Freshman Advisory
Study Skills Module
Activity 10
Study Hints

Improve Your Studying Skills

Above All, Review Regularly and Plan To Study Ahead, so that the Night Before an Exam,
All You Do Is Review Material.
Avoid All-Nighters!
These Study Tips include:

1.Good Study Habits
2.Preparing for Exams
3.Ten Traps of Studying

Along with guidance from therapists at CAPS, students who want to improve their study
skills may contact a Learning Specialist at The Learning Center (located in Phillips
Annex: 962-3782.)

Study Habits

The Improve Your Study Skills Menu has more options.

1.Decide what to study (reasonable task) and how long or how many (chapters,
pages, problems, etc.). Set and stick to deadlines.
2.Do difficult tasks first. For procrastination, start off with an easy, interesting aspect
of the project.
3.Have special places to study. Take into consideration lighting, temperature, and
availability of materials.
4.Study 50 minutes, and then take a 10 minute break. Stretch, relax, have an energy
snack.
5.Allow longer, "massed" time periods for organizing relationships and concepts,
outlining, and writing papers. Use shorter, "spaced" time intervals for rote
memorization, review, and self-testing. Use odd moments for recall/review.
6.If you get tired or bored, switch task/activity, subject, or environment. Stop studying
when you are no longer being productive.
7.Do rote memory tasks and review, especially details, just before you fall asleep.
8.Study with a friend. Quiz each other, compare notes and predicted test questions.
 
 

Preparing for Exams

The Improve Your Study Skills Menu has more options.

1.When the Exam is Announced:
Find out what the exam will or won't cover.
Find out what kind of exam it will be: objective, short essay, long essay, or
a combination.
2.Exam Study:
Prepare summary sheets for large amounts of lecture and textbook notes.
Spend several nights before an exam making a final review of notes.
Stress the following areas in your review:
1.Points emphasized in class or in the text;
2.Areas the professor has advised for study:
3.Questions in study guides, past quizzes, and reviews at the end of
textbook chapters.
3.Preparation by Type of Exam:
Objective exams: Study as if it were an essay exam.
Stress specifics:
Definitions of key terms and examples;
Lists of items;
For True/False, write some false statements.
Essay Exams:
Stress concepts.
List probable questions.
Prepare a good outline answer and practice it.
Problem Exams:
Memorize formulas if needed.
Practice problems.
 
 

Ten Traps of Studying

The Improve Your Study Skills Menu has more options.

1."I Don't Know Where To Begin"

Take Control. Make a list of all the things you have to do. Break your workload down into
manageable chunks. Prioritize! Schedule your time realistically. Don't skip classes near
an exam -- you may miss a review session. Use that hour in between cla sses to review
notes. Interrupt study time with planned study breaks. Begin studying early, with an hour
or two per day, and slowly build as the exam approaches.

2. "I've Got So Much To Study . . . And So Little Time"

Preview. Survey your syllabus, reading material, and notes. Identify the most important
topics emphasized, and areas still not understood. Previewing saves time, especially
with non-fiction reading, by helping you organize and focus in on the main topi cs. Adapt
this method to your own style and study material, but remember, previewing is not an
effective substitute for reading.

3. "This Stuff Is So Dry, I Can't Even Stay Awake Reading It"

Attack! Get actively involved with the text as you read. Ask yourself, "What is important to
remember about this section?" Take notes or underline key concepts. Discuss the
material with others in your class. Study together. Stay on the offensive, e specially with
material that you don't find interesting, rather than reading passively and missing
important points.

4. "I Read It. I Understand It. But I Just Can't Get It To Sink In"

Elaborate. We remember best the things that are most meaningful to us. As you are
reading, try to elaborate upon new information with your own examples. Try to integrate
what you're studying with what you already know. You will be able to remember new
material better if you can link it to something that's already meaningful to you. Some
techniques include:

Chunking: An effective way to simplify and make information more meaningful.
For example, suppose you wanted to remember the colors in the visible spectrum
(Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet); you would have to memorize
seven "chunks" of information in order. But if you take the first letter of each color,
you can spell the name "Roy G. Biv", and reduce the information the three
"chunks".
Mnemonics: Any memory-assisting technique that helps us to associate new
information with something familiar. For example, to remember a formula or
equation, we may use letters of the alphabet to represent certain numbers. Then
we can change an abs tract formula into a more meaningful word or phrase, so
we'll be able to remember it better. Sound-alike associations can be very effective,
too, especially while trying to learn a new language. The key is to create your own
links, then you won't forget them.

5. "I Guess I Understand It"

Test yourself. Make up questions about key sections in notes or reading. Keep in mind
what the professor has stressed in the course. Examine the relationships between
concepts and sections. Often, simply by changing section headings you can generate m
any effective questions. For example, a section entitled "Bystander Apathy" might be
changed into questions such as: "What is bystander apathy?", "What are the causes of
bystander apathy?", and "What are some examples of bystander apathy?"

6. "There's Too Much To Remember"

Organize. Information is recalled better if it is represented in an organized framework that
will make retrieval more systematic. There are many techniques that can help you
organize new information, including:

Write chapter outlines or summaries; emphasize relationships between sections.
Group information into categories or hierarchies, where possible.
Information Mapping. Draw up a matrix to organize and interrelate material. For
example, if you were trying to understand the causes of World War I, you could
make a chart listing all the major countries involved across the top, and then list
the im portant issues and events down the side. Next, in the boxes in between,
you could describe the impact each issue had on each country to help you
understand these complex historical developments.

7. "I Knew It A Minute Ago"

Review. After reading a section, try to recall the information contained in it. Try answering
the questions you made up for that section. If you cannot recall enough, re-read portions
you had trouble remembering. The more time you spend studying, the more you tend to
recall. Even after the point where information can be pe rfectly recalled, further study
makes the material less likely to be forgotten entirely. In other words, you can't overstudy.
However, how you organize and integrate new information is still more important than
how much time you spend studying.

8. "But I Like To Study In Bed"

Context. Recall is better when study context (physical location, as well as mental,
emotional, and physical state) are similar to the test context. The greater the similarity
between the study setting and the test setting, the greater the likelihood tha t material
studied will be recalled during the test.

9. "Cramming Before A Test Helps Keep It Fresh In My Mind"

Spacing: Start studying now. Keep studying as you go along. Begin with an hour or two a
day about one week before the exam, and then increase study time as the exam
approaches. Recall increases as study time gets spread out over time.

10. "I'm Gonna Stay Up All Night 'til I Get This"

Avoid Mental Exhaustion. Take short breaks often when studying. Before a test, have a
rested mind. When you take a study break, and just before you go to sleep at night, don't
think about academics. Relax and unwind, mentally and physically. Otherwis e, your
break won't refresh you and you'll find yourself lying awake at night. It's more important
than ever to take care of yourself before an exam! Eat well, sleep, and get enough
exercise.