Has anyone taken Physical Geology in College or equivalent (how did you study)?

[ThisWillDestroyYou]

Hey everyone,

Soooo, I made a little bit of a mistake this Summer. I decided to take a difficult course pertaining to my major (a proof-based math course), and I needed one additional class to be 'full-time' and not lose money, so I decided to take Physical Geology. I assumed this class would be interesting, and an easy 'A'. Turns out, I was wrong.

The material in this class is conceptually REALLY easy, however, it's so DENSE. There is SOME overlap in concepts from physics and chemistry, so it's not bad in that area, but some of the nitty gritty details are just ridiculous (i.e. remembering various rock clast sizes etc.). Currently, I am using note cards, but finding this is really inefficient. To give an example of how dense a lecture is, I go through about a stack of 100 note cards per lecture. He gives out "reviews" which are basically summaries of the lecture. These reviews are SHEER information and typically around 18-20 pages.

Any suggestions on how to study all this information?

While this class is fascinating, I am regretting it. It definitely doesn't fall into the 'rocks for jocks' category that everyone made geology seem to be.

Anyways... back to my cave.

[¯|_(ツ)_|¯]

Oh god, physical geology. You go into that class thinking it's just rocks, and then you realize that there's a heck of a lot more to it. I just finished that class and while I did manage to bring my grade up to an A in the end, it was the hardest class I've ever taken.

The first thing I had to do was talk to the professor, and I strongly suggest you do that too. I think your professor will understand that the material is not easy, and he may give you suggestions on how to improve your study skills or at least re-explain some things that you aren't really sure of.

Is ALL of the information on the review going to be on the test? My professor gave review sheets but they were basically just listing the concepts we should know, and she expected us to study based on that. We had to pull the important parts of the topics out of our lecture notes and textbooks, which may seem hard at first, but with practice you'll get there. Obviously it's important to know the concepts and it can help to try and pull the most important concepts out.

Studying with other people can also be a blessing. You have note cards, so if you're able to condense the information perhaps someone will be able to quiz you?

-Dez

[ThisWillDestroyYou]

Originally Posted by Epiphany.

Oh god, physical geology. You go into that class thinking it's just rocks, and then you realize that there's a heck of a lot more to it. I just finished that class and while I did manage to bring my grade up to an A in the end, it was the hardest class I've ever taken.

The first thing I had to do was talk to the professor, and I strongly suggest you do that too. I think your professor will understand that the material is not easy, and he may give you suggestions on how to improve your study skills or at least re-explain some things that you aren't really sure of.

Is ALL of the information on the review going to be on the test? My professor gave review sheets but they were basically just listing the concepts we should know, and she expected us to study based on that. We had to pull the important parts of the topics out of our lecture notes and textbooks, which may seem hard at first, but with practice you'll get there. Obviously it's important to know the concepts and it can help to try and pull the most important concepts out.

Studying with other people can also be a blessing. You have note cards, so if you're able to condense the information perhaps someone will be able to quiz you?

-Dez

Hey Dez, thanks for responding. Our first test was ~80 questions. I'd say that most of the information on the review sheets made it into the test either explicitly or implicitly. That is, if you weren't familiar with multiple topics on the review sheets, you wouldn't be able to answer the questions. There's also a lot of specific information that is you need to know. That is, some of the questions you really couldn't use reasoning to derive the answer. You either knew it or you didn't.

The concepts and big picture is easy for me. It's just the minute little things that I have trouble remembering which may have broke my test grade. My problem is I'm very math, physics, and chemistry oriented (apart from organic). I am a numbers person. I get concepts, and I can problem solve. 4.0 GPA, (you need a 3.8 for the engineering program I'm in) but this is the first class that I currently have a B in. Not that it's some huge problem. But I can't allot more time to this class than I already do. I just suck at memorizing and have no idea how to get through it. My mind can memorize about 20-30 things a day and then it's like, "nope" and shuts down and will actually start dropping information out....

Anyways, I'll talk to him on Tuesday. Thanks.

[¯|_(ツ)_|¯]

This isn't really more advice or anything but I've heard that your brain can only focus on one subject for like 15-30 minutes at a time and then it nopes out. So maybe splitting it up would help?

[ThisWillDestroyYou]

Originally Posted by Epiphany.

This isn't really more advice or anything but I've heard that your brain can only focus on one subject for like 15-30 minutes at a time and then it nopes out. So maybe splitting it up would help?

Yeah, typically I do 45 minute study sessions with 15 minute breaks. The problem is the course is 5.5 weeks long so I'm in classes from noon to 10pm (I do have an hour and a half window, but I use it to eat and renew my mind). Which means my study time is in the morning till about 11am. I kinda just screwed myself this semester. Oh, well. Guess I'll make up for it next. Haha.