Exam Day: Survival Tips Test- Taking Part 3

Exam Day: Survival Tips

Test- Taking

Part 3

Identify key words.

This helps you focus on the main idea of challenging questions.

Rephrase difficult questions.

To understand questions better, rewrite them in your own words. Be careful not to change the meaning.

Organize your thoughts before you write.

Take time to organize your responses to short-answer and essay questions. You’ll reduce the time you need to revise.

Write neatly.

Be sure you don’t lose points on answers the teacher can’t read.

Use all the time you’re given.

If you finish early, don’t leave. Use the extra time to proofread and review your answers.

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Exam Day: Survival Tips Test-Taking Part 2

Exam Day: Survival Tips

Test-Taking

Part 2

During the Test

Read the directions.

It’s important that you follow the instructions exactly. For example, some questions may have more than one correct answer.
Answer easy questions first.

Doing this can jog your memory about useful facts. You may also come across information that can help you with other questions.

Answer every question.

Unless there is a penalty for wrong answers, try to answer every question; you may be able to get partial credit for those you begin but don’t complete correctly.

Ask questions.

If a question isn’t clear, talk to your teacher. If that’s not possible, explain your answer in the margin.

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Exam Day: Survival Tips Test- Taking Part 1

Exam Day: Survival Tips

Test- Taking

Part 1

http://www.collegeboard.com/student/plan /boost-your-skills/10296.html

Essential Test-Taking Advice

Try out these strategies while you’re still in high school, and by the time you get to college, you’ll be a test-taking expert.

Before the Test

Eat well.

Studies show that you need good nutrition to concentrate and perform your best.

Bring the right supplies.

Bring your pencils, erasers, pens, rulers, compasses, calculators or whatever else you need on test day.

Review the whole test before you start.

See how many sections and what types of questions are on the test. Determine how much time to allow for completing each section.

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Reading 5 Tips for Success Tip 5

Reading

5 Tips for Success

Tip 5

Tip 5: Keep a List of Questions

When you feel confused about something you’re reading, write down any questions you have. Sometimes your questions are answered as you read further. If not, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Remember, teachers create assignments; they’ve read the texts and are familiar with them. When you have specific questions, your teachers can provide answers that will help you better understand the material. Learning is rooted in questions developed and asked by the learner.

Asking questions to yourself, to the teacher, and to others, is a great learning method. When you cease to ask questions, you cease to exist to a great extent. Read actively by silently asking questions as you read. Questioning immerses you into the material you are reading and therefore will expand your mental capacities more than almost anything else.

The philosopher Sir Francis Bacon said, “Knowledge is power.” Improving your reading comprehension is the key to gaining important knowledge and making the most of your education. So pick up a book … and a pen.

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Reading 5 Tips for Success

Reading

5 Tips for Success

http://www.collegeboard.com/student/plan/boost-your-skills/189995/html

Reading and writing go hand in hand. The better you understand a text, the more likely you are to successfully communicate your thoughts about it in writing. So it’s important to develop strong skills in both areas. With that in mind, here’s how to improve your reading comprehension.

Tips 1-2

Tip 1: Annotate

Be an active reader. Instead of passively reading a text, take notes about important story elements, key factual information and significant ideas in the text.

Tip 2: Not the Author’s writing Style

Every author writes with a purpose, using deliberate methods to successfully relate specific information to the audience. When you’re reading, look for patterns in the author’s writing. For example, you may notice a repetition of key words, phrases or symbols—or the use of distinct type of sentence structure. Authors employ these writing strategies to help readers comprehend a central argument or theme, so be sure to explore how these techniques create meaning.

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5 Tips for Staying Motivated Tips 3-5

5 Tips for Staying Motivated

Tips 3-5

3. Set attainable Goals

If you’re having trouble writing a 25-page paper for class because it seems like such a big job, don’t focus on the final number. Break the paper down and consider each section of your paper individually. You can handle any project in small chunks.

4. Find a Social Support Network

Create a group of people around you who want to help you succeed. Mentors can be teachers or family friends who can give you guidance and help you develop new skills. Counselors can help you with planning your courses and starting to explore colleges. You can also reach out to friends and peers who can motivate you by listening and sharing ideas.

5. Acknowledge Your Accomplishments

Give yourself a quick reward when you complete an assignment or task. Take a walk, send an email, get a snack. Then move on to the next project.

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Take Control of Homework So It Doesn’t Control You Part 3

Take Control of Homework

So It Doesn’t Control You

Part 3

Take Advantage of Any Free Time

If you have a study period or a long bus ride, use the time to review notes, prepare for an upcoming class or start your homework. Flash cards are a great learning tool. They are easy to handle, and are a marvelous tool to help you learn and remember anything. Punch a hole in the upper left corner of each index card and connect the stack of your flash cards with a ring. Then the cards are bound and not flopping around. Flash cards bound like this act like a small book with pages. You can even have separate ringed stacks for each subject. WHATEVER YOU WANT TO REMEMBER, PUT IT ON A CARD.

Study with a Friend

Get together with friends and classmates to quiz each other, compare notes and predict test questions. Consider joining a study group.   

Communicate
if you have any concerns about the amount or type of homework you have, you may want to talk to your family, teachers or counselor. They can help you understand how much time you need to allot for homework and how to manage your tasks.

Celebrate Your Achievements

Reward yourself for hitting milestones or doing something well.

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Take Control of Homework So It Doesn’t Control you Part 2

Take Control of Homework

So It Doesn’t Control you

Part 2

Keep Things in Perspective

Know how much weight each assignment or test carries, and use your time accordingly. Don’t waste time, but be wise and smart. Doing the most important things first is being wise and smart.

Get More Involved

Keep your mind from wandering by taking notes, underlining sections, discussing topics with others or relating your homework to something you’re studying in another class. Learn actively and not passively. Be anxiously engaged in your studies and you will have a great experience. Demonstrate a good attitude toward home assignments, and you will begin to love doing it.

Organize the information

People process information in different ways. Some people like to draw pictures or charts to digest information, others prefer to read out loud or make detailed outlines. Try to find the methods that work best for you. Ask your teacher for recommendations if you’re having trouble.

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Note-Taking Strategies Part 1

Note-Taking Strategies

Part 1

http://www.collegeboard.com/student/plan/college-success/955.html

How to Get Your Class Notes in Shape

Getting the most out of high school and college means studying hard and using your time wisely. An effective note-taking strategy can help you do both. Here are the basics.

Stay Organized

It may seem obvious, but your class notes can only help you if you can find them. When you’re taking notes be sure to:

·       Keep all your notes in one place.

·       Date and number pages; keeping them in order makes it easier to understand them later.

Before Class

Review the material assigned for that class period thoroughly. Bring a list of any questions you may have.

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Profile of a Successful Student Part 2

Profile of a Successful Student

Part 2

Work Together. There are a number of ways that you can ensure you get the most out of your educational experience. First, participate fully. Engage regularly in the discussions and be willing to share your personal, professional and educational experiences. You can get to know your classmates through the dialogue that is created in a course environment—sometimes even better than in a face-to-face class. And the same goes for your instructor. Be sure to contact your professor—especially if you are having problems. He/she is still your instructor and will be there to guide and assist you as needed.

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Successful Students 10

Successful Students

10

10. Successful students are good time managers. Successful students do not procrastinate. They have learned that time control is life control and have consciously chosen to be in control of their life.

An element truth: you will either control time or be controlled by it! It’s your choice: you can lead or be led, establish control or relinquish control, steer your own course or follow others. Failure to take control of their own time is probably the no. 1 study skills problem for college students. It ultimately causes many students to become non-students! Procrastinators are good excuse-makers. Don’t make academics harder on yourself than it has to be. Stop procrastinating. And don’t wait until tomorrow to do it!

the 10 items listed above are paraphrased from an article by Larry M Ludewig called Ten Commandments for Effective Study Skills which appear in The Teaching Professor, December, 1992.

“Learning Technologies and Online Education”

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Successful Students 9

Successful Students

9

9… don’t cram for exams. Successful students know that divided periods of study are more effective than cram sessions, and they practice it.

If there is one thing that study skills specialists agree on, it is that distributed study is better than massed, late-night, last-ditch efforts known as cramming. you’ll learn more, remember more, and earn a higher grade by studying in four, one hour-s-night sessions on Friday’s exam than studying for four hours straight on Thursday night. Short, concentrated preparatory efforts are more efficient and rewarding than wasteful, inattentive, last moment marathons. Yet, so many students fail to learn this lesson and end repeating it over and over again until it becomes a wasteful habit. Not too clever, huh?

When you cram, you are taking the shortcut, and shortcuts never produce any real worthwhile results. Also, when you take shortcuts, you feel rather rotten knowing that you could have done better but didn’t. Shortcuts cut you short. You can’t plant watermelon seeds and harvest fresh watermelons the next day. It takes time. Cramming for a test or project and expecting to make a high score the next day is like planting watermelon seeds and expecting to harvest and eat fresh watermelon the next day. Plus cramming for a test or project doesn’t help you academically, so why even do it. Plan ahead, prepare ahead. Give yourself plenty of days and weeks to prepare for upcoming accountability opportunities.

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Successful Students 7-8

Successful Students

7-8

7…understand that actions affect learning. Successful students know their personal behavior affect their feelings and emotions which in turn can affect learning.

If you act in a certain way that normally produces particular feelings, you will begin to experience those feeling. Act like you’re bored, and you’ll become bored. Act like you’re disinterested and you’ll become disinterested. So the next time you have trouble concentrating in the classroom, “act” like and interested person: lean forward, place your feet flat on the floor, maintain eye contact with the professor, nod occasionally, take notes, and ask questions. Not only will you benefit directly from your actions, your classmates and professor may also get more excited and enthusiastic.

8. ...talk about what they’re learning. Successful students get to know something well enough that they can put it into words. Talking about something, with friends or classmates, is not only good for checking whether or not you know something, it’s a proven learning tool. Transferring ideas into words provides the most direct path for moving knowledge from short-term to long-term memory. You really don’t “know” material until you can put it into words. So, next time you study, don’t do it silently. Talk about notes, problems, reading, etc. with friends, recite to a chair, organize an oral study group, pretend you’re teaching your peers. “Talk-learning” produces a whole host of memory traces that result in more learning.

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Successsful Students 5-6

Successful Students

5-6

5. Don’t sit in the back of the room. Successful students minimize classroom distractions that interfere with learning.

Students want the best seat available for their entertainment dollars, but willingly seek the worst seat for their educational dollars. Students who sit in the back cannot possibly be their professor’s teammate (see no. 4). Why do they expose themselves to the temptations of inactive classroom experiences and distractions of all the people between them and their instructor? Of course, we know they chose the back of the classroom because they seek invisibility or anonymity, both of which are antithetical to efficient and effective learning. If you are trying not to be part of the class, why, then, are you wasting your time? Push your hot buttons, is there something else you should be doing with your time?

6. … take good notes. Successful students take notes that are understandable and organized, and review them often.

Why put something into your notes you don’t understand? Ask the questions now that are necessary to make your notes meaningful at some later time. A short review of your notes while the material is still fresh on your mind helps you to learn more. The more you learn then, the less you’ll have to learn later and the less time it will take because you won’t have to include some deciphering time, also. The whole purpose of taking notes is to use them, and use them often. The more you use them, the more they improve.

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Successful Students 3-4

Successful Students

3-4

3…ask questions. Successful students ask questions to provide the quickest route between ignorance and knowledge. In addition to securing knowledge you seek, asking questions has at least two other extremely important benefits. The process helps you pay attention to your professor and helps your professor pay attention to you! Think about it. If you want something, go after it. Get the answer now, or fail a question later. There are no foolish questions, only foolish silence. It’s your choice.

4… learn that a student and a professor make a team. Most instructors want exactly what you want: they would like for you to learn the material in their respective classes and earn a good grade.

Successful students reflect well on the efforts of any teacher; if you have learned your material, the instructor takes some justifiable pride in teaching. Join forces with your instructor, they are not an enemy, you share the same interests, the same goals- in short, your teammates. Get to know your professor. You’re the most valuable players on the same team. Your jobs are to work together for mutual success. Neither wishes to chalk up a losing season. Be a team player!

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Successful Students 1-2

Successful Students

1-2

Successful students exhibit a combination of successful attitudes and behaviors as well as intellectual capacity. Successful students… 1… are responsible and active. Successful students get involved in their studies, accept responsibility for their own education, and are active participants in it! Responsibility means control. It’s the difference between leading and being lead. Your own efforts control your grade, you earn the glory or deserve the blame, you make the choice. Active classroom participation improves grades without increasing study time. You can sit there, act bored, daydream, or sleep. Or, you can actively listen, think, question, and take notes like someone in charge of their learning experience. Either option cost one class period. However, the former method will require a large degree of additional work outside of class to achieve the same degree of learning the latter provides at one sitting. The choice is yours.

2… have educational goals. Successful students have legitimate goals and are motivated by what they represent in terms of career aspirations and life’s desires.

Ask yourself these questions: What am I doing here? Why have I chosen to be sitting here now? Is there some better place I could be? What does my presence here mean to me? Answers to these questions represent your “Hot Buttons” and are, without a doubt, the most important factors in your success as a college student. If your educational goals are truly yours, not someone else’s, they will motivate a vital and positive academic attitude. If you are familiar with what these hot buttons represent and refer to them often, especially when you are tired of being a student, nothing can stop you; if you aren’t and don’t, everything can, and will!

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