Toffu-san Posted February 23, 2009 Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 My teacher (esp. the english one) recommends us to do this, but I don't do it.Feels like raping the book Anyways, the pages are often so thin that you can see the highlight on the next page as well.If you want to use highlight, I would take those in colored pencil format - they won't dirty the next page.I use sticky notes / PostIts instead.What you highlight or note would be according to our taste:What you find important, hard to remember etc.What I do is to write short notes on the margins that will help me when I have to study it, and sometimes I write vocabulary too. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashika Posted February 23, 2009 Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 I use sticky notes / PostIts instead.Post Its are my obsession haha.I really hate mangling books that I've paid about $100 for. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
purple Posted February 23, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 Post Its are my obsession haha.I really hate mangling books that I've paid about $100 for.I used to do post its a lot until my books started getting fat =[ Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashika Posted February 24, 2009 Report Share Posted February 24, 2009 I used to do post its a lot until my books started getting fat =[Oh likewise... still better though. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JourneyTo Posted February 26, 2009 Report Share Posted February 26, 2009 I'm a highlighter- it helps me focus and comes in handy when making my notes. I don't see it as book-raping as long as i do it neatly and efficiently.But that's for textbooks only.I will not, repeat WILL NOT, highlight a reading book or any of my english texts for that matter. I cant even bring myself to write notes on Medea, which is a dramatic text, with printed notes on the adjoining side and everything.I do put post its on my english texts and on some of my history ones.To study, i need a good environment.And that's highly subjective. i like having a cup of tea and I study with my music on (I'v made a Study playlist which motivates me); in fact it helps me focus more- it blocks out everything else, (sometimes i'm not even listening, i just have it on) and i tend to associate things and if i remember i listened to "with or without you" as i concentrated really hard on the fact that 0 is an even number, i'll be more apt to remember it.it doesnt happen that often though. I also kind of like things slightly in disarray when i study;My theory is that it's nesting and i'm making myself at home.Again,it just has to depend on you.I make lists with all my assignments on them and their due dates and cross them off as i go along.And I also make notes after a lesson. I'm really bad at keeping up at this -I've got about 20 years of italian history to condense this weekend alone and i spent my entire winter vacation catching up on my Russia notes (when not goofing off with my friends that is)- but it's crucial you do and at that, it's even more important you review them.I'm working on this .I did this for my IGCSEs and it helped alot. Again, it's very dependent on you as to how you make those notes. I hated note taking until i realized lined paper irks me and i started making them on plain printing paper. I also realized bullets work best for me, with tons of mini mindmaps. When reviewing, i note everything i'm having a hard time with or everything that's new to me, mostly in phrases and fragments.this gives me a short list of trouble spots which i can then focus on. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tilia Posted February 26, 2009 Report Share Posted February 26, 2009 (edited) I'd gladly highlight my books if I could...Since we only borrow the books from the school, we're not allowed to write in them. Edited February 26, 2009 by Tilia Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
meh Posted March 1, 2009 Report Share Posted March 1, 2009 I have the problem of being slow as well I know I can get things done well and get a good mark for it, however I've noticed that on average I spend a lot more time on my assignments and homework than most others. Right now I am only in pre-IB though so there haven't been too many late homework nights yet.....I try as much as possible to minimize distractions. Sometimes listening to music at first gets my brain going, but after that I need silence to be able to work. Also, I study for small tests and do quick assignments at lunch or in the period right before. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bend444 Posted April 19, 2009 Report Share Posted April 19, 2009 make sure you make a llist of the most important at the top and least important at the bottom and work your way through, without any distractions. also makes sure you have breaks after an hour of work, grab a drink , stretch, otherwise you will clog your mind and you will begin to loose focus. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hermine0817 Posted April 30, 2009 Report Share Posted April 30, 2009 Post Its are my obsession haha.I really hate mangling books that I've paid about $100 for.100$ still seems to be fine. We had to pay over 400 euros for the books. When one wanted to get extra study guides (like the osc guides) one had to pay even more. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandwich Posted April 30, 2009 Report Share Posted April 30, 2009 All free books here ^____^ Nobody ever checks them, either, so technically you could write in them-- however, I don't feel it's really worth it. As other people have said, books are somehow sacred. Writing in them is somehow wrong 8[I figure that you're probably going to re-read all your books at the end to revise, anyway, and reading is rarely the trigger to people's memories, so highlighting is sort-of redundant as you're hopefully going to go back over it and synthesise it all again at the end (hopefully!). So I only highlight my notes. In any case, I'm a bit of a total failure at colour-motivated recall, so it could all be black and white with underlines and it'd work about the same xPAs for what to highlight, if you do start doing it and find it useful, my advice is that you highlight with a copy of the syllabus at your side. The IB is really into trigger-words (especially in stuff like Biology) and statements, so look at your handy statement manual, aka the syllabus, and see what they want you to say. Normally you have things like "State that transpiration is the loss of water vapour from the leaves and stem of a plant" (or something like that). So in your notes/textbook, highlight the words: transpiration, loss of water vapour, stem, leaves. Basically I always think that what you highlight should make enough sense to you without the interim words that you can actually understand it with those extra words missing.Transpiration loss of water vapour stem leaves = your marks If the IB didn't give marks for quality of writing, you could possibly get away with just that.As other people have said, if you're slow, prioritise by dumping pointless work and only doing things which will help you to the Overall Goal. This is also known as "the highest mark you can get in your diploma". The Overall Goal means that you need to be able to understand things well enough to answer exam questions. Worthwhile homeworks are therefore anything which will clarify your understanding or test your understanding. Things to drop include repetitive essays, pointless tests where the content is of no consequence aaand worksheets (pretty much anything with a matching up exercise! @___@). Study by taking it straight from the textbook/syllabus and making sure you know it and can answer some practice exam Qs on it Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bohemian03 Posted May 10, 2009 Report Share Posted May 10, 2009 don't worry i have the same problem too. the teachers always tell me to plan ahead and time management is the key to the success of your IB life. plan ahead and use your weekends VERY wisely. also if you're doing a lot of extracurriculars, I've learned not to overdo yourself. I did way too much and grades went down and now every single teacher in the HS is worried that I will commit suicide. Be patient I guess and even if we're slow, we will finish our assignments eventually Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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