AHH law school! I seriously think all I ever do is read! Read this, read that!
I generally have a fairly strict rule about finishing the assigned readings before a class. I tend to feel that if I do not do the readings first I will not do them. Of course, this works negatively because if I haven't done the readings I have previously felt that the class would not be of any benefit. Obviously this isn't a good way to go! In my first year I varied between reading before and after and I felt that before worked better for me.
I've changed this policy this year, at least for my Medical law subject. While the lecturer may have a general plan as to where he will finish each lecture each week, the course is divided into seven general topics. It has taken two weeks thus far to complete the first topic and I almost gave myself a heart attack looking at the learning guide and seeing how much reading was expected for that first week. Needless to say I was unable to complete the hundreds of pages and was relieved to see that we only completed a third or so of the topic. I then decided it was probably more beneficial to do the readings after the class so I would know how far to go.
This week I extended the reading after lectures idea to all classes. It wasn't intentional as I had family commitments over the weekend that prevented me from doing all preparation over the weekend. I learnt that a real benefit of reading after you have been to class is that anything a lecturer emphasises is going to be something you pay more attention to. If you are reading prior to class you just have to assume everything is important. Sometimes a lecturer disagrees with the text they have assigned on important points and taking the text as gospel is useless. Of course, lecturers sometimes go the other way and don't emphasis parts of the textbook but expect you have paid attention to them in your readings when it comes to the final exam.
So what did I learn? I learnt that it is definitely the way to go for subject where how much content will be covered is not known, like my medical law subject. It is also a good way to go when the lecturer may have a different perspective to the text. Reading, or at least perusing the text, is better for more difficult subjects. For me, Trusts is more difficult and very heavy. It isn't helped that the class does not finish until 8pm and I have a busy day. When it gets to my trusts lecture, I'm exhausted, both physically and mentally so I struggle to actually absorb the information if it is 100% new. For this subject, I really have to be familiar with the content before I get to class.
What is your approach? Do you do your readings before or after class? Do you vary your approach based on the subject itself? I'm interested to see what others do!
I'm pretty bad with my readings. I just read the bare essentials. If I'm stuck on a problem question, I'll have a look at the relevant pages of a textbook. So generally speaking, it's after the lecture, but before the tutorial.
ReplyDeleteNotably, one exception is where the material is particularly interesting. For example, with medical law I'll often find myself reading not only the prescribed readings, but a lot of other material not even remotely related to the topic at hand. Somehow it's easier to read textbooks when you know it's not required.
I definitely agree that it is easier to read textbooks and other material when it isn't required. While I haven't drifted into this for some time, I remember many a late night in high school and first year studies where I ended up reading up anything I could find on a particular subject.
DeleteI take heavy notes, which makes it difficult to quickly get through the readings but I like having the notes in my binder. I feel like I will miss out on much if I don't do it! I end up reading nothing if I know I won't get the notes done. Perhaps just having a look through like you do may be an alternative. I know a housemate (studying business) only reads and I'm so jealous of how quickly she gets it done!