Changing How I Study

I've talked about this briefly before [third paragraph], but this semester I am going to make a considerable effort to change the way I study. As an undergraduate, doing homework problems was more than enough to learn the material at least well enough to get good grades. I didn't "read the book" in my engineering/technical classes unless 1) it was at the very beginning of the term and I was feeling ambitious with nothing else to do or 2) I had to read to complete the homework problems.

On Tuesday I will embark upon two theoretical statistics courses, and in about four months I will be tested on the material from these courses. It is paramount that during this semester I keep on top of the material and understand it as deeply and thoroughly as possible. This is why I must change the way I study.

Trying to read and understand material from a book when there is an outstanding homework assignment on the same material is very difficult for me to do, but in actuality it is an investment that hurts up front ("I'm wasting valuable time that could be spent working on problems that will be due in a few days!") but will reap benefits in the future when I understand the subject matter better.