This has nothing to do with being homeless, well it could actually if you take into space constraints and a place to study, buuut, it’s my blog so I can talk about what I want to. : )

I have heard this before but have never really had the opportunity to try it, because it DOES take a LOT of time and most people taking full class loads just don’t have enough time.
What I’ve heard is that a student should rewrite the answers to the questions they have in their own words. So, if I want to know if the pH of a solution goes up or down when a base is added, I write a page long essay detailing all the facts and steps and formulas that lead to my answer. I’m not concentrating on writing skills, just getting all the pieces in the correct order in my own words. There are many run-on sentences in my essays.

I have found that since I missed a week of class and am going through the missed chapters trying to catch up that the information sticks much better this way.

And if I need to go redo the material at a future date then I can refer back to page such and such in my study notebook as references (footnotes) for my current essay.

It also helps tremendously when I’m at office hours trying to formulate words into sentences for the instructor. Several times I’ve shoved my study notebook under his nose and said “read that” (and I usually write my unanswered questions interspersed with the essay or at the end, circled in colored pencil). He does, then points at the question he’s addressing, and talks about the question relating with what I’ve written.

I did mention that he’s a good teacher right?
He’s not great at spoon-feeding but if you actually work with him he’ll work with you.

I do tend to go through quite a few marble notebooks though.