I took psych 1X03 last term and literally did the best I could; I made detailed notes on modules, attended all tutorials and did read (a little) of the psych textbook. I ended up with getting a D in the course, and I'm very disappointed about this mark. I did study hard, and not just the night before; I studied 2 weeks well ahead of the exam. I don't know what went wrong, however, I am suspecting that I didn't use the textbook to the best of my ability and that perhaps I should have read the textbook thoroughly rather than just skim it over...

This term, I have psych 1XX3, and the course content builds on the content in 1X03--which worries me a lot, considering I did poorly. I'm in desperate need of help! I would really appreciate any tips and/or advice that any of you who have aced these two courses. How do I study effectively and efficiently in order to get "at least" a 10 in the course?

Thanks a lot

Originally Posted by sabonator

I took psych 1X03 last term and literally did the best I could; I made detailed notes on modules, attended all tutorials and did read (a little) of the psych textbook. I ended up with getting a D in the course, and I'm very disappointed about this mark. I did study hard, and not just the night before; I studied 2 weeks well ahead of the exam. I don't know what went wrong, however, I am suspecting that I didn't use the textbook to the best of my ability and that perhaps I should have read the textbook thoroughly rather than just skim it over...

This term, I have psych 1XX3, and the course content builds on the content in 1X03--which worries me a lot, considering I did poorly. I'm in desperate need of help! I would really appreciate any tips and/or advice that any of you who have aced these two courses. How do I study effectively and efficiently in order to get "at least" a 10 in the course?

Thanks a lot

That's not really true. Psych 1X03 and 1XX3 cover pretty different types of psychology. 1XX3 is much more biology-based with lots of neuroscience. Unlike 1X03, there's a lot less of the "best" answer because a lot of it is simply knowing the functions of different parts of the brain. It's much more memorization-based.

It's difficult to try to help you without knowing what your problem was with psych 1X03. Did you personally feel like you understand the material? Did you feel prepared? The best way to figure out if you understand something is to try to teach it to someone else. Did the application-style questions trip you up? Were you doing well in the quizzes? Trying to diagnose your own problem is the first step.

You could try making an appointment with academic skills assistance on oscar plus under student success centre. They could go through what you did 1-on-1 and perhaps suggest methods to improve/change your study habits.

Sometimes, it's not the time but the quality put into studying. It's like when I sometimes copy someone's notes but I would have no idea what the content I just copied was.

I learned to ask questions to stay as an active learner. It's a hard thing to do and will take practice so do not expect anything to change overnight.
If you can ask a question about a topic and explain it well, then you have understood the topic.