Skip to main content

1. How I made lectures work in my favour

As you may have assumed, I am a student. What you might not know is that I'm doing a B.com Accounting course in hope to be a chartered accountant. I do not find the course easy at all. I think a lot of my fellow students would agree with me when I say this course requires hard work, dedication and that it's not for the faint-hearted.

Textbooks
Why is that? Well, I've reached a level where 4, 5 or more new chapters are covered every single week throughout the whole semester - depending on the course outlines for the semester/year. Considering how thick the textbooks we use are, the length and complexity of the chapters, you can imagine the fast pace at which we're required to learn.


Legislation and Standards Handbooks
Lecturers have always mentioned pre-reading - something I had rarely attempted to do until recently...well until 3 months ago. It was challenging because it was my first time doing it and I had to figure out ways to pre-read 4/5 chapters effectively and early enough before the lectures.

Now, I discovered some things during those few months:
1. Pre-reading helped me follow the lecture and not get lost

2. Not being lost increased my chances of being able to comprehend what the lecturer said

3. Being able to comprehend what was being lectured meant I was listening attentively

4. Listening attentively made me aware of - and not miss out on - some important points that the lecturer raised; points that were not be in the textbook

5. Completing the class exercises done during the lecture with the lecturer helped to save all that time I would have used in trying to figure out how to do the exercise on my own; which would be the case If I left the exercises for my study time. Moreover, doing the exercises during the lecture helped to get questions answered there and then when I had questions on the exercises.

See how lectures can work in our favor? I've realized that I cannot afford to procrastinate the understanding of the coursework until test and exam period. Being stressed and cramming during the exam period - it does not work for me. Besides that, I realize that I am studying material that will be implemented when in the working world. I cannot afford to cram information that will be temporarily stored in my mind; information that I will have to study again because of having forgotten it.

So, what works for you, worked for you, or think might work when it comes to making use of lectures effectively and eliminating procrastination of understanding coursework? Feel free to share on the comments section below.

You can also follow the blog on twitter:  https://twitter.com/student_blog and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Student-talk-blog-For-learners-and-students-496094020519505/

Well that's it from me...for now :D. Thanks so much for your time and consideration.
Till next time :).


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Admission to tertiary: increase your chances

For most learners, and especially their parents, to further your education beyond high school is crucial. Not only does it increase your knowledge in the field you aspire to have a career in, but it also increases your chances to be employed by companies who seek for individuals with the specific qualification. The first thing learners concern themselves about, in order to guarantee acceptance at tertiary school, is their academic results. If not them, then it’s their parents who pressure them into excelling in their tests and exams, to render an exceptional academic report throughout high school, or at least from grade 10 to grade 12. I recall when I was still in high school that I had to submit my grade 11 academic report with my application – that was when I was applying at the University of Cape Town (UCT). I’m sure you can understand the pressure to excel as early as grade 8, because one would think you need to build yourself up to a certain level of academic achievement and a...

23. Time-management: made simpler with 'DayPipe' applications software

This blogpost is quite different from all the others - this is a guest post. I was approached by a fellow blogger - Matic from DayPipe , whose team have invented pretty awesome applications software that individuals and small organizations can use to ensure efficiency and seeing results in the work, projects and / or tasks we have. The guest post included here focuses on the 3 applications software they have invented. These applications are free for single users, and are charged for use by a group of people (like companies). To get a complete picture of what DayPipe is about, check out their blog-post titled 'How to better use the most valuable resource:  http://www.daypipe.com/blog/2017/06/27/how-to-better-use-the-most-valuable-resource-3x3-matrix/ Guest post by Daypipe How to better use the most valuable resource: the 3 apps This blog post is part 3 of the 3 series of blog posts, written by Matic from  DayPipe team, about how we can better understand time orga...

22. Cooking

This is most probably the one topic you wouldn’t have expected from this blog, hey? Well, I didn’t think I’d find myself writing it either, but it is quite relevant. As much as some of us cook for ourselves at university, some still buy ready-made food from the dining halls. It may also be that some never had the opportunity or took the chance to cook while at home. Eventually, we'd have to get into the habit of cooking, especially because there will be a need to do so when we start living on our own. How I started cooking I was always cooked for – from the time I was a child right up until I started my first year at university. I confidently started my cooking journey at university and I loved it! I even went to the extent of making samp - umngqusho as we call it in the Xhosa language: do you have any idea how long that takes?! I didn’t care, as long as I was cooking. I suppose it was the excitement of starting something I did not do before. I did not like buying at the dining...