Study Smart

1. Study Smart Microsoft, 2011 9th Grade Skills Needed for High School and Postsecondary Success

2. Review • What are 3 self-management strategies? • What are 2 methods for taking notes? • Discuss: • Did you do anything differently as far as managing your time or taking notes that worked for you? • What didn’t work? • What could you try that you haven’t yet?

3. Discussion • Tell me about studying for tests: • How do you study? What techniques do you use? • When do you study? • How do you feel the day of the test?

4. Objective • The 6th tip for success in high school and college is to study smart! • The purpose of today's lesson is to learn strategies to study smarter. Microsoft, 2011

5. Pre-Test • When you should study for a test? • What should you write on a flashcard? • What is one memorization technique that you can use to study for a test?

6. How to Prepare for a Test • Start ASAP! • This is when your q-notes come in handy! • Regularly review your notes so you’re not cramming for the test the night before. • Make a Study Plan • Use your time-management skills! • Learn about the test

7. How to Prepare for a Test • Review your handouts, notes, previous quizzes, and study guides. • Use the end of the chapter questions to review what you’ve read • Make up your own test questions and practice answering them • Study with someone else and quiz each other • Make flashcards • Use memorization techniques

8. Flashcards • How many of you make flashcards? • What do you put on your flashcards? • How do you use them to study?

9. Flashcard Tips • Each card should only have 1 question/term and 1 answer/definition • Make flashcards for information you know and information you don’t know. • Keep your flashcards with you and go through them frequently. • When studying, make piles for cards you know well and cards you need to study more.

10. Memorization Techniques • You’ll be required to memorize some of the information you need to know for tests like names, dates, events, terms, definitions, and formulas. • The following techniques and exercises use associations with letters, images, maps, etc to help you memorize the information you need to remember. • You don’t need to use all of the strategies. • Some will be helpful for you and others won’t. Choose those that will be the most helpful.

11. Acronyms • Make a word/combination of letters to remember a list. • Example: ROY G. BIV is an acronym to help remember the colors of the spectrum • Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet • What are some other acronyms you’ve learned to help you memorize something?

12. Acrostic • An invented sentence or poem where the first letter of each word cues the first letter of what you are trying to remember. • Example: • Music Scale with the notes E, G, B, D, F • Acrostic = Every Good Boy Does Fine • What are some other acrostics you’ve learned to help you memorize something?

13. Rhyme-Keys • Works best with lists • Memorize key words associated with numbers (these will be the same every time you use this method) • Ex. 1 = Bun, 2 = Shoe, 3 = Tree, 4 = Door, etc. • Create an image that combines each item in the list with the key word. • Ex. Four Basic Food Groups • Dairy (picture cheese on a bun) • Meat (picture a cow with shoes on) • Grains (picture a bag of wheat hanging from a tree) • Fruits and Vegetables (picture a door that opens to a room full of fruits and vegetables)

14. The Method of Loci • Works best for long lists of items to remember • Select a place you know well and can picture in your mind (like a room in your home) • Picture specific objects in that location • Picture the path you would take through the location and the order in which you would see each object • Assign each object with an item from the list. Make a story for moving through the room and seeing the objects and items. • Example: Memorizing presidents – • George Washington, , John Adams, Thomas Jefferson • You could imagine walking up to the door of your location and seeing a dollar bill stuck in the door (Washington); when you open the door Adams is reclining on the sofa and Jefferson is eating out of the refrigerator.

15. Keyword Method • Select a word that sounds like the new vocabulary word • Ex. “Cabina” sounds like cab in a… • Imagine an image that involves the “sounds like” word and the meaning of the word. • Ex. “Cabina” is Spanish for “phone booth” • I’ll picture a cab in a phone booth • On the test, when I see the word “cabina” I should picture a cab squeezing into a phone booth. Microsoft, 2011

16. Image-Name Technique • For remembering names • Invent a relationship between the person’s name and their physical characteristics • Example: Shirley Temple. • Curly (rhymes with Shirley) hair around her temples (last name is Temple) http://www.shirleytemple.com/

17. Chaining • Create a story where each word or idea you have to remember cues the next idea you need to recall. • Example: a list of counties in the South of England: Avon, Dorset, Somerset, Cornwall, Wiltshire, Devon, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Surrey • An AVON (Avon) lady knocking on a heavy oak DOoR (Dorset). • The DOoR opens to show a beautiful SuMmER landscape with a SETting sun (Somerset). • The setting sun shines down onto a field of CORN (Cornwall). • The CORN is so dry it is beginning to WILT (Wiltshire). • The WILTing stalks slowly fall onto the tail of the sleeping DEVil (Devon). • On the DEVil's horn a woman has impailed a GLOSsy (Gloucestershire) HAM (Hampshire) when she hit him over the head with it. • Now the Devil feels SoRRY (Surrey) he bothered her.

18. Memorizing Formulas • Try to make a story for the formula • Example: quadratic formula: • Story: A negative boy (-b) couldn't decide (+ or -) whether to go to a radical (the radical) party or be square (b squared) and miss out on four awesome chicks (-4ac), the whole thing was over at 2 A.M. (over 2a)

19. More Memorizing Formulas • Write the formula down several times on a piece of paper. • Close your eyes and try to say the formula out loud. • Make a mental picture of the formula. Most formulas, especially the quadratic equation, have a distinctive shape that you can remember like you'd remember a picture. • Work several practice problems using the formula. Application always helps with memorization. • Use flashcards of not only the formulas, but also of problems for which you identify the appropriate formula for the problem. • Group the formulas you've learned into lessons. One group for a particular chapter, and another group for a different one. It's kind of like a filing system for your brain • Sing the formula to a familiar tune • Example: Try singing the quadratic formula to the tune of “Pop Goes the Weasel”

20. Final Preparations • Gather all of the supplies you will need • Get some sleep! • Eat a healthy breakfast • Look over your notes, flashcards, and study guides one last time • Relax and be confident that your preparation will pay off! Microsoft, 2011

21. Post-Test • When you should study for a test? • What should you write on a flashcard? • What is one memorization technique that you can use to study for a test?

22. Review • Study for a test as soon as you get information that may be on the test! Start studying as early and as often as you can. • Flashcards should have one term or question with one answer or definition per card • What are some of the memorization techniques we studied?

23. Assignment • Choose one study strategy or technique that you will try this week. • Be ready to report on how it went next class! Microsoft, 2011

24. References • Forte, I. and Frank, M. (2003). Reading & Language: If You're Trying to Get Better Grades and Higher Test Scores, You've Gotta Have This Book! Nashville, TN: Incentive Publications. • Microsoft Office Images. (2011). Retrieved from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/ • Mind Tools Ltd (1998). Academictips.org. Retrieved from http://www.academictips.org/memory/index.html • “Shirley Temple.” The Official Shirley Temple Website. Retrieved from http://www.shirleytemple.com/