STUDY GUIDES FOR H105: US History to 1877
Plan to visit this site each week. Study guides will be posted approximately once per week for the following week. Print out the study guide to use as you take notes in class. Important terms and ideas that may appear on exams will be listed on the study guides. See below for some general comments on studying and taking notes.
Study
questions for Unit 1 quiz
Study Questions for Unit 2 quiz
Week 10 Study Guide
Studying and taking notes
Preparation is the key to success in college courses. The rule of thumb is that you should expect to spend three hours outside of class for every hour inside class. That means that for a three-credit hour course such as H105, you should spend 9 hours per week in reading, reviewing, and getting to know the material. Make this your goal. The time you put into your classes will be repaid with higher course grades, greater understanding of the material, and a more successful, and enjoyable, college experience.
Some general notetaking tips:
1. Read about the
topic from your textbook (or other assigned reading) before each lecture so
that you will be able to follow the material.
2. Sit in front so
that you can see and hear easily.
3. Don’t take
word-for-word notes; paraphrase for main ideas.
4. Listen carefully
and do not stop to ponder the ideas presented.
You will be left behind. The
time to reflect is after class.
5. Develop your own
notetaking system. Use abbreviations
that you can understand.
6. Take time
immediately after lecture to fill in and consolidate notes while the lecture is
still fresh in your memory.
7. If you recopy your notes, be sure and reprocess
the information in some way. Recopying
notes verbatim becomes a meaningless, rote exercise.
8. Take time for
regular review of lecture notes.
9. Always date your
notes, and keep your notes in one notebook.
Tips on how to read the
textbook
1. Do the assigned
reading before lecture.
2. It’s best not to
try and cram in a whole chapter the night before class. There is a great deal of material in the
text (and the webpages) and you need time to process and understand the main
ideas. Spread the reading out during
the week. You may underline the most
prominent information, but don’t highlight the entire chapter! That’s a sign that you can’t pinpoint the
authors’ main points.
3. Correlate the
material in the text with the material in lecture. Some students prefer to take
lecture notes on one side of the page and notes from the corresponding reading
on the other side of the page.