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My Studying Essential
7
- Peace and quiet! I have tried for years
to get away with listening to music while studying, swearing (to no one but
myself that it helps me block out other distractions and puts me at a
place of ease. I am kidding no one when I pop Tom Petty into my CD player, I
don't care how big the test is, I have to get up and belt out "And I'm
FREEEEEEEEEEEE, Free Fallin'!" to my entire neighborhood at that very
moment.
- Pen and a lot of paper. One of the best
ways for me to memorize things is to have it just plain drilled into my head.
One of my favorite ways of doing this is to write it over and over again.
Continually putting it down chisels the info into my head, and if I feel shaky
on it, I write it at the top of my class notes the next day before beginning
class or at the top of the test I am studying for as soon as I receive
it.
- Flash cards. This is my other favorite
way of drilling something into my head. I copy down all the appropriate info
onto flash cards (questions on the front and answers on the back), shuffle
them up, and go through the pile, just reading over the information. Then I go
through it and try to guess each answer. After that, I go through the pile a
third time and separate the cards I've memorized from the ones I got wrong. I
keep going through the pile that I haven't yet memorized until it disappears.
Finally, I go through all the cards one more time to be positive that I have
them all memorized.
- Good class notes. These are the basis for
my studying. If I don't get good notes in class, I borrow some from a friend.
Without them, creating any study mechanism is impossible and has no point of
reference.
- Immersion. If I'm studying a lot of new
information all at once, I need to be surrounded by it completely. To do this,
I turn my apartment into one humongous quiz. I post flash cards everywhere,
with just the question facing outward. Anytime I want to do something, I have
to first answer the question. For example, if "What does gato
mean?" is on the refrigerator, I can't open it until I answer correctly:
"cat."
- Study buddy! The night before a test, I
usually get on the phone with a friend who's in the same class and we take
turns explaining the concepts and processes to each other. This helps both the
explainer and the explainee to understand and make meaning of the
content.
- Glass of water. A glass of water is
essential to me on multiple levels when studying. For one, it distracts me
from any hunger due to boredom that may occur while studying. Having cool
water also prevents me from feeling fried or losing focus because of
overconcentration. Last, once I have finished a glass of water, I have to go
refill it, giving me a minute of breathing room from the material I'm
studying.
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Jessi Says... |
