My science class consists of the professor reading directly from the powerpoint slides and rarely adding any of her own thoughts/analysis. In total we've had 5 lectures and thus 5 powerpoint presentations. Each presentation has an average of about 100 slides.

We have a test less than a week away and my question is - how in the hell do you study for something like this?

This is the message the prof is sending out - here are over half a thousand slides and just learn it all.

What I've begun doing is going through each powerpoint and copying what sounds important into a Word document. I plan on reading over what I've put into Word and memorizing as much as I can.

This is an elective and even though I can drop the course, I don't want to because we've had one assignment already, not to mention starting another class two months in would be extremely difficult.

What would you do?

*Cry in the corner of the room what else.


On a more serious note, only one thing you can do i.e Study.
Shut The Unwanted Disastrous Yapering, <-- needs some tweaking.

You have a textbook don't you?

A lot of professors teach that way. Be grateful she is giving you the slides and didn't expect you to just write as much as you could down in class. The slides should just be the main ideas from the textbook. I would become familiar with the book, do the odd homework problems in the book provided the answers are in the back, and look over the slides a few times. I would not try to memorize everything on the slides.

E-mail, phone, or drop in on the guy's office hours to find out what's on the test. Check if there are any copies of his tests on file at the library. In short, ask for a review.

You should be able to understand most of the science through deduction. The terms and specifics you'll need to copy down and memorize. Be sure you understand the interconnectedness of the topics (aka your "science moment";)) before you spend hours memorizing something you could have basically deduced in the first place. Your strategy seems effective and if you know how the subject is connected I wouldn't change much in how I'd study.

Based on what you have posted I would say just study the slides and whatever assigned reading there was... Slides first, reading second. If the prof said any specific topic definitely will or will not be on the test, make sure to study or ignore that topic. If you have some other information that leads you to believe the test will be based solely on the slides, ignore the reading. I find that for science classes, the slides have everything you need unless something was specifically mentioned.

I would do what you are doing except write everything by hand instead of in a computer document. That's a personal preference though.

if you have a science or math based course, have a look at practise questions. these should dictate what is likely to be examined

Your class sounds like my general chemistry class. Power points on top of power points. On top of that the prof has an annoying nasally voice; and is, in general, boring as fuck. It's at 7:50 to boot so I rarely go, except on mondays to see where we're at material wise. Some ho who lives in my hall hands in my homework for me.

To compensate for not going to class I read the book. And I like it that way. I learn better that way.

A lot of people tend to try and write down whatever's on the slide (regardless of its importance to the current topic) and then memorize it later. That sorta seems like what you're trying to do. Stop that. Study the topic, make sure you understand it and if you don't - write down questions and ask 'em in class, and do practice problems on top of that. Don't just simply memorize what's on the board/slide. That's not learning; that's being a robot.

Figure out the topics on the test and study them. Read the chapters in the book. Do practice problems. Ask questions before the test. All is not lost.

Just curious.. what science course is it?

It's a course about natural disasters.

Well most profs post there slides on line and such so Id just re write each slide down on paper not on the comp but like with a pencil write down each slide you learn faster that way then just reading it its better trust me

Surely other people are in your same situation. I'd casually talk to some of the smarter people you've undoubtedly scoped out since the beginning of the class. Ask them how they're studying and offer to collaborate with them on making a study guide of all the slides. Division of labor means if you grab 2 other smart people, you save yourself a lot of busywork of just reviewing the slides.

I'd also study as much of it on my own, but enlisting the help of others into a mutually beneficial relationship, assuming they consider collaboration with you worth their time, could really help. BTW I'm in a class that's just like that, more like 50-70 slides a class; gen ed. requirement that I put off way too long. I got an 80 on the midterm... not great but not terrible news..