General study tips for Physical Geology?

[Of Mike and Men]

Hey everyone,

I am a CS major, and part of my curriculum has me taking 2 sequences in various sciences. Initially I wanted to do physics & chemistry. I ended up taking Physics I, but am unable to take Physics II next semester due to scheduling conflicts; thus this summer I am taking the first part of the geology sequence: Physical Geology. So far we've covered plate tectonics, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, igneous rocks, sedimentary rocks, and the formation of the Earth (in little detail since that's the second part of the sequence).

The class is extremely interesting; it's not conceptually taxing, but I am extremely hung up on the volume of information required for the tests. Typically for memorization I make note cards; which I've been doing... but I probably have 100 note cards per lecture and roughly 20 pages of typed notes per lecture from the professor which serve as a 'review'. I was doing fine with the initial material, but I am stuck on sedimentary rocks and volcanoes. It seems that my brain just won't store the information anymore, I will literally forget something 2 seconds after writing it down.

What are your study tips for this type of class? My professor basically said "Read the book, read the chapter reviews, and do the practice questions." I did this for the last test, and don't think I fared to well on it. It was kind of a wake up call.

Thanks.

 

[clipclop]

I read the material that we were going to cover in the lecture the day before. I would write down anything from the lecture that was new or if the explanation was better than what was given in the book.

 

[MidgetDwarf]

Is it possible to take Physics 2, or its equivalent at a community college, and receive credit? For most of my math courses beyond Calculus 2 at the community college, I had plenty of students from USC, Cal State La, Long Beach, and even a few engineering students for Cal Poly Pomona. Ask the appropriate people at your college if this is possible.