10 Amazing Reasons to Learn New Course Material Before Your Next Class
10 Amazing Reasons to Learn New Material
Learning upcoming course material can be incredibly beneficial.
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Post-secondary is hard. Like, really hard. A lot of the concepts you will learn about are abstract and multifaceted. To make matters worse, professors plow through materials faster than you can understand.
Long gone are the days of effortless courses. Once upon a time, you could just show up to class, never crack open a book, and still ace the test. Now, you need to commit to learning the material and dedicate long nights to studying.
Learning new information ahead of lecture time is a great way to turn the tables and retake control of your education. If you look over the concept before the professor introduces it, you can dictate your own terms on how you take it in and how much you struggle.
Walking into the lecture hall with a solid grasp of the topic will give you room to breathe in a hectic schedule. It will also help to relieve stress and anxiety in the process.
All you need is your syllabus and a copy of my free study guide template, and you can make a plan for any subject. Let’s get up to speed with 10 ways you can benefit from learning new course material before your next class! This way, you can take control of your education and dictate your workload.
Study Planner Template
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Why a Study Schedule is Important
Creating a study schedule will help you to stay on track with your class workload. By making a plan and setting aside specified time in your calendar to learn, you are taking the initiative to ensure you master the class material. Without deliberately making room in your day to study, you are leaving it up to chance that the mood will strike you to hit the books. You will also depend on a flood of motivation to get started.
With a detailed plan, you don’t need either of these. You will be more likely to find the motivation in your routine. You will also be less likely to be distracted by things like social media or YouTube.
I have a detailed guide that will walk you through creating a study plan and scheduling it. This article hits all the hot spots for creating effective study strategies for any class. You can also check out my Study Skills Digital Course if you need more help. Here, you will be supported by crafting a thorough study strategy tailored to your specific strengths and learning style.
10 Ways You Can Benefit from Learning New Course Material Before Your Next Class.
In university, professors move through the material extremely fast. During lectures, they will often introduce a subject, briefly discuss it then move on to specific details. They do not linger like they do in high school.
In high school, our teachers would:
explain a topic,
go through examples,
have us do examples,
correct them with us,
give us homework,
grade and return the homework for us to review.
This process has several checks and balances to try and ensure that each topic is fully understood before the class moves on.
In university, the onus is now placed on you. It’s your responsibility to make sure you understand before exam time. The best way to do this is to learn the concepts independently and then use class time as a review to cement details and confirm your understanding.
Read the textbook before class two to gain a general understanding of the concept.
Reading your textbook before class will give you early exposure to what the professor will teach. This will allow you to learn essential concepts before the instructor introduces them.
Having a rough idea of what you will be taught will give you the opportunity to be more present while the professor lectures. This means you can think critically about their words and how they describe relationships and functions.
Understanding the concept before class will also give you some relief when trying to put the notes in your own words. This is simply because you will already have some familiarity with the topic.
Since you already know a general idea, you don’t have to keep up with the professor’s hectic pace. You will see where they are going with the lecture and can keep up easily.
Since you already know the fundamentals of the concept, you can treat lecture time as a review.
If you stay ahead of the professor and learn the expected concepts before class, you can use the time you spend in the lecture as study time. This allows for a considerably more in-depth review session than you would otherwise hold independently.
Take this opportunity to clarify topics that you may have found difficult on your own. This will give you a more integrated understanding. It also allows the professor a chance to explain these concepts in a new way to make sure that your knowledge of them is correct.
The professors’ examples can now add additional context to concepts.
Complex concepts often need background. Staying ahead of the professor will allow you to do further research to understand the topic under study and the factors that can contribute to or influence it.
Understanding context can help to cement this learning as it will allow for more mental associations than the theory alone. Textbooks can sometimes be dry or confusing. Having the opportunity to hear the instructor’s examples and analogies after committing the fundamentals to memory can be very helpful.
When you arrive at the lecture, you will already have a solid grasp of the material. The professor’s lecture will now be used to clarify and refine the details. This is also the best time to ask specific and insightful questions.
Ask questions to avoid confusion on complicated topics.
Many concepts are confusing and multifaceted. If you have a tough time getting the idea, the lecture will hopefully be able to clarify anything you are stuck on. Knowing where you will encounter difficulty before you get to class will allow you to pay extra attention when the topic comes up.
It will also enable you to pre-emptively ask questions for further clarification before you go home and struggle more. Being able to ask questions proactively is the perfect way to use class time. This way, the professor can be more conscious of how they explain the model as they are already on the topic. They may also be able to use more examples as they clarify and break them down before continuing on to related ideas.
It’s always a good idea to walk into a lecture with a list of questions in mind. This helps you to stay more focused because you are looking for specific answers. By learning the concepts ahead of time, you can ask deliberate questions on particular ideas to ensure that you fully understand.
Stay ahead of classwork, and don’t fall behind.
Staying ahead of the class is the best way to avoid getting overwhelmed by massive workloads. This will allow you to get more things done under less pressure.
If you pick up your textbooks early, you can read a few chapters before the semester begins. This will ensure that you get ahead and stay that way. Knowing that you have all your reading done well in advance is a fantastic way to reduce stress and anxiety.
Study Skills Digital Course
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Taking several opportunities to review the concepts makes consolidating information easier.
Professors often use comparisons of related topics in their lectures. If you have already exposed yourself to the issue under study, you can focus your attention more on how these items are related than you would be learning them in real time.
This subtle shift in thinking will help link similar topics to deepen your understanding. Doing this early will create more cross-links in the information you have learned, generating more mental associations to make recall much more accessible. You will also have the opportunity to ask the professor about similarities between concepts to ensure you are on the right path.
Learning the material before you come to class allows you to clarify any confusion early.
There is nothing worse than struggling with the same topic over and over. When you encounter difficulty, there are several ways to deal with it. The best solution is often to go straight to the source.
When you are exposed to a complicated topic you have difficulty understanding, asking the professor to clarify immediately is the best way to avoid struggling later. Knowing the piece of information, you are missing or how the puzzle does not fit in your mind can help the professor explain it in a way you best understand. Realizing what you do not comprehend is imperative to get this clarification.
Getting ahead of the professor is a simple way to stick to your study schedule
Making a study schedule, and sticking to it, is the best way to ensure everything gets done. If you get ahead and stay ahead, this schedule will be much simpler to stick to. This is simply because the stress of staying afloat will be lifted.
Learning the course material before class will give you more opportunities to work with and study it. Putting some distance between what you are learning ahead of time and what you are covering in class will give you a cushion to fall back on when life gets too hectic. It will also allow you to use various study methods rather than the same old reading and note-taking all the time.
You can tailor study sessions to your learning style with the time you save.
Taking your learning into your own hands can allow you to customize your lessons to your learning style. If you learn best by listening, you can listen to a tutorial. Visual learners can create diagrams of the information so that it makes sense to them. Being able to add your own creative flair to the learning process can help you to take in facts easier.
Different methods of introducing yourself to the information can also help cement it. This will create more mental associations than learning everything, the same way in the lecture hall. Using your syllabus to learn ahead of the class gives you this flexibility.
If you get ahead, you have more breathing room in an emergency.
Unfortunately, emergencies happen. Anything from getting sick to just needing to take a mental health day. If you stay ahead of the game, you will not feel the same pressure of having to stay afloat. This will give you the breathing room you need to take a day off when you need it without completely ruining your study schedule or missing deadlines.
Getting ahead of the material lifts the panic of looming deadlines. You will often be able to start assignments on longer timeframes and really reflect on the information. Knowing what’s ahead often means the difference between a hectic and overwhelming schedule and the ability to take it in stride.
Learning new material ahead of class time will completely open your eyes to a new way of learning. Walking into the lecture hall confident and in the know will bring clarity to these blocks. You know what’s to come, and you have prepared.
The only thing between you and this level of confidence is creating your study guide and sticking to your schedule. Don’t forget to download my free if you need help getting started. It has everything you need to create a comprehensive study schedule that will prepare you for anything this semester throws at you.
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