Settling into classes & preparing for midterms

You’ve shopped around. Maybe you’ve adjusted your class schedule once or twice. You’ve made your final class choices.Now… it’s time to focus, organize a routine and get on-track for midterms.

This “to-do list” picks up where last month’s column left off. I focus on the process of digging in on coursework.

After one or two weeks you have noticed that overseas universities require a heavy reading load. For many of you, reading this much in English—and often without the aid of translated versions of the textbooks—will prove challenging. I offer a few tips to manage the workload.

First: keep up. If you have to read faster, while sacrificing attention to detail, do so. Just make sure that you have a general understanding of the readings. (Put another way: just read. Put aside the Chinese-English dictionary on the first pass. Save that for rereading later.) This way you can follow along with lectures and discussions.

Second, stop reading like you’re preparing for the Gaokao. Yes, The Gaokao formed many of your study habits. However, some of these study habits will not serve you well in the overseas context. For instance, the Gaokao demands extreme attention to detail. However, tests in US/Canadian or UK/Commonwealth universities will not focus on this level of detail. Rather, lecture, discussions, tests and papers will encourage you to focus on those details that you find most interesting and useful, while martialing these into arguments and models that you can apply in better understanding key concepts presented in a given course.

Note how this requires some judgment: you have to identify fundamental and/or foundational concepts presented in a given course. If you struggle with this, get to the professor’s office hours sooner rather than later, bring prepared questions that clarify where you’re stuck and discuss these points at length until you can identify these central ideas and arguments. Note that such thinking does not require you to determine or identify “correct” answers; rather, the point here focuses on reasoning, critical thinking and lateral thinking.

Third: reread what you and the professor agree on as the most important materials. (When you reread, use your Chinese-English dictionary to dig into the details of the texts.) These materials have the most explanatory power in dealing with the material in the course. For instance, if you’re studying sociology, identify the three or four most influential thinkers in the field. Describe their main contributions in one or two sentences each. Furthermore, describe how theory and practice developed sequentially in a way that connects these key thinkers in the field. Connect each theory to modern problems and situations to show how theory—even older theories—relates to practice today. In general, professors want you to connect early and seminal thinking to a set of ongoing impacts and practices in the field.

As a further support in learning these skills, join or form study groups for each of the courses in which you enroll. And here’s a pro-tip: make sure to join a diverse study group. Sure, it’s tempting to work with Chinese students: you can study and discuss the material in your first language, you can agree on what kind of food to order while studying and you have a much better idea of how to set expectations with your study partners. However, by including “foreign” students, you learn new insights and learn these in new ways. For instance, let’s say that you form a group to tackle case studies in a business course. By including, say, a woman from France, you will gain insight into business operations, regulations and organizational cultures in France.

I also recommend another move that will help you manage the workload as you move toward midterms: start working on any papers (memos, essays, term papers) this week. Sure, you can wait until the week when you will turn in these assignments. Unfortunately, doing so will force you to come up with a bunch of really good ideas in a very short amount of time. However, by starting now, you will start thinking about key themes and examples to build into the work. Furthermore, you will have more time to refine the writing. Spending more time thinking about the content and refining it will help you to learn the material more thoroughly.

Students often think that a writing assignment exists to document student knowledge about a given subject. Sure, that’s part of it. But clarifying, refining and articulating one’s thinking is just as important. In this way, writing leads to deeper and more long-lasting understanding of the material.

As you write, get help. Check around on campus; look for “The Writing Center” or “Tutoring Center.” (It might have other names.) Book an appointment this week or next. Plan to make weekly or fortnightly visits. Bring updated drafts to each meeting with the tutors. Learn rules for writing clear, simple prose quickly and apply these in your updated drafts. Mastering these tools and techniques will save you trouble throughout the term.

If you think it will help, hire a tutor. Graduate students in English or History often offer their services. However, I recommend that you track down a journalism graduate student. The writing style used by journalists will better fit the demands of the courses you will take.

While working on papers and preparing for midterms, meet with your professors. In China, professors invite students to office visits. However, in foreign universities, professors expect students to take the initiative in meeting with professors. So: find out when your professors conduct office hours, prepare questions or discussion points to cover during office hours and then drop in to discuss these points.

Here’s another pro-tip: while a professor will not tell you what she will put on the midterm (or final) exam, she will circle back to key ideas/concepts, readings, authors and examples that she finds most important and interesting. These points of interest will form the content of upcoming exams.

To further deepen your understanding of the material that most interests your professors, visit the campus library. While there meet with the relevant subject area reference librarian and learn how to find additional readings and media related to the specifics that most interest your professors. Sure, you can—and you probably should—search for such material on your own using Google and Google Scholar. However, librarians will teach you how to search more carefully, thoughtfully, broadly and deeply. They will teach you to find materials in new places, such as electronic databases.  This may seem like a waste of time, but when you build these practices into your learning and study routines, you’ll see the benefits of taking on such practices.

Here’s the main point: establish solid study practices early. Learn new approaches to studying. Learn them. Use them often. Master them.