Welcome to CalSO Postscript
This newsletter features stories for and by Berkeley undergraduates. If you've attended CalSO, you've already learned a bit about the campus. Postscript hopes to expand your knowledge about some of the opportunities and advantages available to you.

Postscript Fall 2006 Stories
Welcome to Cal! | Peer Education: GenEq Resource Center | I "heart" consent | Writer's block: a Berkeley tutor's experience | Campus Politics: the ASUC and me | Community Service: Hurricane Katrina

Postscript Fall 2005 Stories
Dear incoming freshmen | Diversity in Berkeley | Drinking 101 | Research: Expand your undergraduate experience | Paris, France: Fall 2003

I would like to welcome you to CAL, and to congratulate you for choosing to join us. You’ll soon find, as I did, that “There is NO place on earth like Berkeley!”

Whenever I talk with incoming freshmen, I want to share everything that I’ve learned in the decades since I was a freshman. However it would take several hours, and nobody has time to listen. Therefore I was very pleased when I was asked to put my thoughts down on paper, and I decided to focus on academic  tips.

However, before you start reading, I must give you one bit of advice. Concentrate on one tip at a time. Choose a suggestion that suits you. Try it for a week, and see if it works for you. After a week you’ll have either incorporated it into your subconscious battery of skills, or you will have discarded it. Then it will be time to try another tip.

Here in nearly random order, is a collection of academic tips that I’ve picked up over the years:
1) The essence of the CAL experience is hard work. In my opinion, the informal motto of CAL is, “Try VERY hard!” Every other tip is simply an extension or corollary of this basic principle.

2) Most of your intense, sustained effort should be simple, old-fashioned hard work. Maybe 95%. But at least 5% of your effort should go to devising new study strategies, acquiring more efficient study habits, and redesigning your study techniques. Without that 5% effort to explore new strategies, you risk wasting 95% of your hard work.

3) Use the Student Learning Center (SLC). It’s a good place to pick up study techniques. The wisest students go earliest to the SLC. First they get good ideas; later they get jobs as tutors.

4) The University is an exercise in sharpening the intuition and training the subconscious. To paraphrase George Lucas, creator of the popular ‘Star Wars’ films, you train [your intuition] like a Jedi Knight; then you let the Force be with you [in examinations].

5) To help you train your intuition, we have exercises called “courses.” In each course, much of the instruction is non-verbal. However the non-verbal communication only reaches a few rows into the room. Therefore you should attend class, and sit in front.

6) Attend office hours. How should you prepare for office hours? Or for that matter, for examinations and assignments? The short answer is, “Think like your instructor.” A slightly longer answer is, “Put yourself in your instructor’s shoes. Or brain.” For a really long answer, ask me in person. I’ll tell you more than you want to know.

7) Three magic words will give you the key to thinking like a professor. They are: “Question. Question. Question.” Question me about this point, and I’ll explain.

8) Review is important. Every week you should take a half hour to review each one of your courses in its entirety, from the beginning to the current week. By the end of the semester, you’ll have reviewed the first week’s material a dozen times. Then it will be easy for you to integrate even the most disjointed and incoherent course.

9) Review is important. If you are a multi-tasker, review each lecture or class DURING the class. As your mind wanders, direct it to what HAS been covered, what IS being covered, and what WILL be covered. Thinking about what will be covered is a most powerful study technique.

10) Review is important. This includes reviewing THE FUTURE. Reviewing the future is also called “anticipation.” Before each class you should make a very rough outline of what you would do if you had to give the lecture. Also what questions you might formulate if you were to make the next examination or assign the next paper. If the instructor fails to do what you expected, you have a golden opportunity to score some major points. Ask me for details.

11) Learn from athletes and their coaches. They don’t skip workouts by staying in bed. They train daily to increase their strength, skill, and intuition. They anticipate and visualize upcoming competitions. They never do ‘all-nighter’ workouts before major events. In fact, they often overtrain in the pre-season and TAPER for big meets at the end of the season. Each of these practices has a direct counterpart in the world of academic training. Just ask the folks at the Athletic Study Center.

12) Contact me for other tips. I had drafted notes on the “3X effort for 3 weeks formula”; the “Magic key” to science, math, and technology courses; and the ‘Chi’ of the student laboratory. But I’ve run out of space. Let’s discuss these things in person (I’m the professor with the hat who lives in Unit 2 and dines in Crossroads), by phone, or email.

13) I’d love to hear your thoughts. I’m setting up a mailing list to facilitate the exchange of study tips, ideas for healthy living, and thoughts and impressions of Berkeley. Send me email at <gwchang@berkeley.edu> if you’d like to participate.

Best wishes,

--George Chang, Professor
Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology and Resident Faculty Program

Postscript Fall 2006 Stories
Welcome to Cal! | Peer Education: GenEq Resource Center | I "heart" consent | Writer's block: a Berkeley tutor's experience | Campus Politics: the ASUC and me | Community Service: Hurricane Katrina

Postscript Fall 2005 Stories
Dear incoming freshmen | Diversity in Berkeley | Drinking 101 | Research: Expand your undergraduate experience | Paris, France: Fall 2003