Monday, May 21, 2012
My Top 5 Study Tips
1. Make bullet point notes for each reading, online lecture, and movie. Include: Author/Issue/Title, Date, A Quick Description, and 2 Main Points (e.g. an author's stance on witchcraft trials, how they addressed a particular problem or question, etc.). This will help you to sift through the details and focus on key information.
2. Group similar materials together in chronological order (e.g. a list all the witch hunters, a list of people condemned as witches, a flow chart that tracks critics of witch trials, a timeline of key events, etc.). Grouping information will helps you to remember it more quickly.
3. Memorize your notes. Speaking out loud works best for me. Other suggestions: go over them on a treadmill or on a walk, compare notes in a study group, writing them out in different patterns or colors. Anything that helps you is good.
4. Review your notes with others to fill in remaining gaps. Look over materials that you forgot or are troublesome to you. Ask questions.
5. Re-read texts the day before the exam. This is very effective if you have studied your notes because it will solidify your knowledge and put additional details in your short-term memory for the test. The goal is not to re-read everything, only as much as you can digest, and the process is much more effective than cramming unlearned material.
That's my top five. I hope these tips will be of help to some of you as we round out the term. Please comment if you have good tips of your own! -Michele
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I always make notecards which helps me alot
ReplyDelete-Emily Reinhart
to be honest all I do is wait till the night before and make a kind of outline for each lesson where I would list important people/ ideas and write a one sentence recap for all the readings. Since I do this the night before everything is still fresh in my memory and so far I've been getting good scores on my tests. It can be stressful doing things this way though, so if you get stressed out easily or crack under pressure I don't recommend waiting till the last minute.
ReplyDeleteI find it best to read the texts from Levack and online and highlight parts of the passage that coincide with what we discussed in class. By highlighting, it helps me to remember what I read and can often remember the answers to the questions to the test. I also find it helpful to go through my notes and my recordings of Dr. Green's lectures.
ReplyDeleteThank you all for the additional suggestions. I find it is good to talk about these things at some point in every class because we can all benefit from each other's experiences. These are all good ideas, though Hannah, I would recommend working on the outlines throughout the course than using them as a review tool the night before. Then it will really be a breeze for you! -Michele :)
ReplyDeleteYeah I would have to say that that would make my life a lot easier. My main worry is that I would be afrain to no do it the night before because I would have all the little details fresh in my head plus I'm a bit hesitant to change anything because what I've been going seems to be working for me. I would hate to change my study habbits and then fail one of the quizes for it. Or I could make the basic outline and still do the readings the day/ night before. idk. But I do think that Michele has a good point to anyone who reads this.-Hannah
DeleteHighlighting and underlining while you read is also a good way of remembering things. I also find it better to read and then go back and take notes because you are seeing the information twice which also helps you remember things. Notecards also help me a ton. Also as stupid as the sounds, using different color pens or markers for certain topics helps the brain remember things better because you are associating the information with something else.
ReplyDeleteMaureen McCormick