Saturday, February 4, 2012

Test Reviews

One major skill I've picked up in college is knowing when to go to a test review and when not to. This upcoming week I have five tests (technically one is a quiz, but since I still have to study for it, I'm counting it). Everyone of those classes has reviews going on and since I only have limited space in my free time, I have to pick and choose which test reviews I want to go to. How do I decide? Here's a few pointers:

1. It has to work with your class schedule. This one's an obvious one, but you'd be surprised how many people miss one class to review for another. Bad idea.
2. It's best if the TA has been TA'ing the class for more than one semester.
3. Know before hand how much experience the TA has with the subject. Meaning, how many classes beyond your class they have taken, dealing with the subject.
4. Cute boy TA's are always a plus.
5. If you have Dr. Macedone, always go to Jordan's reviews and ignore rule 1. He's the best.
6. This is my final recommendation. Never ever ever go to a freshman TA review. You think they know the material well? You think they have the authority to grade your papers and lecture you because they took the class last semester? They don't. They are the worst and I honestly don't see why professor's hire them. And... they put reviews at 9 on a saturday morning, which is normal I guess, but it would be better at 10.

So how many reviews did I go to in preparation of these tests? One. Jordan's for chemistry. And you know what? I'm going to rock these tests. My econ professor is constantly telling us that if we don't go into the TA lab and take on extra practice problems, then we're not going to be the top of the class, and so we're not going to get an A. False. Everyone knows best what they have to do to do well. Forget about what all the professor's tell you and study how you need to study, whether that's on your own, in a study group, at test reviews, doing a million practice problems, I don't know. But if you're in college and you don't know this about yourself, you're in trouble.
The End

No comments:

Post a Comment