunger pangs later in the day. You might also consider carrying soup with you in a thermos from which you can drink. You still have a lot of time to eat, so enjoy your intense schedule. Let us know how things work out.

[Ilya]

Originally Posted by insatiabl3

Ilya, Mind mapping sounds great, but how do I get started? I've heard of the term but don't know how to do it.

Mind maps is a way to organize facts, ideas, thoughts and links between them. They look like a tree-like (or octopus-like) chart that starts from one root or central idea and is expanded in an intuitive way by adding other facts, ideas, concepts or thoughts to the chart and linking them by lines.

There are a lot of books and products dealing with mind-maps. But in fact, all you need for a start is a piece of paper (A3 format is best, but A4 can also work) and some colored pencils or markers.

For example, let's consider Calculus you'll be taking. Calculus is the root topic, so write it down in the center of the sheet. Two main parts of Calculus are Differentiation and Integration. Let's put these on the sheet. For me they are equally important, so I'll place them to the left and to the right of the center.
Connect them to the word calculus with a line. My simplest map is ready, but not very useful.

Then I can list the main topics in Differentiation and connect them with the lines to the word "differentiation". I would add the formulas, the theorems the examples if needed and connect them with the links.
Then I will do the same for Integration. In the end I would have the nice overview of the Calculus on one page. In fact I did such a map when I was preparing for my college exams.

The beauty of it there is no "right" way to do mind maps. You do them in a way that seems intuitive to you. The purpose of the map is not to capture some "truth" but to capture your association and your understanding of the topic.

The power is in the way that you link stuff. You can link hierarchically - breaking the larger topic into smaller bits. You can link similar items and opposing items. You can spot any relationships between two items and make a link based on it. You can even use all types of links on one map. Probably you'll have to use several color for that or annotate the links. Play with it and find you own way.

If you need more information and examples, just google "mind mapping" and it will come up with quality material right away. Check the wikipedia article. It contains the "rules of proper mindmapping". Read them, and do it your own way. It will still work.

Hope this helps.

Oh, and have a look at this thread for more resources.

[insatiabl3]

Thanks Ilya, I will definitely try that for all my subjects..it sounds invaluable!

Michelle, thanks so much for putting yourself in my shoes to see what you'd do with my schedule!

I came up with generally the same ideas..i was planning to run about 20 minutes, but perhaps I should extend it and see how I feel. And I was going to eat a heck of a huge breakfast, and stuff a sandwich into my mouth while I drove to the other campus. Thanks for the other tips on what to eat =)