Advice on how to study for university

[REEEEEEEE]

Hello I need adviece on how to study for university .
I am doing an engeneering course at university and I thought I could write down the info given in the pdf the get some more information on youtube and then I would start solving problems but I did not have success doing that and I just failed a test due to lack of time to study. So I thought I should seek advice rom the wise and ask here how do you study / think I should study.
also do you think I should rely only on the given topics and not on external sources?
Your time is deeply appreciated.
Thank you.

 

[Drakkith]

but I did not have success doing that and I just failed a test due to lack of time to study.

Then make the time to study.

Seriously. There are study tips and tricks that you can find on literally thousands of youtube videos and google search results, and I encourage you to look into those, but the one thing I rarely see in any of them is to just put in the time you need. Successful musicians don't get good by playing 30 minutes a day, they put in hours and hours of time.

also do you think I should rely only on the given topics and not on external sources?

Start with you notes and you book and if you can't figure something out using them then look elsewhere.

 

[berkeman]

Hello I need adviece on how to study for university .

Welcome to PF. I went from a small high school where I was salutatorian without having to study at all to a University of California campus where everybody was very smart, and I did poorly in my first semester. I realized that I did not have very good study skills and needed to work a lot harder if I wanted to succeed, and by changing my study habits I did much better through the rest of my undergrad and graduate studies.

So you need to be willing to put in the effort. One way to do that is to strive to solve every problem in the textbook sections that you are studying. If there are lots of repetitive problems, you don't need to solve them if they appear to be similar to others that you have worked through, but you for sure should try to solve the last questions in each section since they are typically the hardest.

You also need to be willing to devote lots of quality time to your studies. I ended up spending close to 40 hours per week outside of class working problem sets and studying and solving extra problems. Are you willing to put in that amount of work?

 

[symbolipoint]

...

So you need to be willing to put in the effort. One way to do that is to strive to solve every problem in the textbook sections that you are studying. If there are lots of repetitive problems, you don't need to solve them if they appear to be similar to others that you have worked through, but you for sure should try to solve the last questions in each section since they are typically the hardest.

You also need to be willing to devote lots of quality time to your studies. I ended up spending close to 40 hours per week outside of class working problem sets and studying and solving extra problems. Are you willing to put in that amount of work?

Reason for bolding is to emphasize effort and time to spend.

At times, we may find some people or students who seem to be either brilliant or genius. But, just maybe, those people or students are putting in far more time and effort than others are aware.

 

[mcastillo356]

One advice I was given: "You are going to suffer, hold the line, don't give up"
Best wishes!

 

[vela]

I am doing an engineering course at university and I thought I could write down the info given in the pdf the get some more information on youtube and then I would start solving problems but I did not have success doing that

Does this mean you weren't able to do the problems? Or were you able to solve the problems but still did poorly on the test?

and I just failed a test due to lack of time to study.

As the others have said, this seems easy to fix: make the time to study. But that's not the whole story. You also have to use the time effectively. Make sure you're using learning strategies that work for you. If you realize a method isn't working well for you, don't keep doing the same thing and hoping for a different outcome. Commit to trying something different.

So I thought I should seek advice rom the wise and ask here how do you study / think I should study.
also do you think I should rely only on the given topics and not on external sources?
Your time is deeply appreciated.
Thank you.

It depends. On the one hand, if you're using YouTube videos to avoid reading the textbook (because you find it hard to understand), that might not be a very good habit to get into. You do need to learn how to read and learn from textbooks, and it does take practice. On the other hand, if you're using the videos to clarify some muddy points or perhaps to gain yet another perspective on the material, it probably helps.