Be an Effective Learner
•Understand your learning style
•Identify your strengths and use them
•Predict mismatch in your learning experience
•Anticipate/accept discomfort in some learning situations
•Develop skills in non-preferred styles
•Seek others with a different styles to develop new skills
•Develop excellent thinking skills:
–Organize knowledge and facts
–Look for patterns in a new task
–Look for connections to find deeper understanding
–Try different learning strategies; learn when to apply them
–Be self-aware about when you do or don’t understand
–Seek to understand
•Use a note-taking system.
–There are many “systems” out there.
–Which system is not as important as using a predictable, thought-out technique for taking notes.
–Modify them to suit your needs
•Do a Google search to find out more “systems”.
•Use “speedwriting.”
–Mst stdnts cn lrn spdwrtng in svrl mnts. Jst omt ll or mst vwls.
•Use color-coding techniques.
–Use different colors to record ideas presented in class and found in the text or readings. For example, use blue to code major ideas and green to code links to previously learned material.
•STUDY
–Forgetting is most rapid right afterlearning.
–Review helps combat this.
–Relearning is easier if it is done quickly.
–Don't wait until it's all gone. You have to start over at the beginning.
–Learn the material.
–Review early!
–Space out review sessions.
•Schedule a time to study each day or at least every other day (whether you have homework or not!)
•Stay organized.
•Review and organize notes as soon after class as possible.
•Try to review the previous day’s notes before the next class begins
•Vary study activities. Do things other than read. Think of techniques we discussed.
•When you read, get the MOST out of it!
–Read an assignment for 25 minutes. You lose 85% of your input after the first 25 minutes, so reading longer can be a waste of time.
–Read summary/section headings before you begin.
–Underline, highlight, jot down main points.
–After twenty-five minutes, take a break.
–After your break, review all marked material.
–Repeat until you’ve finished reading and you do a final review (after a break).
•After studying, be sure you can restate or explain the material in your own words, with your own examples.
•Mark anything you do not understand and look for answers (textbook, websites, classmates, or teacher).
•Make flashcards of important terms, concepts, vocabulary. Define everything in your own words.
•Try to intentionally “remember” things different ways. It’s like filing a sheet of paper in one place in a file drawer OR making copies and filing it under several headings.
–Use the room you’re studying to “hook” onto. Associate information with an object or location. As you study, be consistent. On the test you can visualize your room to help recall.
–Make mind maps.
- Start with a word or idea and find an image that represents it.
- Subtopics branch off main center.
- Use single words or simple phrases
- Use images whenever possible
- Size of “branches” should show importance
- Put different concepts on different branches
- Use color to separate / distinguish ideas
- Use colors for branches and terms
- Use cross-linkage to show how one part affects another
•Use mnemonics or memory aids:
•ACROSTICS
–Use the first letter of each word to make a sentence.
•My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas.
•Mercury, Venus Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto
•ACRONYMN
–The first letter of each word forms a new one.
•FBI: Federal Bureau of Investigation
•NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
•KEYWORDS
–Think of a word that reminds you of the concept you’re trying to remember and then find an image or sentence that combines the two to represent the meaning.
–For example: The Spanish word, dormir means to sleep. To remember that one could say, "Norm sleeps in the dorm.”
–ROMAN ROOM
–This technique works well with long lists. Think of a room you know well. Imagine moving from left to right, selecting different objects and pieces of furniture. Important information is then attached to a specific piece.
–For example, in order to remember the first ten states to ratify the Constitution…
–Delaware could be connected to a Dell computer
–Pennsylvania, could be connected to a pencil to the right of the computer
–And so on…
•Try to have a positive attitude.
•Find something useful or good
•How you feel about facts directly impacts how well you can recall them.
•Learning is more effective and efficient when the learner is relaxed
•Use humor.
–Access to learning is easier in the future when it is connected to something funny.
•Enhance your memory.
– You remember:
•about 10 percent of what you read.
•about 20 percent of what you hear.
•about 30 percent of what you see.
•about 50 percent of what you hear and see together.
•about 70 percent of what you say (**if you think as you are saying it).
–about 90 percent of what you do.
•Plan to reward yourself for a job well-done.