Statistics and other courses that are math-based are often approached with a level of trepidation and even resistance.
Unfortunately, not all students can avoid it. While students in some disciplines can complete their studies and graduate without taking a stats class, some have to take one or more classes.
An excellent way to approach statistics classes is by figuring out how to take the course successfully instead of finding ways to avoid it altogether.
Here, read up on some tips to help you learn stats better and improve your performance.
1. Find The Best Study Aids
In lower levels of study, you might have had to do all your stats calculations manually. In college, this is no longer the case.
Colleges try as much as possible to depict life in the workplace. Once you settle in your career, you will be allowed to use software, tools, and calculators for any statistics-related work.
In college, using a study aid like a Z-Score calculator can help you study better, makes your work easier, and work faster. Get more details here.
Keep in mind that not all study aids are equal. The goal is to find the most effective ones and ones that work best for you.
2. Sit Front and Center
It almost seems that students who occupy the back seats have more fun in class than everyone else. Unfortunately, while this might be true, the back seats do not encourage good performance.
One thing you can do is to ensure you find a seat front and center in the lecture halls. You will be close to the lecturer and, therefore, be incentivized to pay attention to the lecture.
It’s often said that students who sit out front tend to outperform backbenchers. Use this to your advantage.
3. Create a Study Schedule
If you take your lectures and ignore lessons till exam time, you will be setting yourself up for failure.
Classes like statistics are better learned by doing, and the more often you practice, the better your outcome is. To improve your performance, create a study schedule to review each class every day after the lecture.
This will help you interact more with the material, increasing the chances of internalizing it better and storing it in your long-term memory.
4. Take Notes
Regardless of how good your memory is, try not to depend entirely on it for your studies.
When you sit in a lecture, the information you get is stored in your short-term memory. Everything else you will study, and all other information you will come across makes it easy to forget what you learn.
A better way to study is by ensuring you take good, clear notes during all your lectures. This gives you a backup for when you need to review your notes. It will also save you a lot of time around exam time, and you will already have adequate notes to study from.
5. Get Help When Needed
While it might feel great to ace your classes without any additional help, there are no extra points for this.
There is no point in struggling through classes and feeling overwhelmed and being stuck in a rut when you can move forward.
As you study, remain keen on areas where you find yourself struggling. Note these down and ensure to get help with them immediately. You can talk to your instructor, watch Vlogs, get a tutor or even confer with other bright students in class.
If you fail to take action, you get overwhelmed and fall further and further behind, which takes a toll on your performance.
